Notre Dame vs. Nebraska 2001: Miracles Do Happen
UHND.com - Brian
Scanlon
April 25, 2001
My first game I attended was the painful Air Force game in 1996. I knew right then with the pain that I felt, that I would always love this team, it’s history, and the school even though I had never taken a single class there. My most positive experience was the 1998 game at Boston College. The infamous goal line stand. Being surrounded by thousands of obnoxious east coast BC fans, embracing my father as Deke Cooper pumelled Mike Cloud into the ground on 4th down. Although, I have not been an ND fan for numerous decades as many other Irish fans have been, I have experienced some high highs and low lows regarding Notre Dame football.
While all the above is true about myself, it would also be accurate to say that I have had considerable experience when it comes to Nebraska football. My experience is approximately six years old dating back to the 1995 Nebraska Championship, which is the same year that I had met my wife. A very relevant fact is that my wife's family were and still are die-hard Nebraska football fans. At that time, I did not dislike Nebraska football, nor did I have a reason to. But as the National Championships piled up, along with lop-sided victory after lop-sided victory, my annoyance grew and eventually turned into utter disgust and dislike. As the numerous violent criminal allegations involving Husker players increased during the mid 1990's, so too did Husker fans' excuses for what was going on there.
If any of you have ever been to Lincoln, Omaha or any small town in the state of Nebraska, you will quickly become aware of some simple facts. First, all Nebraska people follow Husker football. Second, their whole life is Husker football. And lastly, they possess an overwhelming arrogant attitude that their beloved team is infalible and that nothing else matters in the world except for Nebraska football.
My dislike was at its peak last September during the Nebraska game. I was unfortunate enough to be in Grand Island, Nebraska on game day specifically for the reason of attending a wedding of one of my in-laws. Don't worry, I didn't miss the game. The couple getting married (Husker fans of course) arranged for a television to be wheeled into the reception hall during the reception. This just gives you an idea of what kind of people we are dealing with. Let me set the scene for you. There were about 150 people at the reception, 149 of which were Nebraska fans. You guessed it. I was the lone Irish fan. As the game started, all of them were extremely confident. It wasn't so much a case of them giving me a hard time about the destruction they thought, was about to take place as it was a case of them acting like the Irish didn't belong on the same field as their Cornhuskers. The most storied football program in history and there was zero respect. In the weeks leading up to the game, numerous Husker fans would call into radio talk shows confidently predicting that the Huskers would win by four touchdowns. I remember one specific caller who brashly stated, "It won’t be close."
For three hours that day, I witnessed many ups and downs by both teams, and subsequently watched 149 confident faces turn into 149 worried and scared faces. Dozens of jaws dropped as Julius took one back a hundred yards. Many of them had the general expression of someone who had just made a mistake in his shorts. As the fourth quarter was winding down, I began to think that something great was about to happen. But as we all know, the 4th quarter ended without Notre Dame scoring again, forcing overtime which eventually concluded with an Eric Crouch touchdown run. As it ended, I couldn't believe what had happened. My team was supposed to win. They had come so close. God knows that Notre Dame had faced a great amount of heartbreak in recent years. As I stood in disbelief, the confident faces returned again and the arrogance in the air was once again overwhelming. They had acted like the game was never in doubt. Instead of praising Notre Dame for the close game, their overall opinion was that the Huskers had just had a bad day. Zero credit was given to the Irish. The conversations later that night instead focused on how unbelievable it was that the Husker faithful were able to fill 30,000 seats in Notre Dame's house. This, whether intentional or not, was basically thrown in my face as their icing on the cake.
Come September 8th, Notre Dame will walk into Memorial Stadium in Lincoln and will once again be a huge underdog. They will be facing a quarterback looking to make a Heisman run as well as earn another national championship. They will also be facing an extremely hostile crowd looking to prove that last year's close game was just a fluke. Corso, Herbstreit and all the other "analysts" will pick Nebraska to win, and win big. While I believe that winning this game would resemble a miracle, I also believe that miracles do happen. The hand of Glenn Earl tipping away an almost certain game winning field goal, beating evil Florida State in 1993, or a championship run more than a decade ago from a team that wasn't supposed to be there in the first place. While the above examples may not exactly be considered "miracles", they do prove that good things can and do happen on occasion. The Irish need to win this game to be considered legitimately "back". They need to win this game if not just to see 70,000 jaws drop. A win against Nebraska in Lincoln will put Notre Dame back on the radar of college football and prove that Notre Dame does indeed belong on the same field as college football’s best. Notre Dame is most certainly due for a miracle. The question is whether or not that miracle will take place on September 8th.