Last week in this series, the Irish fell three yards short of potentially taking down 6th-ranked USC. It was Notre Dame’s eighth straight loss to the Trojans, but this week Weis would get a chance to end a six-game skid to Boston College.
The Unholy Decade
I mentioned in the 2009 Michigan State recap that the Spartans might’ve been the biggest beneficiaries of Notre Dame’s fall from grace, but Boston College would’ve been in the running as well. Since 2000, Eagles had beaten Irish teams both good (2002) and bad (2007). The previous year, BC’s offense only managed 246 yards and 10 points, but Jimmy Clausen threw four interceptions to ensure the Irish scored zero points in Chestnut Hill.
From 2001-2008, this rivalry laid bare just how putrid football had become in South Bend. It certainly didn’t help that the Eagles had a brief run of excellence under Jeff Jagodzinski that culminated in a #2 ranking in 2007 and Matt Ryan going third overall in the draft. Simply put, the Irish were being embarrassed by their Catholic counterparts from the Northeast.
2009 marked the first year of the Frank Spaziani era after Jagodzinski was canned for exhausting his political capital with the BC brass. The Eagles were 5-2 and looking as decent as they had been the previous decade. Notre Dame was an eight-point favorite at kickoff, but we all know this team was never going to do anything but take things down to the wire…
Game Highlights
*If you would like to watch the game in its entirety, click here. If you want DownInTheBend’s condensed games from the 2009 season, you can find those here.
Some Thoughts
- This was a strange game to re-watch. Much like the Michigan State contest, Notre Dame never felt in control yet emerged victorious after the opposing quarterback threw an atrocious game-ending interception.
- The Irish were torched again through the air, especially by Rich Gunnell who had 10 catches for a whopping 179 yards. However, the Eagles only managed two touchdowns on offense due to five turnovers, including the back-breaking pick on the last drive.
- A massive turning point was BC’s Montel Harris fumble at the Irish 1-yard line with the Eagles already leading 16-13 in the third quarter. Of course, the Irish gave it right back by failing to score at the BC 1-yard line in the fourth quarter.
- A freshman Luke Kuechly almost changed the outcome with a near-interception late in the fourth quarter. Did you know that he wanted to go to Notre Dame and Weis didn’t recruit him? Neither did I and let’s not talk about it.
- ND’s offense gave an uneven performance. Clausen wasn’t able to take many deep shots and finished with only 6.3 yards per attempt. He also screwed up big-time in taking an intentional grounding penalty in the end zone. Yet he was efficient as ever and looked comfortable dinking and dunking down the field.
- Armando Allen continued a strong season with 21 carries for 98 yards. But as per tradition under Weis, the rest of the Irish run game was non-existent with 15 carries for 7 yards combined.
- Golden Tate was once again magnificent with 11 catches for 128 yards and both Irish touchdowns. There was even a Duval Kamara sighting in this game, as he finished with 7 catches for 60 yards.
- Despite another abysmal performance against the Dave Shinskie and the passing game, ND’s rush defense held BC’s running backs to 25 carries for 53 yards. Manti Te’o also had a highlight play in destroying Harris as he caught a screen pass.
One Streak Continues, Another One Ends
The Irish survived a great Boston College defense (#2 in Rushing SP+ defense) and the game of Rich Gunnell’s life to finally break the humiliating losing streak. For the fourth time in five games, Notre Dame was faced with the grim possibility of needing its defense to save the game. Did the most pessimistic of us have any doubt that ND would lose this game when Gunnell caught a 28-yard pass on 4th and 17?
Overall, this was a game that the Irish were a bit lucky to win. They won despite being helpless to stop the Shinskie-Gunnell connection and failing to score at the BC 1-yard line. This was a four-point win against a team that finished with five turnovers, not exactly the kind of performance that would impress SP+. But this was a must-win game that Charlie Weis had to have, and his team pulled one out of the fire. It also signaled the end of another ignominious chapter in the post-Holtz era.
Much like the near-upset against USC marked the end of Trojan dominance in the rivalry, beating Boston College a week later laid the foundation for the Irish to reassert itself in the Holy War. The Eagles have not won in this series since 2009 and look very unlikely to prevail in South Bend this year. Granted, BC has fallen so far that even Jagodzinski has weighed in on Twitter about how much he misses the good ‘ole days.
The following week would bring a much-needed reprieve as Notre Dame prepared to take on one of the worst major conference teams of all time…
Other Things that Happened that Week
- This day marked the Terrance Cody game which might be one of the most significant outcomes of the last 20 years. The butterfly effect from Bama losing this game and not winning the title would be immense.
- 5th ranked Cincinnati hammered Louisville 41-10 to improve to 7-0.
- #25 Oklahoma beat #24 Kansas in the last game Kansas has ever been ranked for.
- #7 Miami lost to unranked Clemson in overtime at home, thus ensuring that the U was no longer back.
- Undefeated Iowa beat Michigan State on the last play in East Lansing, keeping another charmed Kirk Ferentz season alive.
The years have made the specifics fade, so I click on every one of these expecting an excruciating loss. So far, not so bad, even if the wins aren’t convincing and we all know the train is about to come off the tracks here shortly. That’s really a dagger though that Kuechly was a Weis recruiting miss. Whoops.
Oh don’t worry, the excruciating losses are coming. I remember people at the time were saying “ND is 5-2 with Washington State, UConn, and Navy on deck. They could still go to a BCS game!”
If it makes you feel a teeny bit better, Ohio State and everyone else also missed the boat on Kuechly as well. But we were definitely his top (and only) choice according to his high school coach.
“Luke Kuechly would have ended the recruiting process before it ever began if Notre Dame would have offered him,” St. Xavier coach Steve Specht said in a 2010 interview with the South Bend Tribune. “But they didn’t.”
Ouch.
Rivals rated him as a 3 * and 44 at his position so that may explain it.
Yeah, he wasn’t highly regarded. That’s where Kelly has done pretty well, IDing guys not considered blue chips, getting them here and having them leave as NFL talents (Will Fuller, DeShone Kizer, CJ Prosise, etc.). Weis never had that ability and seemed to go star-chasing a fair bit – which worked sometimes, but he also missed an awful lot.
Great article as always
And it’s good luck too! As I was reading this the Knicks actually took the lead for once
Why did Clausen get a safety. It looked like he was outside the tackles when he threw.
His throw didn’t make it past the line of scrimmage.
I was at the game the following week when Notre Dame took on “one of the worst major conference teams of all time…”
Hint: It was the very first “beloved” Shamrock Series game.
2nd Hint: When I got on the plane in Denver, and it was obvious that many people on the plane were going to the game, the pilot mentioned the game and said (to my surprise); “Go Cougs!” I was more surprised when a rather loud cheer went up in the plane.
Interesting fun fact: Dayne Crist threw his very first TD pass in that game, and got badly hurt later in the game.
Last fun fact: It was Charlie Weis’ very last win as the Notre Dame Football Coach. And I was there to see it. Little did I know, as we cheered the team off the field.
Spoilers!