Following a 4-8 season it’s time again to discuss Notre Dame’s wandering in the wilderness. One of my favorite topics on this issue is debating which event or moment affected the Fighting Irish program the most in the past. There are several that are always part of the discussions:

*Admissions putting their foot down on the 1991 recruiting campaign, ending a 4-year run of No. 1 recruiting classes. Ace recruiter Vinny Ceratto subsequently left for the 49ers and the NCAA would later eliminate the recruiting coordinator (without having to coach) position in college football.

*The NCAA reducing scholarships from 95 to its present-day 85 in 1992.

*The utter heart break of the 1993 loss to Boston College.

*The loss of Randy Moss in the 1995 recruiting class.

These are logical and cold hard facts that go a long away to explain how things are different today, or as some are so fond of saying, it’s not 1988 anymore. As a Catholic school it can be easy to wonder whether there’s something deeper that happened, I don’t know like…a curse?

May I submit the decision to accept the Fiesta Bowl bid following the 1994 season as a curse from the college football gods? Or maybe God? Perhaps His Mother?

The 1994 season is fascinating to look back on due to its balancing act of impending doom and hopeful optimism. On the positive side, this was a program that was coming off a 64-9-1 run over the last 6 years and a 21-2-1 run over the prior 2 seasons. The ’93 loss to Boston College was the toughest pill to swallow but the team did rebound to beat Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl to finish No. 2 in the polls. Then you have the debut of super-recruit quarterback Ron Powlus with all of that hype and a start in the polls right where the Irish had left off: No. 2 in the country.

But it wasn’t all rosy. The Irish lost an enormous amount of talent from 1993, including 3 first round NFL Draft selections and 10 picks overall. What’s more, that “worst ever” (in the early days of recruiting coverage, at least) ’91 class were now seniors. Further compounding matters, the ’94 class set an even lower bar than ’91 and 7 of the 19 signees would eventually transfer. If recruiting is the life blood of a program there were definitely a bunch of warning signs for Notre Dame. The publishing of the gossip rag “Under the Tarnished Dome” also didn’t help matters.

’94 Regular Season Recap

The season sure started out like the glory years were going to continue with a 27-point beat down of Northwestern at night in Soldier Field. In his debut, Powlus dazzled with 291 passing yards and 4 touchdowns. The No. 2 Irish hosted No. 5 Michigan the next week and it came down to a wild finish.

A Jeremy Nau sack and forced fumble gave Notre Dame life, only to see Powlus fumble and Michigan tack on a field goal to go up by 6 points. But a 54-yard kickoff return by Mike Miller gave the Irish much hope. A few plays later, Powlus found Derrick Mayes in the back of the end zone for the would-be game-winner. Unfortunately, Michigan got across mid-field with less than a minute left and hit a game-winning field goal that was set up by a ridiculous completion from Todd Collins.

The Irish remained in the top 10 with 3 straight wins over mediocre Michigan State, Purdue, and Stanford teams although they needed a 14-0 second half to come back against the Spartans. These 3 teams combined for 13 wins, anyway. They weren’t very good.

Things blew up in week 6 in a much anticipated revenge game against Boston College. Instead of playing with an intense fire the Irish stumbled to 210 total yards in an embarrassing 30-11 loss. Powlus went a shocking 5 of 21 as the team lost 4 turnovers overall. This loss ranked #26 in my all-time worst Notre Dame losses from a few years ago.

They could’ve gotten back on the horse while hosting BYU but were shut out in the second half (this is why your dad always talks about Holtz’ offenses and why he complained so much) and lost 21-14. Three losses by mid-October was not something Irish fans were familiar with, neither was being unranked–the first time since November 1986 Notre Dame held that honor.

A 38-point outburst in the first half against Navy briefly made Irish eyes smile then in Orlando at the Citrus Bowl a Florida State team looking for its own revenge out-gained Notre Dame by almost 300 yards in a 7-point win that flattered the visitors. That made it 4 losses in the first 9 games.

The season’s final home game* saw another offensive explosion in the first half against an academy team–this time Air Force–in an easy victory. A win in the regular season finale might have saved some face but of course the Irish ended up tying USC inside the L.A. Coliseum.

*The 1997 stadium expansion has long been blamed as a curse and there’s plenty of evidence to point to such a malady. But how do we explain the 1994-96 mediocre seasons? Well, the expansion was announced in May 1994 after all! Perhaps Crossroads will lift the curse?

6-4-1 Invited to the Fiesta Bowl? How?

First, we need to talk about the Bowl Coalition, remember that? It lasted 3 brief years (1992-94) and was a big reason why Notre Dame made it to the Fiesta Bowl. That, and college football and its bowls are so damn dumb. Notre Dame is also the main reason why the Bowl Coalition would morph into the Bowl Alliance in 1995.

Here’s the deal: The SEC, Big 8, Southwest, ACC, and Big East all participated. The Pac-10 and Big Ten still sent their league winners to the Rose Bowl but otherwise played along. The Tier 1 bowls were the Orange, Sugar, Cotton, and Fiesta. To be invited, you had to be a conference winner, an at-large conference runner-up, the 3rd-place SEC team (the loser of the SEC title game was contractually obligated to the Citrus Bowl), or Notre Dame.

In 1994, the Orange welcomed Big 8 #1 Nebraska (they won the national championship) and Big East #1 Miami.

The Sugar welcomed ACC #1 Florida State and SEC #1 Florida.

The Cotton welcomed Pac-10 #2 USC and Southwest #1 Texas Tech. Actually, Texas A&M was by far the SWC league champion (10-0-1 overall) but were serving a post-season ban. There was a 5-way tie for the SWC league title, and the Cotton selected the 6-5 Red Raiders. It was dumb, they got slaughtered.

The Fiesta welcomed Big 8 #2 Colorado which left several teams vying for the final Tier 1 slot: Big East #2 Virginia Tech (8-3), ACC #2 NC State (8-3), and thanks to another bowl ban (Auburn) SEC #3 Tennessee (7-4). Or, the Fighting Irish of course.

With the history and bowl set up it doesn’t seem as ridiculous, but it was still ridiculous. Here’s a snippet from the season review Scholastic Magazine:

If you can’t have a good game on paper, take one filled with tradition and intrigue for television. And add it to your long list of reasons why Notre Dame belonged in the Fiesta Bowl.

You can almost smell the Notre Dame snobbery.

Even after a bad season Notre Dame had so much national cache and the Fiesta Bowl executives chose TV ratings over anything else. The Irish also had a nice rivalry with the Buffaloes having played them twice in major bowl games in recent years, both with Colorado being #1 in the country heading into the post-season.

It was also to be Colorado head coach Bill McCartney’s final game before his retirement. In addition, the Buffaloes were playing with recent Heisman winner Rashaan Salaam, too.

If most of the country didn’t think Notre Dame belonged the choice to wear green jerseys in an attempt to Wake Up the Echoes backfired and looked horrible. For those of you in your 20’s and 30’s this was likely your first memory of the green jerseys equaling something to be avoided at all costs.

In the actual game, the Irish were blown off the field by Kordell Stewart and Salaam opening up a 31-3 lead near the end of the 2nd quarter. By the final whistle it would be a 41-24 as Colorado put things into cruise control in the second half.

Do I believe in an actual curse from the ’95 Fiesta Bowl? Probably not, but it’s a game that cemented so much for the future of Irish football. It was arguably the first time in 8 years that Notre Dame was completely out-classed on the field–who knows how perceptions and morale evolve had the Irish faced Texas in the Sun Bowl and won? It was a huge moment in the “Notre Dame gets unfair special treatment” movement that still exists today. Combined with the abysmal ’94 recruiting class it was an alarm bell of epic proportions that things would never be the way they were from 1988 to 1993.

If we never get back to those days…