Plays you wish were famous
Sometimes a play that would be unforgettable gets taken off the board by officials. Sometimes a play call we love to see disappears from the playbook. In either case, moments that could have lived forever fade away, not to be seen again. Today we’re going to be discussing a few of those moments from Notre Dame Fighting Irish history. People forget…
The Other Stanford Lateral Play
Known simply as “The Play,” the game-winning touchdown scored in 1982 by Cal – with assistance from the Stanford band – is the most iconic play in the history of that rivalry, and probably Stanford football in general.
What you may not remember is that a woebegone 2007 Notre Dame team very nearly recreated this moment in their season-ending matchup out in Palo Alto without the help of the band. With four seconds left in the first half, quarterback Tavita Pritchaird heaved a hail mary toward the end zone that was intercepted by David Bruton. Bruton pitched the ball to the madcap Tom Zbikowski, and chaos ensued:
I really wish the video above had featured the TV commentary, in which Dave Lamont declared “they don’t like this sort of thing at Stanford!” but alas that one has to be dug up in this video. In any case this electric moment was, for a few seconds, my favorite college football play I had ever witnessed in person. Alas, a ticky-tack roughing the passer penalty was called on Trevor Laws and this incredible play had to be taken off the board. It still wouldn’t have ended the game or raised this game’s stakes, but it would have been unforgettable for Irish fans to see one last piece of magic from Zbikowski in his final game.
What is sadder? The fact that this play didn’t officially happen, or that it was only one of two negated plays from the 2007 Stanford game that was apparently deemed among the top 10 of the Weis era? Discuss.
The Onside Rejection
The 2008 clash between Notre Dame and the Navy Midshipmen followed a particular template for the series, in which the Irish get out to comfortable lead but allow the Middies to challenge and almost pull off an upset by game’s end. In ‘08 the Irish led 27-7 as late as the two-minute mark of the fourth quarter, aided by a strong running game and a special-teams touchdown punctuated by an epic Toryan Smith celebration (which was penalized, but who cares).
But the play we’re going to highlight here is one that appeared to thwart Navy’s comeback attempt, which hinged on recovering a couple of onside kicks, a bit early. Kicking onside with the Irish up 27-14 with 1:39 to play, Navy got the high bounce they needed. A (sort of) alert Robby Parris, rather than recovering the ball, elected simply to bat it out of bounds like he was blocking a shot in basketball – go to the 2:15:00 mark here to see it.
This appeared to end the game except that, as no one knew until this very moment, there exists a penalty in football called “illegal batting,” of which Parris was guilty. The penalty was called. Navy got another shot at the onside kick, recovered it, scored, recovered another onside kick and nearly scored again to win the game before coming up short on a fourth down and allowing the Irish to escape with a 27-21 victory. Not the most fun watch, but it sure as hell beat the last Navy game – and the two after it.
The Kelly Counter
This is a really granular one, but do you remember the run play at the 1:05 mark of the highlight video below?
I loved the counter action on this play, and it seemed to happen once a game early in the Kelly years. You see the potential of it here as George Atkinson III ripped off a huge gain after the entire defense shifted the other way and couldn’t respond to his speed. It eventually disappeared from the playbook (likely after it was read a few times and the ball carriers got rocked in the backfield) but the way it is seen here, with a mobile quarterback handing to a twitchy running back, was deadly. Take notes, coach Denbrock.
(Yes, I am aware that Mike Denbrock probably helped create this play).