Last year, three plays helped to define a season.
In the waning moments of the UCLA-Notre Dame game a season ago, it was three passes from Fighting Irish quarterback Brady Quinn that led to an improbable 20-17 Irish victory in South Bend, Ind., and led to heartbreak for the entire UCLA football team.
This Saturday, the Bruins (4-1) are looking for revenge.
“It’s nice to get an opportunity to play them again. Period,” tight end William Snead said. “After that heartbreaking loss last year, it’s good to get another shot at them in the Rose Bowl. Our objective is to win the game ““ we still have last year on our minds, but we have to be focused on this year.”
And this year, things are quite a bit changed.
The Irish come into the game 0-5, and have not been particularly close in any of their games this year, although they looked distinctly improved in the second half of their last game, against Purdue.
The Bruins have had trouble with overlooking opponents ““ a case in point was earlier this year, when the Bruins took on then 0-2 Utah in Salt Lake City and came away on the wrong end of a 44-6 drubbing.
But even if there were any danger of overlooking this seemingly weak, inexperienced Notre Dame team, the memory of last year remains at the front of the Bruins’ minds.
After watching the film from last year’s game earlier this week, left guard Shannon Tevaga had a tough time describing the emotions.
He settled on one word: angry.
“Me and I know the whole team, when we looked at the film, that room was silent with anger,” Tevaga said. “You don’t understand, I’m getting mad right now. It’s not a good feeling.
“We didn’t want to see it, but it made us stronger and more angry. It’s good that we’re taking this serious. After last year, man, I’m so frustrated about last year.”
Earlier this year, coach Karl Dorrell described the Notre Dame finish: “Nine times out of 10 it doesn’t happen that way.”
Unfortunately for the Bruins, that one time, it happened like this:
With a little over two minutes to go in the game, the Bruins had the ball on their own 35-yard line with a 17- 13 lead. With their defense dominating and the game seemingly in hand, the Bruins elected to run the ball three straight times in order to hopefully get a first down, but mostly just to run the clock down as far as possible.
The Bruins did not get a first down and punted to the Irish, who got the ball on their own 20-yard line with just a minute to go.
They didn’t need that long.
In just three plays and 35 seconds, the Irish drove the length of the field for a touchdown.
The then-No. 10 Irish escaped with their victory, and the Bruins were left with the question of what might have been.
This year, the Bruins do not get to relive last year’s situation. The Irish are in a serious downturn, with the worst start to a season in their storied history. So it will not be the seeming David v. Goliath upset that last year’s would have been.
But for a UCLA team that still has aspirations for a Pac-10 championship and a one-loss season, the game, like any other, is highly important. And the players say there will be no taking the Irish lightly.
“Last year’s game was real tough on us,” tight end Logan Paulsen said. “We’re more worried about winning the game, but there’s definitely a part of (the feel from last year’s game). I was listening to the radio today, and they said they’re like a wounded animal, where if you take them lightly, they can just spring up and catch you by the throat, and that’s definitely true of this team.”
Last week, against a decent Purdue team, the Irish finally seemed to break out of their funk in the second half. Held scoreless in the first half, Notre Dame had a relative offensive explosion in the second half, scoring 19 points and holding the Boilermakers to 10.
The Irish may shuttle between two quarterbacks in the game. Both Evan Sharpley and Jimmy Clausen saw time and did well enough against Purdue. Clausen may be doubtful for the game this weekend due to a hip injury, but Sharpley was ““ for want of a better word ““ sharp in his play in the second half, throwing two touchdowns and one interception.
All in all, it might be good for the Bruins that the Irish have shown signs of coming around this past weekend. It may keep the Bruins from overlooking them.
“Utah ““ we looked at their record, and that proved that we can’t overlook a team,” Snead said. “Just because (Notre Dame’s) 0-5 doesn’t mean that we can overlook them. It doesn’t mean they’re a bad team and that they can’t hurt us.”