NOTRE DAME DEFEATS TOP-RANKED MIAMI, 31-30

SOUTH BEND, IND., OCT. 15 -- This was unmitigated bedlam, the most crashing sound in college

football this season, and it's a wonder they didn't shatter that dome

the sun glared so fervently on. No. 4 Notre Dame upset undefeated No. 1

Miami, the sleekest machine of the last five years, by 31-30 today in a

game in which everything happened.

Driven by pure hatred for each other, the Fighting Irish (6-0) and

Hurricanes (4-1) began this astonishing afternoon when their squads

merged at the tunnel of Notre Dame Stadium just after warm-ups and

tussled for several seconds before they were separated by school

officials. They ended it with a sequence of wrenching drama as, on

fourth down and seven with 45 seconds to go, Steve Walsh completed an

11-yard pass to Andre Brown to bring Miami within a point, but then his

two-point conversion pass to Leonard Conley deep in the corner of the

end zone was knocked away by safety Pat Terrell.

Notre Dame withstood four Miami drives inside its 25 in the fourth

quarter, limiting the most potent offense anywhere to nine points in

preserving the victory before 59,075 spectators who were beside

themselves.

"Don't flinch!" defensive back George Streeter screamed at his

teammates, as they endured everything the defending national champions

could do, including Walsh's 31 completions in 50 attempts for a

career-high 424 yards and four touchdowns, the second-best day in the

history of the passing school.

Notre Dame had broken the longest current winning streak in the

country, finally. The Hurricanes had won 36 regular season games, 16

straight overall, 20 straight on the road, all unequaled in NCAA

Division I-A. In the last five years they had played for the national

championship four times, winning twice and amassing a 56-9 record,

unparalleled in college football over that span. But today they gave the

Fighting Irish considerable assistance in this resounding fall with

seven turnovers, four on fumbles and three on interceptions.

"They're sick," Miami Coach Jimmy Johnson said of his crestfallen

players. "I'm sick."

It was impossible to choose a single player or play that delivered

the victory. It may have been Terrell, whose breakup kept the upset

intact and who returned a second-quarter interception of Walsh 60 yards

for a touchdown and a 21-7 lead that Miami turned to 21-21 by halftime

when Walsh threw scoring passes of 23 yards to Conley and 15 yards to

fullback Cleveland Gary. It may have been Streeter, who dove to strip

the ball from Gary's hands at the Notre Dame 1 with 7:03 to go after a

10-yard pass from Walsh.

Quarterback Tony Rice also had a career-high day, completing eight of

16 passes for 195 yards, throwing for one touchdown and running for

another. Defensive end Frank Stams refused to be blocked and twice

forced fumbles from Walsh with blind-side sacks, the second at the Notre

Dame 24 on first and 10 with 3:37 remaining in the game.

"This was a win by Notre Dame spirit," Coach Lou Holtz said. "It was

by the spirit of a group of guys who just refused to fold."

They were tested. After Walsh's fumble, the Fighting Irish took over

at their 28, but the Hurricanes, down by 31-24, immediately forced a

retaliatory turnover. On third and 17 at his 21, Rice was caught unaware

by linebacker Bernard Clark and fumbled, linebacker Rod Carter

recovering at the 14, and the Hurricanes took over with 2:10 to go for

their final shot.

History made it difficult to believe they would lose. Last year they

had overcome a 19-3 deficit in the fourth quarter against Florida State

to win, 26-25. Against Michigan three weeks ago, they trailed by 16

points in the last eight minutes only to win, 31-30.

This time, looking for a 32-31 finish, Miami had to wait until fourth

down at the 11 to score, when Walsh lobbed over defensive back Todd

Lyght to Brown, in the corner. But the Hurricanes lacked their usual

authority, thrown off by Notre Dame's unpredictable mixture of coverages

and blitzes. On the two-point conversion try, the Irish did something no

team had done previously to Walsh: confuse him.

They set up a hybrid scheme of man coverage from the defensive backs

on Miami's ends, the linebackers in a zone. And for a moment Walsh was

unsure what he was seeing. Conley had shaken Terrell briefly in the

corner, but by the time Walsh lofted a hesitant, dying ball, he wasn't

"He was open for a split second," Walsh said. "But the ball got there

too late."

Terrell was all over Conley, stepping in front of him. "I couldn't

fight through him," Conley said. Terrell leaped and batted the ball

away. He had watched Conley progress through the flat and then drift

into the back of the end zone on a play that called for no primary

receiver. He watched Walsh's eyes, and knew.

"I just jumped in front of him," Terrell said. "I don't think Walsh

saw me coming. I followed his eyes the whole way."

Notre Dame covered the ensuing onside kickoff and ended a full game

of frantic offensive one-upmanship. The Irish had gotten a seven-yard

scoring run from Rice and a nine-yard scoring pass from Rice to Braxston

Banks in the first half. Miami replied with Walsh's eight-yard touchdown

pass to Brown and then his two rapid scoring passes to Conley and Gary

to tie it at halftime.

Notre Dame held the Hurricanes scoreless throughout the third

quarter, while Rice completed a 44-yard bomb that led to Pat Eilers'

two-yard scoring run and Reggie Ho added a 27-yard field goal. That gave

the Irish a 31-21 lead, but then it was their turn to go scoreless in

the fourth quarter, as Miami drove incessantly only to come away with a

series of miscues, Carlos Huerta's 23-yard field goal with 13:07 left,

and the failed final sequence.

"It should never have come down to that," Johnson said. "There is no

way we could make that many mistakes as we did and won the game."

Coming in, the best chance of a Notre Dame upset was thought to be

turnovers, because the Hurricanes' sleek offense was susceptible to

mistakes, with four interceptions and 10 fumbles in four games. And

interceptions had sealed Miami's two most recent losses, to Penn State

in the Fiesta Bowl after the '86 season, when Vinny Testaverde threw

five to lose the national championship, and at Michigan in 1984, when

Bernie Kosar threw six.

"History repeated itself," Walsh said disconsolately.

Walsh's three interceptions and two fumbles were just as destructive,

and he endured his first defeat since his high school days in St. Paul,

Minn. The junior had gone 16-0 as a Miami starter.

"It's another part of the game," he said. "It's a tough loss. We

should have been able to pull it off."

To understand how much this meant to Notre Dame, one had to realize

how long it had been since the Fighting Irish had a game of this

magnitude. The last of their 10 national titles came in 1977, and they

hadn't played a top-ranked team on their home field since 1968. The

disaffection they felt toward Miami grew as the Hurricanes won the last

four meetings by a total of 133-20.

So when Holtz got up at a rally Friday night and pronounced, "We're

going to beat the dog out of them," it seemed foolhardy. "I woke up at

4:45 this morning and thought, 'Did I really say that?' " he said today.

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NOTRE DAME DEFEATS TOP-RANKED MIAMI, 31-30