Notre Dame Football: Writers Recall Most Memorable Games Attended
By J.P. Scott
Mason Plummer: Pitt at Notre Dame, 2012
While I’m sure this game does not stand out to others as much as it does to me, it is by far my most memorable Notre Dame football game I have ever attended.
November 3, 2012. Notre Dame was 9-0, ranked No.3 in the country and looked unstoppable. My dad bought us tickets to see Notre Dame play in what we figured would be a blow-out against a not-so-good 4-4 Pitt squad. Boy were we wrong — and in for a ride.
As a 12 year-old, I was PUMPED for this game and I really believed that I was watching my team on the way to becoming National Champions. That prediction ended up coming close to fruition, but that is a whole other story.
We get into Notre Dame Stadium, excited as can be, just for the Irish to come out flat and uninterested. Notre Dame fans know exactly what I am talking about, as it seems like they do that kind of thing at least once or twice every season.
We go into half-time down 10-6 in a pretty ugly first half of football, and I am NOT happy. It was rare for me as a kid to be able to attend Notre Dame games, and they were really about to ruin their undefeated season in the one game I go to?!
Things only got worse.
Pitt scored 10 unanswered points in the 3rd quarter, putting Notre Dame down 20-6. At this point, I had seen enough. I pleaded with my father to let us leave and not have to experience the jeering from the Pitt fan section we were seated in any longer. Well, they say that your father knows best, and that could not be more true in this circumstance.
Notre Dame somehow managed to come back and score 14 points in the 4th quarter. Two of those 14 points came on a miraculous 2-point conversion from Everett Golson to tie it up because Kyle Brindza missed an extra point on the first Irish touchdown of the 4th quarter. So, it’s tied up with 52 ticks left. Just enough time for Pitt to get a field goal chance. I distinctly remember this moment. Pitt drove down the field and got themselves into perfect position for a field goal that would hand Notre Dame it’s first loss of the season. As Lee Corso said, not so fast my friend. Miraculously, the Pitt kicker managed to miss a sitter and it sent the game into overtime. Notre Dame Stadium was electric.
Eventually, after 3 overtimes, Notre Dame got the win on an Everett Golson 1-yard QB keeper. I still have a framed picture of Golson stretching the ball across the goal-line in my room. I was so excited and happy that my Irish got the win, and even happier my father made me stay. Maybe he knew something I didn’t. Regardless, it will forever be my favorite Notre Dame football moment of all-time, and there is no one in the world I would have rather spend it with.