Notre Dame football: The Irish and the games of the century
Under Lou Holtz, Notre Dame played in its most recent game of the century. It was 1993 when Florida State traveled to South Bend to take on the Irish. The Seminoles had won the 1992 National Championship. The had won at least 10 games in every year since 1986. It was a streak that would go through the year 2000.
Meanwhile, Notre Dame had won the 1988 National Championship and would have won in 1989 as well if it weren’t for a stumble against Miami. By 1993 they were back on track for another National Championship.
The 9-0 Notre Dame football team was ranked 2nd in the country, while 9-0 Florida State had been number one for the entire season. It was game on.
Notre Dame dominated the game early, breaking out to a 21-7 halftime lead. This was despite Charlie Ward leading Florida State down the field for a touchdown on the first drive of the game.
It seemed that Notre Dame was going to hold onto that lead throughout the game, holding a 31-17 lead in the 4th quarter. That’s when Ward and Florida State went on the comeback trail. There was a minute and a half left in the game when Florida State scored a touchdown on 4th and 20. Almost impossibly quickly, Notre Dame went three and out and Florida State was within striking distance.
The score was 31-24. There were three seconds left. That’s when Ward threw to the endzone, but the passed was batted away by Shawn Wooden. The Irish won and were firmly in the driver’s seat for the 1993 National Championship.
Notre Dame would lose in one of the most disappointing letdown games ever the following week. Boston College came into Notre Dame Stadium and upset the Irish 41-39. After that, they beat Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl.
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Florida State didn’t lose again and beat Nebraska in the Orange Bowl. They were then named National Champions despite losing to Notre Dame in the 1993 edition of the Game of the Century. Apparently, head to head match-ups don’t ever matter in college football, and losing to Notre Dame is better than losing to Boston College.