In a normal year, a top-20, 6-1 Notre Dame squad facing a struggling 3-5 team is little reason for worry among the Irish faithful. The Michigan State, Purdue and Army games, however, taught followers of Head Coach Bob Davie’s second unit that no Saturday on the fall calendar could be taken for granted. The November 14 visit to Chestnut Hill, Mass., proved no different. Like the game in East Lansing, Mich., a hungry team featuring an outstanding tailback looked to throw a wrench in the Irish’s postseason possibilities.
After watching points pile up on the scoreboard for four quarters, the 44,500 ticketholders in Alumni Stadium witnessed the unlikeliest finish imaginable in a contest where the offenses combined to amass nearly 900 yards in total offense. With 1:07 remaining in the game, the Boston College offense stood on the Irish four-yard line with four chances to enter the end zone and take a one-point lead with little time left on the clock. Until that point in the game, Eagle All-American tailback Mike Cloud had shredded a porous Notre Dame defense for 140 yards and one touchdown on 24 carries. The situation appeared so bleak for the Irish that CBS commentator Sean McDonough suggested that Davie allow the Eagles to score immediately and give Jarious Jackson a few seconds to try and answer back. But if hope had run out, somebody forgot to tell the 11 defenders wearing the blue and gold. In the final minute of play, the Irish defense rose to the occasion, stuffing Cloud four consecutive times, securing Notre Dame’s seventh victory and providing the most memorable finish to a ’98 game.
Notre Dame took the opening kickoff and marched 69 yards on 11 plays for a touchdown. Jackson’s passing efficiency highlighted the drive. Number seven completed two crucial third-down attempts—a 13-yarder to fullback Jamie Spencer on third-and-10 from the Irish 31 and an 11-yard strike to receiver Malcolm Johnson on third-and-three. He followed with a 19-yard toss to Johnson and a 12-yard run that led to a short-yardage score by Autry Denson.
After holding the Eagle offense, the Irish traveled 44 yards to the home team’s 36, with a 23-yard Jackson-to-Johnson pass that gave Notre Dame prime field possession. The drive stalled, however, as another toss to Johnson fell incomplete. After a Hunter Smith punt, the momentum swung to Boston College as quarterback Scott Mutryn began a dismantling of the Irish secondary that would continue for four quarters. Mutryn completed an 18-yard pass to Cloud on a third-and-10 and later connected on a 51-yard bomb to Jermaine Walker. After an 11-yard touchdown scamper by Cloud, the game was knotted at seven.
The Irish quickly responded with an impressive drive of their own. The six-play, 64-yard jaunt opened with a 27-yard run by Denson and featured another third-down conversion when Jackson’s 20-yard throw found Johnson at the Eagle 18. A holding penalty brought the ball back to the 28, but a perfect pass across the middle split two Boston College defenders and lodged between the legs of sophomore wideout Joey Getherall for six points. Jim Sanson’s extra point put the visitors ahead 14-7 early in the second quarter.
The lead proved to be short-lived, as the Eagle offense continued to exploit sophomore corner Brock Williams for large chunks of yardage. Mutryn answered the Irish score with a 57-yard drive that culminated in a 23-yard touchdown pass to Anthony DiCosmo on a play where Williams face-guarded the receiver in the end zone and failed to play the ball. After holding the Irish, the Eagles put three more points on the board before the half courtesy of a 43-yard John Matich field goal. The kick was set up when Williams once again failed to play the ball on a Mutryn toss to Walker in the end zone. The cornerback was flagged for pass interference on Walker and Matich split the uprights to give Head Coach Bob O’Brien’s squad a 17-14 halftime lead.
True to form, the Irish continued their third-quarter domination of the Eagles by outscoring the underdogs 10-0. After holding the Eagles, the Irish relied on the blocking of the offensive line and the legs of Denson and Spencer in a 45-yard march that resulted in a 31-yard Sanson field goal. Denson had runs of nine, 11 and 13 yards and Spencer added a 10-yard carry on the drive. The anchor of the Irish defense then made one of his countless big plays to set up the next Irish score. After safety Benny Guilbeaux batted a dropped Mutryn pass, captain Bobbie Howard snatched the pigskin out of the air and returned the interception to the Eagle 11. Yet another, in a season of big third-down conversions, followed when Jarious Jackson hit—you guessed it—Johnson on a perfectly executed 8-yard tiptoe catch for the touchdown. Notre Dame entered the fourth quarter with the ball, the momentum, a 24-17 lead and major bowl hopes on the line. No one could possibly have guessed the lengths required to preserve the latter.
Immediately after starting fullback Spencer was injured and removed from the game, Joey Goodspeed entered and promptly fumbled at the Irish 41. Matich’s second field goal of the day pulled the Eagles within four points with 12:33 left to play. The Boston College defense then raised their intensity and forced the Irish to face a desperate third-and-22 at their own five-yard line.
The next play defined the impact that Jackson has on a football game. Flushed from the pocket in his own end zone, the senior scrambled, stepped up as protection collapsed around him, and launched the football 70 yards downfield to a wide open Johnson, who hauled in the laser for a 68-yard gain. Four plays later, Denson found the opposite end zone on a two-yard run and Notre Dame led by 11 with 9:23 left in the game.
The Eagles answered with a 9-play, 68-yard scoring drive of their own that used up only 3:25. Mutryn ran 15 yards for a first down on a third-and-12 and completed passes of 11 and 28 yards to DiCosmo before finding him again on a 6-yard touchdown toss. Ty Goode intercepted the conversion attempt and the Irish lead was trimmed to 31-26 with 5:54 left. The Irish went three-and-out, punted, and Boston College had the ball back at their 23 with plenty of time to mount a game-winning drive. On a second-and-26 at their own 30, Mutryn found Dennis Harding for 25 yards. The phenomenal Cloud then took the third-and-one carry 15 yards to the Irish 30. A 26-yard reception down the middle by tight end Rob Tardio left the Eagles with a first-and-goal on the Notre Dame four with 1:07 remaining.
The first of the five critical instances that led to the Irish’s heroics came when a Boston College wide receiver lined up uncovered by a Notre Dame defense that had only 10 men on the field. As O’Brien frantically tried to get Mutryn to notice his open man, senior Guilbeaux astutely called the Irish’s final timeout right before the ball was snapped, preventing an automatic score. On first down it appeared that Cloud could walk through a hole that had opened, but Howard immediately closed it and planted the tailback at the two. On the next play, the Irish inside linebacker once again slammed Cloud to the turf at the one-yard line. On third down, without any timeouts remaining, hopes of a follow-up score by Notre Dame were dashed. With the clock rolling inside of 20 seconds and the tension building, it became disturbingly apparent for Irish fans that Boston College would now have to be held twice from three feet away for Notre Dame to escape with a win.
The AP First-Team All-American tailback plunged into the line for the third consecutive time, and it appeared that, finally, he was in. But nose guard Antwon Jones had undercut the Eagle center, allowing inside linebacker Jimmy Friday to meet Cloud literally an inch from the white stripe of the end zone. In the battle of wills that followed, Friday miraculously stood his ground and, with 11 seconds on the clock, the Irish were somehow still alive.
O’Brien called his final timeout and both teams gathered on their respective sidelines in an emotional moment. Trying to take advantage of an offensive line that averages 6-5, 302 pounds, the Boston College coach decided to put the ball in the hands of his star for a fourth time.
“He’s my best guy and he’s the guy that has to take it in when it counts,” O’Brien said.
Davie and defensive coordinator Greg Mattison figured the Irish’s best shot was to stack the line and make Mutryn throw.
“In the back of my mind, I thought they might run the bootleg, but the whole issue was would they run the football or not, and the decision was to go all out goal-line defense, come after them and challenge them to throw it,” Davie said.
As the crowd noise reached deafening levels, Mutryn handed the ball to Cloud with the game’s outcome hanging in the balance. Cloud picked his hole over the inside left tackle, but junior safety Deke Cooper, instructed to disregard the pass and play the inside run, darted through the opening and triumphantly slammed the Eagle behind the line of scrimmage. The amazing stand was complete.
The Eagles and their fans, for all their posturing about the growing rivalry between the two teams, dropped to a measly 3-6 on the year and 2-7 against Notre Dame in the last 10 years (including four straight losses). The Irish left Boston that Saturday 7-1, three wins away from entering January as a top-10 team playing in a major bowl.
“I don’t know how we did it,” said defensive lineman Brad Williams. “It goes all the way back to January and all the hard work we put in. It showed today that we have more heart than them. They played a great game, but we got it done at the end.”
After winning narrowly against Purdue, Army and now Boston College, the sense that someone was looking over the Irish permeated the team.
“We definitely think that there’s something special going on,” Denson said. “Good teams find a way to win.”
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