Analysis : Holtz Can Take Most of the Credit

Eleven teams had a chance this season to diagnose USC’s one crippling weakness--a lack of speed by sure-handed receivers Erik Affholter and John Jackson.

But only Notre Dame found it and acted on it to beat the Trojans Saturday as Coach Lou Holtz came up with college football’s game plan of the year.

The three essentials that won the game for Notre Dame, 27-10, were easy for all to see:

--The USC quarterback, Rodney Peete, can be successfully rushed if you use many kinds of creative blitzes by linebackers and defensive backs. This works because the USC receivers are too slow to get open for the deep passes that worry all blitzing defenders.

--The sort of aggressive football that blitzing implies usually can be counted on to force the breaks that Notre Dame got on fumbles, interceptions and other USC errors.

--A defensive scheme such as Notre Dame’s Saturday is best complemented by a big-play offense. Although the Irish averaged only one first down per quarter until late in the game, they kept USC off balance with quarterback Tony Rice’s big plays, including his long pass out of the end zone for a gain of 55 yards and his 65-yard touchdown run.

Holtz couldn’t have won any other way. He couldn’t have lined up and played conventional football with the Trojans, who had him outgunned. He had to gamble.

In football, a sustained pattern of blitzes is considered the essence of desperation, of recklessness, but Holtz had the courage to order it.

And it worked because Peete’s receivers, as good as they are, lack the one thing it takes to beat a blitzing team--the speed to pull away from single-coverage defensive backs.

The Trojans were down, 14-0, before they adjusted to the tempo of Notre Dame’s bold defense.

It took them nearly two quarters to get back in the game with the anti-blitz weaponry--delayed rollouts and pitchouts--that put them closer, 14-7, just before halftime.

At that moment, for USC, the worst seemed to be over. Then Jackson slipped.

The Trojan flanker turned and fell as Peete’s pass whizzed past him to a Notre Dame cornerback, Stan Smagala, who returned it untouched for a touchdown.

That interception symbolized the game for the Trojans, who were done in by a combination of uncharacteristically sloppy football and bad luck.

They were running into one another in the backfield, they were clipping, they were holding, jumping offsides and fumbling to Notre Dame.

Meanwhile, when Notre Dame fumbled at a critical moment in the third quarter, the ball went out of bounds.

And the daffiness all started with Holtz’s radical game plan. Few things are more unnerving than a system of successful blitzes.

How did Holtz happen to think of this?

Since the Miami game in October, the Irish have had nothing to think about but Air Force, Navy, Rice, Penn State and USC. So they have been thinking about USC.

At a time when USC was wading through UCLA and others on the nation’s toughest schedule, Notre Dame had the leisure to scout the Trojans intensively and solve the mystery of their receivers.

Give Holtz most of the credit for the win. Give his players some. Give a bit to the guy who decided, not long ago, that players such as Rice belong in Notre Dame Stadium.

In only his third year at South Bend, Holtz has launched what probably will become Notre Dame’s longest championship era since Frank Leahy.

In a coaching career that has spanned nearly 2 decades, Holtz has never lasted more than 4 years at any station--except for 7 at Arkansas--but he has been a winner from the start.

At Notre Dame, the combination of effective nationwide recruiting and Holtz’s coaching will turn out the lights of a number of opponents.

For one example, his power-option offense is much more difficult to defend against than the Oklahoma option. This is because of the power factor.

Power plays tend to keep defensive opponents rooted. Option plays make them move in coordination.

So mistakes by Notre Dame opponents are inevitable--as USC proved on Rice’s long touchdown run, when the Trojan containment didn’t get there until the Irish quarterback had sprinted through on his second-option keeper.

One wrong defensive move against a good option team, and you’re out six points.

In this game, of course, it was the Irish defense, not their offensive machinery, that beat USC.

The Heisman Trophy voters who are now preparing to vote for Barry Sanders, the Oklahoma State running back, should only ask themselves this question:

How many yards would Sanders gain against the Notre Dame defense?