Beavers Shake Up the Echoes

Cry, Cry for Old Notre Dame.

The only thunder being shaken down here Monday, on a cool, clear night in the Fiesta Bowl, was by a lightning-fast Oregon State football team that not only killed the Irish in a 41-9 whipping, but also danced on Notre Dame’s grave throughout.

“We got our butts kicked,” said Irish Coach Bob Davie, who needed to say no more.

The victory was not stunning, only the size of it. Oregon State, long a doormat in the Pacific 10 Conference until this year’s 10-1 regular-season showing, co-title and No. 5 ranking, was a 3 1/2-point favorite coming in. In retrospect, those odds were much more a credit to Notre Dame years past than to Notre Dame present.

The Irish, who have had only eight losing seasons since the turn of the century and have won 11 national titles in that time, entered the game with a 9-2 record and a No. 11 ranking.

That meant that their inclusion in this Bowl Championship Series game was more a testimony to tradition and marketing than to reality. Scary as it may be, had Oklahoma not beaten Kansas State late in the season, Fiesta Bowl officials very well might have opted for Notre Dame here instead of Oregon State. Clearly, Notre Dame fans travel better than their team currently plays.

The defeat was the second-worst in Notre Dame bowl history, behind only the 40-6 flogging by Nebraska in the 1973 Orange Bowl.

Oregon State’s victory was built around a masterful performance by a short, slow, unwanted quarterback named Jonathan Smith, who was a flash at Glendora High but recruited by nobody coming out of the preps. That included even Oregon State, then a team that hadn’t been to a bowl game since the 1965 Rose Bowl and had a tradition of its own--finishing ninth or 10th in the Pac-10.

Beaver coaches found Smith while looking at a Glendora teammate on film and were so excited about what they saw that they offered him a chance to be a walk-on in Corvallis and play on the scout team.

Monday night at Sun Devil Stadium, Smith, a junior now, completed 16 of 24 passes for 305 yards and three touchdowns and was named the offensive player of the game. That was the fifth time this season that Smith, now the second-leading passer in Beaver history, had thrown for more than 300 yards.

Two of Smith’s three scoring passes occurred in a strange third period, in which Oregon State outscored Notre Dame, 29-0.

He passed 23 yards to T.J. Houshmandzadeh for a touchdown after the Irish turned the ball over on a fumble by freshman quarterback Matt LoVecchio. It was only the ninth turnover of the season for Notre Dame, which had set a regular-season record with eight. Quickly, Smith hit Houshmandzadeh and the Beavers had a 19-3 lead--but not before Ryan Cesca kicked a 35-yard extra point because of a penalty on the touchdown for excessive celebration.

Quickly, it became 27-3, and the Irish, already stunned and reeling from the speed and power with which they were being hit by Oregon State, were near comatose. Houshmandzadeh fielded a punt and took it to midfield, where he was hit and fumbled. Teammate Terrell Roberts scooped up the fumble and continued on in for the score. Smith then passed to Robert Prescott for two points.

A short time later, LoVecchio turned it over again, throwing a perfect strike to Oregon State’s Darnell Robinson. That set up a four-yard scoring pass from Smith to Chad Johnson, and the Beavers had turned a somewhat competitive 12-3 game at halftime into a joke.

LoVecchio, who won’t turn 19 until next month, was forced to take over the pressure cooker job of Irish starting quarterback when starter Arnaz Battle was injured against Nebraska. LoVecchio won all seven of his starts, but he showed clearly against Oregon State that he wasn’t ready for real prime time.

The entire Notre Dame offense managed 155 yards, to the Beavers’ 446, and LoVecchio completed 13 of 33, had two intercepted and was sacked five times for total losses of 42 yards.

Johnson’s scoring catch in the third quarter was his second, and compared to his first, it was routine.

In the second quarter, he went down and out and beat Clifford Jefferson to the corner. Jefferson made an ill-advised interception try, then watched and hobbled down the sidelines as Johnson dashed down the sidelines on a 74-yard scoring play. But lost in the flash of the play was the fact that Johnson, celebrating a bit early, dropped the ball at the two-yard line.

No Irish player noticed or went after the ball and Davie didn’t protest until it was too late, when the replay went up on the scoreboard.

That play seemed fitting for a team that seems to carry the same sort of swagger that Dennis Erickson-coached teams had when he was winning national titles at Miami. They jabbered and trash-talked and pointed fingers. They hit with abandon--frequently after the whistle--and established a Fiesta Bowl record with 18 penalties for 174 yards. If you looked closely, the Beavers looked like the Hurricanes with black uniforms. Erickson, clearly one of the finest coaches in college football, has now turned Oregon State into both a national force and a Miami look-alike in two years.

“It was a tremendous football game for us,” he said. “Just a great win for the program. Think of where we were a couple of years ago to now, all of a sudden, play in the Fiesta Bowl and become 11-1. It is just kind of an unrealistic story.”

Realism was also on the mind of Davie, who began his fourth season with questions about his job security and, at least temporarily, put all those questions to rest with a 7-0 finish and a Fiesta berth.

“I’m embarrassed by the way we played,” he said, hastening to add that he was not embarrassed by his team.

With 1:19 left in the game, Erickson received the traditional coach’s shower along the sidelines. By that time, many Notre Dame fans in the crowd of 75,428 had departed, perhaps seeking a liquid of a different sort.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Bowled Over

Worst losses in Notre Dame bowl history:

34--Jan. 1, 1973: Orange (Nebraska 40, Notre Dame 6)

32--Jan 1, 2001: Fiesta (Oregon State 41, Notre Dame 9)

25--Jan. 1, 1988: Cotton (Texas A&M; 35, Notre Dame 10)

18--Dec. 28, 1997: Independence (LSU 27, Notre Dame 9)

17--Jan. 2, 1995: Fiesta (Colorado 41, Notre Dame 24)

Cracking the Dome

Worst Notre Dame defeats:

*--*

Score Opponent Margin Date 0-59 Army 59 Nov. 11, 1944 0-58 Wisconsin 58 Oct. 15, 1904 0-54 Wisconsin 54 Nov. 10, 1900 7-58 Miami 51 Nov. 30, 1985 0-48 Army 48 Nov. 10, 1945 0-40 Oklahoma 40 Oct. 27, 1956 8-48 Iowa 40 Nov. 24, 1956 0-36 Purdue 36 Nov. 24, 1904 0-35 Michigan State 35 Nov. 10, 1951 0-34 Purdue 34 Nov. 24, 1905

*--*

Note: Lost three times by 32 points, including Monday against Oregon State

OTHER BOWLS

OUTBACK BOWL

SOUTH CAROLINA 24, OHIO STATE 7 D9

COTTON BOWL

KANSAS STATE 35, TENNESSEE 21 D10

GATOR BOWL

VIRGINIA TECH 41, CLEMSON 20 D10

CITRUS BOWL

MICHIGAN 31, AUBURN 28 D9