College Football Old School Game of the Week: Beuerlein & Brown Lead Notre Dame to Comeback Win over USC

Notre Dame players hold up John Carney after his game-winning field goal against USC.

When it comes to the Lou Holtz era in Notre Dame football, many fans or observers will point to the final game of the 1986 regular season against the USC Trojans as the game that would lay the foundation for what would be an return glory for the Fighting Irish.

The Irish came into the game with USC with a 4-6 record, one loss away from equaling the most losses in a season since 1963.

Despite their record, the Irish were by no means a bad football team as five of their six losses were by a combined 14 points, including losses to Michigan and Pittsburgh where kicker John Carney missed potential game-winning field goals in the final seconds in Holtz's first season in South Bend.

The Irish's best player was wide receiver Tim Brown, who had accumlated 1,646 all-purpose yards, mostly through catching passes and returning kickoffs, who would need a big performance if the Irish were going to knock off USC.

USC came into the game ranked #17 in the country with a 7-3 record under fourth-year head coach Ted Tollner, whose team was led by sophomore quarterback Rodney Peete.

Despite their winning record, the pressure was on Tollner to knock off the Irish as his Trojans had not beaten Notre Dame in three tries and was 1-3 against crosstown rival UCLA.

The Trojans got the ball to start the game as they drove 40 yards in eight plays to set up a 48-yard field goal by Don Shafer to give USC a 3-0 lead just 2:48 into the game.

After forcing the Irish to punt on their opening possession, the Trojans would drive into Notre Dame territory until Peete was intercepted by Notre Dame free safety Steve Lawrence to give the Irish the ball at their 37-yard-line.

From there, senior quarterback Steve Beuerlein would the Irish on a 14-play, 63-yard drive that took over six minutes off the clock and ended with a five-yard touchdown pass from Beuerlein to tight end Andy Heck to give Notre Dame a 6-3 lead with 85 seconds left in the first quarter as USC defensive back Tim McDonald would block the extra point.

The score was still 6-3 when in the second quarter, Beuerlein was intercepted by cornerback Louis Brock, son of former MLB career steals leader Lou Brock, who returned the pick 58 yards for a touchdown to give USC a 10-6 lead.

Following the pick-six, Beuerlein was benched in favor of junior Terry Andrysiak, who got the Irish into USC territory until a turnover on downs gave the ball back to the Trojans at their 34-yard-line.

After two runs by Ryan Knight gained 10 yards, Peete went deep and connected with Lonnie White for a 53-yard pass to give USC a 1st & goal at the Notre Dame three-yard-line.

From there, Peete would hand the ball off to Leroy Holt who punched it in for the three-yard touchdown to increase the USC lead to 17-6 with 4:21 left in the second quarter.

When the Notre Dame offense came back onto the field, Beuerlein was once again the quarterback as he was able to direct the Irish on a 11-play, 76-yard drive which featured the senior quarterback completing passes of 22 and 20 to wide receiver Milt Jackson, and then a 15-yarder to running back Mark Green on 3rd & 11 from the USC 26-yard-line.

The Irish would have to settle for a 33-yard field goal by Carney which cut the Trojans' lead to 17-9 with just 21 seconds to go in the first half.

The Trojans would get the ball back at its 35-yard-line as Peete completed a 22-yard pass to Randy Tanner to give USC a 1st down at the Notre Dame 43-yard-line.

That is when Tollner sent in the field goal unit as Shafer would attempt a 60-yard field goal, eight yards further than his career longest field goal.

But Shafer's kick would be true as it sailed through the uprights as time expired in the first half, sending the LA coliseum crowd into a frenzy as the Trojans went into the halftime break ahead 20-9.

Steve Beuerlein would completed 18 of 27 passes for 285 yards and throw four touchdown passes.

USC kept the momentum from the long field goal going on the first play of the second half when Trojans linebacker Keith Davis recovered Irish fullback Pernell Taylor's fumble to give USC the ball at the Notre Dame 15-yard-line.

The Trojans seemed poised to make it a three-score game as Knight ran the ball on back-to-back plays gaining 12 yards to set up 1st & goal from the Irish three-yard-line.

However, the Notre Dame defense would clamped down as Knight would be thrown for a four-yard loss on 1st down, eventually killing the drive as the Trojans would settle for a 23-yard field goal by Shafer which increased their lead to 23-9.

The Irish would respond by driving 66 yards in 10 plays as Beurelein completed passes to Tony Eason for 17 yards, Brown for 16 yards, and Green for seven, to set up a 32-yard field goal by Carney which cut the USC lead to 23-12 with a little over nine minutes left in the third quarter.

The Trojans would answer with a 15-play, 70-yard drive which took over five minutes to complete and did not end until fullback Todd Steele punched it in for an one-yard touchdown to push the Trojans' lead to 30-12 with 3:52 remaining in the third quarter.

Now facing their largest deficit of the game, the Irish needed a big play as soon as possible before the game could get out of reach.

It would take no longer than the ensuing kickoff as Brown returned the kick 57 yards to give Notre Dame the ball at the USC 37-yard-line.

Four plays later, the Irish were in the end zone as Beuerlein connected with fullback Braxston Banks for a 22-yard touchdown to make it 30-18 as the Irish went for two, which was successful as Beuerlein found Jackson in the end zone to cut the deficit to 10 points at 30-20.

The Irish look to respond quickly as they began their ensuing possession at their 31-yard-line with a 27-yard pass from Beuerlein to Jackson for a Notre Dame 1st down at the USC 42-yard-line.

Then, Beuerlein would scramble to his right and fire a pass toward the end zone as Jackson outjumped USC defensive back Junior Thurman to make the catch for the touchdown to make it a two-score game again.

The Irish would go for two again and seemed to have converted as Beuerlein connected with Jackson again, only to have nullified by an illegal procedure penalty, forcing the Irish to instead of kicked the extra point to make it 37-27 with 11:43 left in the fourth quarter.

Hoping for a defensive stop, Notre Dame fans watched in agony as the Trojans drained five minutes off the clock as they drove from their 30-yard-line to the Irish five-yard-line where they faced a 3rd & 1 as Peete handed the ball off to Steele who was stopped for no gain to bring up 4th & 1.

Instead of kicking the chip shot field goal, Tollner decided to go for the 1st down as Peete took the snap and tried to sneak up the middle, only to be stopped short to give the ball back to the Irish.

Peete, who believed had made the 1st down, was so incensed that he drew a 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty giving the Irish the ball at their 20-yard-line instead of their five-yard-line with 6:16 left in the game.

After a five-yard run by Green on 1st down, Beuerlein went deep again, this time connecting with Brown for 49 yards and a Notre Dame 1st down at the USC 26-yard-line.

From there, Green would carry the ball four more times for 21 yards to set up Beuerlein's five-yard touchdown pass to Banks to make it 37-33.

With no overtime in college football in 1986, the Irish opted to go for two in hopes of making a two-point game in hopes of a potential game-winning field goal.

Beuerlein would find Heck in the end zone to complete the successful two-point conversion which trimmed the USC lead to 37-35 with 4:24 remaining in the game.

Tim Brown finished with 291 all-purpose yards as he caught five passes for 89 yards, returned four kickoffs for 97 yards, had two carries for 10 yards, and a 56-yard punt return.

The Trojans would get the ball back at their 20-yard-line hoping to pick up some 1st downs in hopes of running out the clock.

But the Notre Dame defense would force a three-and-out as linebacker Mike Kovaleski would stop Knight for an one-yard run on 3rd & 3.

This brought out Chris Sperele to punt the ball for only the second time in the game as Brown, who only received a punt once in his career up to this point, ready to return Sperle's punt.

The punt would go 44 yards as Brown made the catch at his 28-yard-line, made a cut toward the right sideline where the wall was forming from the Notre Dame return team, and proceed to run 56 yards until he was stopped by Sperle at the USC 16-yard-line with 2:15 to go.

The Irish would keep it on the ground as they ran the ball five straight times for 15 yards until Holtz called timeout with two seconds left to set up Carney's chip shot field goal attempt.

The snap to Beuerlein, who was the holder, was perfect as Carney calmly made the 19-yard field goal, which if you were watching on television you did not see live as CBS was still in commercial, as time expired to give the Irish a stunning 38-37 win.

A little over a week after the collapse against Notre Dame, USC announced that Tollner would return as head coach for the 1987 season, though they allowed him to coach the Trojans in the Citrus Bowl, which they lost 16-7 to the Auburn Tigers to finish the season with a 7-5 record.

Tollner would be replaced by University of Arizona head coach Larry Smith, who would lead the Trojans to three straight Rose Bowls in his first three seasons of his six-year tenure as USC head coach which featured a 3-2-1 record against UCLA but 0-6 against Notre Dame.

As for the Irish, their win over USC would be the beginning of a renaissance in Notre Dame football which began with Brown winning the Heisman Trophy in 1987 becoming the seventh player in school history to win the prestigious award.

This was followed by the magical year of 1988 where the Irish went 12-0 to claim the school's 11th national championship as Notre Dame defeated Michigan and #1 Miami during the regular season to earn a trip to the Fiesta Bowl where they knocked off West Virginia 34-21 to finish the championship season.

From 1988 through 1993, the Irish would go 64-9-1 under Holtz winning at least nine games each season and finishing no lower than 13th in the final AP or coaches polls during that time.

Holtz would step down as Notre Dame's head coach following the 1996 season as he won exactly 100 games in South Bend though his final game would be a 27-20 overtime loss to USC, ending the Irish's 13-year unbeaten streak against the Trojans.