Category Archives: History

The Immaculate Deflection 1990

There are several games that have been called the Immaculate Deflection such as the Ole Miss vs Mississippi State in their annual Egg Bowl. In that game in 1983, God seemed to huff and puff and blow Mississippi State’s field goal attempt straight down. I mean, seriously, if you watch the video, the Mississippi State kicker lined up and booted the ball high and perfectly straight and a huge gust of wind came in and just blew the ball straight down. It looked almost as if it hit a wall in the middle of the air and fell to the field.

Not sure I have ever seen another kick like that and it deserves mention as a possible Immaculate Deflection. Maybe I will just call it An Immaculate Deflection as in another one.

Auburn could call the catch against Georgia that kept their title hopes alive An Immaculate Deflection, too. Auburn quarterback Nick Marshall threw a desperation deep pass and right to Georgia defensive backs Tray Matthews and Josh Harvey – Clemons who deflected the ball and knocked it up into the air and straight into the arms of a streaking Auburn receiver Ricardo Louis. Nobody else came close to Louis as he took the ball into the end zone for a huge Auburn win.

Yes, you could call that An Immaculate Deflection, but most people consider it the Prayer at Jordan Hare. Prayer

Yes, I prefer Prayer at Jordan Hare because that is unique. That play also set up another huge and famous play in Kick Six, which won the SEC West for the Auburn Tigers.

After the Tigers/War Eagles beat up Missouri in the SEC championship game, they were invited to play Florida State for the national title in the very last BCS Bowl game in 2013.

Although Florida State won the game, it was almost a miracle season for Auburn going from 3-9 under their previous coach, to SEC champion with new coach Gus Malzahn.

No, not that game either, the one I am talking about happened for God’s team, Notre Dame.

While I am joking about Notre Dame being God’s team, this was a very lucky break for the Fighting Irish. I really don’t think God has a favorite NFL team or college team and he probably thinks we are dummies for getting into it so much.

Back in 1990, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish were just two seasons removed from a national championship. Tony Rice was gone, but the Irish had up and coming star quarterback Rick Mirer. They also had Ricky Watters, Rocket Ismail, Rodney Culver, Tony Brooks and a young stud by the name of Jerome Bettis. Ismail may have been the most explosive player in all of college football.

That was just the offense, the defense was also loaded and the main man was nose guard Chris Zorich maybe the most intense man in all of college football. Zorich also won the Lombardi Award that season for nation’s best lineman.

Bryant Young was another defensive lineman, although just a freshman at the time and the defensive backfield contained corner Todd Lyght and safety, Jeff Burris.

Former Irish head coach Gerry Faust once said his grandmother could have recruited for Notre Dame, well his grandmother must have been Lou Holtz because those Fighting Irish teams were talented in those days.

Notre Dame had entered the season with the number one ranking and they opened up against 4th ranked Michigan. The Irish prevailed, but just barely as they won 28-24 over the Wolverines and their quarterback Elvis. Elvis has not left the building, that was Elvis Grbac.

Michigan State was next up and the Spartans were no pushover and ranked 24th. The Spartans did not have Elvis, but they had current Miami Hurricane offensive coordinator Dan Enos as their quarterback. Plus, they had two 1,000 yard rushers in Tico Duckett and Hyland Hickson.

The Spartans were giving the Irish more than they wanted on this day on September 22nd, 1990.

The Fighting Irish had scored first to take a 7-0 lead to the end of the first quarter. But, Michigan State scored 12 in the second quarter and 7 more in the third quarter scoring 19 straight points to take a nice 19-7 lead into the 4th quarter.
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Backed up against the wall, the Irish fought back. They scored a touchdown in the 4th quarter to close the Spartan lead to 5 points at 19-14.

With another drive going and 1:35 left in the game, Notre Dame had the ball at the Michigan State 26 yard line.

Super talented sophomore quarterback Rick Mirer rolled out to his right and threw the ball towards the goal line in the direction of receiver Adrian Jarrell. But, Spartan defensive back Todd Murray stepped in front of the pass and it hit him right in the chest. Catch the ball with your hands, young man, and maybe that’s why Murray was on defense.

Murray missed the catch, but knocked the ball right up into the air it was shagged by Jarrell at about the 2 1/2 yard line. Three plays later, running back Rodney Culver finally scored for the Irish and they went on to win 20-19 and keep their title hopes alive.

The situation that separates the Notre Dame Fighting Irish from the rest of the college football world is that almost everybody is their rival. USC is traditionally their biggest rival and nemesis. But, there’s also Purdue, Michigan, Michigan State, Stanford, and most every other team in the country.

After the close win over Michigan State, supposedly according to Wikipedia, quarterback Rick Mirer said “There’s definitely somebody looking after us. There’s somebody on our side”.

That somebody was on their side the following week when they beat another rival in Purdue, 37-11. But, the Boilermakers were terrible that season winning only 2 games all year.

But, somebody must have liked Stanford more because the Cardinal upset the Irish, 31-36.

Notre Dame beat Air Force 57-27, and then as the 6th ranked team in the country, they beat 2nd ranked Miami. Billed as the latest Catholics vs Convicts, this one wasn’t as grand as the first one, but the Irish still won 29-20.

After beating Navy, 52-31 in East Rutherford, New Jersey the Irish were back in the top spot in the poll. They beat 9th ranked Tennessee in Knoxville, 34-29 in a classic of a game.

But, at number 1, they were upset at home by the 18th ranked Penn State Nittany Lions. It was a close game, but Joe Paterno’s Lions came out on top, 21-24.

Now ranked 7th, the Irish beat their chief rival, 18th ranked USC, by a tight score of 10-6.

People complained about the BCS but 5th ranked Notre Dame was matched against top-ranked Colorado in the Orange Bowl when the Buffaloes could have faced 2nd ranked Georgia Tech. The Yellowjackets were invited to a minor bowl, the Citrus Bowl where the slaughtered Nebraska.

Notre Dame lost to Colorado by a single point when Rocket Ismail’s punt return was called back. Colorado won, 10-9 and split the national title with Georgia Tech.

Notre Dame finished with a 9-3 record and ranked 6th, but they had a say in the national title for the 1990 season.

Without the Immaculate Deflection, the Fighting Irish would have been done after the Stanford loss instead of fighting the national champions in the Orange Bowl.