And the Fighting Irish capture their 2nd National Title in 3 years under coach jhawk with a 27-3 win over the swamp dwellers from Florida.
The game started out with the Irish getting the ball and proceeding to break off a big run by Brian Wood deep into Gator territory. Unfortunately for them, the Gator defense stiffened up and they were forced to settle for a field goal to take a 3-0 lead.
On the Gators first possession disaster struck as already having lost their star quarterback Dan Lucky in the game against Auburn, their backup quarterback Carl Marshall got hit and knocked out. Head coach urbanslegend was forced to pull the redshirt off of sophomore quarterback Brandon Armstrong and put him in the game cold. The Gators resolve would not be shaken however and the young sophomore orchestrated a long, methodical drive that encompassed over 5 minutes almost to the end of the first quarter. Like the Irish however, the Gators faced a tough redzone defense and were forced to settle for a field goal.
The second quarter started off tied 3-3 and the Irish were again driving. This time though, the Gators were able to stop them before they got into their territory and the Irish had to punt.
With Armstrong at the helm, the Gators again proceeded to drive down the field on the tough Irish defense looking to put 7 on the board this time. Unfortunately, one bad decision by Brandon and it made a world of difference. He threw a pass to one of the Gators' favorite targets, senior wide receiver Derrick Spence on an out route and star Irish corner Matt Davis was in front of him the whole way, Davis intercepted the pass and returned it 47 yards deep into Gator territory before he was knocked out of bounds by Armstrong.
The Irish then squandered another great opportunity as they would only get 3 points off the turnover.
Notre Dame's defense then came up big however as they forced a three and out from the potent Gators offensive attack and got their offense the ball back with just over 3 minutes in the half.
The Irish finally figured out some holes in the Gators' defensive scheme and exploited them getting in the red zone with time running out in the half. After a great defensive stop on 3rd and 1 by the Gators' defense to force 4th and inches, coach jhawk had a tough choice. He elected to let time run down as much as he could (to about 20 seconds left) and then went for it. The gutsy call paid off and the Irish picked up the first down. A couple of plays and timeouts later and the Irish were knocking on the goal line. With just 5 seconds left in the half, Brian Wood punched it in from 1 yard out to give the Irish a 10 point, 13-3 lead going into halftime.
The third quarter started out with the Gators having the ball but unable to do anything with it. The Irish would then follow suit and a procession of punts back and forth would ensue until the Irish were finally able to put a drive together. They got into Gator territory and were again stopped by the tough Florida defense. Senior wide receiver DaMarcus Thomas was wide open on a crossing route but Battle slightly overthrew him and Thomas made a great one handed catch, but fell to the turf in the process, bringing up fourth down as he was short of the sticks. On the right hash, the Irish kicker Bryan Bryant had a tough kick angle and missed it just wide left as it bounced off of the left post.
The Gators hoping they could garner some momentum from the missed field goal came up short again as they were forced to punt without moving the ball too much.
The fourth quarter started with a still tense atmosphere as the Irish held a narrow 13-3 lead. After a couple of consecutive punts by both teams, it looked as if the true sophomore for the Gators might be able to finally get something going; unfortunately, just as the last time, the Irish defense came up big with an interception to end the drive.
the Irish were then able to manufacture another good drive and drove down to punch it in on another run from Wood, this time from 6 yards out.
Down 17 with just under 3 minutes left, the Gators had to move fast to stand a chance and again looked as if they might do just that. After another sack from star senior defensive end Bryan Barret, who had five in the game, the Gators were faced with a long 4th and long. As Armstrong scrambled around deep behind the line of scrimmage as he was forced to do for much of the game, he lobbed it up to a wide receiver running a post deep downfield. Irish free safety Kingsley Sanchez wasn't about to let another Hail Mary (literally the prayer type) from Armstrong be completed. Sanchez broke in front of the ball and timed the knock down perfectly to secure the ball and inevitably the game for the Irish.
With the ball in Gator territory and just over 2 minutes left and Florida still having all their timeouts, the Irish ran the ball a couple of times. But after seeing that the Gators had conceded the game and didn't take any timeouts, they kneeled the ball on 3rd and 6 with just under 30 seconds left to end the game and walk off as National Champions.
Hold on a second though folks. In a rather stunning move coach Urbanslegend then decided to take a timeout attempting to force an Irish punt as it was 4th and 8 from the Gators 43. Enraged by the audicity of coach urbanslegend, coach jhawk told his offense to go back out there and put up 7 more.
Battle connected on a 13 yard pass to, who else but Reggie Shelton, for the first down. From there the Irish went into hurry up mode to make the Gators pay for the classless timeout. Another completion to Shelton on a slant across the middle and the Irish were in business into the Gators red zone. The Irish completed a pass short of the first down and so were forced to take a time out to keep their quest alive. Down inside the five the Irish tried to punch it in on a wishbone option but backup QB Kevin Lamb (entered the game due to a bruised shoulder to Battle) was stopped just short at the one. From there, coach Jhawk called an I-Form power option to try and punch it in one last time before time ran out. However, seeing that the Gators came out in a goal line defense shifted to the right and left Shelton uncoveed, Battle (back in) audibled to quick slants and found Shelton wide open in the endzone to increase the Irish's lead to 24 and ended the game.
After the game, coach Jhawk was asked why he ran the score up on the Gators when the game was obviously over. "Some people may see it as "douchey" or a classless move, and I would just about always agree with them. However, I feel that what their coach did was extremely classless as well. We were ending the game because it was obviously in hand and yet they decided to try and pull a fast one on us and get the ball back to potentially score again. "F*** that" I say. I told my guys, "F*** that noise. We don't put up with that shit. If they're gonna try that shit we're gonna fucking beat they're asses into a pulp for it. F***ing show them what it means to be Notre Dame."
"Coach urbanslegend may feel he has a right to act and do whatever he pleases due to all those rings he has. But I have some news for him. We don't take that shit at Notre Dame."
"I just want to thank all of the seniors for playing their hearts out for this program for the past four years. All of those guys are leaving with two rings and I can't be more proud of them. We are going to miss them next year. But here at Notre Dame we have a saying, 'We don't rebuild, we reload'"
STATS
PASSING
ND: J.Battle: 16-19 159 yards, 1 TD
UF: B. Armstrong: 15-30 194 yards, 2 INTs
RUSHING
ND: B. Wodd: 17 att. 98 yards, 2 TDs
UF: B. Armstrong: 6 att. -31 yards
RECEIVING
ND: R. Shelton: 6 rec. 67 yards, 1 TD
UF: D. Spence: 5 rec. 76 yards
DEFENSE
ND: B. Barrett: 7 tackles, 5 sacks
R. Kirk: 2 tackles, 1 sack, 1 INT, 1 def
M. Davis: 1 tackle, 1 INT
UF: N. Forte: 8 tackles
T. Fowler: 5 tackles
S. Howard: 5 tackles
Now that that's out of the way, jhawk, why are you taking shit so personal. You talking about leaving because someone suggested that we change the sliders? Get over it man. You have been a great asset to the OD. There is no doubt about that, but I'd rather you leave and we freely talk about what we want than for you to stay and have to be hush hush about shit that involve jhawk so we don't hurt his feelings. I noticed the last few weeks you've been salty for no reason over stupid shit. Are you looking for a way out? Do you want someone to tell you to get out or something because you don't wanna just quit? That's what it looks like to me. If you wanna quit, just quit man. Don't come up here talking about I'll stop hurting the OD with my sliders and shit. If you're tired of playing and wanna leave, then leave, but don't use a valid complaints about the sliders as your excuse. You know good and damn well these sliders are crazy as fuck. I'm surprised no one has said something earlier. I'll get more into the sliders later though. Anyway, stop taking shit so personal and if you wanna quit, just quit and stop making excuses. I like you and I wouldn't want you to go, but fuck it. If you're gonna be snapping at people because they say something about your sliders or your schedule or whatever you worked on then just fuck it. I like this OD because the majority of the users are(and have been) mature and shit, including yourself. These last few weeks though, I don't know man. You got mfers begging you not to go, but fuck it, I'm not begging. So I'll end this part with this, I like ya here as I'm sure most do, but if you can't take criticism on shit that you work on, especially valid criticsm, and that makes you wanna leave then fuck it. You gotta do what you gotta do. I'm not holding my tongue for nobody.