John Walters

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -

Once upon a time there was a Notre Dame student who loved football. The young man learned as much as he could about the game, but he was never talented enough to play varsity.

His physical limitations never compromised his ardor for the game, though. At a time when most young men surrender their dreams, he chose to pursue a career in coaching. And then one day, to the shock of so many of his former classmates, he landed a head coaching job at a big-time school. He even knocked off a top-10 opponent.

That Notre Dame graduate’s name is Skip Holtz.

The Fighting Irish defeated San Diego State this afternoon, 21-13. And while a win is a win — as well as a marked improvement over last season — it is quite remarkable, is it not, that unranked East Carolina, coached by Holtz (class of ’86), had a far easier time dismantling No. 8 West Virginia, 24-3, than the Irish did the Aztecs.

Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis is, like Holtz, a Notre Dame alum (’78) who this year begins his fourth season on the job at his current school. Weis never played football for the Fighting Irish and Holtz only did so because his father was the coach. Skip played one season for the Irish, as Dr. Lou put his oldest son in on a few special teams plays in 1986. That practice ended when a 15-yard personal foul call against Holtz versus USC nearly cost the Irish a victory. And that was Skip’s final collegiate play.

It is quite curious how the Pirates have now beaten a trio of top 25 teams in their last three games (No. 24 Boise State, No. 17 Virginia Tech and No. 8 West Virginia) while today the Irish needed a timely fumble and a come-from-behind effort to beat an Aztec team that only seven days earlier had lost at home to Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo. The question may be unfair but I will pose it anyway: Is the best former Notre Dame intramural-level student-athlete in the collegiate coaching ranks coaching the Fighting Irish?

Sure, the Irish have also won three in a row and Weis has also knocked off a top-10 opponent (No. 3 Michigan, in his second game in 2005). Still, this afternoon in South Bend, in front of 80,795 fans chanting the latest in-style Irish cheer, “Crank me up!” the Irish were almost crank-yankers.

Notre Dame trailed 13-7 early in the fourth quarter when San Diego State tailback Brandon Sullivan burst through a hole on the right side on a first-and-goal from the 4 yard line. A little more than a yard away from paydirt, Sullivan was hit low by Irish safety Kyle McCarthy (“I just lowered my shoulder and did what I’ve been taught to do,” said the Irish-American Fighting Irish). Sullivan rolled over on to his back, on top of McCarthy, and as he did the ball squirted loose. The ball landed in the end zone where Notre Dame safety David Bruton recovered it.

This stadium has not seen a fumble that timely since Miami’s Cleveland Gary laid the ball down a yard shy of the goal line 20 years ago. On that day, Miami was No. 1 and the Irish No. 2. Today was a contest between two unranked teams, the visitor being the lone Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) school last weekend, out of 30 FBS schools, to have lost to a Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) school. The Irish, then, by the time the fourth quarter arrived today, were not just battling San Diego State. Three-touchdown favorites heading into the game, they found themselves in a death tussle with the future of the Weis era here in South Bend had they lost today.

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