Of the many gaping wounds Notre Dame suffered this season, a great many were self-inflicted. Because their problems were largely of their own making, at nearly every possible level, the Irish didn’t generate much sympathy.
But facing Stanford at the merciful end of the season Saturday, it was as if some ethereal omnipotent force was piling on to usher the Irish through one more set of agonizing events before letting them be.
Notre Dame turned the ball over four times, including twice in the red zone.
A personal foul negated a rollicking, three-lateral interception return for a touchdown to end the first half.
And replays overturned three calls on the day, including one reversal that gave Stanford its first touchdown and another that erased a score for the Irish.
Nevertheless, Notre Dame exited with a 21-14 triumph before 48,953 fans and ample empty seats, just not before Stanford Stadium became a theater of the absurd for one brisk afternoon.
“It was a pretty weird game,” Irish tight end John Carlson said. “Kind of fitting, the way our whole season has gone. A fitting way to end it.”
Indeed, once a fourth-down pass from Cardinal backup quarterback T.C. Ostrander fell incomplete with 30 seconds to play, the catastrophe that was the 2007 season for Notre Dame became history. Finally.
In that, there was some relief — and, speaking of absurd, a celebration that was missing only a few cases of Dom Perignon.
In case you caught only the arm-waving, helmet-raising, chest-bumping merriment on the field as time ran out, Notre Dame did finish 3-9 this season, meaning it ended up a scant seven or eight victories shy of BCS title game contention.
But consecutive triumphs to end 2007 apparently start the healing process, kind of like an ice pack starts the healing process after massive trauma.
“I’m saying if you had lost this game, it could have been a step backward instead of a step forward,” Irish coach Charlie Weis said. “I told them we’re still not a great football team. But at least we’ve taken two steps in the right direction.”
Freshmen led the way Saturday. Tailback Robert Hughes notched the game-winning touchdown from 6 yards out with six minutes to go, capping a 136-yard effort.
Quarterback Jimmy Clausen threw for 196 yards and ran for a score. Freshman Duval Kamara caught a team-high six passes for 93 yards.
“They’re going to be a lot readier to play next year by how they finished this year,” Weis said.
They certainly endured Basic Weirdness 101 this season, culminating in Saturday’s circus. Stanford missed four field goals and had two quarterbacks knocked out of the game. What was ruled a David Grimes touchdown reception for the Irish was overturned on the replay and probably shouldn’t have been.
Most notably, David Bruton’s interception at the end of the first half turned into a Tom Zbikowski touchdown via laterals from Bruton to Zbikowski to Darrin Walls and back to Zbikowski — only to have a personal-foul penalty wipe out the play.
Then came the Irish’s postgame ode to a forgettable season. Clausen, for one, held his arms aloft, threw the ball sky-high and then ran a few yards with his arms extended like airplane wings. The team belted out the fight song six times in the locker room.
Three victories, nine defeats. What isn’t there to like?
“I think we hit the bottom,” Grimes said. “The only direction we can go is up.”
———-
bchamilton@tribune.com
