Eight of them moved to the head of the pack and lined up between the team and the student section for the final time, arm in arm, swaying to the slow beat of the Notre Dame Alma mater.
The eight guys on the frontline were members of the group of 33 seniors, almost all of which had just played their last career game at Notre Dame Stadium, and suffered their third straight loss this season in a heartbreaking 33-30 overtime defeat to Connecticut.
For the second straight season, there were no victory laps or wild celebrations on Senior Day, just tears, confusion and disappointment. The seniors shuffled up the tunnel and into the locker room to share a tear immediately after the game, then returned to the field one last time to be with family and friends.
Weis deflected any questions about his future during his post-game press conference.
“Feeling the lows of the lows with the loss,” said fifth-year senior Mike Anello. “And knowing that you are never going to run out of that tunnel again, never going to be out in front of 80,000 Notre Dame fans again. It’s tough.”
Irish head coach Charlie Weis deflected any attention from the questions about his future and said this game and day was about the players not the coach.
“Today’s not the day for me to reflect on things like that,” Weis said. “As I said the other day and I’ve never been a hypocrite before, I come in here and start talking about me, I’m really barking up the wrong tree, because those guys are the guys I should feel for today.”
In all, there are 33 seniors on the Irish roster, which includes six fifth-year players, seven walk-ons, and 20 fourth-year seniors. Of the 33, 11 would be eligible to return next season, because they sat out at least one full season during their careers.
The four most likely candidates to return next season – based on playing time and future position needs – are offensive guard Chris Stewart, cornerback Darrin Walls, center Dan Wenger, and fullback/tight end Bobby Burger.
Notre Dame has four fourth-year seniors on offense and five on defense that will not be back. The offensive players are tailback James Aldridge, center Eric Olsen, wide receiver Robby Parris, and offensive tackle Sam Young.
Olsen said he could hardly believe how quickly his four years flew by. His football career will likely carry on for many years in the NFL, but this was a game and a day he will never forget.
“It was sad to realize that I’m not going to wear the gold helmet and go run out of the tunnel ever again,” Olsen said. “Even though we lost and that’s disappointing, I’ve had a hell of a time here. It was a sad moment but it’s been a good run. Wins and losses wise, it hasn’t always been great but I’ve enjoyed me time here.”
More Gold’en’ Standards With every passing game, Irish junior receiver Golden Tate continues to set new receiving standards, and make his case as one of the best receivers in the country, and in program history while he’s at it.
With his nine catches and 123 yards against Connecticut, Tate broke some single-season records held previously by former receivers Jeff Samardzija and Tom Gatewood.
Tate’s 83 catches broke Samardzija’s record of 78 receptions set in 2006, and Tate’s 1,295 receiving yards broke “The Shark’s” record of 1,249 set in 2005.
The 100-yard receiving game was the eighth of the season, breaking Gatewood’s record set in 1970. This was also the 14th 100-yard game of the career for Tate, which broke Gatewood’s career record.
For obvious reasons, no records, milestones or personal achievements mattered much to Tate after the game.
“It wasn’t good enough, obviously,” Tate said. “I’m out to win games, not collect stats. I can think of several plays where I could have done something better, maybe made a difference.”
About the only knock on Tate’s performance were his diminishing returns. Tate recorded six catches for 96 yards in the first quarter but only three for 27 yards in the last three quarters.
“From afar, it looks like I had a good game. I don’t think it was my best performance,” Tate said.
Tate entered the Connecticut game ranked No. 4 in the country with 117.20 yards a game and No. 9 in the country with 7.40 receptions per game.
Ruffer Ready Walk-on placekicker David Ruffer had no idea until just moments before kick off Saturday that he was going to be the starting placekicker.
For the second straight week, freshman kicker Nick Tausch pulled up lame during pre-game warm ups and had to be a late scratch. Ruffer may have not expected the chance but he made good on it, converting all three of his field goals and all three extra points – these results from a guy who was pulled from a university intramural team last year when the Irish were struggling in the kicking game.
“Thank God for Ruffer,” Irish coach Charlie Weis said. “For a guy that’s playing inter-hall last year, to step up, I give him a lot of credit.”
Ruffer said his comfort level was better this week after converting his only field goal attempt at Pittsburgh last week. But the 36-yard field goal and extra point he had to make in overtime against Connecticut got his attention.
“That last PAT had a little bit going on there,” said Ruffer of the tying the game at 27-27. “This still a little bit of an anxiousness. But that’s good, that means you care.”
Frazer’s Revenge Connecticut quarterback Zach Frazer didn’t exactly stuff the stat sheet, but he did get out of South Bend with a win over a program he transferred from after spring ball in 2007.
Frazer completed 12 passes for 141 yards and a touchdown in his return to South Bend.
Frazer was the odd-man out after a four-man quarterback derby that included Frazer, Evan Sharpley, Demetrius Jones and Jimmy Clausen.
Irish head coach Charlie Weis announced after the sprig game that the other three would carry their competition into fall training camp, and Frazer would be left out. Frazer transferred to Connecticut, and the rest became dubious history Saturday.
“When Zach left, he didn’t leave on bad terms, he just left,” said Weis, who met Frazer on the field after the game. “As tough as it is for me to lose a game, one of ex-players is playing over there. I just wanted to make I sure I congratulated them.”
Frazer finished 12-of-15 passing for 141 yards with one touchdown and one interception.
Staying Together Because he’s not the most mobile guy in the locker room, Irish head coach Charlie Weis usually hangs back, let’s his players and assistant coaches run down the tunnel and take the field first before the coach makes his way down the ramp.
The Irish seniors weren’t having it on Senior Day. Weis interlocked arms with some of his team captains and entered the field at the head of the pack, a move the players said was a sign of unity of the team and support for the coach.
“It was Senior Day but coach Weis has gone through a lot, and we’re behind him 110 percent,” said junior quarterback and captain Jimmy Clausen. “It was really special. (Weis) had tears coming down his face. It’s just hard that we couldn’t get a victory for all those seniors and coach Weis too.”
Weis said the captains approached him in the back of the pack and essentially dragged him up front.
“It was nice that they wanted that,” Weis said. “They wanted to do that. But at the end of the day, that just goes to the start of the game, and what it came down to is playing football.”
Sweet Then Bitter For the first time in about a month, junior tailback Armando Allen finally looked healthy in a game, and the results showed in a solid rushing day for Notre Dame.
Allen carried 24 times for 106 yards for his first 100-yard rushing game since he hit Michigan State with 115 in week three. He also added six catches for 69 yards for 175 total yards, a season high. That was the good news for Allen.
The bad came in the fourth quarter in a tie game when Allen fumbled at the Irish 41-yard line in a 20-20 tie on what could have been the game-winning drive for Notre Dame. Connecticut didn’t capitalize on the miscue but the fumble ended a potential game-winning drive in the final minute to spoil an otherwise terrific day for Allen.
“He’s in the tank,” said Irish head coach Charlie Weis. “He had a lot of good runs in the game. A couple of plays that ended up hurting but you can’t just look at any one player in a game like this. There’s plenty of opportunities in there for the game to be won or lost.”
Miscellaneous Notes
• Irish senior tackle Sam Young set a Notre Dame program record with his 49th career start, breaking the previous record held by former safety Tom Zbikowski and former linebacker Maurice Crum, Jr. Young has never missed a game or start in his career.
• With 329 yards passing against Connecticut, junior quarterback Jimmy Clausen has eclipsed the 300-yard mark six times this season and nine times in his career. In the process, Clausen moved past Irish quarterback coach Ron Powlus into second place on the Irish career passing yards list with 7,808
• With 123 receiving yards for junior Golden Tate and 104 receiving yards for sophomore Michael Floyd, the duo extended their program record to three straight games where both caught for 100 yards in the same game.
• With a touchdown on its opening drive Saturday, Notre Dame has scored on five of its seven opening drives at home this season, three four touchdowns.
• The loss drops Irish head coach Charlie Weis to 3-10 in his last 13 games in November.
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