8A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 14, 2006 ® FOOTBALL H amilton's kick spoils Powlus's comeback By Brett Forrest Sept. 12, 1994 M ICHIGAN VS. SOUTH BEND - It was the NOTRE DAME first last minute, game-winning field goal in the Ron Powlus Era. W EEK The game marked the first field- rushing by fans in the Ron Powlus All week long, Daily Sports will run After defeating Notre Dame, 26-24, Era. It was also the first time an its original coverage of one of the Michigan finished a disappointing 8- injured Irish player was basket-car- 33 games in the historical series 4 on the year. ried off the field by his teammates between the NCAA's two winningest We've also included a column from in the Ron Powlus Era. programs. then-Daily Sports Writer Michael But most importantly, it was The series continues today with Rosenberg, who now writes a column Notre Dame's first defeat in the Ron coverage from the 1994 season. for the Detroit Free Press. Powlus Era. In what was supposed to be Ron Powlus's coronation as Notre Dame 42. and former Michigan kicker Mike the next great Notre Dame (1-1) Collins rifled one to wide receiv- Gillette, Hamilton walked onto quarterback, an anonymous Michi- er Seth Smith down to the 33-yard the field and readied for the most gan (2-0) placekicker rained on the line. Time out Michigan, its last. charged moment of his life. parade. On the following play, as the The timeout appeared to calm One of college football's great- clock crept under ten seconds, Irish things down for Michigan, allowing est games perhaps ever - in one of outside linebacker Bert Berry pres- the unit to prepare. college football's greatest rivalries sured Collins to the edge of the "(Notre Dame) did us a favor - was decided in the last minute at pocket. With Berry's arms wrapped (by calling the timeout);" Hamilton Notre Dame Stadium. around his waist and his knee inch- said. "Thanks Lou (Holtz)" Michigan 26, Notre Dame 24. es from the midfield turf, Collins With Riemersma holding, Ham- And Remy Hamilton became the lofted the ball to Smith again, who ilton booted the ball through the latest kicker-turned-big name in the lunged out of bounds at the 24-yard uprights for his fourth field goal of Irish-Wolverines conflict. Michigan line with seven seconds left. the day with room and height to now leads the all-time series, 15-10- Michigan coach Gary Moeller spare. There were just 2 seconds 1. then sent in Hamilton for a 42-yard remaining on the clock. With 2:08 leftlin the game and his field goal attempt. "I'm sure I won't appreciate this team down six points, Powlus (15- Before Saturday's game, the until I'm older" Hamilton said fol- 27, 187 yards and two touchdowns) sophomore had just one field goal lowing the game. led a fateful touchdown drive that hit attempt under his collegiate belt. Following a mobbing of the paydirt with just 52 ticks on the sta- One attempt: And that was against field by Wolverine fans, Hamilton dium clock. It seemed as if another Minnesota. squibbed the kickoff to Notre Dame typically fortunate Irish finale was Notre Dame is not Minnesota. tight end Pete Chryplewicz and the being scripted by its newest golden- "After Notre Dame scored, I game was in the books. domer boy. didn't think we had enough time to Michigan placed itself in dire But Michigan quarterback Todd come back," Hamilton said. "But straights prior to Hamilton's hero- Collins (21-29 for 224 yards and the guys on the sidelines told me we ics. Thanks to a Powlus fumbled one touchdown) and the rest of the had 52 seconds and to get ready for snap that was recovered by Michi- Wolverines offense had other plans. a field goal" gan linebacker Steve Morrison, the Gaining possession of the ball on its As he stepped into position with Wolverines had the ball at the Notre own 17-yard line with just 46 sec- the play clock in single digits, it Dame 34 with 4:35 to go in the onds to go in the fourth quarter, just seemed as if Hamilton may have fourth quarter. one timeout left and down by one to rush the play. But the Irish called Up by three points, Michigan point, Michigan did the impossible. a timeout. Trying to psyche out the tried to pound the ball into the "We worked on our hurry-up kid? endzone on the ground and put the offense quite a bit in practice," "We got fouled up on thinking game out of reach, running tailback Collins said. "I had confidence we that we had 12 men on the field," Tshimanga Biakabutuka on five could score" Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz said. successive plays. On third down and Collins first scrambled for 15 "It was not an attempt to ice (Ham- five at the Irish 13, the sophomore yards to the Michigan 32. He then ilton)." was stuffed and Hamilton put his hit tight end Jay Riemersma for 26 After being pumped up by team up six. yards down the middle. Ball on the injured wide receiver Walter Smith See IRISH, page 11A 0 Forget the Irish -mystique* By Michael Rosenberg Sept. 12, 1994 SOUTH BEND - Memo to the mystique-makers who document the luck of the Irish: There's another chapter you might want to add to your next volume. A big one. About 42 yards long. It's got all the ele- ments of all the great Notre Dame folklore. The tight game. The adver- sity to overcome. The player with no confidence getting inspired by one of his predecessors. The comeback. Best of all, it came in the annual game between Michigan and Notre Dame, one of the biggest rivalries in the nation. One small problem. You know the Wolverines? Yeah. They won. Oh, where to begin? We'll skip the details of the first three quarters, because those are not the moments that will be repeated to our grand- children, who often get bored of such talk. "Get to the good part, Grandpa;' we can hear them saying. "Also, wipe the drool off your wheelchair." OK. The good part's coming. But, for the record, let history note that for 45 minutes in South Bend, on the second Saturday in September, 1994, the Michigan Wolverines and Notre Dame Fighting Irish played some of the most intense, physical, open-field tackling, tight, spiral-throwing, quar- terback-chasing, fingernail-chewing, chess move-making football anyone has ever seen - even on the hal- lowed grass of Notre Dame Stadium - and that when the final gun was fired to end the third quarter, the scoreboard read: Michigan 20, Notre Dame 17. But that, as they say in all those volumes of previous Notre Dame folklore, was just the beginning. The teams went back and forth in the fourth quarter until Michigan finally managed to kick a field goal. Wolverine fans celebrated. How naive. The field goal gave Michigan a six point lead with 2:08 to go, which gave Notre Dame freshman Ron Powlus a chance to march his . team downfield and score the win- ning touchdown and then get carried off the field by several thousand joy- ous NBC executives. Powlus proceeded to lead the Fighting Irish straight into Michigan territory, a textbook Notre Dame comeback. This should surprise none of you Irish mystique-iakers, because you guys are always talking about how Notre Dame players carry textbooks with them everywhere, even to football games, in case they should, for example, want to study during halftime. At this point it was obvious to everyone that Notre Dame was going to win, and Powlus's pretty pass to flanker Derrick Mayes was regarded as a mere formality. The extra point gave the Fighting Irish a 24-23 lead. Wow. This Powlus kid learns quick. Too quick, as it turns out, because the kid left 52 seconds on the clock for Michigan to work with, and in football, as in economics class, 52 seconds, can seem like forever. Collins answered Powlus, driving the Wolverines downfield. ake that, freshman. Suddenly Michigan had the ball on Notre Dame's 33, with time for just one play to get them into field goal range. Just minutes earlier, not far fro this very spot, Collins had been hit from behind and fumbled the ball over to Notre Dame. It was the kind of play that players replay in their minds again and again if they lose. From the start, the play did not look good for Michigan. Collins was immediately flushed out of the pocket. Fighting Irish linebacker Bert Berry decided that Collins would look much nicer with his head embedded in the field, and grabbed the quarterback by the jersey. As he was pulled down, Collins somehow completed a pass to Seth Smith, who scrambled for nine yards before diving out of bounds. There, Collins had done his part. Now all Michigan needed was a 42-yard field goal. From a guy who, until Saturday, had only made one field goal in his career. It would have been great if Remy Hamilton had just kicked the win- ning field goal. People would be talking about it for ages, like they talk about eh Four Horsemen and George Gipp and Joe Montana's Cotton Bowl comeback, about how Hamilton was an untested player who came through in the clutch. But you know how these legends are. You always need to keep tug- ging at the heartstrings. So it wasn't enough that Hamilton kicked the winning field goal. You also have to bring up that since com- ing to school he had been injured, frustrated and had lost confidence in himself. He was thinking of transfer- ring. "You have to realize where this See ROSENBERG, page 11A 0 Y t 7 Wants You! Does the opportunity for travel, being part of a team and personal growth excite you? If so, then you may be who we are looking for as a student manager for the 2006 season. Please call 615-9502 to find out how you can become part of the excitement this fall. 0 Show You Don't Have to Get Drunk to Have Fun at the Game "We want Michigan to continue being a place that is hospitable to everyone." I 0