What I loved about the 80s/90s era is Holtz was all ND. In ‘88 he warns his team about being classless & starting any extracurricular shit. In interviews decades later, he still wanted to honor ND and do it the right way. Unfortunately, it likely led to them losing in 1989 & ending their wining streak. I remember reading about that year & the players saying how they felt neutered b/c Holtz was adamant that he didn’t want any scuffles.
The lack of aggressiveness played out on the field and ND lost by 11(?). However, ND would go on to knock off #1 Colorado in the the bowl game but couldn’t even get a share of the NC b/c Miami beat Bama in their bowl & had H2H. Ironically, H2H didn’t hold water in 1993. Holtz should’ve had two NC but ND left it in the hands of the voters.
Today, ND can avoid that by winning out. If they don’t, they have no one to blame but themselves. For decades, ND would get outclassed in big games. Started w/ the Bowl Alliance in ‘94 when ND got a Fiesta Bowl bid they didn’t deserve & got smoked by CU. Then they were embarrassedd by Oregon St after the 2000 season. Then you had Willingham’s teams getting emascualted by SC for 3 straight seasons. Then it was Weis in two BCS bowls. Then it was BK in ‘12, ‘18 & ‘20.
In all those instances, ND lacked the horses. They were slow & unathletic & couldn’t recruit DL. Now ND has all of that so to lose tomorrow would sting that much more b/c it would point to one thing….coaching. No excuses. Beat Miami & win out.
