How does that old saying go, it has to get better because it can't get any worse? That's what the Notre Dame football team might have been thinking heading into Saturday's game at Boston College.
The Irish were 2-4 and fresh off a 31-point embarrassment at home against one of their most despised rivals, USC. For the most part, each Sunday, in the wake of another disappointing Saturday, had brought new newspaper bylines that basically said the same thing as the week before.
The offense can't score points, let alone possess the ball. The defense isn't making the big plays it used to, let alone tackling consistently. And the home run threat of special teams has been reduced to a bloop single.
Saturday's game in Chestnut Hill between the only two Catholic schools that play Division 1-A football seemed to be on its way to adding another similar chapter to this forgettable season. Notre Dame trailed 24-6 with just 3:27 to go in the third quarter after BC QB Quinton Porter scored on a one-yard touchdown run. Three of Notre Dame's four losses on the season had come by at least thirteen points, and they appeared to be well on their way to making it four out of five, this time to a 4-3 team that had been manhandled by Syracuse the week before.
But then something happened, something inspired from the lore of the Washington State game a long month and a half ago: a rally. I didn't see Coach Willingham don a hat and turn it inside out, but he might as well have.
The Irish went on a 78-yard drive that culminated in a ten-yard fade route touchdown from Brady Quinn to Omar Jenkins, a pass that looked as if it might bring rain. The two-point conversion didn't take, but the Eagles' lead had been cut to 24-12 with three seconds to go in the third.
Then, early in the fourth, Boston College gift-wrapped a special teams mistake, as the snap to punter Jeff Gomulinski looked more like a ground ball than something that belonged on a football field. Gomulinski couldn't get the kick off; Notre Dame took over at the BC twenty-three, and, amazingly, only needed one play for Quinn to find Maurice Stovall on a jump ball in the front corner of the end zone. Kick was good, and the Irish had drawn within five, 24-19. And the special teams weren't done.
With under four minutes to go, Nate Schiccatano blocked a Gomulinski punt, Carlos Campbell picked it up, and despite blatantly stepping out of bounds inside the five, ran it back twenty-five yards for Notre Dame's first return touchdown of any kind this year. Another two-point conversion failed, but the Irish had stormed all the way back and seized a 25-24 lead.
For a brief moment, the Irish, who had been doing their best Dr. Evil in asking the college football world to throw them a friggin' bone, seemed to have something cookin'. And you have to forgive ND fans for getting a little excited.
“A win here, and that would be two straight on the road. They'd be at 3-4 with three quality wins and a Top Ten but overrated Florida State team coming to South Bend next week.
“So what if the Eagles' just returned the ensuing kickoff to their own forty-nine?
Notre Dame could ride the momentum of this huge comeback to the upset. And even if there was no momentum, it could still snow next Saturday, because have you seen the weather in South Bend at this time of year? And Chris Rix can't throw in bad weather, so who knows, they win next week, and the schedule finally gets manageable, and they go 8-4 with a shot at a decent bowl, and maybe even a bowl win, which they haven't had since '94, and they finish 9-4 on a seven game winning streak to set up a national championship in 2004!
“Wait, why is the BC field goal unit out there? Why is Sandro Sciortino lining up for a glorified extra point of a field goal from inside the left hash? (Pause) Why is he jumping around now?”
So it ended, 27-25, with BC the victor and the Irish reeling once again. But this one was different than the others. Notre Dame had fought back from eighteen down. Their freshman quarterback threw for 350 yards, the most by an Irish signal-caller since some guy named Montana in 1978 (whose team trailed 24-6, came back and took a 25-24 lead, only to . . . well, you can guess the rest). And the special teams swung for the fences and cleared them for the first time this year.
All of that, and they still lost. Again, that sought after consistency was nowhere to be found. Just forty-seven yards rushing tempered the great day throwing the ball. Immediately after blocking the punt, the special teams surrendered that big kickoff return to set Boston College up for the win.
True, you can question the wisdom of the first two-point conversion attempt when the Irish had pulled to 24-12. Had they just kicked it after each score, Notre Dame would presumably have led 27-24 and Sciortino's kick would only have been able to tie it.
But for a team that had scored more than the necessary 24 points only once this season, counting on two more touchdowns was anything but a sure thing. A successful two-point conversion would have left the Irish needing only a touchdown and a field goal to tie.
They didn't get the conversion, but they did get two more touchdowns. It just wasn't enough.
So forget the fans that were getting ahead of themselves with dreams of a big turnaround launched off of a springboard in New England. They'll get over it. But these players are 2-5 now, and even the most spirited of rallies left them just short. Coming so close and losing the way they did to start the second half of the season, I don't see them winning more than five games this year, even with the schedule getting easier.
The last play of the game saw Quinn throwing downfield from his own thirty. For a moment, as the ball ricocheted off one player and into the hands of Rhema McKnight near the BC thirty, you thought maybe the most improbable of plays would cap off an improbable comeback. Then you saw McKnight land on the turf with nothing but zeroes on the clock and realized something.
It just got worse.
A graduate of the University of Notre Dame, Ted Fox delivered play-by-play of Irish football and men's basketball for three years as a student. He wrote a weekly sports column for the Notre Dame student newspaper for over three years and has been a contributing writer to "The Wolverine", the official publication of University of Michigan athletics. Ted recently finished working in production at ESPN and is currently pursuing an on-air and writing career. 
