It's Deja Vu All Over Again for Irish

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Not again.

The clock really did read "0:00" this time. Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen trudged slowly toward his teammates who were congregating in the northwest corner of Notre Dame Stadium. Clausen, still wearing his helmet, walked alone and allowed himself a singular, soul-cleansing, emphatic expletive.

After what he had just been through, the junior quarterback can be forgiven that audible.

Not again. Seriously? Another USC-Notre Dame contest that featured a last-minute, outcome-in-the-balance drive toward the south end zone? A fourth-and-long conversion on that drive? A final play after the clock has already struck 0:00? It was the Bizarro World version of the 2005 game at Notre Dame Stadium with one meaningful exception: USC still won, 34-27. USC always wins. That's just what the Trojans do.

"It's just a heartbreaker, period," Clausen said later, "whether you come back from seven points or however many points we did today (20 ... almost). It's just a tough loss."

Once again, as they have done too many times this decade, the Irish played just well enough to break their hearts-and those of their faithful. Four years ago it came down to one fateful play. On Saturday it came down to three: a trio of plays, beginning with 0:09 on the scoreboard, from the USC 4-yard line. Clausen, the nation's leader in passing efficiency, with three shots at glory from four yards out.

"If you would have told me before the game, 'You can have the ball on the five (four) yard-line at the end of the game with a chance to tie or win," Irish coach Charlie Weis said, "I probably would have taken that."

If you had told him that with 13:33 to play and the Irish down 34-14, you bet your aspirin he would have taken it. At that point it looked as if the buzzards in the press box might be correct, that Weis might be coaching his final game in this rivalry.

More than a few of the national columnists who descended upon South Bend brought with them both a laptop and a noose. This game might be, in their minds, a potential coup de grace game for Notre Dame's fifth-year coach. And when Trojan tailback Joe McKnight scored from one yard out to make it 34-14 with 13:33 to play, you could feel the gallows door opening. The leads would be worded differently, but each would be some variation of "Flat-lined against a blue-gray sky, Charlie Weis' career at Notre Dame came to an end today."

Instead, Weis' team fought back. And that's what this is: Weis' team.


Certainly in those final 13½ minutes the Fighting Irish not only proved that they are a far more competitive team than they have been of late. They also demonstrated that, where this coach is concerned, they're not quitters. Still, what must sting for Weis, who now must concern himself more with having the patience of Job as opposed to simply having a job, is that the Irish have now gone four entire games-plus seven seconds-without holding a lead even for one play against their most celebrated rival.

That and the fact that USC, when it really matters, always makes a play. And the Irish do not.

The Irish did make big plays and plenty of them. A fake field-goal in the first quarter, a pass from backup punter and baseball pitcher Eric Maust to Robby Parris, awoke the audience and gained 25 yards down to the USC 2. One play later, Robert Hughes punched it in, Notre Dame's first touchdown against USC in 135 minutes of regulation stretching back to 2006.

Golden Tate was his brilliant self once more, hauling in a 45-yard touchdown pass on a go route while taking a shot in the chops from All-American safety/terminator Taylor Mays. Defensive end John Ryan had a key sack to halt USC's final drive, while Gary Gray made the interception that allowed the Irish to believe that just maybe it would be worth investing their hope in a victory this day. Parris, on fourth-and-10, made a gutsy catch while nearly being decapitated by Mays.

In the end, however, USC made more. Or at least enough. Three times, giving one of the nation's best passers a try from 12 feet away, the Trojans, playing thousands of miles east and dozens of degrees south of their home, made the stop. And Notre Dame, once again, came within a moment of the type of cathartic release that they and their fans have been deprived of for, well, 16 years now, since the 1993 win against No. 1 Florida State.

Touchdown Jesus stares down at Notre Dame Stadium from the Hesburgh Library, but perhaps when USC visits they should change the mosaic to Moses. Because today, as happened four years earlier, the Irish almost, but not quite, made it to the promised land.

"It's not good enough for us," said center Eric Olsen when asked if the Irish could at least be satisfied with a moral victory. On the other hand there were two dozen or so recruits in Notre Dame Stadium today, and they nearly witnessed the Irish erase a 20-point fourth-quarter deficit against the stingiest defense in the land. What did they see?

"I hope that they see that we're definitely making a comeback to what Notre Dame once was," said Olsen, a senior who will never be able to say that he beat USC. "I hope they see how much it crushed us to lose."