Right before Jonathan Doerer stepped up and nailed the game-winning field for Notre Dame at Florida State I received a text from Fighting Irish Wire contributor/football observer/friend Jeff Feyerer, asking which kicker in Notre Dame history I’d want to have right now to make this kick.
My mind immediately went to Nick Setta since he fired off a game winner against Purdue in 2000 while Jeff went with Justin Yoon, the program’s all-time leader in scoring.
It turns out Doerer would have been an acceptable answer as well as he split the uprights and moved Notre Dame to 1-0.
Doerer’s kick moved gave him entry into an exclusive club in Notre Dame football history, the Game Winners Club.
On Monday morning, Setta welcomed Doerer to it via Twitter:
Go Irish ☘️ … Congrats to @JDoerer_11 on joining the Game Winner Club #GWC #NDvsFSU
— SETTA PERFORMANCE (@SettaPerform) September 6, 2021
That comes from former Notre Dame kicker Nick Setta who hit the walk-off winner against Purdue in 2000:
Dare I ask which was better?
Setta’s was do-or-die against a team led by Drew Brees who would go onto win the Big Ten and play in the Rose Bowl that year.
Doerer’s was longer and in front of a hostile road crowd.
Too tough for me to choose after being up late, I’ll just say I’m happy both went through the uprights.
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