Watching Notre Dame vs Florida St was great still 27 years later. You can watch the rebroadcast here and read a few takeaways from the game.
Part of a very cool thing Notre Dame is doing with no other sports going on is replaying some of their classic games. This Saturday was the second straight they did so, showing the classic “Game of the Century” from 1993 against Florida State.
Some of the stars from that day for Notre Dame helped re-watch the game Saturday evening as Lee Becton, Jeff Burris and Shawn Wooden along with writers Eric Hansen and Tom Noie who participated in commentary as well. It was fun to watch parts of (five month old required much attention throughout, too) and it’s available if you’re looking for a way to kill a few hours in the coming days or weeks.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKtwjq3K0WE&w=560&h=315]
Anytime I’ve tried watching old games in the past it’s hard for me to get too into them. You know the result and maybe the last drive or final play bring excitement but this one drew me in and I kept found myself walking back to the computer tonight to keep checking and watching a couple possessions instead of checking out Saturday night television.
Watching it again all these years later a few things stuck out so I’ll share them here. We’ll see if you agree.
-If Notre Dame football ever has another throwback to the uniforms of that era can they go ahead and have NBC go to their throwback graphics, too? Beautiful. I also loved how big the out of town scoreboard used to be when they’d flip it in the telecast.
-No matter how many times I see OJ Simpson or hear his voice during that game it 100% will never not be weird.
-How big of a blowout would that have been if just one of five different things gone slightly different?
- Ray Zellars drop on third down the first possession of the game. He catches that Notre Dame scores to go ahead early?
- Lake Dawson’s drop while up 21-7 and playing on a short field before halftime. If he doesn’t drop that second down pass then it’s another chance for more than a 21-7 lead at half.
- Jeff Burris was one of the best players on the field that day. That said, he should have had at least three interceptions to go along with that pair of rushing touchdowns. Oh well, things ended well that day. I will say that Burris doesn’t get the love from Notre Dame’s fan base years later that he is absolutely worthy of.
It’s easy to let time do it’s thing and make you forget just how dominant that offensive line was. Imagine being Bob Davie a few short years later and thinking firing Joe Moore was a good idea.
Florida State needed pretty much everything to go right just to get have a chance at the end. That’s an ultimate final score being closer than the game played out and almost 27 years later leaves you wondering how any so-called “expert” could have watched that and voted Florida State number one after the bowl games.
Enjoyable night nonetheless watching, though. If you get the time that’s a classic and Charlie Jones on the call only brings back warm memories.
Have a good night and stay safe.
