Pinkett Breaks Record, and Notre Dame Wins

Steve Beuerlein called it “a new season” and Allen Pinkett called it “a chance to shut the critics up.”

Together, they helped Notre Dame to beat previously undefeated and 19th-ranked Army, 24-10, amid reports and rumors concerning Coach Gerry Faust’s position.

The victory left Notre Dame with a 2-3 record while Army dropped to 5-1 and saw its eight-game winning streak come to an end.

“We’ve been subjected to a lot of adversity this last week,” Pinkett said. “We saw this game coming up as a chance to fight back. We have a lot of pride. This game gave us a chance to shut the critics up.”

Pinkett did his part by rushing 27 times for 133 yards and 1 touchdown to become Notre Dame’s all-time leading rusher with a total of 3,556 yards, surpassing Vagas Ferguson’s record of 3,472.

“We’ve given up a lot of passing yardage this year and Notre Dame has some great receivers,” Army Coach Jim Young said. “But if you want to beat Notre Dame, you’ve got to stop the running game, and that means stopping Pinkett.”

Beuerlein completed 12 of 20 passes for 186 yards and 1 touchdown. He also set up two other touchdowns with his passing.

“Coach Faust kept telling us this week that it’s a new season,” Beuerlein said. “Now it is a new season. The key to our offensive production was that I got lots of time. The linemen dominated. We did a very good job of mixing plays and controlling the clock.”

The Notre Dame defense also had a hand in the victory. Army came into the game with the No. 1 rushing average in the nation of 393.6 yard a game. Notre Dame limited the Cadets to 196 yards rushing and 98 passing.

“I thought our defense played very well,” Faust said. “They played with confidence and executed well. In the last two games, we’ve given up only one touchdown to the wishbone.”

That included a 21-15 loss to Air Force and its wishbone offense two weeks ago when Notre Dame had suffered its second straight defeat to drop to 1-3 for the season. The Irish were off last week.