First They Beat Irish, Now They Have to Root for Them

Uh, oh.

Miami’s football players never figured on this part.

The thought never even entered Bernard (Tiger) Clark’s bald head until after Saturday night’s 27-10 wipeout of Notre Dame.

“Ain’t this something?” asked the Miami middle linebacker, hardest-hitting Hurricane in the South since Hugo. “Ain’t this awful?”

Ain’t what awful, Tige?

“Man, now we got to become Notre Dame fans,” Clark said.

Yipes. Talk about your awful. It’s like the convicts holding a benefit for the warden.

Yes, now comes the hard part for Miami. Now comes the part the Hurricanes dread. To be national champions, the ‘Canes must swallow their true feelings and cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame when the Irish play Colorado on New Year’s night in the Orange Bowl.

Meeting Notre Dame, beating Notre Dame, that’s not so much to ask of Miami. The Hurricanes do it regularly. They’ve won five of their last six clashes. Six of the last eight. They have Notre Dame’s number, the way Sunday Silence has Easy Goer’s. These guys didn’t just beat the Irish again this year, they beat them bad-d-d-d--by two touchdowns and a field goal. Notre Dame’s offense didn’t even get a touchdown. Even East Carolina was able to put up 10 points on Miami. San Jose State got 16. Meeting and beating the Irish? Hey, for Miami, it’s just another day at the beach.

But rooting for Notre Dame. . .

“Never thought I’d see the day,” said Clark, who had 13 tackles and an Irish-killing interception. “But, if they don’t pull it out against Colorado, then it don’t matter what we do in the Sugar Bowl. Some people going to make Colorado No. 1, because Colorado ain’t been beaten by nobody.

“I ain’t saying we ain’t better than Colorado. I’m just saying that’s the way people going to see it.”

This is even worse than that Fiesta Bowl steak fry a few years ago, when Jerome Brown of the Hurricanes compared dining and socializing with Penn State’s players to something as unthinkable as the Japanese joining the locals for supper before attacking Pearl. Jerome, now of the Philadelphia Eagles, would have really hated this. Jerome would rather put a bounty on Notre Dame’s players than root for them.

By the end of Saturday night’s game, though, even the Irish were aware of the situation.

“They encouraged us on,” said Dale Dawkins, a hero from Vero Beach who caught two touchdown passes. “Walking off the field after the game, some of them told us to go have a good Sugar Bowl, and said they’d try to take care of Colorado for us. That was nice. I feel like they helped us out.”

Lou Holtz, no less, called to Floridians for help.

“If any of those Hurricane fans happen to be at the Orange Bowl on Jan. 1 and don’t care who they’re for, we would sure appreciate having them on Notre Dame’s side,” said Holtz, the Irish coach, who was thoroughly impressed with the way Miami’s fans drowned out quarterback Tony Rice’s commands in the huddle and behind center.

Miami makes a habit of keeping Notre Dame’s guys quiet.

Did Rice, the Heisman prospect, run the ‘Canes ragged? Hardly. He got 65 yards in 20 carries. Did Rocket Ismail run off and fly? No, they turned him into a stealth bomber. One pass reception and no kick returns of note. Did Notre Dame score easily with a first-and-goal at the Miami 1? Nope. Never even found the end zone. Did Notre Dame bury Miami alive with a third-and-44 at the Miami 7? Nope. Miami stepped right up and threw your basic, fundamental, just-the-way-we-diagrammed-it, 44-yard pass for a first down.

Craig Erickson threw it.

“Oh, yes,” he kidded, raising his eyebrows mischievously. “That’s our usual third-and-44 call.”

A guy stuck his nose in Erickson’s face, right there in the dressing room.

“What about that tackle you missed?” the guy demanded to know.

Erickson had missed tackling Notre Dame’s Ned Bolcar-- missed badly, embarrassingly--after throwing an interception. Bolcar ran it back 49 yards for a score.

“Oh, I just think the key to the game was the way Mike Sullivan blocked for me,” Erickson said.

That was when everyone realized that it had been Sullivan, a Miami offensive tackle, who asked Erickson about the missed tackle.

Erickson laughed. “I throw a 44-yard pass for a first down, and they get mad at me for an interception,” he said.

These Miami guys are tough, remember. Rugged. Antisocial.

“That’s our bad rep,” Clark said, “and we just ain’t going to shake it with some people, no matter what we do.”

Miami also is hammy. Clark shook his fist, flapped his arms, did the Charleston, goose-stepped the length of the field, did everything but an Ozzie Smith back flip before the game was over. Tiger made Mark Gastineau look shy. He was demonstrative.

“I felt great, so I showed it,” Clark said. “You beat Notre Dame, you got to celebrate. I just didn’t feel like waiting.”

His quarterback did wait.

“I feel great now,” Erickson said. “But, we still need one of two things to happen. We need Notre Dame to beat Colorado. Or, we need them to rearrange the bowls.”