Any Way He Looks at It, Holtz Can’t Believe It

His voice filled with disbelief, his emotions as bare as a newborn’s bottom, Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz tried to comprehend news that the Miami Hurricanes, not his Irish, had been named named national champions in the news-service polls Tuesday.

The results of the balloting came out only hours after Notre Dame had defeated previously unbeaten and No. 1-ranked Colorado in the Orange Bowl, 21-6.

That night, doused in Gatorade, presented with a trophy as big as a bushel of fruit, Holtz had the look of someone expecting an even bigger prize, namely a second consecutive national title. Instead, the Irish were beaten out by their nemesis of the 1980s, the Hurricanes.

“I have no problems with Miami,” Holtz said. “That’s not the case. But doggone it, we played nine teams in a bowl. Probably eight of those teams will finish in the top 20. We caught everybody at their emotional peak. We beat the ACC champ. We beat the Big Ten champ. We beat the Pac-10 champ. We beat the Big Eight champ. We beat the top two independents in the East.

“It’s just very depressing. But, I congratulate Miami. They truly had a fine football team and a fine year.”

Miami defeated then-No. 1 Notre Dame on Nov. 25--a day that will live in Irish infamy--on national television and late enough in the season to make a poll recovery by Holtz’s team unlikely, but not impossible. Notre Dame needed to beat Colorado convincingly and then hope that Miami faltered against Alabama in Monday evening’s Sugar Bowl.

The Irish won, but the Hurricanes were less than cooperative, defeating Alabama, 33-25. Holtz knew it, too. Standing on the Orange Bowl sidelines, he could hear the roar of Miami supporters as news of another Hurricane score flashed through the stands.

“You don’t have to be real intelligent to ascertain that,” he said.

That done, Holtz was reduced to impassioned late-night campaigning. It didn’t work.

Tuesday morning, just moments before he addressed the media at a local hotel, Holtz was informed of the Associated Press results. Visibly surprised, Holtz did what he could to mask his true feelings. But the longer he spoke, the more his words reflected the disappointment of the day’s events.

“I think for a football team to do what we’ve done--and I don’t care how you look at it, I don’t care how you feel about it--but if you’ll really sit back (and) objectively look at what this football team did to be No. 1 every single week of the season, to play people who were sky high, to play the caliber of schedule we played week in and week out and say on one day, ‘You weren’t at your very best, so consequently we’re going to write you off’ . . . well, I just say that if you were as close to it as I was, you’d understand what I feel,” he said.

And later, when asked if Notre Dame’s schedule, consistently ranked as one of the nation’s most difficult, no longer benefited the Irish, Holtz said: “It doesn’t. It doesn’t. But it’s Notre Dame’s way of doing it. That’s the way Notre Dame’s always done it.

“I don’t think any team ever played a schedule as difficult as ours was this year. Certainly nobody had one-tenth of the adversity as this football team had to (overcome) this year. To end up with the best record against the best schedule, you’re going to say who was best on Nov. 25. I’m sorry.

“Golly Neds, if you want to vote on the best team, maybe Florida State.”

Seated in the audience Tuesday was former college coach Lee Corso, now a color commentator on cable television. At one point, Corso, in no uncertain terms, outlined his own personal plan for a national championship game between the Nos. 1- and 2-ranked teams, say, Jan. 8 at a neutral site. “And then we do it,” he gushed.

Holtz smiled. “We start classes on the 15th,” he said. “That would work out.”

Coincidentally, the circumstances involving Miami’s championship, its third in the last decade, are similar to those that surrounded Notre Dame’s title in 1988. Last year, the Hurricanes lost to the Irish, effectively ending their title hopes. This time, Miami exacted the sweetest form of revenge.

Despite, in essence, pardoning the voters for their choices, Holtz said he favored the use of computer rankings to determine a national champion rather than human subjectivity.

“People don’t get to see everybody play,” he said. “You take the computer and it gives you who the best one was over the entire year, be it so many points for every game you win and so many points for every game your opponent wins, etc.”

A rankings system similar to the one Holtz described exists. Devised by a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate and published in USA Today, the final computer poll listed Miami first, Florida State second and Notre Dame third, the same as the United Press International poll of coaches.

Nobody had the heart to mention those results to Holtz.

“I think today sort of sums up this whole year (for Notre Dame),” said Holtz, 12 pounds lighter because of Orange Bowl-related stress. “Another disappointment. But I’ll tell you what, we’ll get over it.”