Surviving Trial by Fire : Mirer, Notre Dame’s Quarterback, Isn’t Easily Unnerved

Uh, oh. Dick Vitale, two o’clock high.

“Rick MIRER!” bellows Vitale, who knows no other volume. “I knew you when you were a NOBODY! Come here YOU! I want you to meet some PEOPLE!”

With that, the Notre Dame quarterback is led to Vitale’s two daughters, one of whom plays tennis for the Irish. Photos are taken. Handshakes are exchanged. Backs are slapped.

Vitale is such a Notre Dame fan that he has hotel reservations for every Irish home game during the next four years. Of course, he has to be at Saturday’s Orange Bowl media day. Dressed in shorts, a light-blue Notre Dame shirt and Notre Dame baseball cap, Vitale follows Mirer around as if it were Florida law.

Mirer, bless his heart, simply smiles a lot. Then again, that’s the Mirer way.

“Hey, I’m flexible,” he says.

Who knows how these things happen? One moment, you’re a kid from tiny Goshen, Ind., population 20,000. Next thing you know, America’s loudest basketball analyst is dragging you away for a family portrait. Or Bill Walsh, the former San Francisco 49er coach, is picking your brain about the Irish offense. Or a teammate is brazenly comparing you to another Notre Dame quarterback, Joe Montana.

Mirer, a sophomore, doesn’t seem to mind. If this is the price you pay for calling signals for the fourth-ranked Irish (9-2), then Mirer happily obliges.

In fact, few things unnerve Mirer, who is completing his first full season as a starter. When Sports Illustrated put him on its cover earlier this season, he shrugged. When Montana sent him an autographed photo and a note of encouragement before the Miami-Notre Dame game, Mirer simply said ‘Thank you.’ When the Irish were upset by Penn State last month, Mirer was one of the few Notre Dame players who answered questions about the loss.

“I’m just trying to be myself,” he says now.

It must be the Goshen in him. The little town, about 25 miles from the Notre Dame campus, has always been home for Mirer. Once, when asked to describe it, Mirer began, “Well, all the roads are paved.”

Another time, he confessed to a small criminal streak. The offense? He and some buddies climbed on the roof of a building.

Quick, alert the proper authorities.

Mirer’s father, a former high school coach, taught him the game. When Mirer was growing up, he idolized Bo Schembechler’s Michigan teams. He even attended one of Schembechler’s football camps where, legend has it, Mirer approached the coach and said, “You stick around and someday I’ll be here.”

Mirer was 10.

Sure enough, Schembechler found himself sitting in the Mirer family den eight years later, offering Rick a scholarship. Choosing with his head rather than his heart, Mirer picked Notre Dame, where the forward pass was more than a rumor. Nor did it hurt that the Irish campus was only 30 minutes away.

Last season was spent as Tony Rice’s apprentice. Mirer played all of 36 minutes as Rice, the senior, led Notre Dame to an Orange Bowl victory against Colorado.

When Rice left, it became apparent that Mirer would be Coach Lou Holtz’s next choice as starter. The players knew it, too.

“We all knew about his ability,” wide receiver Tony Smith said. “But nobody knew how he’d do under game pressure.”

Leave that to Holtz, who specializes in building a player up and then tearing him down. Build up . . . tear down . . . up . . . down.

Mirer was no different. At times, Holtz banished Mirer to the sidelines or out of practice altogether if a play was botched. Once, he summoned George Poorman, a Notre Dame free safety, to replace Mirer in a drill. Poorman hadn’t taken a snap since high school.

This, however, is the Holtz way. To handle the pressures of guiding the Notre Dame offense, you must first handle the tantrums of Holtz, which can be considerable.

The relationship reached its critical point shortly before the season began, when Holtz angrily pulled Mirer out of a scrimmage. Rather than stand on the sideline, Mirer followed Holtz around the field, asking him again and again to explain what was wrong. At practice’s end, Holtz took Mirer aside and patiently explained.

Whatever was said, it worked. During the team’s final preseason scrimmage, Mirer’s performance was nearly error free.

Of course, a scrimmage is one thing, a season opener against Michigan is another. If all went well, Notre Dame coaches wanted Mirer to do little more than perfect his handoffs.

Instead, the Irish struggled, forcing Holtz to junk his running game in the final minutes and depend on a first-year starter. Mirer responded with a 76-yard touchdown drive that gave Notre Dame a 28-24 victory.

The next week, Mirer led the Irish to a 20-19 comeback victory against Michigan State. The winning score came with 34 seconds remaining.

“You never see him nervous, never big-eyed,” receiver Smith said. “As the season progressed, he played like a veteran. By the time he leaves here, he’ll be one of the great quarterbacks to come from Notre Dame.”

That’s when he leaves. For now, running back Ricky Watters defines Mirer’s duties as such: “All his job is right now, is not to get us beat.”

Mirer understands.

“I’m surrounded by a great group of athletes,” he said. “The quarterback doesn’t need to do a whole lot . . . to make things happen.”

Maybe not, but even in a reduced role, Mirer’s season has been impressive. If you compare his first 11 starts to those of the six Notre Dame quarterbacks of the past 25 years, you find Mirer with more yards (1,824) and completions (110) than anyone, including Montana, Joe Theismann and Steve Beuerlein. Only Blair Kiel had fewer interceptions and only Theismann had a higher completion percentage.

“I didn’t set a lot of goals,” Mirer said. “I don’t dwell on that stuff.”

Still, Mirer brings to the Irish, however infrequent, a passing attack. Rice might have been a great option quarterback, but he couldn’t hit the side of the Convocation Center with a ball. Mirer gives Notre Dame a true option: an offense that doesn’t rely entirely on the run.

Already, Colorado players have seen the change.

“Last year, we knew all they could do is run and hit you with the big play,” linebacker Kanavis McGhee said. “Now they have a lot to hit us from.”

“(Rice) was the type of player who could hurt you on the ground,” linebacker Greg Biekert said. “Mirer, I think, is a little more dangerous of a player. He has a little better throwing arm and he reads (defenses) better than Rice.”

There are other improvements. No longer does Mirer stare a hole through his intended receiver. Colorado cornerback Dave McCloughan noticed that while watching Notre Dame game films.

“Now he’s looking off guys,” he said. “After 11 games, he’s come a long way.”

That he has. And still, Mirer is Mirer, which is to say, as unassuming as a wallflower. Vitale should be so lucky.