Trojans Need Luck of Irish : College football: Notre Dame has won last eight in the series since USC won by scoring without the ball.

The last time USC beat Notre Dame, it needed a controversial ruling by the officials to make it happen.

It was John Robinson’s last game as USC’s coach and the Trojans sent him out with a dramatic 17-13 victory at the Coliseum, Michael Harper scoring the winning touchdown on a one-yard dive with 48 seconds to play.

But, as any Irish fan will point out till his dying day, the Trojan tailback didn’t have the ball when he landed in the end zone on that November day in 1982.

When did he lose it?

That was the question.

After huddling with his crew in the end zone for several seconds, referee Charles Moffett signaled a touchdown for the Trojans.

Later, Moffett explained: “The two side officials said the runner was across the plane of the goal line and he lost the ball on the throwback.”

Only problem with that was, Harper was never thrown back.

Making good on their vow to “Win one for the fat guy,” the Trojans clearly had the luck of the Irish on their side.

“Well, somebody’s been missing Mass again,” wrote Times columnist Jim Murray, trying to explain the visitors’ fate. “Find out who stuffed the second collection. Someone put away the beads too soon.”

Apparently, the beads have been at the ready ever since because, if it weren’t for the ruling of Moffett and his crew, it would be 10 years since USC last beat Notre Dame.

Notre Dame’s streak of eight consecutive victories over the Trojans is the longest by either team in the history of a series that started in 1926. It is also USC’s longest period of futility against any opponent.

No other team has beaten USC more than six times in a row.

With the Irish hoping to extend the streak Saturday at South Bend, Ind., here’s a look at its evolution:

WEARIN’ O’ THE GREEN

It started on a damp, dreary October day in 1983, when Notre Dame donned green jerseys instead of their traditional blue and romped at Notre Dame, 27-6, ending a long period of dominance by USC.

The Trojans had won five in a row over the Irish, their longest winning streak of the series, and 12 of 16, with two ties.

But led by running back Allen Pinkett, who ran for 126 yards and three touchdowns in 21 carries, Notre Dame took control from the outset and led at halftime, 17-0. The green jerseys, which were trotted out seven years earlier for a 49-19 victory over USC, seemed almost superfluous.

Pinkett said later that his mom had suggested to him before the game that the Irish might change their colors against USC.

“I said, ‘Nah, we don’t need the green jerseys to beat these guys,’ ” Pinkett said. “That’s the way we felt. We felt we were cheated last year. We wanted to get revenge. The last two years, we felt we had the better team, but it didn’t show up on the scoreboard.

“We convinced ourselves we could beat USC in the blue jerseys. We could have beaten USC in T-shirts.”

HERE’S MUD IN YOUR EYE

Pinkett’s words apparently weren’t forgotten by USC linebacker Rex Moore, who shoved a handful of mud through Pinkett’s facemask during a rain-soaked 19-7 Irish victory at the Coliseum in 1984.

CBS-TV captured the mud facial on videotape.

“Never happened,” Moore said.

But, Rex, the video . . .

“If the refs didn’t call it, it never happened.”

What did happen, unquestionably, was that USC came undone in a persistent rain that drenched the players and a crowd of 66,432, only about a third of which stayed around until the end.

The Trojans out-gained the Irish, 346 yards to 242, but USC lost six fumbles and made seven turnovers. Quarterback Tim Green muddled the snap from center Tom Cox five times, losing it four and prompting one reporter to write that “Green and Cox may go down in history as the most disastrous couple since Eddie Fisher and Elizabeth Taylor.”

Trojan turnovers led to 12 of Notre Dame’s points.

The Irish, meanwhile, lost the ball only once in beating the Trojans at the Coliseum for the first time in 18 years.

GREEN SHIRTS REDUX

Irish Coach Gerry Faust, trying to save his job at that point, dressed his team in green for the Trojans again in 1985. This time, though, the Irish didn’t change their shirts until halftime, at which time they led, 27-0, en route to a crushing 37-3 triumph at Notre Dame.

It remains the Trojans’ most lopsided loss since 1966, when they were thrashed by the Irish at the Coliseum, 51-0, and several Trojan players were angered, saying that Faust rubbed it in by switching uniforms.

“Pulling something like that was unnecessary,” USC cornerback Matt Johnson said. “You could call it bush.”

Guard Jeff Bregel described the ploy as “childish.”

But USC Coach Ted Tollner said: “I didn’t take it that way. I think they had planned to wear the green jerseys no matter what the score was. We were responsible for our embarrassment. If we had taken care of our own program, we wouldn’t have been behind, 27-0, at halftime.”

The game started badly for the Trojans--Randy Tanner lost a fumble and injured his left knee so badly on the opening kickoff that he had to be carried off on a stretcher--and never got any better.

“I don’t like USC,” Notre Dame nose tackle Eric Dorsey said. “The way I looked at it, we could have rubbed it in their faces.”

ALL IN THE FAMILY

Honoring a tradition, Tollner gathered his players in front of the student section and was preparing to introduce the Trojan seniors after USC’s 38-37 defeat by Notre Dame at the Coliseum in 1986.

But Notre Dame, under Coach Lou Holtz, won the game by overcoming a 37-20 deficit in the last 12 minutes, and every time Tollner stepped to the microphone to address the students, the booing from the stands grew louder.

Finally, Tollner waved his hand in disgust and gave up.

“We’re supposed to be part of a family, but I wouldn’t want them in my family,” USC kicker Don Shafer said of his fellow students.

The Trojans raised the ire of their fans by blowing a seemingly insurmountable lead, hindered in their quest to protect the advantage by a controversial call by the officials midway through the fourth quarter.

Holding a 37-27 lead with under 6 1/2 minutes left, USC failed to gain a first down on fourth and inches at Notre Dame’s five-yard line when it was ruled that quarterback Rodney Peete come up short on a dive.

Notre Dame gained possession and an extra 15 yards when Peete, arguing the officials’ spot, was cited for unsportsmanlike conduct. The Irish drove 80 yards to a touchdown, added a two-point conversion and, after forcing the Trojans to punt, found themselves in position to win the game when Tim Brown returned the kick 56 yards to USC’s 16-yard line.

John Carney kicked a 19-yard field goal as time ran out.

Tollner, after leading his players away from the booing students, never had to face an angry Trojan crowd again. He was replaced by Larry Smith after a 16-7 loss to Auburn in the Citrus Bowl, in part because of a 1-7 record against the Trojans’ traditional rivals, UCLA and Notre Dame.

FALSE START

In 1987, it looked as if the Trojans might turn the tide in their first visit to Notre Dame under Smith. Smoothly, almost effortlessly, they drove 70 yards in six plays to a touchdown in their first possession.

But the Irish took control almost immediately thereafter and, with a punishing attack that piled up 351 yards rushing, rolled to a 26-15 victory. It is the most yards rushing by a USC opponent in the last 14 years.

“They ran the ball down our throats,” Smith said.

The Irish led at halftime, 20-7, having driven 88 and 90 yards to their first two touchdowns. In the third quarter, it was 26-7.

“I just have a sick feeling inside my stomach,” said Peete, who completed 23 of a career-high 45 passes for 275 yards and a touchdown as USC gained only 91 yards rushing. “I thought we would dominate the whole game after the first drive. But we didn’t have the same intensity after that.”

A CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON

In the only game of the series that matched unbeaten and untied teams, No. 1-ranked Notre Dame took advantage of mistakes by No. 2 USC and won at the Coliseum in 1988, 27-10, wrapping up an 11-0 regular season.

Five weeks later, the Irish defeated West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl for their only national championship since 1977.

Notre Dame beat USC with big plays, a 65-yard touchdown run by quarterback Tony Rice in the first quarter and a 64-yard interception return for a touchdown in the second quarter by cornerback Stan Smagala seemingly knocking the air out of the Trojans.

Two of USC’s four turnovers led to Notre Dame touchdowns, enabling the Irish to open a 20-7 halftime lead.

It was a strange game in that USC finished with 356 total yards to 253 for Notre Dame. After the Irish had opened a 14-0 lead in the first quarter, the Trojans virtually shut them down offensively.

When USC closed to 20-10 in the third quarter, it had out-gained the Irish, 254 yards to seven, through almost two quarters. At the end of the third quarter, the Trojans had 19 first downs, Notre Dame four, and the game ended with the Trojans holding a 21-8 advantage.

“People say we were out-coached and not physical enough against Notre Dame,” Smith told Mal Florence of The Times during spring practice several months later. “That’s not true. We outcoached them, outblocked them and outtackled them.”

Later, Smith said he couldn’t remember making the comments.

RUMBLE IN SOUTH BEND

Before their stirring 28-24 victory over USC in 1989, Notre Dame players incited a melee by going out of their way to block the Trojans’ path to a tunnel that leads to both locker rooms at Notre Dame Stadium.

Later, the Irish sent a letter of apology to the Trojans.

In between, the teams engaged in an epic battle, with top-ranked Notre Dame extending its two-year winning streak to 19 games by overcoming a record performance by USC’s redshirt freshman quarterback, Todd Marinovich, who completed 33 of 55 passes for 333 yards and three touchdowns.

Rushing for 266 yards and four touchdowns against a Trojan defense that ranked No. 1 in the nation against the run that season, the Irish rallied from a 17-7 halftime deficit, getting the winning touchdown on a 15-yard run by Rice with 5:18 left.

Marinovich drove the Trojans back down the field to Notre Dame’s seven-yard line, where it was second and five with about two minutes left.

But his next three passes fell incomplete and the Irish hung on.

How well did Marinovich play?

“Not good enough to win,” Marinovich said softly.

Holtz described the game as “really and truly a classic.”

Smith, emotionally wrung-out, called it “college football at its best,” but both he and his players took the defeat hard.

“This is the worst thing that’s ever happened to me in my life,” defensive tackle Tim Ryan said. “I’ve got to pick myself up, but I’ll never forget it.”

DOWN FOR THE EIGHT COUNT

Last season, USC and Notre Dame turned the clock back 50 years, engaging in a defensive battle at the Coliseum.

And, as it had in 1940, Notre Dame beat USC, 10-6.

A maligned Irish defense, which had not given up fewer points all season, came up with its best effort, limiting the Trojans to a pair of field goals by Quin Rodriguez. Notre Dame won by putting together a 69-yard touchdown drive on its second possession of the second half to open a four-point lead, then holding the Trojans scoreless the rest of the way.

Smith called it a game of missed opportunities for the Trojans, who were hindered by several dropped passes and other miscues.

USC drove inside Notre Dame’s 40-yard line on its next-to-last possession, only to be thwarted by a holding penalty, which brought the ball back to the other side of midfield, and a dropped pass by fullback Scott Lockwood.

Then, on fourth and 11 at the USC 44, Marinovich completed a sideline pass to flanker Gary Wellman, who was hit and knocked out of bounds immediately by Irish cornerback Todd Lyght.

Wellman and Marinovich argued that the Trojans had gained a first down, Marinovich eventually being assessed a 15-yard penalty, but television replays seemed to support the officials’ call.

Said Marinovich: “I couldn’t believe that last call. I expect to be homered in South Bend, but not at the Coliseum. . . . It was shocking.”

For Trojan fans, so was an eight-game losing streak.

Pluck of the Irish

Notre Dame holds a 35-23-4 edge in its series against USC, dating to 1926, but in each of the past eight seasons, the Irish have beaten the Trojans.

Year Site Result 1983 South Bend, Ind. Notre Dame, 27-6 1984 Coliseum Notre Dame, 19-7 1985 South Bend, Ind. Notre Dame, 37-3 1986 Coliseum Notre Dame, 38-37 1987 South Bend, Ind. Notre Dame, 26-15 1988 Coliseum Notre Dame, 27-10 1989 South Bend, Ind Notre Dame, 28-24 1990 Coliseum Notre Dame, 10-6