Upset of Notre Dame Gets Graham Giddy

After beating Notre Dame for the first time in 33 seasons, the Northwestern football team doesn’t want to rest on its laurels. The Wildcats are looking ahead.

With 10 games to play, Shane Graham, a tight end from Thousand Oaks High, said Northwestern can be the surprise team of college football and get to the Rose Bowl.

When was the last time a Northwestern team talked about playing in the Rose Bowl?

The Wildcats haven’t played in the New Year’s Day game since 1948, a far-longer drought than any other Big Ten Conference team.

But after beating the Fighting Irish, 17-15, last week in South Bend, Northwestern players have stopped to smell the roses.

“We feel if we can beat Notre Dame, we can beat everybody,” said Graham, a 6-foot-6, 265-pound senior. “We have a smart quarterback [Steve Schnur] and a great defense. And this team is playing consistent, which is a key for us . . . not having one out of 11 guys screw up on one play.

“Before, no one even looked at us. Now we’re trying to keep an even keel, because everybody and their mother is calling us.”

The Wildcats (1-0) can soak up the attention this week, because they don’t play again until Sept. 16, a home game against Miami of Ohio. Although Northwestern is 1-3 against the Redskins, it is Miami that likely will be cast in a role usually reserved for Northwestern: heavy underdog.

“We’ve had a couple hard practices this week, and we can’t have any kind of a letdown whatsoever,” Graham said.

The Wildcats don’t want to look past Air Force on Sept. 23 or Indiana on Sept. 30, but the next big test in their surge to Rose Bowl consideration will come Oct. 7 at Michigan.

Then comes Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Penn State, Iowa and Purdue. The Big Ten schedule used to an annual death march for the Wildcats, who, from 1978-82, lost an NCAA Division I-A record 34 consecutive games.

“We’ve kind of [forgotten] the history,” Graham said. “We tuned out all the negative stuff and started focusing on the positive stuff.”

For the first time since anyone can remember, Graham said, the players believe they can win every game.

“It was really unbelievable, emotionally,” Graham said of finally beating Notre Dame. “We always knew we could do it, but when the gun sounded we were shocked and ecstatic. It was like, ‘Wow.’ ”

For Graham, the best part of toppling the most recognized, and successful, college football team was watching a famous coach suffer.

Said Graham: “It was great seeing Coach [Lou] Holtz walking with his head down.”

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Graham caught one pass for three yards against Notre Dame--only two Northwestern passes went to tight ends--but he said he made good on 86% of his blocks. One player who concerned Graham was defensive end John McLaughlin, a sophomore from Hart.

“He’s a pretty tough kid,” Graham said. “He stays low and he’s quick and he comes off the ball real good. He’s going to be a good player for them.”

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When former San Fernando High quarterback Leon Blunt left Notre Dame last spring after his freshman season, he said he was headed to New Mexico. Instead, he has enrolled at Arizona.

Tom Duddleston, an Arizona spokesman, said Blunt has practiced with the Wildcat scout team as a quarterback and tailback.

Asked whether the much-traveled Blunt, who will be a redshirt this year, has finally put away his suitcase, Duddleston said: “It’s in his closet here.”

New Mexico spokesman Steve Carr said Blunt’s anticipated arrival never happened.

“He never spent a day in Albuquerque,” Carr said. “I guess he went to Hawaii and worked out with them until he discovered how bad they were. Then he called us back and asked if he still had the option to come here. I think [the coaches] were still a little interested.”

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Arizona receiver Richard Dice (Alemany) already has two clips for his 1995 highlight film: a 60-yard touchdown reception in the Wildcats’ 20-19 come-from-behind victory Thursday over Georgia Tech and an 89-yard catch and score in a 41-9 victory last week over Pacific. That was the longest pass play among NCAA teams last week. . . .

Arizona receiver Rodney Wiliams (Palmdale/Pierce College) has beat out two-year starter Cary Taylor. Williams caught a touchdown pass against Pacific.