An Ugly Win, a Beautiful Rivalry

USC wide receiver R. Jay Soward ran off the field Saturday with a patch of the most hallowed turf in college football in his grasp. Following a few steps behind, although not as rapidly, John Robinson had no trophy to show for the Trojans’ 20-17 victory over Notre Dame.

But he owned something equally precious and more lasting.

Another memory.

As he reached the goal post at the north end of Notre Dame Stadium, where the Four Horsemen used to ride and Joe Montana used to rally, Robinson suddenly stopped to savor it. He looked into the lingering crowd and took a deep breath, not of relief but of sheer contentment.

For one of the few times since they first met in 1926, neither USC nor Notre Dame was a national power. Neither played well enough Saturday to make anyone believe they will be before the end of this season. But a victory at Notre Dame is still a victory at Notre Dame.

“I think the whole thing is supposed to be good and positive,” Robinson said later, referring to college football and rivalries like this one.

“If somebody fumbles, if something goes wrong, we get caught up in the ugliness of it. I’m not going to do it.”

Ugliness is as good a description as any of where the Trojans were last week after a 35-7 loss to Arizona State. It was no longer good enough for anyone involved with the program that Robinson had won 100 games at USC, not even Robinson. He said he would quit if his team didn’t look better at the end of the season than it did in losing three of its first five games.

Now, after losing for the fifth time in seven games, it is Notre Dame’s time to live with the ugliness.

As Notre Dame tried to mount a last-minute drive to overcome the Trojan lead, many among the crowd of 80,225, the 133rd consecutive sellout here, booed. They booed louder when the effort failed and still louder when the Irish ran off the field.

One of their injured teammates, who was dressed in street clothes, challenged the crowd, gesturing at them and yelling, “You blew it, you blew it.”

Notre Dame Coach Bob Davie said as much in his postgame news conference.

“When you play at home, you’d like to have some momentum from your crowd,” he said. “You need your crowd to help you win it late in the game.”

He wouldn’t elaborate when asked if he blamed the crowd, repeating, “When you play at home, you’d like your crowd to help you win it late in the game.”

It was clearly a criticism of Notre Dame’s fans. Davie, a head coach for the first time, is about to learn that is one battle he cannot win, no matter how much success he might have in the future.

Robinson rushed to his aide.

“Bob Davie will win a hundred games at Notre Dame,” he said. “You can bet on it.”

It’s too early to tell whether Robinson is on the way to his second 100 at USC or even whether a three-point victory over a 2-4 team on a day when the Trojans committed 15 penalties for 156 yards means they have turned around their season.

“It turned it around for a week,” Robinson said. “Who the hell knows what’s coming next week?”

No one amid the celebration in the USC locker room dwelt on it, least of all kicker Adam Abrams.

“In our locker room now,” he said, “everyone is just living for the moment.”

Abrams knows something about job insecurity, having saved his in the last couple of weeks after an erratic start to his junior season.

Setting up at the Notre Dame 30 with 1:09 remaining and the game on the line, he insisted nothing but positive thoughts were going through his mind during the timeout called by the Irish.

Robinson was responsible for putting some of them there, telling Abrams at the start of the second half that he would kick the winning field goal at the south end.

“I had no idea what I was talking about,” Robinson said. “But I guess he did.”

Abrams said it was the first time he had kicked a field goal to win a game.

“It was a dream come true,” he said. “I don’t think it will hit me what I did for five days.”

Five days from now, he will remember it as the 37-yarder that it was. Ten years from now, he might remember it as a 45-yarder to win a game between nationally ranked teams. When he speaks of it to his grandchildren, he might remember it as a 50-yarder to win a game between the No. 1 and No. 2 teams.

No one will argue. The details will be forgotten. All that will matter is that he kicked a field goal that won a game for USC at Notre Dame.

But for every winner, there also is a loser.

Notre Dame kicker Jim Sanson looked forward for 10 months to this game so he could redeem himself. Last Nov. 30 in the Coliseum, he missed an extra point that allowed the Trojans to come from eight points down to win in overtime and end their 13-year winless streak against the Irish.

The loss cost Lou Holtz a victory in his final game as a college coach, the Irish a bowl bid and Sanson his peace of mind as some Notre Dame fans, probably the same ones who booed Saturday, responded with hate mail and threatening calls.

On Saturday, Sanson made a 27-yard field goal to give the Irish a halftime lead but missed from 45, 34 and 33.

Afterward, Davie couldn’t say whether Sanson would still be Notre Dame’s kicker.

This disappointment is another memory Sanson will carry with him for the rest of his life. If he’s lucky, he also will be reminded some day, as Robinson was Saturday, of the privilege of being associated with the Notre Dame-USC game. It is the best of college football, even when the teams are not.