Michigan-Notre Dame: Most Memorable Wins - No. 2
9/5/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
By Steve Kornacki
Each day leading up to Saturday's (Sept. 6) Michigan-Notre Dame showdown in South Bend, Ind., MGoBlue.com will count down U-M's most memorable wins in the historic rivalry. No. 2 on the list occurred in 1991 when Desmond Howard and Elvis Grbac hooked up for "The Catch."
Date: Sept. 14, 1991
Score: Michigan 24, Notre Dame 14
It had been 51 years since Tom Harmon won Michigan's first Heisman Trophy in 1940. Wolverines stars had been in the running since, but none had been able to capture the imagination of the voters enough to win the Heisman.
The play that accomplished that for Desmond Howard occurred in the 1991 Michigan win over Notre Dame in Ann Arbor.
Quarterback Elvis Grbac led Howard a tad too far on the pivotal, fourth-and-one pass play. But Howard stretched out like a Slinky in the end zone to make the 25-yard touchdown catch that closed out the scoring in a 24-14 win over the third-ranked Fighting Irish.
And Howard's flair for the dramatic put him at the front of the line for Heisman candidates.
Michigan coach Gary Moeller, whose daring play call set up that scoring toss, wasn't concerned about Howard getting caught up in the Heisman hoopla and hype, though.
"Hey, if anyone can handle this, Desmond can," Moeller said after that game, "And I have to give him his due as a great player. But attention has gotten to a lot of people. He's just going to have to learn to live with it, like Rocket (Ismail of Notre Dame) did and like Michael Jordan does."
Howard, now an analyst for ESPN and a College GameDay regular with Lee Corso and former Ohio State rival Kirk Herbstreit, had an infectious laugh and an easy way with reporters. He was intelligent, well spoken and the perfect player to promote for major awards.
Howard got himself into the Heisman conversation quickly, scoring four touchdowns in the opener at Boston College, with his 93-yard kickoff return making all the highlight reels.
That set him up to dominate the conversation after his performance against the Fighting Irish. Howard sprinted around right end on a reverse handoff from tailback Ricky Powers, who rushed for 164 yards against Notre Dame, and raced to a 29-yard touchdown that gave the Wolverines a 10-0 lead. Then he put the game away with "The Catch" that gets replayed almost as much as his Heisman pose against Ohio State to cap the 1991 regular season.
The families of Howard and Grbac sat together on that sunny Saturday at Michigan Stadium in 1991 just like they did when Desmond and Elvis played football and basketball together at Cleveland St. Joseph High.
Nothing, until this crazy pass play with the game on the line against Notre Dame, had rendered them silent.
Howard dove and fully extended himself in the end zone. He caught the descending spiral from Grbac on his fingertips and cradled it upon landing.
Touchdown!
 | Most Memorable U-M Wins vs. ND No. 1: Released on Saturday No. 2: The Catch, 1991 No. 3: Michigan Stuns No. 2 Irish, 2006 No. 4: Remy's Kick Wins It, 1994 No. 5: Leach Bests Montana, 1978 |
A little imagination went a long way. Moeller, during a timeout, rolled the dice and changed from an off-tackle run to a pass for all the marbles with 9:02 to play and a 17-14 lead. Momentum likely would've swung Notre Dame's way had the pass landed incomplete. But the gamble paid off and put away the game, ending a four-game losing streak to the Irish.
Notre Dame had a chance to launch its own Heisman candidate in this game because it had two huge stars in quarterback Rick Mirer and running back Jerome Bettis. But Bettis, the future star of the Pittsburgh Steelers, was limited to 28 yards on eight carries and one touchdown. Mirer passed for 234 yards and one touchdown.
Grbac, who had a monster season just like his good friend Howard, also could've mounted a Heisman campaign off of this game had Howard not stolen the show. Grbac, on his way to becoming Michigan's career passing leader in yards (6,460) and touchdowns (71), completed 20 of 22 passes for 195 yards.
Erick Anderson did kick-start his Butkus Award-winning season by thwarting two Notre Dame scoring chances. His shoe-string tackle of Notre Dame's outstanding tight end, Derek Brown, saved a touchdown. And Anderson's recovery of a Tony Brooks fumble stopped another Irish drive at the Michigan 21-yard line.
But this will always be remembered as the game in which Howard took advantage of a wide-open Heisman field after 1990 Heisman winner Ty Detmer and Houston quarterback David Klingler faltered in the early games.
"I'm just not going to take this too seriously," said Howard, while walking out of the locker room after beating Notre Dame with No. 1 Florida State lurking in the next game. "I can't live off this game with Florida State coming up. I think my chances for the Heisman have heightened with Klinger falling off, but I can't control that."
Howard caught 62 passes for 985 yards and 19 touchdowns for a team that finished 10-2, losing only to the Seminoles and in the Rose Bowl to Washington.
He set the Big Ten record for touchdown catches in a season that still stands and became the first receiver to lead the conference in scoring with 138 points.
Howard was a land-slide winner of the Heisman, getting 640 of 917 first-place votes and 2,077 points to 503 points for runner-up Casey Weldon, the Florida State quarterback. It's the third-widest margin of victory ever in Heisman voting.
He became the front-runner with two dramatic touchdowns against Notre Dame and never looked back on the field.
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No. 2 Most Memorable Notre Dame Win, 1979: Four field goals by walk-on kicker Chuck Male are enough for the Irish to win, 12-10, only after Bob Crable blocks Bryan Virgil's field goal attempt for the Wolverines with one second remaining to play.
