Notre Dame tops Oklahoma, improves to 8-0

Notre Dame tops Oklahoma, improves to 8-0

Fireworks burst past the stadium rim and towels waved and an ear-splitting froth greeted Notre Dame, which merely had the chance to redefine itself on this night. The whole season crackled with possibility, but this was something different, something long-sought and elusive at hand.

At the end of it all, as the Irish pranced about and mugged and yelped before what remained of a Memorial Stadium-record crowd of 86,031, there was no point in discussing whether Notre Dame was back. It was of much greater importance to discuss where Notre Dame was going, and the dizzying heights in clear sight.

There are no questions now, not after a stirring 30-13 win over BCS No. 8 Oklahoma, any and all doubts blasted into a black sky on the plains and replaced by dazzling possibility. There is no mistaking what this meant: No. 5 Notre Dame, at 8-0, is a national championship contender. The path to a first title since 1988 may well be cluttered, but it is a path, and it is dead ahead.

"It feels good to know we're heading in that direction -- that's all that means," Irish linebacker Manti Te'o said. "Eight-and-0, all that means is we have a chance. That's all it means. We have four more games we have to really pay attention to. We're going to start one game at a time, like we've always done."

As resolutely straight-legged as the Irish stood against it, delirium has begun, with no end in sight.

The defense throttled fuel-injected Oklahoma (5-2), reducing an offense that had averaged 52 points in its last three games to just one touchdown. And the Irish offense bloomed, with quarterback Everett Golson back at quarterback after a one-game, post-concussion respite and issuing knockout blows himself: A 50-yard bomb to receiver Chris Brown setting up his ultimately game-winning 1-yard scoring run.

November now begins with three dead-fish foes for the next three weekends. Barring an incomprehensible collapse, the Irish should head into a Nov. 24 showdown at USC unbeaten and attempting to finalize their argument for inclusion in the BCS title game, a southern California backdrop all too fitting for such a seismic moment.

"It just states that we are a contender in college football this year," receiver TJ Jones said. "People are calling us underdogs, trying to make reasons why we're losing. We have the mental and physical toughness to be a top contender."

Most critically, they also may have the quarterback for it. This may be Golson's transformative moment, producing the cold-blooded dagger strikes with the game on tilt late in the fourth quarter. He had missed throws and reads to stall drives before, and now, here came Oklahoma, rumbling to tie it 13-13 on a 1-yard rush from Blake Bell, a.k.a. The Belldozer, re-igniting the crowd with nine minutes left.

On the sideline, Irish coach Brian Kelly's instructions to his callow protege before the ensuing drive were minimal: Execute the plays we call. Two plays later, Kelly called for a play-action strike to Brown, the team's speediest receiver. Golson executed it flawlessly, a 50-yard detonation bringing Notre Dame deep into Oklahoma territory.

Five plays later, Golson was in the end zone, the Irish seizing a lead and stratospheric hopes they would not relinquish.

"I like people counting me out -- that's how I've always been," said Golson, who completed 13 of 25 attempts on the evening. "What we've been hearing was, a lot of people didn't think we could win this game. That kind of added fuel to my fire that was already burning."

Said Kelly: "He led. He was communicating, he was talking, he was doing things that you hope, as you go through this process, you start to see. He was confident. He was calm. All the things you need to see from your quarterback."

Because this is Notre Dame this year, because no plot line is too saccharine, it all would be capped by another Heisman Trophy snapshot: Four plays after Golson's score, a deflected pass from Oklahoma's Landry Jones landed in the gilded mitts of Te'o. A surge ensued, with a Kyle Brindza field goal and a why-not Theo Riddick touchdown run inflating the final margin.

But this was really another gnashing, rock-jawed triumph in a season of them. Mostly it was relying on field goals and a 62-yard Cierre Wood run and that resolute defense to hold off Oklahoma until punctuation arrived via Golson's arm and legs late. It is Kelly's plan come to life, and it is now Kelly's charge to manage an unmistakable BCS title contender, because where this stops nobody knows.

"If we start listening to 'national championship' and 'BCS,' we'll lose a football game," Kelly said. "They're a pretty smart group. If they start thinking about all those other things, we'll lose. It's what I told them in the locker room: Enjoy a great victory against Oklahoma, now let's find a way to beat Pittsburgh."

As Notre Dame's biggest Saturday in a decade drew to a close, Te'o fiddled with his phone, trying to locate text messages from his father. He hadn't read any of the many missives that already flooded in, and now he had another problem, which was Golson taking too long to finish his media debrief.

Te'o grumbled. After a program-altering win, with his own Heisman Trophy prospects ablaze, with a national championship tantalizingly and impossibly lingering on the horizon line, Manti Te'o was hungry.

"I'm going to enjoy it," Te'o said. "We're all going to enjoy it. Then we're going to wake up tomorrow and realize it wasn't a dream, and we're going to enjoy it some more. "


Source : Chicago Tribune - http://www.chicagotribune.com