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Cotton Bowl 1993
Notre Dame 28 Texas A&M 3 |
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On selection day, the Fighting Irish may have been the hottest team in the country. Notre Dame won its last seven games after a mid-season loss to Stanford, including four consecutive victories over Top 25 teams to end the year. A return to Dallas marked Notre Dame’s sixth trip to the Classic as well as its sixth consecutive post-season appearance under Lou Holtz. His first bowl trip with the Irish was in the 1988 Classic when Texas A&M scored a convincing 35-10 victory over Notre Dame.
Now, five years later, this game had a special
appeal in what would be only the second meeting ever for these two
football programs. Both teams were solid from top to bottom. The Irish
were noted for an efficient ground attack behind tailback Reggie Brooks
and fullback Jerome Bettis, and quarterback Rick Mirer was regarded as
one of college football’s finest passers. Defensively, Texas A&M was as
hard-nosed as ever, led by linebacker Marcus Buckley who captained the
Aggies’ dominating “Wrecking Crew.”
The Irish saved their best drive of the day
for early in the fourth quarter. Notre Dame chewed up 82 yards in 16
plays and consumed more than nine minutes of the clock. Again, Bettis
ended the drive with a four-yard touchdown run, his third score of the
game. Only 5:03 was left to play and Notre Dame literally had dominated
the second half in workmanlike fashion, methodically wearing down the
Aggie defense while en route to a 28-3 victory.
Fueling the Notre Dame defensive effort was senior Devon McDonald who logged 10 tackles, four behind the line of scrimmage for 22 yards in losses. Indeed, Notre Dame was impressive. The Irish limited Texas A&M, a team averaging better than 385 yards and 28 points a game, to just 165 yards and three points. Offensively, Notre Dame played to its strength, rushing for 290 yards and rolling up 439 yards overall. Brooks ran for 115 yards on 22 attempts, and Mirer completed 8-of-16 pass attempts for 119 yards and two touchdowns. But, statistics aside, the turning point in this Notre Dame victory can be traced back to that one decisive play near the end of the first half. Mirer’s middle screen pass play to Dawson was just the spark the Irish needed to set this runaway train in motion.
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Dawson's 40 yard touchdown reception set the tone for the day.
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Jerome Bettis celebrates his second touchdown of the afternoon. |
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Bettis carried for 75 yards. |
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The Irish corral Rodney Thomas. |
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Attendance- 71,615 |
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In
1993, the newly formed College Football Bowl Coalition produced one of
the most interesting matchups in the 57-year history of the Mobil Cotton
Bowl Classic. Southwest Conference champion Texas A&M played its way
back into the New Year’s Day Classic for the second consecutive year,
and in the process became the bowl’s first-ever 12-0-0 team. In fact,
only five teams in NCAA history had compiled such a record. The unbeaten
Aggies climbed to No. 4 in the national rankings and were paired with
fifth-ranked Notre Dame, a team that had rolled through the regular
season with a 9-1-1 mark.
