`Walk on' hopes to lose his title
Andrew Soukup
Sports Writer
Nobody else got a label in front of their name a couple weeks ago.
Arnaz Battle wasn't called "former quarterback" when he darted 60 yards for a touchdown against Mich-igan State two weeks ago. Tyrone Willingham wasn't called "former Stanford head coach." Kevin White wasn't called athletic director "formerly" praying for a good season.
Yet virtually every single article about the Michigan State game had "former walk-on" right before Pat Dillingham's name.
Three Saturdays ago, Dillingham was a backup. Two Saturdays ago, he was a hero. And he can't shake the walk-on label, no matter how hard he tries.
His story is the stuff of legends, but only because he is a walk-on. Rudy played 27 seconds in garbage time and got a movie named after him. Dillingham quarterbacked the Irish during a 30 second game-winning touchdown drive and got asked if he felt like Rudy.
No disrespect toward Notre Dame's most famous walk-on, but Dillingham ain't no Rudy. He's a poised, confident football player who handles the media crunch just as well as he faced a Michigan State pass rush.
At the beginning of the season, before the media crunch surrounded him, when he was thrilled to work as Carlyle Holiday's backup in practice, coaches told Dillingham he would see some playing time against Maryland. At the time, Dillingham was just happy to get a chance to get in a game.
"I hope I don't do anything to make the students mad," Dillingham said in an empty interview room.
Heck, Dillingham would have been happy if students had known his name. The PA announcer at Giants Stadium didn't — he announced the backup cornerback with a defensive back sidelined with an arm injury.
That's the life of a quarterback who rose up the depth chart thanks to a war of attrition that knocked out two of the top three scholarship quarterbacks and cleared the way for the son of an orthopedic surgeon to take snaps with Notre Dame's offense.
That's the life of a quarterback who had so much confidence in himself that didn't receive a single Division I-A scholarship and still walked onto Notre Dame's team thinking he was a Division I caliber player.
Even Notre Dame's media guide refers to Dillingham as an unknown.
All the "unknown" did was dump a pass off to Battle who raced in for the game-winning touchdown two weeks ago.
And in an instant, the backup, not the receiver, became a celebrity.
Suddenly, people stopped asking Dillingham about his connection to Tyrone Willingham's eldest daughter — the two went to the same high school and were casual friends — and began asking him whether he could run the Irish offense.
Willingham praises Dillingham as a bright quarterback, as someone who has a solid understanding of Notre Dame's complicated offense. Veteran offensive linemen talk about how the team already rallies behind Dillingham even though they don't know which quarterback will start.
If Holiday is unable to play, the Irish aren't exactly in horrible shape. In the four games Holiday has played this year, he's completed a meager 44 percent of his passes. By contrast, last season, when everyone lambasted the ineffective Notre Dame offense, Holiday completed a little more than half his passes. Even if Holiday starts, one hard hit could send Dillingham back into the game.
Now, with Holiday's status in doubt, the weight of Notre Dame's undefeated season is resting on the shoulders of a quarterback who hadn't started a game since high school. Dillingham's father, who works as an orthopedic surgeon for Stanford, couldn't have picked a better away game to work.
But if Dillingham gets into the game, Dad may not recognize the player his son has become. There won't be any clipboard holding. There won't be any self-confidence issues. There won't be any worries about whether Dillingham can run the Irish offense.
Don't call Dillingham a walk-on. Call him a football player. Since he threw himself into the spotlight two weeks ago, that's what he has become.
The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
Contact Andrew Soukup at asoukup@nd.edu.
All Sports Stories for Friday, October 4, 2002
