Football: Hit on Holiday lands knockout punch
By: ANDREW SOUKUP
Sports Writer
JACKSONVILLE, Fla.
A sweep. A crunch. A groan. And Carlyle Holiday lay motionless on the Alltel Stadium grass, dragging Notre Dame's game plan to the ground with him — and 50 minutes of football remained to play.
Almost as soon as North Carolina State defender Dan Burnette leaped into the air after making a key goal-line tackle, Irish backup quarterback Pat Dillingham tugged on his chin straps and headed toward the offensive huddle.
Three interceptions, nine stitches and zero touchdowns later, there was Dillingham, still frantically trying to lead the Irish into the end zone against the second-string Wolfpack defense.
Fittingly, the Irish turned the ball over on downs on the same 2-yard line on which Holiday had lain motionless three quarters earlier.
"I wasn't expecting to play," Dillingham said. "You can be prepared, but you don't expect to play."
Why should he have? After all, the Irish spent the 23 days before the Gator Bowl preparing for North Carolina State by devising an offensive attack that would maximize Holiday's mobility. Dillingham's role, if any, was minimal.
But a jarring hit to a tender shoulder sent offensive coordinator Bill Diedrick scrambling for a backup plan — a plan the Irish didn't have for a tenacious Wolfpack defense.
"It was just a big hit," Burnette said. "When I hit him, I heard him groan, and when I looked down, and he was still on the ground, I thought like, `OK, it's going to turn the game around now.'"
Never shy about proclaiming his ability to play, Holiday headed for the locker room. There, trainers found a shoulder injury similar to the separated shoulder the Irish quarterback suffered against Michigan State. He returned to the field with about three minutes left in the first half and tried to take a few snaps, but nothing felt good, and he couldn't even hand off to his left side.
Even as the press box announcer said the chances of Holiday's return were "50-50," the Irish quarterback walked out of the locker room at halftime minus his pads.
"To be very honest, I think you're looking more at the eyes of the young man, and I don't think he was jumping to go back in," Diedrick said. "I think he would have gone back in, and I think he maybe wanted to, but he wasn't ready to go back in."
That left Dillingham, well acquainted with the fickleness of playing Notre Dame quarterback. Replacing an injured Holiday four months ago, he threw a game-winning touchdown pass against Michigan State and led the Irish to a victory against Stanford. But a costly mistake against Boston College, where a Dillingham shovel pass was intercepted and returned for the deciding touchdown, tarnished Notre Dame's unbeaten record and transformed Dillingham from Rudy II to Matt LoVecchio II.
Yet against the Wolfpack, Dillingham never quit despite getting pummeled behind an offensive line playing without three starters and receiving little help from a rushing attack that only managed 86 yards. He finished the day 19-for-37 for 166 passing yards — the most passes an Irish quarterback had attempted in a game this season — but failed to lead the Irish to the end zone. That left teammates praising the former walk-on's grit while wondering why the Irish hadn't been able to score an offensive touchdown in nine quarters.
"Any time you lose a starting player, it puts a position of difficulty on your
success," Irish head coach Tyrone Willingham said. "But we still had some playmakers out there. We did not make the plays, and [the Wolfpack] did some very good things."
As the Irish flew out of Jacksonville, the questions that needed answers were as obvious as a banner hanging from the end of a plane. Do they trust the progress of the injury-prone Holiday, who showed solid development until the final two games of the season when he faced two top 20 defenses, enough to stick with him? Or do they start to look at others, from Dillingham to redshirt freshman Chris Olsen or highly-touted recruit Brady Quinn?
"I think there's a lot of disappointment there at the tail end," Diedrick said. "But I think you also look at the excitement that you look for over winter ball. With that time, the quarterbacks can now go and improve."
All Sports Stories for Wednesday, January 15, 2003
