Despite the hype of coaching his first game at Notre Dame, Willingham focuses on winning as the Irish shut out the Terrapins
Katie McVoy
Associate Sports Editor
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.
For Tyrone Willingham, Saturday's game came down to one thing — playing football.
In the midst of the hype surrounding his first game as Notre Dame's head coach, what to focus on was simple. In the face of a Maryland team coming off a fairy tale season and ranked No. 20 in the preseason coaches' poll, it was clear what was important. With the eyes of the nation upon him, it came down to one thing.
Playing football.
"Gosh, it was a football game," Willingham said when asked how it felt to be coaching his first game as Notre Dame's head coach. "And I don't know how to describe it any other way."
And his team played football.
Behind five field goals from Nicholas Setta and a sensational defensive performance, the Irish took the field in front of nearly 71,000 spectators and shut out the Terrapins 22-0 Saturday in Kickoff Classic XX.
"I was hoping we would play hard and well," said defensive coordinator Kent Baer. "Things just sort of fell into place."
The Irish defense brought its A-game Saturday, holding a Maryland team that averaged 440 offensive yards last season to 133 total yards and just 16 yards rushing. The inside linebackers, playing without a sick Courtney Watson, recorded 19 tackles while the Notre Dame pass coverage allowed only 12 completions.
"[The Notre Dame defense] did some things differently than we anticipated but nothing that really should have hurt us," Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen said. "It was not what they did it was how they did it. They won the one-on-one battles and there were a lot of one-on-one battles."
That first one-on-one victory came on the Terrapins' first possession. Notre Dame deferred after winning the coin toss and allowed Maryland to rush for four yards and complete one pass for a first down before Shane Walton picked off Terps quarterback Scott McBrien. Walton added two more interceptions in the fourth quarter, the first time since 1982 an Irish player picked off three passes in a game.
"I look forward to Shane getting an interception every time they throw the ball," cornerback Vontez Duff said. "It's just as much our ball as it is their ball when they throw it up there."
In the first half, Maryland's longest drive covered 21 yards in eight plays. The first quarter series brought them as close as the Irish 40-yard line before Brooks Barnard had to punt — a whopping 7-yarder that landed out of bounds and set the Irish up for their first score of the 2002 season.
The first Irish scoring drive was indicative of the offense's performance throughout the rest of the game. Before even beginning the first play of the drive, the Irish were set back to first and 20 after two false start penalties. In all, the Irish offense was charged with of 11 penalties for 80 yards.
"For the most part, you have linemen making calls, but we really have to begin to get the calls in tact and break the huddle and those sorts of things for us to win as a ball club," said quarterback Carlyle Holiday. "We can't have those sorts of penalties."
Despite the penalties, a nine-yard run by full back Tom Lopienski set Holiday up for a 29-yard completion to Arnaz Battle. Three plays later, the Irish found themselves facing fourth-and-6 at the Maryland 34. Setta, who missed a 56-yard kick earlier in the game, completed the 51-yard field goal and gave the Irish the 3-0 lead.
"I tried to just take each one," said Setta, who was named the Kickoff Classic MVP. "After that first one, it's a new one after the next one it's the same thing."
In the three quarters that followed, Setta kicked four more field goals for the Irish. Despite the fact that the Notre Dame offense was inside the Maryland 20 three times, it never found the end zone.
"We really can't have Nicholas out there that many times," Holiday said. "I mean, we have to score in the red zone, preach that breakfast lunch and dinner from now on."
The only Irish touchdown came from another special teams player. Less than five minutes into the second half, Duff returned a punt 76 yards to punt the Irish up 16-0 and the game out of reach.
"I told Coach [at half], `Man, they're not punting the ball to me but if they punt it to me I'm going to get us one, all I need is one,'" Duff said. "Thank God that I had the opportunity to get that one and I ran with it."
In the final minutes of the game, the Terps looked to be putting together a solid offensive drive, driving from their own 10-yard line to the Irish 45. But with just five minutes left in the game, Walton preserved the shutout when he intercepted McBrien for the second time. Then the Irish were done playing football.
"[The win] was real special," Holiday said. "I'm sure there was a lot of pressure on coach, you know to win this game and for him to be able to come out and lead us to victory is a big thing."
All Sports Stories for Monday, September 2, 2002
