Final Minute of Northern Illinois' upset of #5 Notre Dame (9/7/2024)

right now it's third down you anticipate them kicking the field goal if they don't make it on fourth down how much time you going to give your team coming back the other way clock is ticking most of these players as we mentioned at the top have never even been to South Bend and when we talked to a lot of them he said hey what do you think of going into this story venue they said we're not going to be Star Struck we're going to play our game and a timeout called there by hammock interesting decision by Mark is not to take the timeout there and keeping that time out you really do Force Northern Illinois to be in a run situation here if you had taken the timeout earlier you might be more out to do whatever you need to do to make that first down but in this situation you want Marcus to use the timeout so anticipate them running the football in this situation wow Irish fans are stunned and they should be it looked like it was going to be a lot easier after that opening drive but now with 43 seconds Northern Illinois on Third and two trying to keep this drive alive hammock the handoff first down it's close yeah it looked like he did surge for enough but now the mark might be short looks like the side judge on the other side of the field from us marked them short they're going to look at this one they're going to look at this [Applause] another a look at Williams looking for first down yardage hard for us to see the ball there but his old body gets across they pull the backside guard backside fullback backside tight end there's a surge hard to tell if a knee went down early before he got across the question always is where's the ball when the knee goes down and as might give us a better look at where the ball actually [Applause] is needed to get down there to the 18 they've got it just short of it like we had earlier in the ball game intuitively you think he made this first down based on the looks we've seen but you need indisputable video evidence and right now I don't know if we have it what do you think re I agree with you coach I don't don't know that we have indisputable video evidence to suggests that this ball carrier is short of the line to gain initially the headline judge comes in and spots this about a foot short of the line to gain and there's just no angle to overturn this in my opinion this may stand based on our available angles it's hard to think he didn't cross that yellow line with the football but we have no evidence to suggest that they got to leave it as it is that initial spot so important especially when you can't produce video that's going to say otherwise so and I don't think there's enough video to kind of piece it together either it's the 18 it's not a line it's it's going to be hard to overturn this thing the Huskies think it's a first [Applause] down the Moment of Truth after further review the ruling on the field stands four down is short fourth down a big stop by this Notre Dame defense and here we go they blocked one of these field goals already this is shorter the ball should be able to get up quicker Canon Woodle has been good from 42 he's been good from 21 he had a Miss field goal earlier from outside 53 but this is just from 35 yds to give the Huskies the lead snap good hold good kick good wow and with 31 seconds left hammock and the Huskies are up by two this is a shocker here at Notre Dame Stadium can't be more impressed with this husky team and the big moments they've come up big a drive late for their offense they used a lot of clock made some first downs got themselves into field goal range and they came up short in the short yardage situation they didn't blink what'll kick the go-ahead field goal snap hold kick is clean and we mentioned how the kicking unit had some problems last week early in the game and just point Afters as wood and his snap team of Isaac Hatfield and holder Tom Foley were having a hard time they have been excellent today none more so than that clutch 35 yd field goal that has put them up with a half minute left and Thomas hammock in Northern Illinois that much closer to the biggest upset the school has ever had they have never beaten a top 10 team 0 for 14 coming into the day big time Notre Dame 31 seconds to go you have a timeout in this situation all you need to do is get into field goal range whistle comes in stops bullet's kick timeout was called by hammock [Applause] the challenge here for Notre Dame on offense is the worst part of their offense has been their passing game and they're going to have to throw the ball with just the one [Applause] timeout red you got something on the spot uh now as we can see it was third down when they you know failed to convert after the measurement this was a play where the clock was running so after they stopped this to have a measurement the clock should have been started on the referee's ready for play signal by not it allowed Notre Dame to save a timeout that they otherwise would have had to burn okay Reggie thank you very much some poor mechanics that are really going to give the Irish a chance here having that time out in their pocket makes having 31 seconds to go markedly different bulock just hitss a line drive to Jaden Harrison Harrison reverses his field and comes the other way it's a good return by Harrison just across the 35 yd line with 24 seconds remaining and the Irish with that one timeout left to see if Riley Leonard can produce some late game magic and decision making for the quarterback is obviously critical here he has to be careful using his legs and having these plays go for too long and not getting that much of an output from them the ball's got to get it out of his hands quickly they have to get out of bounds they're going to need some chunk plays in this drive and chunk plays to happen quickly again I would start one more time with Bo Collins number five make them defend him Leonard's got three white outs spread to the left looks like they're showing some pressure here in man-to-man coverage I would anticipate them backing out of it and they do Jeremiah love to Leonard's wght Leonard finding some time moving up in the pocket incomplete second down and [Applause] 10 that was intended for Jaden Thomas Leonard has to be careful getting too deep in the pocket he's making hard on his tackles climb back up into that pocket Thomas is in that position the single receiver into the boundary they have both Collins up to the Top If they play manto Man coverage on the back side Here Comes Collins into the boundary if they play him man he's going to get the ball Here Comes Bo Collins to the near side who had some big catches the Clemson transfer Leonard is looking to the left pass complete a strle thrown to Chris Mitchell remember the clock stops after a first down you can clock the ball here without losing your time and that's exactly what Riley Leonard's going to do clocks it stops it with 9 seconds left still with a one timeout okay they're on the 44 yd line they have a timeout they can throw the ball anywhere because they have the timeout you really want to get the ball inside the 35 yd line to give your guy a legitimate opportunity to kick the gamewinner field goal could win it for Notre Dame Mitch Jeter who's been on the mark for the most part career long 53 yards his best but again they need some more yardage here with just n seconds left to put him in position Leonard can't go backwards here he got to anti ipate pressure looks like manto [Applause] man it's got some pressure from the backside gets rid of it just in time looking for Mitchell levans but Leonard felt the heat from the Huskies he had both Collins up on top by himself he ran the slant but he had some pressure his big here he's going to kick the long field goal 5 Seconds even with the timeout is tough to get a playoff tough to get one out to the outside real quick right this is a long one this is a bomb 62 yds 62 ydd spotted at the 48 yd line a 62 yder with 5 seconds left it is downwind but this is an awful lot to ask Mitch Jeter and that's blocked at the slight of scrimmage and the Huskies are celebrating the biggest upset in their school's history they blocked two field goals today both came from Kade hberman and that provided the final nail in Notre Dame's home opener here Ethan Hampton the guy that dreamt about being the Husky quarterback dropped about coming to South Ben said it was a business trip well he just took care of business an absolute stunner Northern Illinois coming in Notre Dame stadium and knocking off the number five team in the country we talked to the coach we talked to their players they were confident coming in can't be more impressed with how they handle the ups and downs of this ball game let's throw it down to Zora with Coach hammock coach I can sense that you need a moment top five opponent this is niu's first win against the top 10 opponent ever and for people who need context you wore this jersey it's deep for you why you know I'm so proud of our kids the coaches just everybody they believed they they believed and we came here and got it done you told your guys this week that you didn't need anyone to be a superhero or super human they just needed to be their best what kind of performances did you see out there they they listened to what I said I told them all week we don't need luck we just got to be our best and they was their best today and and we was able to get it done where is this emotion coming from for you you know all these guys that have been with our program been through the ups and downs and and they continue to fight you know I'm it's like it's like they my kids KS I'm happy for the adversity to push through you know no matter the situation I just could be more proud I'm sorry I'm sorry no need to be sorry Boneyard wins is what you call it when you all beat a top five opponent a power five opponent there was 70,000 people in here that probably didn't believe why did you all believe we got a B Team a a bunch of guys that uh have been through a lot of different things and uh they worked together like we still are at college football I know it's a whole bunch of other things with the transfer portal and nil we still have a family and and they believe in that family uh in doing things the right way and uh I couldn't be more proud of them congrats coach go celebrate thank you thank you this team in the preseason was picked third in the Mac and we mentioned how it's been a little bit of an up and down tenure lately the last 2 years for Thomas hammock 3 and n and 76 the last two years but you could see the emotion on his face he believed in his team and in the end the guys that really mattered believed in this upset Jason Garrett and this was a team wow when you're talking about Notre Dame that was poised and you know you tend to get ahead of yourselves a little bit Sports the big win at Texas A&M last week and everybody was looking at the schedule for Notre Dame and kind of Paving the way college football playoff 12 teams well this was a big big time punch in the gut for the Irish absolutely was but that right there is why you coach football the relationships that he has with those kids and what a great day for for Northern Illinois but a gut punch for the Fighting Irish and you said it everybody in the country was talking about their path to the playoffs after the big win down in College Station last week and and Marcus Freeman was on top of it Al golden was on top of it Mike Den Brock was on top of it they practiced hard they talked about human nature and what they need to do but you have to go do it and they didn't do it they didn't do it as a coaching staff they didn't do it as a team in any phase of their team they are better than Northern Illinois they should win this game if they want to have the year that they want to have and a disappointing game for them they're going to have to learn from it move on and see what they can do with this season but uh it's happening too much to Notre Dame lately and this was a hard one to swallow you mentioned happening too much shades of what happened a couple years ago in Marcus Freeman's opener they made they played went on the road played a good game against Ohio State but came up a little short came back and it looked like he was just going to grab that win and you know he was so well aware of that he put the team through the paces this week and we were with the team and they knew how you can't take a team like Northern Illinois lightly they didn't but hats off to this husky team I just go back to the start of the game Notre Dame goes right down the field they go up 7even nothing Northern Illinois first opportunity is on the minus two yard line you think they're just get Dominate and blow them out of the stadium they convert a third down they make a big play in the passing game and the whole thing swung from there so Northern Illinois's ability to handle the ups and downs of this ball game showed up Notre Dame didn't do that and they got to learn from it yeah they got to get ready to go they go to Purdue for their game next week in the meantime it is one of the big up set certainly of this college football season the biggest upset shocker Notre Dame goes down to Northern Illinois as we send you back to the studio Maria Taylor and Company the Huskies over the Fighting Irish by two 16-4