Rockne's Roundtable

Special teams wise, Rocket's 1989 Michigan performance comes to mind, as does Tim Brown against MSU in 1987 and USC in 1986. Since I am a little young to remember the early 70's great defense, I vividly remember Demetrius Dubose was awfully good against Penn State in the 1992 Snow Bowl.

I can't go that far back & without using Google, but I know Jimmy Clausen tore Hawaii up in the bowl game a few years ago.

If winning the game doesn't matter, it's hard to overlook Joe Theismann's 526 yards passing against USC in the 1970 game.

Reggie Brooks USC 92, where he would have broken Gipp's YPC record, but for a holding call.

Also, Bettis in the Sugar Bowl vs. Florida.

I remember reading a story about Elmer Layden, one of the Four Horsemen and his performance in the 1925 Rose Bowl game against Stanford always stood out to me. He scored a rushing touchdown, and had 2 interceptions, both returned for 70+ yard touchdowns.

CarterND,

In that 1925 Rose Bowl victory over Stanford (27-10) that won the Irish their first consensus national title, Elmer Layden had one of the greatest offense/defense/special teams performances in college football history:

• On offense, the fullback in the Four Horseman attack put ND in the lead for good (6-3) with a three-yard touchdown run.

• On defense, he had two interceptions that he returned for 70- and 78-yard touchdowns. He also was part of a goal-line stand that stopped All-American Ernie Nevers at the goal line when Notre Dame was holding on to a 20-10 lead.

• On special teams, he averaged 48.5 yards per punt and repeatedly bottled up Stanford deep in its territory. One of his deep punts was fumbled — resulting in a TD return by the Irish.

mskikos,
That Reggie Brooks performance (19 carries, 227 yards, 3 TDs) was even more incredible when you consider he suffered food poisoning from the night before and got sick on the sidelines several times. It was like Michael Jordan's performance in finals against Utah where he basically had to be helped back to the sidelines by teammates. It was mind-boggling what he did in that game.

Thanks Lou, that is even more amazing than I remember originally reading about.

Bob Crable's 26 tackles against Clemson in '79 is another incredible performance that shouldn't be overlooked seeing how it's a record still held today.

I might have to go with Kevin McDougal in 1993 vs BC.

I do not know exactly what the stats were. But behind 3 TDs, he engineered 3 TD drives in 9 plus minutes, two of them almost exclusively by the air which included both a succesful 2 pt conversion where he was the receptor of a Lee Becton pass. And of course the clutch beyond clutch pass on 4th and 4 to Lake Dawson with Mike Mamula breathing down his neck.

But I think what puts it on top of maybe my #2(Tony Rice vs WVU in 1988 Fiesta Bowl. 250 yards passing on like 7 of 11 and probably close to 100 rushing in a NC win) was his post game interview after the most crushing defeat of the year/his career/every ND fan. I wont soon forget how incredibly gracious he was in defeat and so quickly handed BC all the credit and didnt allow for any self gratification. A true champion he was.

A rather unsung, yet very effective performance, was that turned in
by Tony Rice in the Fiesta Bowl for ND's last national championship.
Rice was 7 for 11 passing (64% completion) for 213 yards and rushed
for 75 yards, for total offense of 288 yards. He was named offensive
player of the game. Tony did guide an extraordinarily talented team
that was, for that year peaking, but nonetheless, his performance should
be noted.

Was there for that, hard to disagree