Bronco Unfazed By Ghosts Of Notre Dame

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Sitting in Lou Holtz’s office back in the summer of 1989, I couldn’t help but ask the then-Notre Dame coach about the mystique surrounding the storied program.

Holtz leaned back and unabashadly said he believed in the “Ghosts of Notre Dame,” that he knew they were in Notre Dame Stadium. He could feel their presence. Rockne, Leahy, the Four Horsemen, the Gipper, and more.

Going to South Bend is bucket list for most every serious college football fan. The Fightin’ Irish own the best all-time winning percentage in college football history (.731). There’s not a college football fan on the planet who doesn’t know about Notre Dame from the time they’re a kid.

That is the history, the tradition, the mystique that Virginia coach Bronco Mendenhall will take on this Saturday when the No. 18 Cavaliers make their first-ever football trip to South Bend to take on the 10th-ranked Irish.

Mendenhall is unfazed by the challenge.

“Well, I think just — and we do this wherever we go — we always see and go to the stadium when we arrive and come off the plane and have a chance to see the field and get familiar with the locker room and make the unknown known for those that haven’t been there,” the UVA coach said Monday.

“But then there is the reality that we’re playing this year’s team with this year’s players. It’s easy to get caught up in thinking about the different players that might have been there, the names of the past. While that’s historical and a positive thing for Notre Dame, we’re playing this team, in the stadium that the rest of the guys have played in. To think about more than that is just a waste of time.”

While the Cavaliers have never visited Notre Dame Stadium, Mendenhall has, and is 0 for 3 with his BYU teams. Saturday will be a challenge for UVA, an 11-point underdog.

The Irish boast a 12-game home winning streak dating back to Sept. 30, 2017, the third-longest home winning streak for the program since Notre Dame Stadium opened in 1930 (a year before Scott Stadium opened at Virginia).

“You know, I don’t remember much about being there or how many times I’ve been there other than it was the coldest I’ve ever been,” Mendenhall said. “Even after being in the state of Utah and all through the inter-mountain west, there was a game there — and I belive Coach (Brian) Kelly was the head coach.

“I looked over one time and their defense was on the field and he was seated on the bench on one of those heaters. I was like, ‘Wait, is that legal as the head coach? Can you … ?”

Mendenhall said he didn’t remember the year, it might have been the last time his BYU team played there (2013), and didn’t remember the score of that particular game, just remembered how cold it was.

“I’m not so nostalgic, I guess, is the bottom line, but I do remember being cold,” the coach said.

Former Notre Dame and UVA athletic director Gene Corrigan, who resides in Charlottesville, said South Bend seemed like the coldest place in the country during late fall football Saturdays. That shouldn’t be the case this early in the season. The weather forecast for this Saturday in South Bend is a high of 73, low 62, with a chance a 50-percent chance of rain.

While Mendenhall isn’t nostalgic and unfazed by the venue, this will be a unique experience for his players.

“It’s hard to get past it because you know how great they’ve been,” said UVA senior cornerback Bryce Hall. “It’s kind of like living a childhood dream going to play against teams like that. As far as that whole environment, I think it’s pretty cool.”

Senior defensive lineman Eli Hanback, somewhat of a football junkie, got a thrill by playing against one storied national program already this season when Virginia defeated Florida State, the first time that anyone on the Cavaliers’ roster had faced the Seminoles during their career.

Notre Dame is yet another highlight.

“I’m excited for it,” Hanback said. “I think anyone who is a big college football fan knows about Notre Dame, their history and their success … Touchdown Jesus and all the stuff they have there. It will be a challenge for us. I’m looking forward to it and I think everybody else is, too.”

Hanback was on the sidelines — not dressed out — as a true freshman in 2015 when Notre Dame made its first-ever visit to Charlottesville and eeked out a 34-27 victory on a 37-yard touchdown pass from reserve quarterback DeShone Kizer to Will Fuller with 12 seconds remaining to help the No. 9 Irish escape an upset.

“I heard it’s a great place to play,” UVA quarterback Bryce Perkins said about Notre Dame. “It’s another historic team with great history. I’m looking forward to it. It’s going to be fun. The atmosphere is going to be great. They’re a great team and I’m excited to go out there and play.

“We know this is a different UVA team. We have an opportunity to put our mark on college football and do things that we said we came here to do. From the start, we have to play aggressive.”