1974 Notre Dame
From TributeToTroy
In what is regarded as one of the most dramatic and incredible comebacks in the history of college football, the 1974 Trojans erased a 24-point deficit to beat Notre Dame, 55-24, in the Coliseum. In a December 1998 list by SPORT magazine, the game was ranked as the No. 6 top college football moment of the 20th century.
USC trailed the Irish, 24-0, late in the first half, and the Trojans’ chances looked bleak because Notre Dame sported the nation’s top-ranked defense. But with 10 seconds remaining before halftime, Anthony Davis scored on a 7-yard pass from Pat Haden (Troy missed the 2-point conversion) to send the Trojans into the lockerroom behind 24-6...but with a glimmer of hope.
Davis took the opening kickoff of the second half and raced 102 yards for a score, opening the floodgates as USC rallied for 35 points in the third quarter. Davis scored 2 more times that quarter, both on short runs, and Haden threw touchdown passes of 18 and 45 yards to J.K. McKay. Then, before 2 minutes had elapsed in the fourth quarter, Haden hit Shelton Diggs for a 16-yard score and Charles Phillips returned an interception 58 yards for a touchdown.
In all, USC blitzed to its 55 points in under 17 minutes. “We turned into madmen,” was how Davis described the comeback. Added receiver J.K. McKay, son of USC coach John McKay, right after the game: “I can’t understand it. I’m gonna sit down tonight and have a beer and think about it. Against Notre Dame? Maybe against Kent State...but Notre Dame?”
The victory propelled USC, which then beat Ohio State in the 1975 Rose Bowl, 18-17, to the 1974 national championship.
