When the Irish traveled to Texas in 1996, they didn’t just take on the Longhorns—they battled the heat, the odds, and the noise of 83,000 roaring fans to pull off one of the season’s most thrilling comebacks.
After two tune-up wins to start the season, Notre Dame’s first real test came in Austin against a fired-up, top-10 Texas Longhorns team hungry for revenge after a lopsided loss the year before. With sun-scorched turf beneath them and a deafening home crowd above them, the Irish found themselves in a back-and-forth heavyweight battle. Quarterback Ron Powlus showed resilience under pressure, Autry Denson broke out in a star-making performance, and the defense delivered when it mattered most. It was a game of gut checks and momentum shifts—a true test of poise, preparation, and belief.
The following article, “Grade A Comeback” by Peter Bergin, appeared in Volume 138, Number 10 of Scholastic Magazine, published on January 30, 1997 as part of the official 1996 Notre Dame Football Review. It captures the grit, drama, and late-game heroics that turned a sweltering September afternoon into an instant Irish classic:
Grade A Comeback
by Peter Bergin
After a double dose of creampuffs to open the season, the Irish were faced with quite a task for their third game: traveling to Austin to butt horns with a Texas team still red with embarrassment after last year’s four-touchdown loss. The matchup of top-10 squads lived up to its billing as the score seesawed back and forth before the Irish triumphed 27-24 with a last-second field goal, an ending that has so often gone the other way for the Irish.
If this game proved anything, it was that the ghosts of Notre Dame lore, the legendary and elusive luck of the: Irish football program – which for the past few years has eluded Lou Holtz’s troops- still hovers somewhere above the sea of gold helmets. When the Austin sun broke through the clouds in the final quarter, a herd of Irish heroes rose to the occasion and carried Notre Dame to its memorable win. Take your pick: Autry Denson, Lyron Cobbins, Jim Sanson or Ron Powlus.
First, a word about Powlus: as the thermostat topped off at around 100 degrees late in the second half and the 83,312 hollering Texans topped off their voices, the Irish quarterback kept his cool, orchestrating consecutive drives that resulted in the game’s final 10 points. It wasn’t a flawless performance by any means (13-24 for 127 yards and a touchdown), but his poise down the stretch was admirable, especially on his 11-yard strike to Malcolm Johnson to set up Sanson’s field goal after overthrowing a wide-open Bobby Brown on the previous play.
“Just to come back the way we did … I’m very proud of our football team. I knew it would be a hard game, and I knew Texas had an excellent football team,” Holtz said after the game. “Notre Dame has been involved in a lot of great games, but I don’t know when I’ve been involved in one where the momentum went back and forth quite like this.”
At the start, the contest didn’t appear to have the makings of greatness as the Longhorns stampeded a sluggish Irish defense with an 11-play, 80-yard scoring drive. Dangerous wideout Mike Adams burned the Irish secondary for completions of 22 and 14 yards and finished with a 3-yard touchdown lob from quarterback James Brown. Backed by the largest crowd in Texas football history, the Longhorns sent a clear message to the Irish on the opening drive: this is our house and you’re in for a long day.
But Notre Dame answered with a 12- play, 82-yard drive of its own, capped by a 20-yard Sanson field goal. The Irish caught a huge break on the third play of the drive when Texas linebacker Tyson King was called for a questionable late hit on Powlus, turning a punting situation into a drive saving first down. The Irish line then picked up the pace, clearing the way for a 13-yard Marc Edwards romp, a l0-yard Denson spurt and a 28-yard breakaway by Randy Kinder, who was making his season debut. But the offense stalled at the goal line and settled for three points.
Then the Irish secondary, already on its heels, lost starting strong safety A ‘Jani Sanders to a left knee injury, putting even more pressure on the other starters. Texas went right at the weakened unit early in the second quarter, baiting the safeties toward the line of scrimmage after two strong runs by Ricky Williams, then going to the air. A 16- yard Adams reception and a pass interference call on lvory Covington advanced the ball to the Irish 20. Three plays later, Priest Holmes burst through the Irish defensive line for a 3-yard score and a 14-3 Texas lead.
At this point, Notre Dame needed an offensive lift, not only to put points on the board, but also to give its tiring defense a breather. A nine-play, 80-yard scoring march satisfied this need, capped by an 18- yard option run by Robert Farmer.
“When we fell behind 14-3 in the first half, it did not look good,” Holtz said. “That may have been as critical a drive as we’ve had in a couple of years.”
Critical, yes, but it was more than that. The drive proved that the Irish line was capable of rolling over the Longhorns, and this newfound confidence carried over to the last possession of the half.
Thanks to a combined sack by Bert Berry and Bill Wagasy, a revitalized Irish defense stopped Texas cold for the first time in the game, giving the ball back to Powlus and the offense with 2:37 left in the half. Seven plays and 63 yards later, Marc Edwards glided into the end zone with a 3-yard PowIus toss to give the Irish their first lead of the game. After being outplayed for the majority of the first half, Notre Dame had stormed back to a 17-14 halftime advantage. It wouldn’t be the last time they would be forced to come from behind.
The tempo of the third quarter was dictated by the Texas defense. Rock-solid, 290-pound nose guard Chris Atkins rallied a fired-up Longhorn front line that stifled Powlus and the Irish running attack, limiting them to only 67 yards of total offense in the period. The momentum began to swing Texas’s way following a 47-yard Phil Dawson field goal and shifted dramatically following Bryant Westbrook’s punishing hit on Randy Kinder midway through the quarter. Powlus, unaccustomed to running the option, hung Kinder out to dry on a late pitch, not only taking the Irish offense off the field but Kinder out of the game. At that point, with the sun and the Texas defense heating up, the raucous crowd became the 12th man for the Longhorns.
“We tried to go deep and couldn’t get anything going,” – Holtz said. “They made some halftime adjustments. But we had a little trouble getting continuity with our offensive line, especially when Doughty went down.” With the Irish offense sputtering and the noise level rising, a reborn Texas offense trampled the overheated Notre Dame defense with runs of 26 and 16 yards by Ricky Williams and Shon Mitchell, respectively. Williams vaulted the final yard to reclaim the lead for the Longhorns, 24-17.
After another fruitless offensive series, the Irish punted, and Texas took over with only 7:41 left to play. At this point, the Irish defense needed to make a stop – what they got was the play of the game. On second-and-13, Brown was flushed from the pocket by Renaldo Wynn and flipped a wounded duck that bounced off Kory Minor’s helmet into the waiting hands of Lyron Cobbins, who got one foot in bounds for the interception.
Given new life, the Irish offense took over at the Texas 34 with only one goal in mind: to get the ball into the end zone. They accomplished this goal eight plays later when Denson took a half-option pitch from Powlus and willed himself into the end zone, diving across the goal line for the tying score. The pressure of this fourth-and-goal play was made even more dramatic by a crowd-induced illegal procedure penalty on the Irish that moved the ball back to the 6-yard line. From there, it was all Denson. Edwards, the lead blocker on the play, went left while the pitch went right. Perhaps the error fooled the Texas defense-then again, perhaps a bit of Irish luck did the fooling.
After yet another defensive stop and a shanked punt, the Irish took over with the game deadlocked at 24 and 59 seconds to play. Denson, the biggest hero of the day, came through once again, slicing through the heart of the Texas defense for 22 yards to the 35-yard line. Following the Powlus-Johnson connection, Sanson split the uprights for a 39-yard field goal.
Down the stretch, this game was won by the Notre Dame defense. Outplayed at times, it buckled down when it had to and came up with the game’s only turnover. The secondary stepped it up as well, as Allen Rossum and Co. corralled Adams in the second half, holding him catchless and limiting the dangerous Brown to two of eight for only 16 yards. Statistically and theatrically, Denson was the star for the Irish, rushing for 158 of Notre Dame’s 292 yards on the ground.
In the end, the well-fought battle between Texas and Notre Dame more than lived up to the pregame hype and remains one of the best games of the year. The victory proved that the 1996 Notre Dame squad had faith in itself, a character trait that would show up time and again during the season. While the momentum from this victory failed to carry over to the Ohio State game the following week, the victory over Texas was still a triumph Notre Dame players and fans will never forget.
In the end, Notre Dame’s 27–24 victory over Texas wasn’t just a win—it was a statement. A statement that the Irish still had fight in them. That they could bend but not break. And that even in the biggest moments, with the pressure mounting and the sun beating down, they could still summon a little luck and a lot of heart. It may not have sparked an undefeated season, but it reminded everyone that Notre Dame doesn’t back down from a challenge—they rise to meet it.
Cheers & GO IRISH!