Irish still in shock over loss to Wildcats

The aftershock from the N-bomb dropped on Notre Dame Stadium a day earlier was still being felt Sunday, all across the wide world of Irish football.

That's the world in general. Alumni were still getting the news on every continent, then shaking their heads in disbelief, just like the shocked spectators who watched Northwestern pull off Saturday's stunning 17-15 upset.

Especially over a team that was not supposed to let such things happen to it this season. Irish coach Lou Holtz spent the preseason vowing that the sad 6-5-1 spectacle of 1994 would not be repeated. Instead, it started all over again, right after the opening kickoff of 1995.

Lose to Northwestern? In the House that Rockne built? How can this be?

"Devastating," was the one-word response from Irish coach Lou Holtz, aptly summing up the reaction from Subway Alumni, old grads and especially his players.

"The players expect to win. Everybody expects you to win, and then this happens. "We have to find out what caused it and what the solution is. It's like being married. You make a commitment and then you work it out."

That didn't satisfy the second-guessers. Some of them already were screaming for Holtz' head.

Unless the Irish can turn things around dramatically in next week's visit to Purdue, demands to fire the coach will grow in size and volume, drowning out all hope for a turnabout season. Holtz admitted things have gone downhill drastically since the incredible 41-39 loss to Boston College that knocked his team out of the 1993 national championship.

"I don't have the answer, except that it's in no way a lack of effort or mental toughness," he said. "We're just not a consistent football team, but the main thing thing is we lack big-play capability."

For instance?

"Derrick Mayes is our only big-play receiver," Holtz pointed out. "Opponents have been pressing the corner and double-teaming him.

"They don't use eight or nine-man fronts against us, because we lack an effective running game. We need to pick up 5 and 6 yards a crack without having to throw on first and second down."

Holtz indicated some lineup changes might be made after his staff breaks down the NU film. Freshman running back Autry Denson. a 5-foot-10, 175-pound speedster from Lauderhill, Fla., could be pressed into service in the search for some breakaway gains against the Boilermakers' erratic defense.

But more than anything else, what showed up in Holtz' voice Sunday and in the Notre Dame dressing room after Saturday's setback was a crisis of spirit. Can that be resolved in time to prevent this season from turning into a replay of the last one?

"The more you lose, the less confidence you have," Holtz said. "Things went wrong right from the start yesterday, Northwestern got ahead and I could see some people thinking, 'Well, here we go again.'

"It's the coach's responsibility to prevent that. We'll sit down with the team tomorrow and not kid each other about where we're at and where we're going."

What about some fans' demands that Holtz go somewhere else, immediately?

"I've been in this game long enough not to worry about such things," he said. "I'll coach my heart out, but one thing I'll never do is look over my shoulder."

Maybe Holtz had better learn to do so. An angry mob of Irish fanatics is stockpiling tar and feathers.