Notre Dame head football coach Charlie Weis is not going to apologize for his team’s struggles in Saturday’s game with UCLA. It took a 45-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback and Heisman Trophy candidate Brady Quinn to wide receiver Jeff Samardziija to boost the Irish to a 20-17 victory over the Bruins.
“Good teams win games like that. Good teams at the end of the game somehow, good teams make a play at the end of the game to win,”Weis said. “ Let me tell you something. I'm not going to feel miserable about this win, I promise you. You want to be miserable, fine. I'm going to be happy. Any time you win a game like that we're very fortunate to walk out of there with scoring a game scoring a touchdown inside of 30 seconds to go with no time out left. Sign me up, you want to give me a couple more of those, I'll take them.”
It appeared as though No.10 Notre Dame had squandered its last chance to win when Quinn was stuffed on a fourth-and-1 from the Notre Dame 35 with 2:25 left. But the Irish held UCLA to three-and-out to give Quinn one last chance.
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Because the Irish (6-1) were able to stop the clock twice with timeouts during the Bruins' short series, they got the ball back with 62 seconds left. Quinn hit Samardzija with a 21-yard pass and David Grimes with a 14-yard pass to move to the UCLA 45. He then threw the TD pass to Samardzija, who cut inside safety Dennis Keyes at the 20-yard line. Keyes managed to knock Samardzija off balance, but the Notre Dame receiver kept his feet and made it to the end zone, keeping the Irish's hopes for a berth in the Bowl Championship Series alive.
Quinn was 27-of-45 passing for 304 yards with two TD passes to Samardzija, who tied the school record of 22 career touchdown catches held by Derrick Mayes in 1995. Samardzija, who had a 2-yard TD pass in the first quarter, finished with eight catches for 118 yards.
Notre Dame continued to be a lousy team to bet on as they failed to cover for the fifth time of seven games in 2006. Against UCLA, odds makers tagged the Irish favorites with a –13-point chalk. Four of the seven games cashed for under players on the game total.
