New Year’s Day in Dallas has a way of compressing an entire season into a handful of decisive snaps. In 1994, it squeezed out two truths at once: Notre Dame could slug with anybody, and the national crown had slipped away six weeks earlier. Lou Holtz’s Irish arrived at the Cotton Bowl carrying the sting of Boston College while a vengeful Texas A&M eyed payback for 28–3 the year before. For most of the afternoon, it looked like they might get it. Then came the familiar formula—sign your name on the locker-room board, recommit to “three yards and a cloud of dust,” and let playmakers like Kevin McDougal, Lee Becton, Ray Zellars, Marc Edwards, Bobby Taylor, and Jeff Burris tilt the field. What followed was a win that felt like a grin and a sigh at the same time—a truly bittersweet New Year.
(The below excerpt, written by Amanda Clinton, is from the Scholastic Magazine’s 1993 Football Review.)
A Bittersweet New Year
A last-minute 24-21 victory over Texas A&M was not enough to clinch the national title
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by Amanda Clinton
January 1, 1994, Dallas, TX – It was supposed to be easy. Notre Dame was scheduled to play in the 1994 Cotton Bowl against Texas A&M, the team the Irish dominated in a 28-3 victory in 1993. But this year was different.
The Irish entered the match up with the loss to Boston College still fresh on their minds while Texas A&M looked forward to avenging last year’s embarrassing loss at the hands of Notre Dame. And until the last five minutes of the game, it looked as though the Aggies might have their dream fulfilled.
“We didn’t play well in the first half, except for the opening drive,” said Lou Holtz, Notre Dame head coach.
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Senior flanker Clint Johnson took the opening kickoff but was nailed on the 10 yard line. Slowly the Irish began drilling upfield. On a second down at the 16 with 26 yards to go, Notre Dame went with a reverse to junior flanker Mike Miller for a 19-yard gain. Then on a second down and eight on the Aggie 19-yard line, senior quarterback Kevin McDougal ran toward the right sideline, cutting past three defenders and running into the end zone, putting the Irish in the lead with a 7-0 score. But this touchdown was the last for Notre Dame in the first half.
Texas A&M immediately countered with a scoring drive. Despite a near interception by senior strong safety John Covington on a third down with 16 to go on the Aggie 15-yard line, Texas A&M rolled to the Irish eight where junior running back Greg Hill grabbed the hand-off from sophomore quarterback Corey Pullig. Hill dodged into the end zone to tie up the score. This touchdown marked the first for the Aggies in their last three Cotton Bowl games. Pullig completed 17-of-31 passes for 238 yards in the game, the third highest in Cotton Bowl history.
The Notre Dame offense was unable to get a first down on its next possession, so Texas A&M took over. The Aggies drove all the way down to the Irish 22 where on a fourth and 10 they went for a field goal. But the 39-yard attempt was blocked by sophomore comer back Bobby Taylor, his third of the season, keeping the score tied and ending the first quarter of play.
To start off the second quarter, the offensive drives of both squads were squelched by pumped up defenses. On Notre Dame’s second possession of the quarter, on a second and 10, McDougal was sacked for the second time in the game by junior linebacker Antonio Shorter.
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“I don’t know who the hell Shorter is, but I’ve never seen someone so fast,” said senior outside tackle Aaron Taylor. “He ran past me like I had metal shoes on.” “I just go out there and just get to the quarterback and do my thing,” said Shorter. The loss of Irish senior center Tim Ruddy due to an abdominal strain was noticed on the offensive line. By the end of the day McDougal was sacked four times. But Holtz felt the offense did a good job of handling the Ruddy loss.
“Our players competed well without Tim Ruddy,” said Holtz. “That’s hard to do with the A&M defense.”
The Aggies ate up more than seven minutes of the clock in the second quarter while rallying a huge A&M crowd. On a fourth down with one to go on the 46, the Aggies went for it and came up with a first down on a quarterback sneak, encouraging the boisterous A&M crowd. Then again on fourth and one at the Irish 15, Pullig threw a pass to a wide open sophomore fullback Detron Smith for an Aggie touchdown, giving Texas A&M the lead, 14-7.
“This is a better A&M team,” said Holtz. “They have most of their starters back from last year.”
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For the remaining few minutes of the first half, Notre Dame was unable to come up with a scoring drive, and the half ended with the Irish trailing the pumped up Aggies.
With a halftime score of 14-7 and Notre Dame losing, it was evident that the defense was having trouble. Not only did the Irish lose defensive coordinator Rick Minter prior to the game when he signed on as head coach at Cincinnati, but all week Notre Dame prepared for the Texas A&M offense to use a rushing attack. Instead the Aggies focused on throwing passes to fullbacks and tight ends, confusing the Irish zone defense.
“We challenged our players a little more at halftime,” said Holtz.
According to Irish team members, Holtz got the team pumped up by asking for 22 players who wanted to win to sign their names to a chalkboard in the locker room.
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The change to the team was immediately evident in the second half when, on the first possession of the third quarter, the Irish scored. Lee Becton tallied four carries on the drive for 32 yards and helped the team to a first and goal position on the Aggie two yard line. By the end of the day he tallied 26 carries for 138 yards out of the team’s total of 206 total rushing yards. At the two yard line junior fullback Ray Zellars took a pitch left from junior quarterback Paul Failla before powering past the Texas A&M defense and high-stepping into the end zone, tying up the score at 14-14.
“In the second half we were back to Notre Dame football- three yards and a cloud of dust,” said Aaron Taylor.
But the Aggies countered this scoring drive with one of their own. After driving 79 yards down the field to the Irish one yard line, junior running back Rodney Thomas dove over the top into the end zone for an Aggie touchdown, giving Texas A&M the lead, 21-14.
The Irish offense came back again to tie up the score. On a first down at the two yard line Failla handed the ball to freshman fullback Marc Edwards who shoved past Aggie defenders and dove into the end zone, making the score 21-21 with more than three minutes left in the third quarter.
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“The great games are when the momentum goes back and forth,” said Holtz. “It was one of those games.”
The score remained the same until the last two minutes of the fourth quarter despite an interception by senior linebacker Pete Bercich at the Aggie 49 yard line with 8:42 minutes left in the final quarter
“I’m glad I had the opportunity to redeem myself [after dropping the interception that would have clinched a victory in the final seconds against Boston College],” said Bercich.
With about four minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Aggies had to punt the ball from their own eight yard line. The kick went 45 yards, but Miller received it and sped down the left sideline for a crucial 38 yards to the Aggie 22-yard line. But the Irish offense was only able to gain eight yards. On a fourth and two situation at the Aggie eight yard line, fifth-year senior kicker Kevin Pendergast nailed a 31-yard field goal, giving Notre
Dame the winning lead, 24-21.
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“We beat an awfully good football team,” said Holtz. ”This was an experienced, veteran, well-coached, defensive team.”
With over a minute left in the game, the Aggies still had a chance to come back. But on the first play of the drive Thomas was hit on his right side by senior free safety Jeff Burris, fumbling the ball. Bobby Taylor recovered the ball for the Irish, but Notre Dame was unable to gain a first down.
But the Notre Dame defense was determined to secure the win. On the second play of the drive senior defensive tackle Jim Flanigan sacked Pullig for an 11 yard loss.
And the Aggies were unable to gain a first down after attempting a hook-and-ladder play on a fourth down with 17 to go on their own 41. Pullig passed to senior wide receiver Tony Harrison who then tried to lateral to freshman running back Leeland McElroy, but Harrison had thrown the ball too high. When the pigskin fell to the ground, Texas A&M lost its chance of winning the game, and Notre Dame clinched its victory.
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“It feels great to win the Cotton Bowl for the second year in a row,” said Burris. “A lot of people doubted our ability to bounce back from the Boston College game. Guess what? We did.”
The box score will always read Notre Dame 24, Texas A&M 21—secured by Kevin Pendergast’s steady swing, Burris’s jarring hit that jarred the ball loose, Taylor’s recovery, and Jim Flanigan’s drive-killing sack. It wasn’t the championship many believed the Irish had earned, but it was something closer to the program’s core: resilience, resolve, and the insistence on finishing the right way. The Aggies were better than the year before; the Irish answered anyway. That’s why this one endures. Polls decide titles, but legacies are built in moments—on special teams, in short yardage, and on a chalkboard where 22 signatures promised to keep fighting. As Notre Dame and Texas A&M cross paths again, remember the lesson of ’94: narratives fade, toughness travels.
Cheers & GO IRISH!
