Irish Do Their Best to Make Miami No. 1 : Orange Bowl: Notre Dame dodges first-half bullets, then shoots a Rocket at previously unbeaten Colorado, 21-6. Holtz says Irish should be No. 1.

MIAMI — A campaign began, a dream ended Monday night as Notre Dame defeated Colorado, 21-6, in an Orange Bowl game that sent shivers down the national rankings.

Colorado began the night as No. 1, but didn’t end it there. Notre Dame, ranked fourth--for now--saw to that as it granted the Buffaloes three first-half scoring wishes and survived to tell about it.

After that, the Irish unleashed Raghib (The Rocket) Ismail, their little speedburner of a tailback, who left powder burns on a stunned CU defense and caused a packed house of 81,191 to shake their heads in admiration. His 110 rushing yards, 83 of them in the second half, helped break open a game that was 0-0 at halftime.

Not surprisingly, Ismail was presented with the most valuable player award and a miniature Orange Bowl trophy, which he carried as easily as he toted the Irish offense Monday night.

Ismail scored once in the third quarter, on a 35-yard reverse, and fullback Anthony Johnson added two other short touchdown runs to give Notre Dame a victory in a place that has haunted them for years. At last, the Irish left this aging stadium with a win, their first in their last six tries.

And if you can believe Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz, the Irish also left with another national championship, which would be their second in as many seasons. According to Holtz, Notre Dame’s convincing victory over Colorado negated anything that happened between Miami and Alabama at the Sugar Bowl. To make his point, Holtz delivered a stern sermon to the assembled press, some of whom will cast ballots for the Associated Press final poll.

“I can honestly say right now that we got the best record and the toughest schedule,” Holtz said. “And I don’t know how you can decide on anyone else being No. 1. Now that’s my personal opinion. Unless you want to say, ‘Who was the best team on Nov. 25?’ (the night Notre Dame lost to Miami and lost its No. 1 ranking). We did not play well, we came off an emotional victory at Penn State.

“But we played the toughest schedule and had the best record and we were No. 1 for 11 weeks. The one week we’re out of No. 1, we come back and beat No. 1 by 15 points.”

Holtz’s voice took on a frosty edge, as if he wanted all to know precisely how he felt about the poll war that will be waged between Notre Dame and Miami until the rankings are made public today.

“I’m not going to campaign or anything like that, but I just believe in my heart that if you have the best record against the toughest schedule . . . case rest.”

As if Holtz wasn’t forceful enough, quarterback Tony Rice offered his postgame assessment of the voting process.

“We have played 13 games and won 12 of them,” he said. “We beat the undefeated, No. 1 team. We deserve to be No. 1. We better be No. 1!”

It is a situation filled with ironies. In a way, Notre Dame, playing in the stadium used by the Hurricanes, might have helped Miami’s cause more than its own. Maybe that’s why Miami offered the Irish use of its practice facilities and locker room.

Should Notre Dame squeeze past Miami in the final rankings, it can thank the Irish defense for confounding a Buffalo offense used to scoring early and often. Colorado quarterback Darian Hagan completed just four of 13 passes, which tended to diminish the importance of his 116 rushing yards and one scoring run.

“We felt very confident in the huddle, but unfortunately, we’d get it down close and couldn’t punch it in,” Hagan said. “It wasn’t frustrating at first, but in the second half we didn’t play with as much intensity. They went up, 14-0, and we wanted to show we weren’t going to lie down. But we didn’t come up with enough points.”

It’s not as if they didn’t have their chances. The Buffaloes will forever remember the first half and what might have been. And if they don’t, someone ought to remind them.

A pair of quarters came and went and with it, at least three Colorado scoring opportunities, maybe four if you count Notre Dame’s Tony Rice nearly being tackled for a safety.

Colorado’s offense wasn’t choosy with its mistakes. It fumbled away a sure touchdown, missed a chip-shot field goal, failed three times from the Notre Dame one-yard line and then botched a questionable fake field goal attempt.

Three times inside the Notre Dame 20. Zero points.

The Colorado offensive line couldn’t be faulted. So wide were the running lanes in the first half that Ralphie, the buffalo mascot, could have dashed through untouched. Instead, tailback Eric Bieniemy, back in the lineup after missing half of the season with a broken leg, and Hagan did the honors on the Buffaloes’ first failed scoring drive.

Down the field Colorado went until, with a second-and-five from the Irish 35, Bieniemy burst through the line on what appeared to be a clear path to the end zone. About halfway there, Bieniemy tried switching the ball from his left to right hand . . . and dropped it. Notre Dame recovered.

One possession later, after using 11 plays to move to the Notre Dame five-yard line, Colorado kicker Ken Culbertson jogged onto the field for a 23-yard field goal attempt. Moments later, his skulled attempt barely cleared the line before swerving far left of the upright.

Gone were three more points.

The frustration didn’t end with Culbertson’s shank. Colorado got the ball back, promptly drove to the Irish one-yard line, where the Buffaloes failed three consecutive times to squirm into the end zone.

On fourth-and-three, Culbertson returned for a 20-yard attempt. Ram Coach John Robinson can empathize with what happened next.

Rather than let Culbertson kick away, the Buffaloes had holder Jeff Campbell try for a touchdown. Campbell took the snap, looked for a receiver and then dashed for the right corner of the end zone. It would have been a fine play had Notre Dame defensive tackle Troy Ridgely not been waiting for him at the two.

Poof went another three points, six if Colorado had been able to punch it in from the one.

So what could have been perhaps a 17-point halftime lead, became a series of calamities that ultimately took their toll on the Buffaloes.

“Coming away from the first half without any points, after controlling the game for a while, was too much to overcome,” Colorado Coach Bill McCartney said.

Notre Dame had only one scoring opportunity in the first half and also blew it. After a series of timeouts, Bill Hackett’s 27-yard field goal was blocked, ending two quarters of frustration.