Notre Dame Fighting Irish	Southern Cal Trojans ©
Played November 24, 1990 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, California

  

 

Teams' Belt Records

 

Team	Belt Reigns	Overall Record				Home Record				Away Record				Neutral Record
		W	L	T	PCT	W	L	T	PCT	W	L	T	PCT	W	L	T	PCT
Notre Dame	2	9	7	0	.563	3	3	0	.500	5	4	0	.556	1	0	0	1.000
Southern Cal ©	6	42	7	3	.837	18	2	2	.864	19	4	1	.813	5	1	0	.833

 

Previous Belt Meetings

 

 

 

Coach Lou Holtz brought the 7^th ranked, 8-2 Notre Dame Fighting Irish to Los Angeles for their annual match-up with the 18^th ranked, 8-2-1 Southern Cal Trojans of coach Larry Smith.  This was the first time since 1979 the two teams had battled for The Belt but the Fighting Irish had not lost to the Trojans in their annual battle since 1982.  All-Americans LB Mike Stonebreaker, CB Todd Lyght, & DT Chris Zorich anchored the Irish defense while All-American WR Raghib “Rocket” Ismail ignited the offense.  Notre Dame used a balanced offense while holding Southern Cal to just 29 yards rushing & Notre Dame's RB Tony Brooks scored the game’s only touchdown late in the 3^rd quarter as the Fighting Irish claimed The Belt for the 3^rd time, the first since 1987, as well as the Jeweled Shillelagh for the 8^th time in a row with a 10-6 victory.  It didn’t look like the game would be a low scoring affair as Southern Cal's QB Todd Marinovich completed his first 4 passes, driving the Trojans to the Notre Dame 5-yard line on their opening possession but they settled for a 22-yard field goal by PK Quin Rodriguez giving Southern Cal a 3-0 lead.  Notre Dame’s only points of the 1^st half came after their drive stalled on the Southern Cal 13-yard line & PK Craig Hentrich converted a 30-yard field goal attempt.  The Trojans scored on their first possession of the 2^nd half as well as they drove to the Fighting Irish 14-yard line but again had to settle for a 30-yard field goal from Rodriguez.  Taking the ball at their own 31-yard line, Notre Dame drove the 69 yards in 15 plays with RB Ricky Watters carrying for 41 yards on the drive.  Brooks touchdown came on a 1-yard run with 3:14 left in the 3^rd quarter.  Notre Dame’s Ismail provided the only real scoring threat of the final quarter when he broke loose for a 39-yard run on a reverse & on the next play took a short pass from QB Rick Mirer before turning it into a 41-yard gain to the Trojans' 2-yard line.  The Southern Cal defense put up a valiant goal-line stand to keep the Fighting Irish out of the end zone but the Trojans' offense got no closer than the Notre Dame 40-yard line in the final period.  Mirer threw for 130 yards in the win while Southern Cal’s Marinovich threw for 273 yards but was sacked 6 times while All-Pac 10 WR Gary Wellman had 9 catches for 101 yards in the loss.  The Trojans finished the season 8-4-1; ranked 20^th nationally while the Fighting Irish finished 9-3 & ranked 6^th nationally.  Southern Cal would play for The Belt again in 1992.