Slobber-knockers

 Somewhere Lou Holtz was surely having an out-of-body experience, seeing 35 or so years fall away so magically. Riley Leonard? Hell, no, that was Tony Rice. Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price? Heck, that was Ricky Watters and Tony Brooks and Anthony Johnson, with Rocket Ismail taking kickoffs on occasional cross-country sojourns.

The Fighting Irish of Notre Dame?

Shoot, man. Why, they beat up on Georgia same as Lou's crew used to beat up on Miami and West Virginia and the University of Navy, as Lou liked to call it.

The final from the Sugar Bowl last night was 23-10, and it was Notre Dame's first New Year's Six Bowl win since 1993. Rick Mirer was your QB1 then. Reggie Brooks and Jerome Bettis were trampling on everything in sight. And the Irish knocked the slobber out of Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl, 28-3.

Good times for Holtz and Notre Dame. Gooood times.

Last night was more good times for the Irish, who indeed looked like Holtz's punch-you-in-the-mouth teams from the glory days. Leonard ran 14 times for 80 yards -- 5.7 yards per carry if you're keep score at home -- and occasionally lowered his shoulder to get them. He also completed 15-of-24 passes for 90 yards and a score. And the Irish defense indeed knocked the slobber out of a Georgia team that also prided itself on its physicality.

Some numbers: Georgia was 2-of-15 on third and fourth down against the Irish D, and 0-for-3 on the latter.

Some more numbers: That same defense virtually obliterated the Georgia run game, which scratched out just 62 yards and averaged a pitiful 2.1 per try -- as thorough a silencing as you'll see in such a high-stakes game.

In short, this was a back-in-the-day "W" for Notre Dame, predicated on back-in-the-day principles that have carried the Irish to a school-record 13 wins so far this season. It's a team built on defense, the run game and the occasional lightning strike -- last night it was Jaden Harrison's 98-yard return of the second-half kickoff, shades of the Rocket himself -- and if that wasn't the formula Holtz used to deliver N.D.'s last national title in 1988, I'll eat one of Lou's beloved Zagnut bars.

OK. So I might not go that far.

Still, the Ghosts of Tony Rice And Ned Bolcar Past were surely aloft last night, and now it's on to the semifinals against Penn State. Beyond that, if there is a beyond that, it could be a national championship date against perhaps Ohio State, who gets Texas next and right now looks as inevitable as inevitable gets in football.

Texas, Ohio State, Penn State and Notre Dame. That's who's left now.

Sounds like more back-in-the-day to me.