Sullivan | Cards find victory worth savoring

SOUTH BEND, Ind.

Reggie Bonnafon took the snap, took a knee and then he took off with the ball.

The University of Louisville's impassive passer typically wears his emotions far below a serene surface. He is a freshman with the steely demeanor of a seen-it-all senior, about as excitable as a statue.

But this one was different. This one was special. When the final seconds elapsed Saturday evening, and Louisville had completed its first football trip to Notre Dame with an eventful 31-28 victory, Bonnafon sensed that this was a moment worth preserving, an event worthy of a souvenir.

"Honestly, I'll probably be in my dorm later tonight, and be like, 'This really happened," Bonnafon said.

Yes, it did. It most certainly did.

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Tradition never made a tackle. Mystique can't make people miss. Yet recognizing Notre Dame as college football's leading repository of legend and lore, thousands of Louisville fans had added this game to their bucket lists as soon as the date was confirmed. Some departed for South Bend at dawn, others paid extortionate hotel rates to attend, and nearly all of them sat happily in the rain while bearing witness to a game that ranks among the most meaningful and satisfying victories U of L football has achieved.

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Bonnafon was able to take it all in without being overcome. He ran for two touchdowns, threw for a third and conducted himself for the most part as if he were playing in the backyard and not on the semi-sacred ground in the shadow of Touchdown Jesus.

The Gipper is long gone. The Four Horsemen have all reached the last roundup. The history and hype that have surrounded Notre Dame football since the days of Knute Rockne have little relevance to a team that has now lost four of its last five games as well as its place in the national polls.

Still, there's no disputing that Notre Dame still qualifies as a big-time brand name in college football, or that Louisville's victory was deserved if not dominating. The Cardinals controlled the clock — maintaining possession for 35 minutes and 31 seconds — and they easily exceeded their hosts in yards gained (409-335), first downs made (23-16) and oddities overcome.

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Though the game was ultimately decided on a missed field goal by Notre Dame's Kyle Brindza in the final minute, almost all of the empirical evidence pointed to Louisville as the better team.

After a Brandon Radcliff touchdown stretched Louisville's lead to 31-20 on the first play of the fourth quarter, the luck of the Irish was made manifest when Notre Dame quarterback Everett Golson's third-and-13 pass was deflected by Louisville corner Terrell Floyd into the arms of an unintended Notre Dame receiver, Will Fuller, standing in the end zone.

That score sliced Louisville's lead to three points with 11:17 remaining and tested Bonnafon's ability to block out the stage and the stakes and concentrate on the technicalities of the task at hand. Exploiting Notre Dame's inferior speed and missed assignments with zone reads, Bonnafon had run for first-half touchdowns of 12 and 8 yards, but those holes didn't open as readily in the second half and the freshman found himself fighting an unusual enemy: emotion.

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Two months since the death of his father, Wallace, Bonnafon found himself conversing with his dad. Given the setting, and his personal loss, a less poised player might have come unglued.

"I was talking to him throughout the game today," Bonnafon said. "There for a minute, I was getting a little emotional in the third quarter. It doesn't really happen a lot. (But) He was with me. Start of the fourth quarter, for some reason I got the chills. I could feel his presence.

"... Things went a little rough for a minute, but we just kept our composure and we knew that we were going to turn it back around and start executing our gameplan and that's what happened."

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One Louisville possession was prolonged by a roughing-the-passer penalty that nullified a third-down incompletion. It ended with John Wallace missing a field goal preceding Notre Dame's final drive.

When Bonnafon returned to the field with 51 seconds left, his only remaining responsibilities were to run out the clock and to plot an exit strategy for the game ball. He placed it in his travel bag before boarding the team bus, unsure if he was authorized to claim the prize.

"I might have to take that up with the equipment man," he said.

Tim Sullivan can be reached at (502) 582-4650, by email at tsullivan@courier-journal.com, and on Twitter @TimSullivan714.