SOUTH BEND ― We didn’t see it until we saw it.
It was summer 1993, a simpler era of Notre Dame football. The Loftus Center indoor facility seemed state of the art, stadium capacity was 59,075, and almost every minute of every practice was open to the media. What a concept. What a time.
It was then that media and players and coaches would trudge, often side by side, to and from the practice field. Head coach Lou Holtz would zoom past in his golf cart, often leaving a trail of pipe smoke. Offensive line coach Joe Moore would breeze by in his comp car, which he would park along a fence at the back of one end zone.
It was there on those practice fields where everyone assumed that the starting quarterback that season would be a freshman phenom from Western Pennsylvania by the name of Ron Powlus. Few were certain about what they’d see from that ‘93 team, but we’d probably see Powlus under center.
He was the chosen one.
A broken collarbone suffered when Powlus was buried under a pass rush in the final scrimmage seven days before the season opener scrapped that plan. It opened the door for a career backup known more for his BMX talents. Nobody gave the guy the time of day. Nobody likely even asked him the time of day over his first three seasons.
Kevin McDougal seemed just another guy.
While the Powlus hype swirled, McDougal was quietly cementing confidence among the offensive linemen, through the locker room and with the coaching staff. Like, we could win with K-Mac.
Notre Dame won with McDougal, won almost every time out in 1993, won right up until a certain left-footed kicker from Boston College split the uprights and cost Notre Dame a national championship. Thanks, David Gordon.
McDougal, the career backup, the guy…
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Publish date : 2025-05-02 08:02:00
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