Notre Dame’s home finale takes place against a spunky program that has already made a CFP appearance in the 12-team era, and also has a special place in this writer’s heart as a graduate alma mater. While SMU isn’t exactly a marquee opponent, the relative ease of their schedule and the talent on their roster suggest they will enter this game as contenders for a playoff spot, making it likely one of the more exciting ones on the slate in the regular season’s penultimate weekend. Which is good, because
the last time the Ponies came up to South Bend late in the season it was…not that.
Most of the teams Notre Dame plays in 2026 have had more recent clashes with the Irish for us to look at in this series, with twelve years the longest gap between matchups we’ve looked at so far. No more. Rev up that flux capacitor and put on your Bulge Boy pants, because we’re headed back to the late 1980s to look at the last clash between the Ponies and the Fighting Irish.
Week 12: SMU Mustangs
Last matchup: November 11, 1989 – Notre Dame 59, SMU 6
A 2-6 SMU team in its first season back from its infamous death penalty walked into South Bend to face an undefeated, #1-ranked Notre Dame team that could have claimed a national championship at the end of the season if it were as shameless as certain other programs. The result? A 53-point Irish win that wasn’t even that close.
Head coach Tom Rossley struggled to even get the Mustangs out of the locker room in South Bend as, like unarmed prisoners in the Colosseum dungeons, they heard the crowd roaring for them to meet their fate at the hands of some unknown horror. Surprisingly the Irish led only 7-0 as the first quarter ended, though it would have been 14-0 had Rocket Ismail not – in a preview of sad things to come – had a punt return touchdown called back on a specious clipping call. No matter; the Irish piled up 35 more points in the second quarter, while surrendering their only score of the day after a fumbled punt by Ismail. The leader in this barrage was Ricky Watters, who had two touchdowns including a 97-yard punt return, then a school record. Between this and Ismail’s near-touchdown in the first quarter, the Ponies became so terrified to punt that on a later 4th down, punter Casey Clyce took a knee in the end zone and took a safety rather than punt to Watters.
By the second half the game was so surely in Notre Dame’s hands that Lou Holtz took direct measures to both speed things up and limit Notre Dame’s scoring. On the one hand this might seem like an insult in itself; on the other, SMU had earlier in the season surrendered 95 points to Houston so they might have appreciated it. In any case, examples of Lou’s merciful measures included taking numerous delay-of-game penalties to slow down drives and at one point instructing reserve running back Rusty Setzer to step out of bounds at the seven rather than score a touchdown.
All told Watters, Ismail and Tony Rice had rather light statistical days as they were rested early and often. The Irish held SMU to 69 total yards of offense (nice), with 70 through the air and -1 on the ground, which I am legally obliged to remind you is still 3x more than Alabama got in the super duper meaningful SEC Championship. The Irish would go on to win at Penn State but lose at Miami to end the regular season, and then conclude the season with a win over #1 Colorado in the Orange Bowl. SMU, meanwhile, was in the wilderness for another twenty years before an 8-5 record and Hawaii Bowl win in 2009 began the gradual turnaround that now has them as a fringe national contender.
Video of this game only exists in full-game form on YouTube, and I will link that below. Those of you who are as busy as I am will just have to imagine what it was like watching a Mustang defense composed of freshman walk-ons attempting to tackle Watters and the Rocket.
