Golden Hurricane stuns Notre Dame

Associated Press

SOUTH BEND, Ind.

G.J. Kinne raced to the end zone, grabbed a baton and began conducting the Tulsa band. The celebration was on at Notre Dame Stadium after the Golden Hurricane pulled off one the biggest wins in school history.

Kinne completed two long late passes to set up a go-ahead field goal by Kevin Fitzpatrick and John Flanders’ end zone interception sealed the upset with 36 seconds left Saturday, giving Tulsa a stunning 28-27 win.

“I’ve never been a part of anything like that. It was an awesome feeling,” Kinne said, describing the locker room after the victory — Tulsa’s first over a BCS team since 1998, a win that snapped a 19-game losing streaks in those games.

“I’ll tell you what we kept doing — kept reminding ourselves to play the next play,” Tulsa coach Todd Graham said. “We didn’t come here for a good showing, we came here to win.”

For Notre Dame, it was the miserable end of an emotionally draining week.

The Irish played just three days after the death of Declan Sullivan, a 20-year-old student videographer who was filming the team’s practice Wednesday when the lift he was in fell over on a windy day. Both teams wore shamrock decals with the letters DS on their helmets in Sullivan’s memory. After the game, Irish coach Brian Kelly said it was his call to hold practice that day and that “in terms of the tragedy that occurred, there’s never been a more difficult time in my life.”

Back on the field, Notre Dame’s chances for a winning season are now slim at best and the Irish lost starting quarterback Dayne Crist to a severe knee injury in the first quarter, one that will likely end his season. The Irish also played without leading rusher Armando Allen, whose collegiate career may be over with a hip injury.

“Obviously the game didn’t end how we wanted. But everyone did a good job of dedicating the game to Declan, his family, being supportive with that,” said Tommy Rees, who replaced Crist and threw four TD passes but also pitched three interceptions.

“Obviously a terrible, terrible tragedy, what happened,” Rees added.

Kinne hit a 31-yard pass to Ricky Johnson on a critical third-and-26 and also connected on a 32-yarder to Genesis Cole to set up Fitzpatrick’s 27-yard field goal with 3:23 left, putting the Golden Hurricane up 28-27.

Notre Dame drove down the field behind Rees, who hit a 26-yard pass to Michael Floyd that carried to the Tulsa 32 as the Irish (4-5) tried to get in position for a field goal.

But on a second-and-8 from the Tulsa 19, instead of trying to get in position for a field goal, Rees lofted a pass toward the corner of the end zone for Floyd and Flanders picked it off.