I was at the '92 Stanford game. It was difficult to watch them blow that huge halftime lead. Crucial turnovers by Mirer and Bettis killed us nearly as badly as the defensive lapses that day.

from 1990-1993:

1990 -- Stanford 36, ND 31
1991 -- Tennessee 35, ND 34; PSU 35, ND 13
1992 -- Stanford 33, ND 16
1993 -- B. College 41, ND 39

Darnell was a catastrophe as DC. Minter was better, but not up to the standard set by Alvarez.

Stanford ended that year 5-6, and nearly beat Colorado in Boulder -- in fact, I believe SU lost that game on a phantom touchdown, one of 3 ref-induced wins for CU that year (the 5th down vs. Mizzou and the inexcusable clipping call on Rocket's runback being the others).

The worst loss in my opinion was Syracuse 2008. That was the worst team ever to beat ND, and it's not really close.

that Derek Brown did not catch that ball.

I was sure he would and that the Irish would win. Then, they didn't.

I did not know that they crossed paths at Arkansas.

The knock on Lou (other than the defensive personnel/coaching issues cited below) was that he rode his guys too hard, and consequently, they couldn't get up for every game. That's a pretty facile argument, but it was the standard line of the time.

And I mean besides the fact that Gary Darnell was the coordinator. Bad, bad hire by Holtz.

The 1990 team couldn't stop the pass. You're looking at the Brooks thing the wrong way. Sure, the RB corps was stacked, but it was mostly out of desperation that a 5-8, 200-pound sophomore was not only moved to the secondary but played a lot. We had lost three starters in Terrell, Francisco and Smagala, basically leaving Lyght and a bunch of underclassmen who had never played before. I think that team set a school record for most passing yards allowed.

The '91 team couldn't stop the run. We had lost Zorich and a couple other seniors (the names escape me), and then suffered a string of injuries, including one to projected starter Eric Jones. I remember it got really dicey in terms of who we had to put out there. I think that team set a school record for most rushing yards allowed.

Best big game coach in the country, unreal recruiter with a stockpile of talent, loses one WTF game per season.

Another in a long list of serviceable, but not great, quarterbacks who really put up big numbers against ND.

Holtz was good for at least one stinker a year from 1990 onward. Poor bastard - he could have had 3 national championships.

Three first team All Americans on defense, a running back corps so deep Reggie Brooks was playing DB, etc. The number of future NFL players on that team was staggering.

was Holtz's #1-ranked Irish loss to unranked Stanford in 1990. Talk about inexcusable. Not only were the teams an utter mismatch in terms of talent, the loss also derailed a national championship run. In terms of the stakes at hand, I'm not sure any of Boob's, Ty's, or Charlie's losses meant as much as this one did. We've had other #1-ranked teams knocked off the rails, but never by so pitiful an opponent.

I'll always love Lou, but he had some stinkers, just like any other coach.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wuSmfNeB4M

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http://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/08/sports/notre-dame-loss-may-shuffle-polls.html

Notre Dame Loss May Shuffle Polls
By THOMAS ROGERS
Published: Monday, October 8, 1990

Top-ranked Notre Dame suffered one of the most painful upset losses in its prestigious football history Saturday to a determined Stanford team that had lost three of its first four games.

The giant-killer Cardinals took the lead for good, 36-31, with 36 seconds to play, on Tommy Vardell's fourth 1-yard touchdown plunge of the game. But the Fighting Irish, who had been unbeaten, provided their fans with a final thrill by marching to the Stanford 23-yard line. From there Rick Mirer threw into the end zone for Derek Brown, but the tight end dropped the ball as time ran out.

Notre Dame, which lost three fumbled punts and had to play without Raghib (Rocket) Ismail, their wide receiver and punt returner, because of a severely bruised thigh, was unable to duplicate the last-second magic that snatched victories away from Michigan and Michigan State earlier in the season.

The shocking loss by Notre Dame and an impressive 31-22 victory by the defending national champion, Miami, over Florida State will probably scramble the upper echelons of the polls, which appear today. Expected to profit most from the sudden troubles of last week's top dogs are Michigan, Auburn, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Miami and Florida, all highly ranked teams that won on Saturday. Virginia, Tennessee and Brigham Young, all idle this weekend, may also move up.

Palumbis Hits 26 of 34

Coach Dennis Green of Stanford gave much of the credit for the upset of Notre Dame for a huge, physically dominating offensive line that enabled Jason Palumbis time to pick out receivers while hitting 26 of 34 passes for 256 yards.

''Jason is a very steady player who throws with great accuracy,'' Green said yesterday by phone from Palo Alto, Calif. ''He was sacked a couple of times early on, but was able to keep his composure and keep our offense functioning. Even when we were losing some tough games earlier, we knew we were capable of fielding a strong offense both on the ground and in the air.''''