Rivalry renewed: Hurricanes and Fighting Irish emotions still run high

CORAL GABLES, Fla. — The fans are fired up for Miami-Notre Dame. The players are fired up, too. But Hurricanes left tackle Kc McDermott was asked, how can this be a rivalry when these teams no longer meet regularly? When the Hurricanes and Irish have played only four times in the past 27 years?

Faced with blasphemy, McDermott could hardly contain himself.

“There’s absolutely a rivalry,” said McDermott, a former Palm Beach Central standout. “This is Miami-Notre Dame, dude. They did a ‘30 for 30’ about this. This is a rivalry — there’s no questions about it.”

McDermott is right, dude. ESPN did do a “30 for 30” special on this rivalry titled “Catholics vs. Convicts,” and if you’re too young to recall the meaning behind that phrase, just know that the Hurricanes weren’t the guys with the more flattering label of the two.

And you should also know that to hype Saturday night’s UMNotre Dame game at Hard Rock Stadium, ESPN is replaying that special so many times this week, you can’t avoid it regardless of how many Hail Marys you say.

Hurricanes offensive coordinator Thomas Brown will try. Having arrived at UM last season, he’s new to this rivalry but not ignorant to it. Although he managed to avoid mentioning the “convict” label specifically, he made it clear how much he takes exception to any derogatory terms about his players.

Catholics vs. Convicts traces back to the heated 1988 meeting of these teams, when T-shirts with that slogan became a hot item in South Bend. The Irish won that meeting 31-30, but emotions ran so high that the schools decided to wipe the series from their schedules following the 1990 game.

At the time, no one would have questioned whether this was a rivalry. The schools had met for 15 consecutive years starting in 1971 and by the late ’80s, the games were carrying extra meaning, not just in Indiana and Florida, but nationally.

Hurricanes coach Mark Richt needs no history lesson. He was a Miami quarterback starting in 1978 and Tuesday recalled memories of the rivalry. Or at least he tried to. “That’s a long time ago, when I was a player,” Richt said. “I got my heart broken in South Bend one time. Well, actually, one time I went there and got knocked out.”

Richt stayed upright for his final game in South Bend as a player. Not that he came away with a memory any more pleasant than before. Rather than a KO, Richt sustained something more akin to a 15-round splitdecision defeat, 16-14.