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huge play W ith the game on the line , cornerback I vory C ovington put his name in the history book s with a monumental goal line stop .
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vory Covington’s place in Notre Dame football history was cemented Oct. 15, 1995, at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. That day, Covington and the Fighting Irish were locked in a fierce battle with Army and, with 39 seconds to play, the game’s outcome was hanging in the balance. The Cadets had just scored a touchdown on a seven-yard pass from Ronnie McAda to Leon Gantt to pull within one point at 28-27. And Army head coach Bob Sutton decided to go for the two-point conversion rather than taking his chances in overtime. “They had executed so well on us that day that I understood why they decided to go for two,” Covington
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says. “From our team’s perspective, we would have loved for them to kick the extra point to take it into overtime, but they elected to go for the win. If I had been in their position, I probably would have done the same thing.”
Covington says. “They did a great job of cutting down our defensive linemen up front. And if one guy ends up out of position, you stand to be gouged in a major way by their offense. That’s what I was focusing on.
Before a crowd of 74,218, Army called a “slam-release” pass, which required tight end Ron Leshinski to make a block at the line of scrimmage and then slide into the right flat along the goal line. Covington, a cornerback, was manning that side of the field in Notre Dame’s Cover 2 defense.
“When the play began and the quarterback rolled my way, I saw two receivers attacking my zone, one behind me and the other in front,” he continues. “In those situations, it’s a cat and mouse game between the cornerback and the quarterback. I decided to favor the receiver behind me, thus forcing McAda to throw to the guy in front of me.”
“Before the ball was snapped, I was just trying to remember my particular responsibility on that play,” Covington says. “I knew we had to get a stop. Before a play like that, you kind of say a prayer to yourself, hoping, some way, somehow, you can get a stop.” Playing solid assignment football takes on an even greater level of importance against an opponent like Army. So far that day, the Cadets had piled up 365 rushing yards using their flexed wishbone attack.
The Army signalcaller took the bait and threw to Leshinski, who, as a result of being bumped at the line of scrimmage, ended up catching the pass at the one-yard line, rather than the goal line. Covington immediately converged, and the 5-foot-10, 163-pound sophomore hit the 6-foot-3, 240-pound Leshinski as he caught the ball and pushed him out of bounds two feet short of the goal line. The two-point attempt was no good. Victory belonged to the Irish.
“We knew exactly what they were going to do, but it didn’t matter,”
“It worked out where I favored the high guy, he threw to the low