For Powlus, These Are Times That Define Him

Quarterback Ron Powlus will be defined by the next two weeks. All that he came to Notre Dame to do is there to be had, first in Austin, Texas, then back home where, like the storied stadium in which he plays, Powlus remains a work in progress.

No matter that Powlus may put Rick Mirer behind him, as he did Joe Theismann last Saturday, that he surely will become statistically the greatest quarterback ever at Joe Montana’s school. He must be not only the winning quarterback against Texas and Ohio State, but the reason for the winning as well.

Otherwise Powlus will be just another overcelebrated failure, a cruel and unfair judgment, but one that comes with the territory.

“We must win the next two weeks to realize our ultimate goal of going undefeated,” Powlus said. “But we need to win the next 10 as well.

“There is one chance in the world that you can lose any game and still be the national champion. And every team gets up to play us.

“It is very hard to come into a season knowing this, but that is the challenge of playing at Notre Dame. It is up to us to win 12 games.

“Texas is a great team. Ohio State is a great team. But we can only play them one at a time.”

There are much worse fates than to be an unrealized Notre Dame quarterback, like an unrealized Purdue quarterback, where you get pounded into the muck every play, where sympathy is routine and expectation is a truant.

But Powlus’ purpose was higher than that, and the time has come to see if his aim is up to his ambition.

“I thought I threw a little better today,” Powlus said, meaning better than the opening escape against Vanderbilt, meaning better than in previous seasons, not meaning better than expected.

And by this point - an imagined couple of Heismans into his senior season - not good enough.

Powlus is an average college quarterback, slow of foot, faint of arm and shaky of choice. These are things he was not when he arrived at Notre Dame.

He throws now a marvelous feather ball, soft and vulnerable, like the one intercepted in the end zone, one that should have been, had it been zipped harder or earlier, a touchdown.

“I saw the defender coming,” Powlus said, “but I thought I could sneak it in.”

His arm strength downfield, the stuff of his early legend, would be impressive if he were throwing into soap bubbles. But even in the still and encouraging air of Notre Dame Stadium, slow receivers have to wait for the football’s arrival.

These are not fatal flaws for a football team, especially one as rounded as Notre Dame, but for an athlete as anticipated as Powlus, recruited, as Lou Holtz said then, from Krypton, these are loud and coarse imperfections.

“I thought Ron did a very nice job today,” Holtz said. “He ran the team well and when receivers weren’t open, he threw the ball away.”

Such praise is a long way from Krypton.

It is assumed that removing Powlus after three quarters Saturday was in consideration for Purdue, a game and luckless lot. Powlus had decent numbers - 19 of 32, 238 yards, one touchdown, giving him 32 in his career, one more than Theismann.

“We’re 2-0,” Powlus said, “the only numbers I care about.”

What has yet to become apparent is if Powlus can make the difference in a big game, in a Notre Dame championship-season-defining-game, and there are a pair of those coming up.

“The next two weeks will determine where we are after four games,” Powlus said, showing that he, at least, has not missed any math classes.

If there is to be no national title, if there is no Heisman, if there is not even an All-American award, if there is only decent and honest service for his scholarship, all that Powlus can do is use Notre Dame to become a great professional quarterback, rather like Montana did.

“Sorry about the wobbly ball,” he said in response to a suggestion that even his completions were ugly.

Only apologize for losing.