Ron Powlus III's LOI is in.

and I thought we would beat Ohio State in our stadium. This was after we beat Texas at their place in a comeback win. The problem was Emmitt Mosely had a severe case of the dropsies on a perfectly thrown pass from Powlus early in the game that would have been big, and Autry Denson had a punt return for a TD called back. We could have won that game. We later lost to Air Force in overtime after trouncing a supposedly very good Washington team two weeks earlier. It was also the year that Randy Moss should have been on our team. Holtz had said he was the greatest offensive player he ever saw when he was recruiting him.

Even in 1995 we had Ohio State on the ropes and Emmit dropped a punt return which turned into a short TD drive for them after we had stopped OSU on a three and out. We had scored the previous drive and their defense was dead tired. If Mosely just fair catches the ball we had momentum and they were dead tired and gasping for air. If we drive it again and we were moving the ball well, they would have quit even with their more talented team that year. I remember Bob Griese saying this was not Holtz's best Notre Dame team playing against Ohio State's best team and we had them on the ropes until the Emmitt Mosely muff. Kinder was especially unstoppable and Grasmanis was driving them nuts on defense. They actually scored a TD late in the first half or I think we would have had a 17-7 lead at the half at their place. Holtz was ten times the coach as Cooper was and was making him look bad. They had a ton of talent that year with Eddie George and a speedy receiver whose name eludes me but he played for the Jets and Parcells called him a "she" one time because he was injured a lot, but later Parcells pointed to a sign in the Meadowlands that said "she can play" and they had a great laugh over it because he had become a big play receiver in the pros. I diverse but you could see that was a game Holtz would have won by simply outcoaching the dimwitted Cooper.

In fact, statistically, he had his best year in 1996 after he came back from the broken arm. From the eye test though, I don't think he ever really improved. You say it was the arm injury. I can't say your opinion is right or wrong. My opinion is he was about the same. He had a better receiver to throw to in 94 and 95. That helped him look better.