Three weeks later, the Irish were flush with a surprising three-game winning streak and had concluded the year with what seemed like an unreachable 7 and 5 record.

You talk about a stunning role reversal. This was a classic 180-degree turnaround.

On the surface, in the wake of ND's unacceptable 28-27 loss to Tulsa, prospects for the Irish looked bleak. The Domers had virtually gift-wrapped that game for the Golden Hurricanes. That defeat was particularly galling and painful and left the reeling Irish with a brutal 4 and 5 slate.

It appeared to all the world that ND was headed for another late-season collapse that had come to epitomize the Charlie Weis era. It sure seemed as if there was another bad moon rising.

With ranked Utah, improving and resurgent Army and the always formidable USC Trojans left on the schedule, the Irish seemed a poor bet to reach the six-win plateau and thereby become bowl eligible.

Given their shoddy and disappointing play versus Navy and Tulsa, it was hard to ferret out any positives surrounding coach Brian Kelly's squad. Almost everywhere one turned, a downer could be found. At that time, virtually nothing the Irish were doing warranted any sort of optimism.

But stunningly, in the face of these crushing setbacks, Kelly was singing an entirely different tune. Rather than being discouraged, he was quietly upbeat. Rather than ready to throw in the towel, the ND coach was thirsting to do more battle.

Kelly kept reiterating the point that though the results have been sub-par, internally he liked what he was seeing from his charges. Despite the frustrations and mounting losses, Kelly's first Irish squad continued to practice hard, remained upbeat and readily harkened to the coach's mantra of playing your best in November.

But, to most observers, Kelly was just whistling in the dark. The critics that had begun to savage him accused the Irish coach of doing nothing but blowing smoke and covering his own ass. No one it seemed, aside from his own players, was buying into this rhetoric. The doubters said all the talk of better days ahead and staying the course was phony and contrived. In other words, it was all just so much b.s.

But then came the Utes of Utah, an overrated but nonetheless top 20 team and the Irish spanked them but good 28-3. This was the first time all year that the Domers showed up in all three phases of the game, offense, defense and special teams.

Next up were the Cadets of Army who were operating out of the same option attack that Navy had used to gouge the Irish during a 35-17 mauling. And while nobody would claim that Army ran the option with Navy's exacting precision, the Cadet's version was nonetheless efficient, dangerous and ranked eighth in the country in rushing yards per game.

So what happened? After the men from West Point tallied on their initial possession, the defense of coordinator Bob Diaco got serious and erected a stone wall. The Cadets rushing game grounded to a halt from that point on. The Irish defenders had gone into full-on lock-down mode.

As a result, the Domers cruised to a satisfying 27-3 victory and notched that pivotal sixth win that ensured a bowl berth and the invaluable practice time that goes with it.

Yet, regardless of this bit of an uptick, very few thought the Irish could get the best of Lane Kiffin's Trojans. Despite the fact that SC was on probation and was dealing with scholarship reductions, there was no denying their roster was still populated with much more athletic talent than that of Notre Dame.

Moreover, the Trojans would be playing at home, in their beloved Coliseum. They were also riding the wave of an eight-game winning streak over the Irish. That run seemed destined to continue. You felt almost a sense of entitlement coming from the SC side.

But again, Kelly spoke of a positive vibe about the way his guys were coming together. Suddenly, he sensed a burgeoning confidence from the Domers that was manifesting itself in any number of ways.

And you know what? Kelly was right on the money once more!

Despite the offense turning the ball over a distressing four times which put the defense into continual jeopardy, the Irish dug as deep as they have all season and gutted out a massive 20-16 win.

Make no mistake about it, this was a victory forged primarily by Diaco's determined defenders. The offense, often undermined by a shaky Tommy Rees, kept shooting itself in the foot only to have the gritty "D" come to the rescue.

Instead of game-deciding touchdowns, gallant defenders like linebackers Darius Fleming and Manti Te'o, defensive end Kapron Lewis-Moore and defensive backs Harrison Smith and Gary Gray, were frustrating the men of Troy by holding them to unsatisfying field goals.

That kept the game within reach and set the stage for a clutch 77-yard drive that was built on the back of the inspired running of Californian Cierre Wood and most notably, senior Robert Hughes.

When Hughes lowered his shoulder, moved the pile and powered his way into the end-zone from 5 yards out with 2:33 to play, the Irish had a lead they would not again relinquish.

There were still some hairy moments left, however, before the Irish could breathe easy. SC wideout Ronald Johnson, left all by his lonesome after making a nifty inside move that left the Irish secondary scrambling on the turf, dropped a sure touchdown at the Irish 15.

The outcome wasn't finally sealed until the aforementioned Smith anticipated a badly misjudged throw by Trojan quarterback Mitch Mustain and squeezed it to his bosom near the goal line. With that, it was game, set and match.

And with that, the monkey on Notre Dame's back, the monkey that had grown into a 500-pound gorilla, had at last been thrown aside. Eight years of frustration, pain, disappointment, embarrassment and heartache had come to an end. For the first time since 2002 in this storied ND-USC intersectional tussle, it was the Irish who walked away winners. On this day, the Trojan band was denied the privilege of blaring that sometimes insipid tune "Conquest" at the final gun.

On October 30th, the Irish season seemed ruined. It looked to be in taters.

Who would have thought that a scant three weeks later, the Irish would be doing a jig. That they would be dancing in clover. A broken season had been repaired, a stumbling program had been revived.

Thanks to Kelly , a resilient coaching staff and a bunch of spirited players who refused to say uncle, the Irish had turned disaster into something much more palatable.

The lasting memory of this turbulent season won't be that of ND's early and mid-season foibles but rather it will be of the impressive way this team rallied from the brink and finished with a flourish.