For Tim Nowatzke, Notre Dame was never just another opponent. It was the team he grew up wanting to play for, the school he watched every year, the place that sat close enough to home in Michigan City, Indiana, to feel real and just far enough away to remain out of reach.
That’s what makes BYU’s trip to South Bend in 1992 such a loaded memory for the former Cougar receiver. And it’s why this week’s No.
2 Notre Dame-No. 8 BYU matchup in Provo hits him differently.
The Irish and Cougars have rarely crossed paths - Saturday’s meeting at 5:30 p.m. MDT on ABC will be just the 10th between the programs since BYU first took the field in 1922 - but Nowatzke lived through three of the previous nine.
“I had been to one (spring practice) game, but we watched every (Notre Dame) game every year,” Nowatzke told the “Y’s Guys” livestream show this week. “I wanted to go to Notre Dame, but other people had other plans.”
Those other plans led him to BYU on a recruiting trip in 1990. He knew the Cougars because he loved the Chicago Bears, and his favorite quarterback was Jim McMahon. BYU made enough of an impression to land him, and then fate delivered Notre Dame three straight seasons while he was in Provo.
The first one, on Oct. 24, 1992, came with the game of a lifetime waiting - and a personal blow that made it even heavier. Before kickoff, Nowatzke learned his grandfather had died.
“This game meant everything to me, playing against the team I wanted to play for in their stadium,” he said. “I had never seen a live game (there), now I’m going to play in one?”
BYU had traveled to South Bend a day early because LaVell Edwards wanted the team to see the sights, but Nowatzke spent that Thursday at his grandfather’s funeral. That night, he said, was brutally emotional.
“I remember literally crying myself to sleep before the biggest game of my life and thinking I was going to be playing on national television on NBC and I didn’t really care, but I cared because I wanted to perform for my grandpa and my family,” he said. “I had a peace fall upon me.
I had a great experience with prayer. It was very strong and powerful.
I was able to play.”
He did more than play. With 125 family members in the stands among the 59,075 in attendance, Nowatzke caught a 5-yard touchdown pass from Ryan Hancock in the third quarter to pull BYU within 21-16. He said Tyler Anderson and Byron Rex delivered the hit on the scoring play, part of what he called a BYU tradition started by Ty Detmer of celebrating by “pummeling the guy who scored the touchdown.”
Then came the sideline moment he still remembers clearly: Nowatzke turned toward the camera behind the BYU bench and said, “Hi, Grandma!”
Notre Dame, ranked No. 10 at the time, answered with a strong fourth quarter and finished off a 42-16 win.
A year later, the No. 3 Irish came to Provo. Nowatzke said that one felt different - and not nearly as vivid in his memory.
“That wasn’t as big (as South Bend),” he said. “I don’t remember that game as well.”
Notre Dame controlled that Oct. 16, 1993 meeting as well, rolling 45-20. Nowatzke finished with three catches for 13 yards and one carry for 9 yards.
The final chapter of his Notre Dame run came on Oct. 15, 1994, and this time the story flipped. BYU went back to Indiana and stunned the Irish 21-14. Nowatzke caught three passes for 24 yards, and senior running back Jamal Willis scored the winning touchdown behind the blocking of freshman fullback Kalani Sitake.
“We were locked in. You could feel it that week.
We weren’t enamored. We weren’t intimidated,” Nowatzke said.
“It was a dream come true. I remember walking off with my friends and teammates (and) celebrated with my family.
Leaving there, it was unreal.”
Those three games also tracked with a bigger change in Nowatzke’s life. During that stretch, he converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The 1992 trip to South Bend, he said, was where “I learned how to pray and talk to my Father in Heaven. It was powerful.”
By the time Notre Dame came to Provo in 1993, he had investigated the church and was baptized by Anderson. When he played the 1994 game, he was waiting for his future wife, Heidi Heaps, to return from her mission. They were married the next summer.
“What started out as a football dream has changed my life and I’ve been very blessed,” Nowatzke said.
Looking back, he says Notre Dame’s decision not to recruit him opened the door to everything that followed. What began as disappointment turned into a life he now shares with his family in St. George, Utah, 1,400 miles from where it all started.
And this weekend, when Notre Dame and BYU meet again - 6-0 against 5-0, top 10 against top 10, with CFP rankings in the background - Nowatzke says the stage is bigger than anything else in Cougars history.
“I think hands down, it’s without a doubt the biggest game in the history of the (BYU) program,” he said. “The first game that came to mind was BYU-Miami (1990) and the national championship game (1984) and the Cotton Bowl (1996) - those were all big games, but this weekend, two verses eight with CFP rankings on the line, I think without a doubt, this is our biggest game.”
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