It was the last Top 10 team Bobby Bowden had at Florida State.
And the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, under head coach Tyrone Willingham, were no match for the Seminoles that November afternoon in 2003.
It's certainly not the most memorable or talked-about game in South Bend between the two national powers. That one will always be 1993, the famed "Game of the Century," in which the loser still went on to win the national championship.
But as the Seminoles return to the shadow of Touchdown Jesus this weekend for the first time in 15 years, former Florida State All-American Travis Johnson looks back at that 2003 game in which the No. 5 Seminoles pummeled Notre Dame 37-0.
"We wanted to prove a point," Johnson said. "We wanted to set a tone."
The year before Notre Dame had come into Doak Campbell Stadium as a double-digit underdog and beaten the Seminoles, 34-24. It was 34-10 in the fourth quarter before two late touchdown drives orchestrated by backup Adrian McPherson. That was one of five losses the Seminoles would suffer that year.
In 2003, however, the Seminoles came into the matchup with Notre Dame ranked No. 5 in the nation - their only loss was a rain-soaked defeat to Sean Taylor and the Miami Hurricanes.
The Fighting Irish, meanwhile, were just 2-5. And they were 2-6 after the Seminoles rolled over them in their home stadium - getting shut out in South Bend for the first time since 1978.
"I think it was one of those things where we wanted to let everybody know we were one of the most dominant defenses in the country," Johnson said. "That we were one of the more dominant teams in the country."
Brady Quinn certainly wouldn't argue. The then-freshman QB completed 20 of 52 passes for 175 yards. The last of his three interceptions was returned by Leroy Smith for a 90-yard touchdown. Notre Dame managed just one first down in its first eight possessions against a defense that included Johnson, Darnell Dockett and future Super Bowl champion Bryant McFadden.
"Pig (Jeff Womble) got an interception on a tipped pass," Johnson said. "Leroy ran an interception back to the crib. B-Mac knocked one of their players out. I mean, he knocked him unconscious. ... It was a great game."
Florida State quarterback Chris Rix also threw three interceptions, but he also connected for three touchdown passes - two to Craphonso Thorpe, who finished the afternoon with seven catches for 217 yards.
"I think everybody played their best," Johnson said. "It was probably the best you saw Chris Rix play in the entire five years we were in school was in that game. Up there. All whites. You saw Craphonso take his draft stock to another level. You saw P.K. (Sam) play good ball that day.
"It was a beautiful game."
With maybe the most bizarre locker room scene in Florida State history afterward.
Starting safety B.J. Ward got a huge clump of turf for the team to take back to Tallahassee. The Indiana state troopers working the game either didn't know - or didn't care - about the Seminoles' Sod Cemetery tradition.
So they chased Ward as he ran to the locker room with their South Bend grass.
"B.J. takes the sod and he had to have like an entire square foot of sod," Johnson said. "He literally had like a palate in his hand. ... So B.J. gets up this big, huge pile of sod. And carries it down the tunnel, we carry it into the locker room. And the (state) troopers are going bananas. So we walk into the locker room and B.J. hands the sod to Coach Bowden."
That's when it got ugly.
"Well, the troopers don't realize it's Coach Bowden," Johnson said. "They reach over the top of Coach Bowden, almost roughing Coach Bowden up. Well, all the sudden a fight breaks out in the locker room with the players and the troopers. They don't even realize. And then when they realize, Coach Bowden says "hold on, men! Hold on, men! They didn't know! They didn't know! They didn't know!
"I was like, "Dude, you can't just rough up an old man like that in front (of his team) and think it's going to fly. So it was an eventful days getting that sod into that locker room."
Whether all of the grass got back to Florida State or not doesn't seem to have mattered. Because in the irony of all ironies, the game wasn't a "sod game" because Florida State was favored.
In the official list of sod games on Seminoles.com, the 2003 Notre Dame game is not listed.
But that doesn't mean it's not remembered.
