1991 Orange Bowl The 1991 Orange Bowl was a 1990 – 1991 college football bowl game that was played on January 1 , 1991 , for the national championship . The 57th edition of the Orange Bowl featured the Notre Dame Fighting Irish , and the Colorado Buffaloes . Colorado came into the game with a 10 – 1 – 1 record and # 1 AP ranking , whereas Notre Dame came into the game with a 9 – 2 and # 5 AP ranking . The game was a rematch of the 1990 Orange Bowl , in which # 3 Notre Dame took a National Championship away from # 1 Colorado , 21 – 6 . The 1991 win gave the Buffaloes their first and ( to date ) only National Championship , shared with Georgia Tech . Setup . Colorado came into the Orange Bowl 10 – 1 – 1 , but needed some luck to get to that point . In their first game , the Tennessee Volunteers came back from 21 points out , kicking the tying extra point to hold a 31 – 31 tie . More than one month later , Colorado quarterback Charles Johnson scored a touchdown to beat the Missouri Tigers 33 – 31 , in a very controversial game in which Colorado was allowed to have a 5th down . The winning touchdown was scored on that play , and it was allowed to stand , even though Johnson was stopped short of the goal line on that play . That game is often referred to as the " 5th down game " . One reason for the Buffaloes number 1 ranking was that they had the toughest schedule of any team . Another was quarterback Darian Hagan and half back Eric Bieniemy , who finished 3rd in the Heisman voting . A victory would guarantee at least a share of the championship , but the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets weren ' t far behind with their number 2 ranking in both polls , and were 10 – 0 – 1 going into New Year ' s Day . The Fighting Irish of Notre Dame , meanwhile , were 9 – 2 , but the two losses were unfortunate . Both losses occurred when they were number 1 in the polls , and at home . The first was a 36 - 31 loss to 1 - 3 Stanford on October 6 . The second loss came when Penn State ' s Craig Fayak kicked a 34 yard field goal to hand the Irish a 24 - 21 loss . The Penn State loss resulted in Notre Dame ' s number one ranking falling to Colorado . Sophomore quarterback Rick Mirer passed for 1824 yards and 8 touchdowns , while Raghib Ismail accounted for 1726 all - purpose yards , putting him on the All - American team as a wide receiver . The game . After a scoreless first quarter , Colorado struck first blood , as Jim Harper kicked a 22 yard field goal to give the first points of the game . A few minutes later , on 2nd and goal , tailback Ricky Watters plunged in from 2 yards to give the Fighting Irish the lead . But when Ronnie Bradford blocked Craig Hentrich ' s PAT attempt , the score remained 6 - 3 . This cost Hentrich his 73 straight successful PAT attempts , a school record . Things would turn sour for the Buffaloes , however , as Hagan ruptured his tendon in his left knee just before the half , where the score remained the same . The 1991 Orange Bowl is also remembered for a controversial finish . Raghib Ismail returned a punt 92 yards for the seeming winning touchdown with 43 seconds left . This would have sealed the victory for Notre Dame and cost Colorado a share of the National Championship . However , the touchdown was called back on a clipping penalty , and Colorado held on for the 10 - 9 victory .