TEMPE, ARIZ. — Ricky Watters and Tony Brooks didn`t believe it when Lou Holtz told them they were being sent home early from Notre Dame`s game at Southern Cal last month for repeated tardiness.
``My mouth dropped, and I was kind of in awe for a minute,`` Brooks recalled Friday. ``I thought he`d change his mind after a while, but he stuck with his decision, and I respect him for it.``
Watters was sure Holtz was just trying to scare them into line. ``I thought we were just going to go to the airport and sweat it out and someone was going to come back and get us,`` the sophomore flanker said.
But no one did. The suspensions stood, creating a sidelight to Notre Dame`s 27-10 victory over the Trojans in the Nov. 26 battle of No. 1 and No. 2 teams. Both players talked at length Friday with reporters about the suspensions.
Watters and Brooks are sorry it ever happened. They still aren`t happy they were sent home early, but they agree, as Brooks said, ``It`s something that had to be done.``
The players were reinstated after talking to Holtz. Watters, the team`s leading receiver, is likely to start in Monday`s Fiesta Bowl against West Virginia, and tailback Brooks, the second-leading Irish rusher, is expected to play.
Brooks and Watters were warned after showing up late for a Thanksgiving eve dinner in South Bend. When they were 40 minutes late to a team dinner in Los Angeles two nights later, Holtz had no choice but to follow through on his promise to take action against them.
``I did not decide to suspend the individuals,`` Holtz said Friday.
``That was their decision. I enforced their decision.``
Watters and Brooks hesitated before boarding the plane, partly because they thought Holtz might be pleased if they showed they wanted to remain with their teammates even if they couldn`t play.
``We were at the stairs to the plane, and we were trying to figure out how Coach would take it if we went back,`` Watters said. ``We just wanted to be with the team.``
``I knew it was in Coach Holtz`s grasp to do it,`` Brooks said. ``I just didn`t believe it was happening to me. A lot of times when Coach Holtz chastises you, he comes back and consoles you. I was hoping this would be one of those times, but it wasn`t.``
Holtz defended his decision to send the players home on a flight that arrived at O`Hare Airport after the game had begun. The players skipped a flight to South Bend and watched the rest of the game at the airport.
``There just wasn`t anything that could be accomplished by their being there,`` said Holtz, who made headlines in 1977 by suspending three Arkansas starters before the Orange Bowl.
``The only thing that concerns me is that everybody will dwell upon that, and nobody will focus on the tremendous contribution they`ve made to this team.``
Holtz said he thinks the experience will be ``exceptionally, exceptionally positive,`` but both players still seem embarrassed by it.
``The team won, but, personally, I didn`t see anything good about the weekend,`` Watters said.
