Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/102697
Miscellaneous Notes • Alabama junior quarterback AJ McCarron threw four touchdown passes against Notre Dame, matching the second-best mark in a BCS National Championship Game. McCarron is the first Alabama QB to throw a touchdown in a BCS National Championship Game — McCarron (against LSU last year), Greg McElroy (versus Texas in 2010) and P.J. Fitzgerald (versus Texas) failed to do so in Alabama's first two title game appearances. Former USC quarterback Matt Leinart's five touchdown passes in a win over Oklahoma in 2005 are the most in BCS National Championship history. • Notre Dame sophomore quarterback Everett Golson's two-yard touchdown scamper late in the third quarter halted Alabama's streak of unanswered points in BCS National Championship contests at 69. The Crimson Tide entered this year's game having scored 34 unanswered points in BCS National Championship play after shutting out LSU, 21-0, last year and scoring the final 13 points in their 37-21 victory over Texas in the 2010 game. • Southeastern Conference teams have never lost a BCS National Championship Game to a team outside of their own conference. The SEC is now 9‑1 in BCS championship play, with the lone loss coming last year, when LSU fell to conference foe Alabama 21-0. The SEC has won seven straight BCS national championships (three by Alabama, two by Florida and one each by Auburn and LSU). • Notre Dame is now 4-1-1 all time in games when ranked No. 1 and playing an opponent ranked No. 2. The Irish have now played 79 total games as the nation's top-ranked team and have a 63-13-3 record when No. 1. • Notre Dame led the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) in red-zone touchdowns allowed percentage (24.24), points allowed per red-zone trip (2.9), total red-zone touchdowns allowed (eight), red-zone rushing touchdowns allowed (two), total red-zone points allowed (95) in the regular season. Alabama scored touchdowns on all four of its red-zone chances in the first half and all five in the game. The Irish had allowed eight touchdowns in the red zone over the entire regular season. • Opponents ran 115 plays inside the red zone this year against the Irish, registering a total of just 116 yards. Alabama put up 59 yards on six plays inside the 20-yard line. • Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly finishes his third year having put together at least eight victories in each of his first three seasons at the helm. This season marked the first time since 1991-93 that Notre Dame finished with a minimum of eight wins in three consecutive seasons. Those 1991‑93 teams each won at least 10 games. • Notre Dame senior safety Zeke Motta finished with a career-best 16 tackles, the most by an Irish player in a single game this season and the most since Sept. 25, 2010, when then-sophomore inside linebacker Manti Te'o registered 21 tackles against Stanford. Motta's nine assisted tackles tied a Notre Dame bowl record first set by Jay Case at the 1979 Cotton Bowl against Houston. • Senior tight end Tyler Eifert, this year's Mackey Award winner as the nation's best at his position and last season's runner-up for the honor, tied a season high with six catches for 61 yards. Eifert also had six catches in the Champs Sports Bowl against Florida State in 2011. His final season included 34 receptions that went for touchdowns or first downs and 12 catches of 20 or more yards (team high). Eifert is at the top of a long list of talented Irish tight ends in career receptions (134) and career receiving yards (1,779). • During the regular season, Notre Dame allowed just six rushes of 20 yards or longer. The longest scoring run allowed was Pittsburgh's Ray Graham's 16-yarder in South Bend. Alabama came away with one 20-yard rush with Eddie Lacy's touchdown on the Tide's opening drive. • Notre Dame was the lone team in the FBS to not allow a touchdown drive longer than 75 yards in the regular season. Alabama had four (82, 80, 97 and 86 yards) such scoring drives against the Irish.