Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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28 SEPT. 23, 2019 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED Since his arrival at Notre Dame in 2017, Davis has played quarterback, wide receiver, running back and cor- nerback. He was recently moved back to the offensive side of the ball after the injuries to junior Jafar Armstrong and sophomore Jahmir Smith cut into the team's depth at running back fol- lowing the Louisville game. Just like Dexter Williams last year, Davis was able to take his first touch for a 59-yard jaunt — off a shovel pass from senior quarterback Ian Book — to paydirt to put Notre Dame up 21-0 midway through the second quarter. The emergence of Davis and McKin- ley allows the more well-known skill players on offense to shine because it prevents the defense from zeroing in on veterans such as senior wideout Chase Claypool and fifth-year senior wide receiver Chris Finke. "He really opens up our offense and gives the opponent's defense some- thing to look at," Claypool said of Da- vis. The lineup of Finke, Claypool and McKinley also provides a new look to the offense. "It gives us more deep field threats with the size, and it helps with the run game if the receivers are able to block," Claypool said. KELLY'S GUYS SHOW WELL For the last several weeks, head coach Brian Kelly has seemingly made a point of referencing certain players during his speaking engagements, particularly senior defensive end Daelin Hayes, junior linebacker Drew White and fifth-year senior linebacker Asmar Bilal. At his radio show this week, Kelly said fans should expect a "spectacu- lar" season from Hayes. Against New Mexico, Hayes showed everyone why. Hayes had four total stops and two tackles for loss, but his biggest play may have been the pass he tipped that freshman safety Kyle Hamilton intercepted and returned for the first touchdown of the game. When asked about the praise Kelly has shown him, Hayes brushed it off. "It's something that you don't want to get too caught up in," he said. The fact that Kelly has referred to Hayes isn't surprising, but people may have been scratching their heads when the head coach has positive things to say about the performances of White and Bilal. While both had a handful of tackles in the opener against Lou- isville, they did not play well at times. Neither was flawless versus New Mexico, but both made plays and ap- peared to be assignment correct more often than not. Bilal led the team in tackles with eight and made two stops behind the line of scrim- mage. White notched four tackles (one for loss) and a quarterback hurry. On the other hand, one player Kelly has tried to avoid praising too much publicly is Hamilton — likely in or- der to temper expectations on such a young player. That is why when Kelly brought him up in his post-game press conference, he only referenced Hamil- ton by his number. "The defense kind of set it up for us, the big interception by that kid, [No.] 14 — he's around the ball," Kelly said. "He just has a great nose for the football and the interception for a touchdown got us some great momentum, and then we were able to feed off that." ✦ NOTRE DAME VS. NEW MEXICO QUARTER-BY-QUARTER COMPARISON Notre Dame 1st Qtr. 2nd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 4th Qtr. 1st Half 2nd Half Total Time of Possession 6:32 5:47 6:03 6:32 12:19 12:35 24:54 Third-Down Conversions 1-4 0-2 0-1 0-3 1-6 0-4 1-10 Fourth-Down Conversions 1-1 1-1 1-1 2-2 2-2 3-3 5-5 Average Field Position ND-35 ND-31 ND-39 ND-18 ND-32 ND-30 ND-32 New Mexico 1st Qtr. 2nd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 4th Qtr. 1st Half 2nd Half Final Time of Possession 8:28 9:13 8:57 8:28 17:41 17:25 35:06 Third-Down Conversions 3-5 1-5 0-4 1-4 4-10 1-8 5-18 Fourth-Down Conversions 0-0 0-0 1-3 0-0 0-0 1-3 1-3 Average Field Position NM-12 NM-27 NM-25 NM-28 NM-21 NM-26 NM-23 PLAY CHART (NO. OF PLAYS) Yards ND NM Nega ve 7 8 0-5 31 44 6-9 9 11 10-19 5 7 20-29 8 1 30-39 1 2 40-49 0 2 50 or more 4 0 RED ZONE EFFICIENCY (INSIDE 20-YARD LINE) No Poss. TD FG Score Notre Dame 4 3 1 0 New Mexico 1 0 0 1 BIG PLAYS (25 YARDS OR MORE) Notre Dame • 1-10 ND41 Book pass complete to Davis for 59 yards and a touchdown • 2-10 ND35 Book pass complete to Mckinley for 65 yards and a touchdown • 1-10 NM37 Book pass complete to Claypool for 37 yards and a touchdown • 2-4 ND46 Book pass complete to Finke for 54 yards and a touchdown • 1-10 NM49 Book pass complete to Tremble for 29 yards to the NM20 • 1-10 ND42 Jurkovec pass complete to Lenzy for 52 yards to the NM6 New Mexico •2-10 ND47 Carroll rush for 47 yards and a touchdown •1-10 NM49 Tuio pass complete to Molina for 41 yards to the ND10 •1-10 NM25 Tuio pass complete to Molina for 38 yards to the ND37 •1-10 ND37 B. Cole rush for 37 yards and a touchdown MISCELLANEOUS NOTES • The 66-14 victory versus New Mexico was the first time the Fighting Irish have scored more than 60 points in a game since they beat Massachusetts 62-27 on Sept. 26, 2015. • Senior quarterback Ian Book's five touch- down tosses tied the second-best single-game performance in school history. Brady Quinn ranks first with his six-touchdown performance against BYU in 2005. It marked the ninth time in program history a quarterback has completed five or more touchdown passes in a game. Book joined Quinn (six in one contest and five in two games), Jimmy Clausen (five in two games), DeShone Kizer (five in two games) and Tommy Rees (five in one game) on that exclusive list. • Freshman safety Kyle Hamilton's pick-six with 10:09 remaining in the first quarter was the first of its kind for the Irish since 2017, when Julian Love did it in a 35-14 win versus North Carolina State. It was also the first pick- six by an Irish freshman since 2008, when Rob- ert Blanton achieved the feat in a 38-21 win against Purdue. • The pick-six by Hamilton to open the scoring for the Irish marked the first time since 2002 (Gerome Sapp in a 24-17 win versus Purdue) that the first Notre Dame score of the year at home was a defensive touchdown. • Fifth-year senior cornerback Shaun Craw- ford had his first interception since Sept. 16, 2017, when he had two against Boston College. Crawford came back from his third season- ending injury.