Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com JANUARY 2020 35 Senior tailback Tony Jones Jr. leads the Irish with 722 rushing yards. Unexpectedly — and perhaps disappointingly — senior quarterback Ian Book is second on the Irish with 516 rushing yards. No other Irish rusher has 200 yards this season. Junior Jafar Armstrong was the opening game starter at running back for Notre Dame, but inju- ries limited him to 38 carries and 114 yards during the regular season. Spearheaded by fifth-year senior linebacker Mar- cel Spears Jr. — who leads Iowa State with 85 tackles — the Cyclones were stingy against the run this regular season, ranking No. 34 in the country with 133.8 yards allowed per contest. But as the competition improved later in the sea- son, Iowa State's performance in rushing defense slipped along with it. The first six Cyclone oppo- nents averaged only 101.5 rushing yards per game, while its final six recorded 166.6 yards per game. Advantage: Iowa State NOTRE DAME PASSING GAME VS. IOWA STATE PASS DEFENSE Just about the time the masses were ready to run Book out of town after his dismal performance against Michigan, the Irish signal-caller finished the season playing the best football of his career. In what was actually a Heisman-esque five-game stretch, Book threw for 18 touchdowns and four interceptions during Notre Dame's five-game No- vember winning streak to finish the regular season. And in his last three games, Book had 12 touch- down throws with no interceptions. With Book surging down the stretch, Notre Dame finds itself ranked No. 22 in passing efficiency. Irish senior wide receiver Chase Claypool has been the greatest beneficiary of Book's improved play. After going three games without a scoring catch, Claypool had at least one touchdown grab — eight total — in each of his last four games. Iowa State will have its hands full slowing down Book. The Cyclones have ranked in the middle of the NCAA pack most of this season in passing effi- ciency defense (No. 69, 132.31 rating) and passing yards allowed per game (No. 70, 228.3), and they have only six interceptions and 27 total sacks, the latter ranking 58th in the country. Advantage: Notre Dame SPECIAL TEAMS Notre Dame waited until its regular-season finale to finally make a game-changing special teams play. In the second quarter against Stanford and with Notre Dame trailing 17-7, Irish freshman defen- sive end Isaiah Foskey blocked a punt that was recovered by the Irish and returned to the Cardinal 1-yard line. That one play drastically changed momentum and sparked a 31-0 Irish scoring run that concluded with a 45-24 victory. Iowa State has been below average this season in most special teams categories. It ranks No. 101 in net punting and didn't score any touchdowns in its return game, but it did allow a 93-yard kick- off return for a score. Junior placekicker Connor Assalley has made 12 of 16 field goal attempts, with a long of 42 yards, highlighted by the game winner versus Texas as time expired. Advantage: Notre Dame COACHING Even though his team's late-season surge didn't move the rankings needle or get his 10-win Notre Dame team into a New Year's Six bowl, Kelly rallied the troops after the Oct. 26 loss at Michigan wiped out any College Football Playoff hopes. Kelly achieved many milestones in 2019, includ- ing winning double-digit games a third straight year. A 26-24 overall record for fourth-year Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell may appear rather pe- destrian, but with three straight winning seasons, this former Toledo coach is lifting the Cyclones program to a place it hasn't been in 40 years. Iowa State hadn't won seven games in three straight seasons since 1976-78. Advantage: Notre Dame INTANGIBLES Iowa State has everything to play for in this game to further its rise under Campbell, but Kelly in- sisted that his Irish still have much on the line as well, most notably to send the graduating seniors off on a winning note and to set a positive tone for next year. Win this bowl game, and Kelly will have 33 wins over the last three seasons (33-6), which would be the most at Notre Dame over a three-year pe- riod since head coach Lou Holtz went 33-4 from 1988-90, although against much tougher schedules. The 7-5 record for Iowa State is a little misleading because four of its five losses were by one pos- session and three of those defeats came by three points or less — including two by one point. The 27-17 loss to Kansas State in the regular- season finale was the lone Iowa State defeat that was decided before the closing seconds. Advantage: Even GAME PREVIEW: IOWA STATE Offense Pos. No. Name Ht. Wt. Yr. QB 15 Brock Purdy 6-1 210 So. 6 Re-al Mitchell 6-0 195 R-Fr. RB 28 Breece Hall 6-1 205 Fr. or 4 Johnnie Lang 5-8 193 R-So. or 25 Sheldon Croney Jr. 5-11 206 5th-Sr. or 3 Kene Nwangwu 6-1 205 R-Jr. or 21 Jirehl Brock 5-11 200 Fr. TE 88 Charlie Kolar 6-6 252 R-So. or 11 Chase Allen 6-7 245 R-Jr. F 89 Dylan Soehner 6-7 270 R-Jr. 45 Ben Latusek 6-3 248 R-So. WR-M 8 Deshaunte Jones 5-10 180 Sr. 82 Landen Akers 6-0 188 R-Jr. WR-X 1 Tarique Milton 5-10 183 R-So. 9 Joe Scates 6-2 196 R-Fr. WR-Z 7 La'Michael Pettway 6-2 223 5th-Sr. or 17 Darren Wilson 6-3 198 So. or 2 Sean Shaw Jr. 6-6 212 R-Fr. LT 51 Julian Good-Jones 6-5 308 5th-Sr. 76 Joey Ramos 6-5 300 R-Fr. LG 52 Trevor Downing 6-4 300 R-Fr. 64 Derek Schweiger 6-3 295 R-So. C 63 Collin Olson 6-1 290 5th-Sr. or 57 Colin Newell 6-4 297 R-So. RG 66 Josh Knipfel 6-5 305 Sr. 77 Robert Hudson 6-6 335 R-So. RT 74 Bryce Meeker 6-6 305 5th-Sr. 75 Sean Foster 6-8 310 R-Jr. Defense Pos. No. Name Ht. Wt. Yr. E 55 Zach Petersen 6-4 262 So. 9 Will McDonald 6-4 230 R-Fr. NG 58 Ray Lima 6-3 305 5th-Sr. 90 Joshua Bailey 6-2 285 R-Jr. DT 92 Jamahl Johnson 6-0 300 Sr. 95 Tucker Robertson 6-3 280 R-So. E 5 Enyi Uwazurike 6-6 285 R-Jr. 89 Matt Leo 6-7 275 5th-Sr. WLB 42 Marcel Spears Jr. 6-1 218 5th-Sr. 35 Jake Hummel 6-1 228 Jr. MLB 34 O'Rien Vance 6-1 231 R-So. 44 Bobby McMillen III 6-2 225 5th-Sr. SLB 23 Mike Rose 6-3 240 So. 36 Chandler Pulvermacher 6-2 223 R-Fr. Star 12 Greg Eisworth 6-0 205 R-Jr. 4 Arnold Azunna 6-0 190 R-Jr. FS 11 Lawrence White 6-0 196 R-Jr. 24 D.J. Miller 5-11 174 Fr. SS 33 Braxton Lewis 5-11 190 5th-Sr. or 7 Justin Bickham 6-1 199 5th-Sr. LC 26 Anthony Johnson 6-0 186 So. 27 Amechie Walker 5-10 178 5th-Sr. or 19 Kym-Mani King 5-10 165 Fr. RC 2 Datrone Young 5-9 176 R-So. or 10 Tayvonn Kyle 5-11 176 R-Fr. 16 Keontae Jones 6-0 178 R-So. IOWA STATE DEPTH CHART Pos. No. Name Ht. Wt. Yr. P 7 Joe Rivera 6-2 186 R-Jr. LS 39 Steve Wirtel 6-4 235 Sr. H 10 Blake Clark 6-2 195 R-Fr. PK 96 Connor Assalley 6-0 195 R-Jr. 90 Brayden Narveson 6-0 193 R-Fr. Pos. No. Name Ht. Wt. Yr. PR 1 Tarique Milton 5-10 183 R-So. 8 Deshaunte Jones 5-10 180 Sr. KR 3 Kene Nwangwu 6-1 205 R-Jr. 4 Johnnie Lang 5-8 193 R-So. Special Teams