Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/123805
Keep Calm And Carry On The Irish are unconcerned by mistakes during a defensive win in the 2013 Blue-Gold Game B By Dan Murphy rian Kelly showed no consternation about the 51 minutes of game clock his offense needed to find the end zone in the annual Blue-Gold Game in South Bend. He was undeterred by a flashback-inducing special teams performance. Not even an earth-rumbling end zone dive from secret weapon Louis Nix III shook the Irish head coach. "No injuries to report," Kelly said to lead off his postgame comments to media, which should paint a pretty clear picture of the importance Notre Dame's coach placed on the spring practice finale and his goals for the day. "[That's] the biggest fear of any coach when you go through a spring game and try to protect players," he added. "We got out of that clean." The Irish defense, for the record, outscored the offense 54-43 by hitting a variety of benchmarks predetermined to be worthy of points. Don't let the highscoring affair mislead you, though. The injured reserve list was clean. The of- fense, largely, was not. Junior quarterback Everett Golson completed 6 of 13 passes and was intercepted at the goal line to sully the best of his four drives. Classmate George Atkinson III led the team in rushing for the second straight spring game. He gained 49 yards on 10 carries, but didn't create the same highlight-reel moments he conjured a year ago. This time around that honor belonged to Nix. The 347-pound senior lined up at quarterback in the fourth quarter and scrambled into the end zone for a twopoint conversion on a play that hammered home the weightiness of the scrimmage. Nix's moment in the sun — one for which he has clamored for the better part of a year — was made possible by the game's lone touchdown, a 35-yard pass from early enrollee freshman Malik Zaire to sophomore wide receiver C.J. Prosise. "I went up to Malik and I said, 'Bro, get me to the Promised Land,'" Nix said. "He was doing bad at first. Just get me to the Promised Land, and that's what he did."