Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com OCT. 24, 2020 7 UNDER THE DOME taking care of him- self. And then Coach [Matt] Balis obviously kicked in with our strength and condi- tioning program. "Then they're mak- ing good, decisive cuts, seeing things very well. It's a com- bination of all those things. Good backs that are making re- ally patient cuts, let- ting the offensive line do their work." YAC: YARDS AFTER CONTACT Deceptive speed is often a topic of conversation among skill-position athletes, but with the 5-9, 194-pound Williams and 5-9½, 188-pound Tyree it's more about deceptive strength. With their size, they typically would be classified as "scat backs," and certainly not power runners. That would be a mistake, per Kelly, who cites their ability to pick up the tough yards as a primary asset. Through the Irish's first three games, Pro Football Focus had Williams gain- ing 4.42 yards per run after initial con- tact, and Tyree 4.40 (Flemister with a smaller sample size was at 4.86). Clem- son's Travis Etienne led the nation in that category last season at 5.0. For context purposes, Jones was at 3.81 last season, Dexter Williams 3.48 in 2018 and Josh Adams an excep- tional 4.95 as a junior in 2017. "They're both will- ing to run inside the tackles," Kelly said of Williams and Tyree. "If you look at Kyren i n p a r t i c u l a r, h i s rushing yards after first contact are pretty impressive. And so for a guy that in some circles you may say he's not very big — he plays big from that perspective." With Tyree, a bonus has been his excep- tional patience at his age while reading his blockers on the out- side zone or stretch plays. Younger backs often have a tendency to rush through to make yards on their own, but Tyree and Williams both oper- ate by the principle of "be quick, but don't hurry." "That requires a lot of patience, confidence and trust," Kelly said. "You usually don't get that with a young back. They become impatient, they want to bounce it outside." ✦ Our life plan community for those over the age of 62, provides residents with exceptional personalized services, a secure atmosphere and carefree luxury lifestyle – while making it possible to ease into further healthcare levels as needs change throughout retirement years. 'FOUR' THE RECORD Four different Notre Dame running backs eclipsing 100 rushing yards in four straight games — dating back to last year's Camping World Bowl win versus Iowa State — was a unique feat. There were several other times we found a Notre Dame team that had three different play- ers surpass 100 rushing yards in three consecutive weeks the same season. • In 2015 it was running back C.J. Prosise (143 versus USC), quarterback DeShone Kizer (143 versus Temple) and then freshman running back Josh Adams (147 versus Pitt). • In 1998, the three straight by different players included running back Autry Denson (143 versus Purdue), quarterback Jarious Jackson (100 versus Stanford) and fullback Joey Good- speed (109 versus Arizona State). • In 1995, it was fullback Marc Edwards (167 versus Boston College), the then freshman Denson (115 versus Navy), and then both Denson and running back Randy Kinder, 109 and 121, respectively, versus Air Force. • The 1988 national champs did it with running back Mark Green (125 versus Michigan State), running back Tony Brooks (110 versus Purdue) and quarterback Tony Rice (107 versus Stanford). Brooks did it again in the next contest versus Pitt, but he wasn't a fourth different back like what occurred in this year's Florida State game. — Lou Somogyi