Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com SEPT. 25, 2021 29 KYREN WILLIAMS' TOUCHDOWN RUN SEALS WIN, BRINGS REDEMPTION Avery Davis caught himself in a mo- ment of fandom. For a split second, the graduate student wide receiver felt like one of the 74,341 folks in the Notre Dame Stadium stands, staring in amazement as junior running back Kyren Williams neared the end zone on a run that initially appeared to be a nondescript three- or four-yard gain. Late in the fourth quarter, with Notre Dame trying to preserve a seven-point lead over Purdue, Williams took a handoff on an inside zone run play and burst into the designed gap on the left side. Purdue linebacker Jaylan Alexander, in ideal posi- tion to make a tackle, hit him about three yards past the line of scrimmage. But Williams never went down. His legs kept churning and kept powering until he shed Alexander and burst into the open field. A fumble-hungry linebacker took a swing at the ball from behind and missed. Davis ran downfield with him, still in awe. Williams reached the end zone 51 yards later, scoring the final touchdown in a 27-13 Irish win over the Boilermak- ers and adding the latest highlight to a long reel of turning dead plays into explosive ones. "He's insane," Davis said. "It's his ability to maneuver through tight spaces, to make people miss and strength to stay up. "I was right there running next to him and had the best view. It was incredible. I was watching him for a second and forgot I had to block for him. He's just so entertaining." Davis threw a shoulder into Purdue's last trailing defender just before the goal line, sealing Williams' path into the end zone. All told, Williams ran out of one tackle, withstood a forced fumble at- tempt and spun a safety around when he changed course. To his teammates, it's hardly a sur- prise anymore. "Kyren is nasty," graduate student defensive end Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa said. "He's tough. What you see on the field, he does in practice." Williams would have been fine with the short gain. Notre Dame began a posses- sion at its own 49-yard line with 6:16 left in the game, leading 20-13 and hoping to drip as much time as possible off the clock before adding points and putting Purdue in a two-score hole. Instead, Williams crossed the goal line 11 seconds later. Not a bad alternative. "I was really just trying to get yards and milk the clock, run the ball until we scored," Williams said. "But it happened the first play. Plays like that happen. When it's your time, when it's called for you, you have to make a play. "That was my big emphasis this week, running through tackles, because I don't think I did that well enough last week [against Toledo]." Williams, in fact, found himself in the same spot against the Rockets, taking handoffs on what was supposed to be a time-killing drive to seal a win. Notre Dame marched inside the Toledo 40-yard line with less than four minutes to go, leading 24-22 and hoping to add points. Williams' job was to shed tackles, stay in bounds and hold onto the ball. He did the first two. Not the third. His fumble with 3:26 left set up Tole- do's go-ahead touchdown. Notre Dame came back to win, but it didn't eradicate Williams' sour feeling about his role in what was nearly a disastrous loss. "We got a win, but it was a win I could have taken away from the team by fum- bling the ball," Williams said. "I was mad at myself, upset at myself. I had to flip that switch if I didn't want that to repeat this week." Notre Dame put him right back in an identical situation a week later, its trust in him not at all shaken. His confidence in himself never wavered either. "These are the games where you come back and really prove who you are as a player, as a leader, as a person," Williams said. "For me, being able to bounce back is big." NOTRE DAME OFFENSE STILL HAS MUCH TO IMPROVE UPON Even when Kevin Austin Jr. got his hands on the ball, it ended poorly for Notre Dame. It was just that kind of day for the senior wide receiver against Purdue. It was just that kind of day for the Fighting Irish offense in general, really. Sure, No. 12 Notre Dame did enough to win. Graduate student quarterback Jack Coan threw for 223 yards and two touchdowns. Junior running back Kyren Williams rushed for 91 yards and a touchdown, and caught a couple passes for 47 yards and another score. But one blunder from Austin rep- resented the inconsistency that could PURDUE GAME NOTES BY PATRICK ENGEL AND TYLER HORKA Williams had 91 yards on 12 carries (7.6 yards per carry), including a 51-yard touchdown run. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER