Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com OCT. 23, 2021 19 BY TYLER HORKA B rian Kelly said he wanted to avoid a "flavor of the week" situation at quarterback. The game against Virginia Tech was more of a flavor of the quarter type of thing. Would you like a scoop of graduate student Jack Coan, a double scoop of true freshman Tyler Buchner and an- other scoop of Coan to round out the order? Might as well get it on a waffle cone, too, because Notre Dame sure waffled back and forth between the two signal-callers. Coan started. Buchner replaced him in the second quarter and lasted in relief well into the fourth. Buchner's final pass attempt was an interception, and he was injured in funky, fluky, non-contact fashion after the play. So in came Coan like an extra scoop on top, and he engineered two scor- ing drives in the final four minutes in front of a roaring, raucous crowd at Lane Stadium. Notre Dame escaped as hostile en- vironment as any with a 32-29 victory. Any sprinkles with that, Coach Kelly? "I don't know that I've ever coached a group of guys that had such resolve and mental toughness that regardless of the situation they just kept playing," Kelly said. "Unfazed by the circumstances." Graduate student kicker Jonathan Doerer drilled a 48-yard field goal with 17 seconds left to send No. 14 Notre Dame (5-1) into its bye week with the bounce-back victory. Coan connected on 9 of 12 passes for 108 yards with a touchdown despite getting pulled from the game in the first half. Buchner was erratic as a passer at times. He completed 6 of 14 throws for 113 yards and a touchdown with two interceptions. He added 67 rushing yards and a score on the ground. Junior running back Kyren Williams ran for 81 yards and a touchdown and added a receiving score as well. Virginia Tech took a late third- quarter lead on a 26-yard intercep- tion return for a touchdown by cor- nerback Jermaine Waller off Buchner. The Hokies extended their lead to eight points on quarterback Braxton Burmeister's 19-yard scrambling score with 3:55 remaining. Then Coan took control of the Notre Dame offense again, and he took control of the game along with it. He completed five of his final six pass attempts, in- cluding a four-yard touchdown to grad- uate student wide receiver Avery Davis with 2:26 left. He scrambled, extended the play and found senior wide receiver Kevin Austin Jr. on the ensuing two- point conversion. Coan set the stage for Doerer with 35 passing yards on Notre Dame's final drive of the game, and Doerer delivered — just as he always seems to — in the clutch. "He's done that time in and time out," Kelly said of Doerer. "The moment is not too big for him. He loves those op- portunities, he relishes them, and he's been really good at them." FIRST QUARTER VIRGINIA TECH 7, NOTRE DAME 0 Top Moment: Virginia Tech capped a seven-play, 80-yard touchdown drive with a seven-yard touchdown from running back Raheem Blackshear with 3:21 to play in the quarter. It was the first scoring play for either team. Feature Performer: Forty percent of Blackshear's yards gained on the ground in the game came in the first quarter. He had two rushes of seven yards apiece, which accounted for 14 of his 35 yards. Stats: Virginia Tech gained 74 yards to Notre Dame's 27. The Irish ran the ball 10 times for just 12 yards. The Hokies ran eight times for 34 yards. Items: Coan continued his stretch of six straight starts to begin the season … Junior guard Zeke Correll was flagged for a false start with the Irish lined up to go for it on fourth-and-one from the Virginia Tech 44 … Coan was sacked twice in the frame. SECOND QUARTER NOTRE DAME 14, VIRGINIA TECH 13 Top Moment(s): In a span of three plays, Buchner completed a 46-yard pass to Austin and scored his first ca- reer rushing touchdown on a three-yard bruising play at the goal line. The score trimmed Virginia Tech's lead to 10-7 with 6:51 left until halftime. Feature Performer: Buchner scored on the ground and completed an eight- yard strike to Williams for the second passing touchdown of his career. He gave Notre Dame a halftime lead when it looked lucky just to be in the game the way the first quarter went. Stats: Notre Dame gained 151 yards with Buchner at the helm. Virginia Tech tried to keep pace with 108 yards of its own. Only 50 of Notre Dame's yards came on the ground as Buchner found a short-lasting rhythm through the air. Items: Notre Dame held Virginia Tech to a field goal at the goal line early in the frame. The Hokies could have taken a two-touchdown lead but had to settle for a 19-yard kick … Junior defen- sive end Isaiah Foskey upped his season sack total to 6.0 with a 10-yard take- down of Burmeister. THIRD QUARTER VIRGINIA TECH 22, NOTRE DAME 21 Top Moment: Williams would not be denied on his 10-yard touchdown carry that gave Notre Dame a 21-16 advantage with 4:27 left in the quarter. He broke multiple tackles on what looked like a modest gain at first, but ultimately was a highlight reel touchdown. Feature Performer: Williams had almost one-third of his rushing total DOUBLE DIPPER Notre Dame's 32-29 victory was twice as nice for quarter- back Jack Coan, who was benched in the first half but reentered late in the game to lead the Irish comeback