Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1418303
www.BLUEANDGOLD.com OCT. 23, 2021 25 TYING TWO-POINT CONVERSION WAS A CONSTANT CHANGE OF PLANS Notre Dame's game tying two-point conversion was a departure from script. The play itself was improvisation. The play call was a necessary shift from the initial two-point plan. The Irish decided on their top two- point play and practiced it all week, but when they needed to go for two in their 32-29 win over Virginia Tech, they shifted course because of a personnel issue. Junior running back Kyren Williams was sidelined after taking a hit on a tar- geting penalty. Sophomore and No. 2 back Chris Tyree was also out due to turf toe. That left freshman Logan Diggs as the primary running back — which Williams thinks dictated the change in play call. "We originally had a two-point play planned but we didn't run it, probably because I wasn't in there," Williams said. "When I saw it, I was like 'Oh, that's not what we had dialed up this week for two-point plays.' But we have playmakers all around the offense and you see what happens." Senior wide receiver Kevin Austin Jr. was the beneficiary on a play that went decidedly off script. Notre Dame had just scored on Coan's four-yard touchdown pass to gradu- ate student wide receiver Avery Davis with 2:26 left in the game to pull within two, 29-27. The Irish lined up for the two-point play with Austin alone to the boundary side and a bunch forma- tion to the field, but motioned senior wide receiver Braden Lenzy over to Aus- tin's side. Coan took the snap from the shotgun and looked to the field side, where Davis and senior tight end George Takacs ran a pick play. Takacs ran a stop route and disrupted the path of one defender, leaving Davis running open on a flat route just past the line of scrimmage but shy of the end zone. Coan saw it and kept the ball. Vir- ginia Tech safety Dorian Strong read the play, avoided getting picked and caught up to Davis. Coan had a completion if he threw it, but Davis' chances of getting into the end zone before Strong could tackle him were a toss-up. "He scanned the play looking for Av- ery right out of the bunch," Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly said. "It was a marginal throw if he throws it. I don't know that [Davis] gets in." Coan looked to the other side and saw no openings. Austin ran a stop route a yard or two past the goal line and had two defenders over him. Lenzy was covered in the flat. Neither was a good option. In turn, Coan did what he rarely does: improvise and extend the play. He left the pocket and rolled right, scanning the end zone. He reached the numbers on the far side of the field before launching a pass to the back of the end zone. The throw's target isn't clear. It might have been to Takacs, whose defender had his back to the ball. It might have been to Austin, who ran across the field in the end zone as Coan scrambled. Austin, quite literally, took matters into his own hands. He jumped, got two mitts on Coan's up-for-grabs pass and pulled it down. He landed on his side with the ball nestled between his right arm and the No. 4 on the front of his jersey. Tie game. Just the result Notre Dame wanted — delivered in a different and more nerve- racking fashion than expected. Coan's limited improvisational skills are one reason he has struggled to hold onto Notre Dame's starting quarterback job. On the Irish's most important play of the game, though, he and Austin created something when nothing was there. "Jack turned the throw down," Kelly said, "and just kept the play alive." NOTRE DAME GROUND GAME SPRINGS TO LIFE Kyren Williams was finally able to do some talking. And he made sure to gesture to a good chunk of the 65,632 on hand at Lane Stadium that they shouldn't join him in his jawing. The Notre Dame junior running back found himself in a maroon-painted end zone with a football in his hands not once, but twice during the Fighting Irish's 32-29 victory over the Hokies. He raised his index finger to his facemask to signal the universal "quiet down" sym- bol to onlooking Virginia Tech fans. Not once, but twice. "I like to talk," Williams said. "That's what gets me going. Whenever I'm in that locked-in zone, I know my boys are feeling that. They're vibing off that." Williams' touchdowns gave Notre Dame a lead on both occasions. The first, an eight-yard score through the air from true freshman quarterback Tyler VIRGINIA TECH GAME NOTES BY PATRICK ENGEL AND TYLER HORKA Senior wide receiver Kevin Austin Jr. caught the game-tying two-point conversion and finished with three catches for 70 yards. PHOTO BY KEN MARTIN