Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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8 OCT. 23, 2021 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED UNDER THE DOME Don't Overlook The Up-And-Down Tar Heels By Tyler Horka At the beginning of the season, there were two games on the Notre Dame schedule Irish fans should have been particularly worried about — Cincinnati and North Carolina. The former lived up to the billing. The Bearcats beat the Irish at Notre Dame Stadium and did so rather dominantly, especially in the first half. Meanwhile, North Carolina does not seem as formidable as it once did. The Tar Heels have fallen victim to the same issue that has haunted Notre Dame this season: an offen- sive line seemingly incapable of keeping its quarterback upright. Junior Sam Howell still managed to throw for nearly 1,500 yards and 14 touchdowns and four interceptions through UNC's first five games. Senior running back Ty Chandler ran for 423 yards and four touchdowns during that span as well. Much like Notre Dame, if the North Carolina offensive line ever puts it all together then the Tar Heels could be a totally different team. That might very well happen by Oct. 30. The Irish go into that matchup one week after the emotionally draining experience that comes with playing against USC. The Tar Heels will head to Notre Dame Stadium fresh off a bye week, just as Cincinnati did. Everyone knows how that turned out. The season hasn't played out the way UNC head coach Mack Brown wanted or expected it to, but there is still time to salvage it, and beating Notre Dame on the road would go a long way in doing that. USC Is Still A Threat By Todd D. Burlage USC has underachieved so far this season. Just ask Clay Helton. Ranked No. 15 in the Associated Press preseason top 25, the Trojans were picked to win the Pac-12 South Division and play Oregon in the conference championship game. Instead, USC was upset at home by Stanford in the second game and Helton was fired. But Helton's dismissal wasn't because of a talent short- age, not hardly. Interim head coach Donte Williams inherited a roster full of future NFL players, and that list starts with quarterback Kedon Slovis, a first-team All- Pac-12 selection in 2020 after he threw for nearly 2,000 yards and 17 touch- downs in a pandemic-shortened six-game season. Now in his third year as a starter, Slovis — a certain first-round 2022 NFL Draft pick — led the Trojans to the 2020 Pac-12 championship game, his offense to 33.4 points a game and himself to some 2021 Heisman Trophy projections. Slovis is the real deal and has plenty of playmakers around him, most nota- bly junior wide receiver Drake London, who entered his game last weekend against Utah second in the nation with 134.0 receiving yards per game and first with 9.6 receptions per game. Brian Kelly is 7-3 against USC as Notre Dame's head coach but four of those wins came by seven points or fewer. Kelly will be favored to win his fourth straight in this series, but the fire- power USC features on offense and the fresh start Helton's dismissal brought to the team make this a dangerous game for the Irish. Point ✦ Counterpoint: WHAT IS NOTRE DAME'S TOUGHEST REMAINING HOME GAME? After spending essentially all of what was sup- posed to be his breakout season in 2020 battling a hamstring injury, little things mean a lot in 2021 for senior wide receiver Braden Lenzy. So, after staying upright and on the field for every game through the entire first half of this season, Lenzy is feeling blessed, thankful and hopeful. After redshirting as a freshman in 2018, Lenzy was never fully healthy and missed some time as a sophomore in 2019, but still managed 11 catches and 254 yards — for a robust 23.1 yards per catch — with two touchdowns. Lenzy also added 13 rushes for 200 yards and two more scores. With his sophomore season as a prelude, Lenzy entered his junior year in 2020 believing along with his coaches that it would be his com- ing out party. It never happened. Lenzy was sidelined by a left hamstring injury in the preseason, moved in and out of the lineup and managed only seven catches for 63 yards with one touchdown. Fully recovered this season, Lenzy recorded multiple receptions in each of Notre Dame's first five games, including a four-catch, 61-yard, one- touchdown outing against Cincinnati. BGI: What are your personal goals for the rest of this season? Lenzy: "I'm not really concerned about indi- vidual stats. In my mind, I've never been able to play a full season, ever. "So, just being able to come to work every day and not miss any time, I would say for me I'm pretty happy with what I've done thus far." BGI: What is your relationship with the quar- terbacks? Lenzy: "I love all of them. They are all really close. I think that is very Notre Dame-like. There isn't any animosity, we all just want each other to succeed. "They all understand that whoever is going to put us in the best position to win will play." BGI: You're also in the middle of a stretch play- ing the toughest opponents on the schedule, any tweaks to your preparation? Lenzy: "To be truthful, we're so busy, there is only so much you can do extra week to week. I know for myself, whenever I get some extra minutes I'll watch some extra film. "I always have my iPad on me, in between classes I can get some film in, so I would say that's what I'm doing extra but for the most part since everything is [already] scheduled every single week, there isn't much fluctuation on what we can do just based on the actual time that we have." BGI: After the Virginia Tech game, you'll have a bye week and a break, how much are you looking for- ward to that? L e n zy : " I t h i n k this will be the first year that I will re- ally appreciate a bye week. I was just always hurt ev- ery week so I don't know if I ever really got to appreciate going like six weeks and needing that week off. "I feel good right now, this is the best I have ever felt body-wise. But a bye will definitely be appreciated, just to kind of catch up with anything that might be tweaked a little, fine tune that." BGI: Speaking of bye weeks, you're in the middle of playing five straight games against opponents coming off their byes, is that a dis- advantage? Lenzy: "It's happened every year I've been here, so it's obviously intentional. But I'm not concerned. "I just think when you go to Notre Dame, you just understand that they'll be a lot of times that the scenarios are just never going to be in your favor." — Todd D. Burlage Five Questions With … SENIOR WIDE RECEIVER BRADEN LENZY LENZY