Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1482392
www.BLUEANDGOLD.com OCT. 29, 2022 25 LOGAN DIGGS FINDS HOT HAND IN IRISH WIN Notre Dame's three-headed running back rotation is all fine and dandy until the fourth quarter. Why? That's win- ning time. Trusting three backs to carry a team over the finish line can be a com- plicated, convoluted conundrum. Football is the ultimate team sport. But putting a game away can be the ultimate individual activity. Sophomore Audric Estime had generally been the guy for the job until the matchup against UNLV. Estime and junior Chris Tyree split carries against California Sept. 17. Estime had 18 carries. Tyree, 17. Estime out-car- ried Tyree 6 to 3 in the fourth quarter. Hot hand. Tyree and sophomore Logan Diggs combined for 5 carries in the fourth quarter of the North Carolina game. Estime had 8 fourth-quarter carries all by himself. Hot hand. Closing time against BYU in Las Vegas was a bit of an anomaly. Diggs had 5 car- ries, Estime had 4 and Tyree had 3. That's as much of a shared workload as you'll see in a game that goes down to the wire. The touch distribution for the tailbacks in the 44-21 win over UNLV made it seem like the Irish were icing a one-score game away like they did against Cal and the Cougars. Leaving nothing to chance. Estime had 0 fourth-quarter car- ries, Tyree had 2 and Diggs had 10 while racking up 48 yards. Four of his rushes went for a first down. Newfound hot hand. It had been a long time coming for Diggs, who had shoulder surgery in late April and wasn't cleared for full contact until late August. Now he finally feels like the player who showed RB1 poten- tial as a true freshman last fall. "In the beginning of the season I defi- nitely wasn't as confident as I am now with my shoulder," Diggs said. "I was kind of stiff and scared to go out there. As the season went on, I got to pick up some pass pro and got to run the ball between tackles and take on blocks and everything, take on hits, and I've just been feeling good. "It was like once you forget about it, it's not there." Diggs carried 28 times for 130 yards vs. the Rebels, both career highs. Estime fumbled the ball like it was a hot potato, meanwhile, and coughed it up to the opposition for the third time in the last four games. Wrong sort of hot hand. He finished with 3 carries for 17 yards and a touchdown but did not get the ball once after the giveaway. Diggs' greatest contribution might not have appeared in the box score. It's what he said to Estime on the sideline. "I told him I've been in that situation," Diggs said. "The ball is the most impor- tant thing on the offense, and you can't let that go. Last week I was kind of on the side of it's going to be all right. Just keep on doing your job. Keep being better. "But today I was a real teammate and told him if you want to play, you've got to hold onto the ball. It's as simple as that." That's the type of demeanor coaches notice. Head coach Marcus Freeman said offensive coordinator Tommy Rees and running backs coach Deland Mc- Cullough made a joint decision to ride with Diggs as a lead back the rest of the game. There's something to be said for the trust they had in him to do that. Teammates notice it, too, but they're more inclined to react to what happens between the lines. It's their game after all. Diggs caught the attention of junior tight end Michael Mayer, Notre Dame's best player who had 6 catches for 115 yards and a touchdown. "We've always known he could do this," Mayer said. "He's a hard runner, downhill. … We've got to keep giving him the ball. He had a tremendous day today, and he's just got to keep that positive mindset." When No. 87 says someone needs the ball, that guy needs the ball. Period. So feed the hot hand. BLOCKED PUNTS HELP NOTRE DAME START FAST Isaiah Foskey shrugged, maybe out of disbelief. He thought he might get one free run at the punter based on how Notre Dame scouted UNLV's protec- tion scheme. Two, though? That would require UNLV to make the same mistake twice. But UNLV did — on back-to-back punt attempts in the first quarter, no less. The Rebels left Notre Dame's star senior defensive end who already had two career blocked punts with unimpeded paths to punter Marshall Nichols. Two times, Fo- skey ran through the punt formation un- touched and set Notre Dame's offense up inside the red zone. He pulled himself off the turf after the second, turned to Notre Dame's sidelined and shrugged. Yes, it was that easy. And it was part UNLV GAME NOTES BY TYLER HORKA AND PATRICK ENGEL Diggs set career highs with 28 carries and 130 yards rushing against the Rebels. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER