Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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22 DECEMBER 2023 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED TURNING POINT Trailing 16-14 midway through the second quarter, Notre Dame faced a fourth-and-1 at the Stanford 38-yard line when junior running back Audric Estimé bounced a rushing attempt to the left sideline for 10 yards and an Irish first down. Three plays later, Notre Dame was in the end zone on a 6-yard touchdown run from Estimé that gave the Irish a lead (21-16) they never relinquished. On Stanford's ensuing possession, graduate student linebacker Jack Kiser intercepted a pass from Stanford sophomore quarterback Ashton Daniels. Notre Dame parlayed that takeaway into a 3-yard touchdown run from sophomore tailback Gi'Bran Payne with 19 seconds left in the second quarter that gave the Irish a 28-16 half- time lead that was never remotely threatened. This turning-point touchdown drive turned a first-half tussle that featured five lead changes into a 42-0 Irish scoring run and an eventual Notre Dame rout. STATS OF THE GAME After suffering upset losses to Marshall and Stanford as prohibitive favorites in 2022, Notre Dame avoided any head-scratching defeats this regular season, big time. Including the Stanford game — in which Notre Dame was a 25.5-point favorite — the Irish were at least a three-touch- down favorite six times this season, and it won all six of those games by an average of 39.7 points. One of the more interesting stat lines against the Cardinal was that the Irish lost the turnover battle 4-2 and Stanford scored 17 points off of those turnovers, but Notre Dame still won the game by 33 points. Impressively the Irish allowed only 33 points all this regular season off of its 17 giveaways. After scoring on all five of its red zone trips (4 touchdowns, 1 field goal) in a 45-7 win over Wake Forest Nov. 18, Notre Dame went 4 of 5 inside Stanford's 20-yard line, scoring touchdowns on four of those, making it 9 of 10 on its red zone trips in its last two games, with 8 touchdowns. RUNNING THE ROCK Staying true to his preseason promise of run- ning the ball and stopping the run, Irish head coach Marcus Freeman dominated in both areas in the blowout win over Stanford. The Irish rushed for a season-high 381 yards, which was 145 yards more than its previous best of 236 yards set in a 41-17 win over Central Mich- igan Sept. 16. Led by Estimé's career-high 238 yards, Notre Dame averaged 7.9 yards per carry. The Irish had four different rushers average at least 5.8 yards per tote. Notre Dame set the tone early in this game on the ground when it outgained Stanford 238-67 rushing in the first half. The Irish outdid its season average on the ground by 217.6 yards after enter- ing the game ranked No. 60 nationally in rushing offense at 163.4 yards per game. Somewhat surprisingly, this marked only the third time this season that Notre Dame rushed for more than 200 yards in game. THREE OBSERVATIONS BY TODD D. BURLAGE TAILBACK AUDRIC ESTIMÉ Perhaps playing his final game in a Fighting Irish uniform, the Notre Dame junior saved his best for last, leading all Irish rushers against Stanford with 25 carries for a career-high 238 yards and 4 touch- downs. It was his sixth 100-yard rushing game this season. Estimé became the first Irish tailback to rush for 200 yards since Dexter Williams did so in 2018. He finished the regular season with 18 rushing touch- downs, setting a new Irish single-season record after the breaking the previous mark of 17 set by Allen Pinkett in 1984 and Vegas Ferguson in 1979. LINEBACKER MARIST LIUFAU The Irish graduate student finished what could be his final regular-season game at Notre Dame with 5 total stops (2 solo), 2.5 tackles for loss and 0.5 sacks. His great work in the first half helped the Notre Dame defense hold Stanford to only 10 points off of 3 Irish turnovers in the opening two quarters. Liufau's 2.5 tackles for loss were a career high and they lifted his total for the season to 6. His 5 total tackles were also a season high and moved him to 44 stops on the season. OFFENSIVE LINE With 381 rushing yards on 48 carries, this collec- tive game ball was an easy one to pass along. The bulldozing effort was highlighted by Estimé's career performance and it ended with a yards-per-carry average of 7.9 for the team in the best rushing effort for the Irish this season. Notre Dame's start-to-finish performance in its ground game included a first half when it won the rushing battle over Stanford 238-67. It's rushing yardage mark in the first half eclipsed its season high for an entire game of 236 yards set in a 41-17 win against Central Michigan Sept. 16. GAME BALLS BY TODD D. BURLAGE Graduate student linebacker Marist Liufau recorded 5 total stops (2 solo), 2.5 tackles for loss and 0.5 sacks against Stanford. PHOTO BY JIM HOLTAN