Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM SEPT. 7, 2024 27 OFFENSE ENGINEERS 'GRITTY,' DECISIVE FINAL DRIVE A co u p l e t i m e s t h ro u g h o u t t h e Aug. 31 game at Texas A&M, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman looked at senior quarterback Riley Leonard and pointed toward senior wide receiver Beaux Collins. "Hey," Freeman said he told Leonard. "Trust him now." Leonard remembered that as he and the Notre Dame offense trotted onto the field with 6:23 to go in the second quarter, and the game tied at 13. The Duke transfer had one play in mind for Collins, but for now, No. 13 looked toward No. 1. The Irish faced a third-and-5 at their own 20-yard line, and sophomore wide receiver Jaden Greathouse motioned across the formation. A three-and-out would give Texas A&M the ball with more than enough time to score. No one went with Greathouse, even though the Aggies were playing man defense. His man was bluffing a blitz, and with the Texas native running an out route, the defender had no chance. Pitch, catch, first down. On the next play, Leonard recognized a one-on-one matchup for Collins along the boundary. He never looked in another direction, and the Clemson transfer wrestled Leonard's back shoul- der throw away from junior cornerback Will Lee III for a gain of 20. "You just gotta throw the ball up to the dude," Leonard said. "By the end of that last drive, I was like, 'Shoot, I'm just gonna throw the ball up and let him make a play.' "And he did, like that was an ex- tremely pivotal moment in the football game." Now, the Irish were in business at their own 49-yard line. And a touch- down would likely win the game. "I kept saying in the huddle, 'This is right where we want to be,'" Free- man said. "'This is right what we talked about. We got a lot of confidence. Now go execute on this play." Leonard took the next snap and ran a quarterback sweep for another first down, barreling down the left side be- hind junior center Ashton Craig and sophomore guard Sam Pendleton. Notre Dame crossed midfield, and offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock turned to sophomore running back Jeremiyah Love. Handoff to the left side, gain of 18. Handoff up the middle, stuffed for a gain of 1 yard, to usher in the two-min- ute warning. But Denbrock, unfazed, went back to Love. On the first play after the timeout, Love got the ball on a counter to the left. Junior right guard Billy Schrauth and sophomore tight end Cooper Flanagan kicked out the play-side defenders, with Flanagan taking out two would-be tacklers with one blow. Pendleton and freshman left tackle Anthonie Knapp walled off the back side. The four of them created a seam for Love. A small seam, but it was enough. His explosiveness did the rest. Eight plays. Eighty-five yards. And No t re Da m e 's o f fe n s ive s t r u g g l e s throughout the evening no longer mattered. "We're a gritty team, and we embrace that," Leonard said. "I think that every game we go into, we know we're gonna fight our tail off to win." NOTRE DAME PASS DEFENSE DOES IT AGAIN Notre Dame left its corners on is- lands for the biggest defensive play of the game against Texas A&M. Why? Be- cause Al Golden knew he could. That's why. The Aggies only needed two yards to extend their drive and their hopes of tying the Irish at 20 in the final two minutes of a Week 1 matchup as massive and monumental as Kyle Field itself, where the fourth largest crowd in sta- dium history held its collective breath for the make-or-break snap. And there were Irish cornerbacks Benjamin Mor- rison, Christian Gray and Jordan Clark standing squarely across from a trio of A&M wide receivers with little safety help over the top. On that front, Xavier Watts and Adon Shuler were more concerned with defending the line to gain than they were tracking the Aggie targets. Mor- rison, Gray and Clark are well enough equipped to track them themselves. They did it over and over. Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko noticed. "The challenge tonight was they were TEXAS A&M GAME NOTES BY JACK SOBLE AND TYLER HORKA Graduate student wide receiver Beaux Collins led the Irish with 5 receptions for 62 yards, including a big 20-yard grab on the game-winning drive. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER