Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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14 OCT. 12, 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED UNDER THE DOME Mary Bonner Dalton — Cross Country The freshman from Char- lotte, N.C., highlighted a terrific day for No. 3 Notre Dame with an individual title in the 5,000-meter race with a time of 16:46.3 at the National Catholic Invite Sept. 20. Running unattached, Dalton was the first of a group of Irish runners who claimed the top- eight spots in the race en route to a perfect team score of 15. Annabelle Chukwu — Soccer Playing in just her third game for the Irish, the true freshman from Ottawa, On- tario, scored the only goal in an important 1-0 ACC win for No. 16 Notre Dame over No. 14 Virginia Sept. 22 in Charlottesville, Va. Chukwu, who represented Canada in the U20 World Cup in Colombia, scored in the 47th minute — her second goal of the season — in Notre Dame's second victory over a ranked opponent this year. Matthew Roou — Soccer Th e sen i o r mi d fi el d er from Germantown, Wis., became the first Irish player to notch multiple hat tricks during a single season in 45 years, doing so in back-to- back Irish victories against Chicago State (6-1) Sept. 20 and Detroit Mercy (3-1) Sept. 24. Roou, who was a was a first-team All-ACC selection last year, led the team with 7 goals and 14 points through seven contests. Nate Stevens — Golf While leading Notre Dame to a team victory at the in- augural Canadian Collegiate Invitational Sept. 16-17 in Foots Bay, Ontario, the ju- nior from Northfield, Minn., fired a team-best 6-under- par 210 in the three-round event to finish first on the Irish and eighth overall individually. Stevens carded a 1-over 73 in the opening round, a season-best 5-under 67 in round 2 and a 2-under 70 in the third round. TOP TOP OF THE CLASS OF THE CLASS Irish student-athletes excelling on the field and in the classroom ✦ GIMME FIVE Notre Dame heads into its first idle week of the 2024 season after a pivotal matchup with Louisville. Up next is an Oct. 12 matchup with Stanford, which just won its first ACC game at Syracuse. The Irish have been successful post-bye under third-year head coach Marcus Freeman, and in the later years of the Brian Kelly era. Freeman is 3-0 after a regular- season bye, while Kelly won his last two. Notre Dame's last loss immediately following a bye was a 45-14 loss to Michigan on Oct. 26, 2019. In the COVID season of 2020, Notre Dame had nearly a month off from Sept. 19 to Oct. 10 and beat Florida State 42-26. Later, exiting a more traditional bye, the Irish dispatched No. 19 North Carolina 31-17. Then in 2021, Kelly's last season in South Bend, Notre Dame took care of an abysmal USC team, 31-16. The Trojans would finish 4-8, resulting in the firing of then-head coach Clay Helton. Freeman took over in 2022, and after an 0-2 start, Notre Dame got back on track. The Irish won their next three games, culminating in a post-bye week trip to face BYU at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. They beat the No. 16 Cougars 28-20 — a rare "the opponent is ranked and Notre Dame is not" matchup — but fell to a 3-9 Stanford team shortly after that. The following season, the Irish had two bye weeks due to a Week 0 matchup with Navy in Dublin, Ireland. They came away with blowout wins in both post-bye games then, beating Pitts- burgh 58-7 and Wake Forest 45-7. Notre Dame has a second bye week this season Nov. 2, and then faces Florida State Nov. 9. — Jack Soble CHARTING THE IRISH RUNNING DOWN A DREAM SEASON? Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard is one of the most effective ball carriers in football, regardless of position. Entering Week 5, Leonard had 42 carries for 351 yards, not including sacks. That's 8.35 yards per carry, and among qualified players — and Leonard is one of them — that's tied for sixth in the nation. Irish sopho- more running back Jeremiyah Love is ranked 12th at 7.4. Leonard particularly excels near the goal line, scoring 6 rushing touchdowns through four contests. Over a 12-game campaign, that puts him on pace to tie junior running back Audric Estimé's program record at 18 rush- ing touchdowns in a single season. The Irish don't have any plans to slow Leonard down soon. "If you watch our running game and how it's con- structed, it's built off of a lot of reading the edge," of- fensive coordinator Mike Denbrock said. "If the defense reacts a certain way, we're going to take advantage of that because of the type of quarterback that we're playing with." As a former linebacker himself, head coach Marcus Freeman knows just how difficult it is to bring Leonard down. "He's [6-4, 216] and runs probably a 4.5 [40-yard dash]," Freeman said. "He's not J-Love in terms of shifty, but when you're that big and strong and fast, it's a challenge to bring you down. He's showing it." NOTRE DAME'S LAST FIVE GAMES AFTER REGULAR-SEASON BYES Date Opponent Result Nov. 18, 2023 Wake Forest W, 45-7 Oct. 28, 2023 Pittsburgh W, 58-7 Oct. 8, 2022 No. 16 BYU W, 28-20 Oct. 23, 2021 USC W, 31-16 Nov. 27, 2020 No. 19 UNC W, 31-17 NOTRE DAME SINGLE-SEASON RUSHING TOUCHDOWN LEADERS Over a 12-game season, Riley Leonard is on pace for 18 Rk. Player, Season TD 1. Audric Estimé, 2023 18 2. Allen Pinkett, 1984 17 2. Vagas Ferguson, 1979 17 4. Jerome Bettis, 1991 16 4. Allen Pinkett, 1983 16 4. Bill Downs, 1905 16 7. Autry Denson, 1998 15 8. Brandon Wimbush, 2017 14 8. Bob Gladieux, 1968 14 10. Audric Estimé, 2022 11 The Irish were 2-0 after their bye weeks during the 2023 sea- son, including a 45-7 win over Wake Forest. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER