Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM OCT. 26, 2024 21 NOTRE DAME PASSING OFFENSE: B+ It wasn't prolific, again, but it was productive. Senior quarterback Riley Leonard was phenom- enal following his first-quarter interception. He completed his next 12 pass attempts and finished the game 20 of 29 for 203 yards. No touchdowns, but he did get the ball to nine different targets. The Irish got sophomore tailback Jeremiyah Love involved in the passing game with 3 catches for 37 yards. Senior tight end Mitchell Evans had 4 recep- tions for 26 yards. He's got to start somewhere to try to get back to who he was as a junior, and maybe this was a good step in that direction. The output turned down in the second half, but not until the Irish were up by two touchdowns. When the game was in the balance and Notre Dame needed to take control of it, Leonard was able to help do that with his arm. NOTRE DAME RUSHING OFFENSE: B+ The Irish averaged 4.3 yards per carry as a team. Again, not prolific but productive enough. The figure was actually brought down by Love's statistics, which is something you'll seldom have to say. He carried 14 times for 36 yards and a touch- down. Junior Jadarian Price, meanwhile, upped the average with 8 carries for 69 yards. He had the game's longest ground gain, which went for 23 yards. Leonard was his usual self in the running game with 10 carries for 51 yards and 2 touchdowns. If this rushing attack was just Love and Price, as good as they are opponents could key in on them and focus more on shutting them down. When you add in the element of an efficient, effective runner from the quarterback spot, it's a different ballgame. Literally. NOTRE DAME PASSING DEFENSE: A- Don't be fooled by the raw number of 269 pass- ing yards, the most any team has had versus the Irish all season. Sixty of those yards came on one play after a missed tackle. Take that one away, and Georgia Tech quarterback Zach Pyron would have averaged 5.97 yards per attempt for the game. Anything under 6.0 is a stout job by the defense. Notre Dame picked Pyron off twice, too. Gradu- ate student safety Xavier Watts recorded his third interception of the season and 10th of his career, and sophomore safety Adon Shuler put the sprin- kles on top of a tasty Irish win with a pick six in the final minutes. Playing without Benjamin Morrison, who's out for the year with a hip injury, for the first time this season, Notre Dame still looked pretty rock solid on the edges of the defense. Freshman corner Leonard Moore stepped in and played admirably in Morrison's spot. Another game, another imposing outing for the Irish pass defense. NOTRE DAME RUSHING DEFENSE: A+ Georgia Tech's only semblance of a running game came via Pyron scrambles and rollouts. He had 13 carries for 45 yards. The rest of the Yellow Jackets? Fifteen carries for 35 yards. Excluding the 16-yard loss on a botched field goal attempt, which counts against a team's rushing statistics in college football, Georgia Tech had 28 carries for 80 yards. That's 2.8 yards per tote. Hold a team below 3.0 in that regard? You're doing a dang good job. Notre Dame indeed did a dang good job in bot- tling up a really strong runner in tailback Jamal Haynes, who only had 8 carries for 15 yards. He had 298 rushing yards in Georgia Tech's two previ- ous games. The Irish are getting better up front on defense as the season goes along, and it's beginning to show up in big ways. SPECIAL TEAMS: A+ Where do we even begin? With the fake punt for a first down that had the ball in the hands of three different Notre Dame players after it was snapped? With the fake field goal for a first down that put the ball in walk-on wide receiver and former Notre Dame quarterback Tyler Buchner's hands? The blocked field goal by freshman Bryce Young? The 51-yard punt by James Rendell? Walk-on Zac Yoakam's first career field goal from 42 yards? Special teams coordinator Marty Biagi had a bag of tricks for Georgia Tech and a ton of treats for the Fighting Irish. COACHING: A You don't like falling behind again for the fourth consecutive game but you sure like another surge of a response, this time 31 points in a row. Some teams cave. Notre Dame did in Week 2 against Northern Illinois but has not since. There is an art to keeping things calm on a side- line when trailing, and this coaching staff has fig- ured it out. The Irish have also figured out how to put the throttle down in exhilarating fashion, and there is something to be said for that too. REPORT CARD BY TYLER HORKA Senior quarterback Riley Leonard completed 20 of 29 throws for 203 yards, plus had 10 rushing attempts for 51 yards and 2 touchdowns. PHOTO BY MATT RUDOLPH