Michigan quarterback Devin Gardner torched the Irish for 82 rushing yards on 13 attempts (6.3 yards per
carry), and also used his mobility to evade the pass rush and make plays with his arm.
Going D
Mobile
The defense must
adjust to
facing more
dual-threat
quarterbacks
photo by lon horwedel
By Lou Somogyi
uring Notre Dame's 12‑1 sea‑
son in 2012, the opposing
quarterbacks netted 76 rush‑
ing yards against the vaunted
Fighting Irish defense. The feature
performer was Michigan's Denard
Robinson, whose 26 carries resulted
in a hard-earned 90 yards, or just 3.5
yards per carry.
That meant that for the most part,
all other quarterbacks were well con‑
tained, and often had their reverse tail‑
lights on.
In the first two games of 2013, Notre
Dame had already surrendered 65
yards on 12 carries (5.4 yards per rush)
