Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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tin for the final month of the regular season. Five For Five For the first time in program history, five Irish players caught a touchdown pass from the same quarterback. Senior signal-caller Tommy Rees tossed a career-high five touchdown passes — tied for second most by a Notre Dame quarterback in a single game — in the team's 45-10 win over Air Force. Freshmen Corey Robinson and Will Fuller and sophomore Chris Brown all snagged their first career scores, and junior tight end Ben Koyack hauled in the second of his career. The other Rees touchdown pass went to senior wide receiver TJ Jones, who scored for the fifth consecutive game. Robinson said he and some teammates discussed before the game how they would celebrate if any of them scored their first career touchdown. Once he reached the end zone for Notre Dame's first touchdown, his reaction was hardly scripted. "It was incredible," Robinson said of his score. "I remember me and the guys were talking that if we get Play Chart (No. of Plays) Yards AFND (-) Yards 7 7 0-5 Yards 43 27 6-9 Yards 18 13 10-19 Yards 8 8 20-29 Yards 1 4 30-39 Yards 0 2 40-49 Yards 0 2 50 or more Yards 0 0 a touchdown today what we were going to do. Would we jump in the linemen's arms? Right when I got it, everything disappeared and it was crazy. Everything was so surreal." Jones hinted that the distribution against the Falcons might be a sign of the offense's tactics these final weeks. "I think it's something you can expect to see," he said. "We've tried to spread out our offense this year to dish it out to a lot of different receivers, and today it showcased itself more than it has in the past." Irish Adjust To Injuries When it boarded the team flight to Colorado Springs, Colo., Notre Dame did so without a pair of key contributors on its lines: senior nose guard Louis Nix III (knee tendinitis) and senior right guard Christian Lombard (back surgery, out for the season). The offensive line, however, temporarily lost another key contributor in fifth-year senior left guard Chris Big Plays (25 Yards Or More) Air Force None Notre Dame • 2-3 AF35 Rees pass complete to Robinson for 35 yards and a touchdown • 1-10 AF46 Rees pass complete to Fuller for 46 yards and a touchdown • 2-8 AF49 Rees pass complete to Daniels for 27 yards to the AF22 • 2-8 AF30 Rees pass complete to TJ Jones for 30 yards and a touchdown • 1-10 ND49 Hendrix pass complete to Fuller for 47 yards to the AF4