Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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TAKING A CLOSER LOOK What Worked • Moving the football. Notre Dame had no issue moving the chains in its 29-16 win over Rutgers in the Pinstripe Bowl. The Irish nearly reached 500 yards of total offense (494) and featured a balanced attack (175 rushing and 319 passing yards) while possessing the ball for 38:16. The Irish accumulated 31 first downs and ran the ball much better in the second half while protecting a lead most of the time. Junior running back Cam McDaniel and freshman running back Tarean Folston each carried the ball 17 times and combined for 155 yards, plus Folston added a touchdown in the fourth quarter. Senior quarterback Tommy Rees even rushed the ball twice for five yards. • Gaining experience. Bowl games are often referred to as the finishing touch of the current season and a preview of what's to come next fall. In many ways — and particularly in the passing game— that was the case for Notre Dame Dec. 28. On the first six plays from scrimmage, six different Irish players touched the ball, including a 20yard catch by sophomore wide receiver C.J. Prosise and a near touchdown reception by freshman wide receiver Will Fuller. Sophomore wide receiver Chris Brown totaled 54 yards on five receptions, each of which went for a first down. He snagged three passes in each of the first two games of the season but did not record more than one reception again until the Pinstripe Bowl. Defensively, freshman safety Max Redfield became the 19th different player to start on Notre Dame's defense in 2013. He and four other safeties saw time in the Irish secondary. What Didn't Work • Finishing drives. Notre Dame depended on junior kicker Kyle Brindza to bail out five drives that stalled in Rutgers territory. The Irish rarely had difficulty moving the ball (see above), but they called upon Brindza for field goals of 21, 38, 44 (missed) 26, 25 and 49 yards. Notre Dame's red-zone issues carried over from the regular season, during which it finished 100th in the country with a red-zone touchdown efficiency of 55.0 percent. • Kickoff coverage. Head coach Brian Kelly went as far as to call his kickoff coverage against Rutgers "disastrous" in his postgame press conference. Scarlet Knights freshman Janarion Grant returned three kickoffs for an average of 42.3 yards, including a long of 51 yards. Two of those returns (the other came a play before halftime) led to six Rutgers points. The struggles were representative of the unit's disappointment in 2013, when the Irish finished the regular season 122nd in the nation after allowing 25.9 yards per return. — Andrew Owens BY THE NUMBERS 4 Freshman starters for Notre Dame, with safety Max Redfield making his debut, while joining Jaylon Smith (Dog linebacker), right guard Steve Elmer and running back Tarean Folston. The Notre Dame record for freshman starters in a bowl game is five at the 2008 Hawaii Bowl: wide receiver Michael Floyd, tight end Kyle Rudolph, defensive end Ethan Johnson, outside linebacker Darius Fleming and cornerback Robert Blanton. BY LOU SOMOGYI 5 Field goals in six attempts by junior Kyle Brindza, which tied a Notre Dame single-game record and set a new school standard for a bowl game. The previous postseason record was four in the 2010 Sun Bowl victory (33-17) versus Miami, with David Ruffer kicking three and Nick Tausch the fourth. 10 Different bowl games in which Notre Dame recorded a victory. In addition to