Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/366772
GAME PREVIEW: RICE BY LOU SOMOGYI FAST FIELD, FAST START FieldTurf makes its debut in Notre Dame Stadium in the season opener against the Rice Owls. With it, ex- pectations have grown — including from Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly — that the offense might finally be able to maximize its abilities by playing at a quicker tempo on a faster playing surface, especially with bona fide dual-threat quarterbacks at his throttle. In the last two seasons, despite an 11-1 record at home, the Fighting Irish tallied more than 28 points only twice on their home sod in a four-quarter game: the 38-0 victory versus Wake Forest in 2012 and the thrilling back- and-forth 38-34 shootout versus Navy last year. They also scored 29 against Pitt in 2012, but that required three overtimes after tallying 20 points dur- ing the four quarters of regulation time. If Kelly's Irish are to average 30 points in a season for the first time in his five-year regime — and even 30 is "average" in today's college football — they need to start by being able to score amply against non-big five con- ference members such as Rice. The Owls played three big five con- ference (Pac-12, Big 12, Big Ten, ACC or SEC) opponents last year, losing 52-31 to Texas A&M in the opener and falling 44-7 to Mississippi State in the TOp STOrylineS The Fighting Irish began the 2012 season with a 50-10 rout of Navy in Ireland and will attempt to produce a similar offensive outburst in their 2014 opener against Rice. PHOTO BY MIKE BENNETT