Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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3 Touchdown runs by senior quarterback Everett Golson on 11-, 14- and four-yard yard rushes up the middle, the last on a broken play. It tied the Notre Dame record for most rushing scores in a game by a quarterback, first set by Paul Hornung during a 21-14 win over North Carolina in 1956 and matched by Jari- ous Jackson in a 35-17 victory versus Stanford in 1998. 5-0 Notre Dame's record in the month of August after the victory versus Rice. On Aug. 31 in the 1989 and 2002 Kickoff Classics, re- spectively, the Irish defeated Virginia (36-13) and Maryland (22-0). They also defeated Kansas (48-13) on Aug. 28, 1999, and last year vanquished Temple (28-6) on Aug. 31. 5 Players who made their first career start on defense: sophomore end Isaac Rochell, senior Mike linebacker Joe Schmidt, sophomore Sam line- backer James Onwualu, sophomore cornerback Cole Luke and fifth-year senior transfer cornerback Cody Riggs, who did have 26 starts at Florida. Meanwhile, BY THE NUMBERS BY LOU SOMOGYI What Worked • Red-zone offense. Notre Dame was 6 for 6 in scoring when it penetrated Rice's 20-yard line. More significant was the fact that four of them were touchdowns. The Irish finished in the 70s nationally in this cat- egory during their 21-5 run the past two seasons. They scored a TD in the red zone only 53.3 percent of the time last season (24 of 45) and were just less than 50 percent in 2012. Tallying six points in that area at least 60 percent of the time should be a reasonable goal in 2014, and the 66.7 percent (four of six) against Rice is a good start. Facilitating that objective is the running threat of quarterback Everett Golson, who scored on 14-, 11- and four-yard runs. • Special teams. Kyle Brindza has been a main- stay with his field goal kicking since 2012 and punt- ing since last year, but coverage and returns helped drag Notre Dame down to a mediocre level overall in this category. Against Rice, the Irish opened with a kickoff re- turn to the 37 and dominated field position with 80 yards in punt returns — after totaling 48 in 2011, 46 in 2012 and 106 last season. Irish special teams also stopped a fourth-and-four fake attempt on a punt by Rice. • Going long. Six of Everett Golson's 14 comple- tions went for a minimum of 22 yards, notably 75- and 53-yard scoring passes to sophomore William Fuller and junior C.J. Prosise, respectively. Those same two each dropped a pass apiece that would have added 80 to 90 more yards to the attack. When you have to respect the run, getting be- hind a defense becomes a little easier. • Stopping the run. Fresh legs on the defensive line were consistently in the game, including fresh- men Andrew Trumbetti, Daniel Cage and Grant Blankenship with the second unit. All held their own while not allowing any of the Owls' running backs to pick up more than 33 yards on the ground. What Didn't Work • Coffin-corner punting. This might seem a tad picky in a 48-17 win, but 50- and 55-yard punts into the end zone need to be downed inside the 10 or even the 5. That will help make a difference in much tighter games. • Missed assignments on coverage. Minus safety and fifth-year senior captain Austin Collinsworth, out two to four weeks with a knee injury, the last line of Notre Dame's defense had a few break- downs, including 26- and 53-yard scores. Michigan has been notorious against the Irish with connect- ing on huge pass plays. — Lou Somogyi TAKING A CLOSER LOOK