Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Blankenship each played a prominent role in the rotation along the interior of the line, playing either alongside or for junior Sheldon Day. "I feel like they did a great job, espe- cially Daniel Cage and Blankenship," Day said. "They were really out there communicating. They were talking back and forth. If they had an issue or a problem, they were bringing it to the sideline." Defensive end Andrew Trumbetti was one of 10 freshmen to see action against Rice. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA • Turnovers and penalties plague most season openers. Even head coach Brian Kelly expected as much, but that wasn't the case for Notre Dame. The Irish finished just short of a clean slate, with no turnovers and only two penalties for 10 yards. "You always go in wanting to be clean and not be sloppy," Kelly said. "I can't remember a game that I had only two penalties for 10 yards. "I don't think I went in here with the expectations that we only have two false start penalties — and both of them were contributed to the quarterback not snapping the ball when he was supposed to." Both penalties were snap infractions, implying that though the referee named senior center Nick Martin as the culprit, two players are always in- volved in the snap. • Notre Dame's pre-game depth chart listed se- nior Matt Hegarty as starting on the offensive line. Come game time, senior Conor Hanratty took the spot. Kelly said the flip was "just a game-time deci- sion [offensive line coach] Harry [Hiestand] made. He felt like [Hanratty] earned the start." • Notre Dame honored the parents of defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder, Robert and Gloria VanGorder, and 12 former members of its football family that passed away during the past year: LH Phil Colella (1945), T Frank Gaul (1945, 1947-48), LE Donald George (1953-54), student manager John Graif (Class of 1946), QB Bob Hargrave Sr. (1939-41), HB Bob Livingstone (1942, 1946-47), QB John Ma- zur (1949-51), HB Leo McKillip (1948-50), LG Tom Potter (1945-46), FB Nick Raich (1953-54), T Bob Ready (1951-54) and QB Frank Tripucka (1945-48). • Notre Dame President Rev. John Jenkins blessed the newly installed FieldTurf three hours prior to kickoff of the season opener. MISCELLANEOUS NOTES PLAY CHART (NO. OF PLAYS) Yards ND RICE (-) Yards 4 6 0-5 Yards 31 39 6-9 Yards 10 9 10-19 Yards 11 8 20-29 Yards 4 2 30-39 Yards 1 1 40-49 Yards 0 0 50 or more Yards 3 1