Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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TAREAN FOLSTON CARRIES THE LOAD LATE FOR IRISH Senior running back and captain Cam McDaniel has developed a niche as the late-game ball carrier in whom the Irish coaching staff can place its collective trust. The role — earned with tough sec- ond-half carries in wins against Michi- gan State, Purdue and BYU a year ago — has made it difficult for the sopho- more tandem of Tarean Folston and Greg Bryant to supplant him. However, in the 50-43 win against North Caro- lina, head coach Brian Kelly couldn't afford to take Folston off the field. "Today, he did what he was asked to do, what we ask all of our backs to do," Kelly said. "They've got to block and catch the ball out of the backfield and run hard. NORTH CAROLINA GAME NOTES NOTRE DAME VS. UNC QUARTER-BY-QUARTER COMPARISON Notre Dame 1st Qtr. 2nd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 4th Qtr. 1st Half 2nd Half Total Time of Possession 8:03 6:18 8:13 10:03 14:21 18:16 32:37 Third-Down Conversions 2-5 0-2 1-4 4-4 2-7 5-8 7-15 Fourth-Down Conversions 1-1 0-0 0-0 0-0 1-1 0-0 1-1 Average Field Position ND-24 ND-40 ND-27 ND-34 ND-31 ND-29 ND-30 North Carolina 1st Qtr. 2nd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 4th Qtr. 1st Half 2nd Half Final Time of Possession 6:57 8:42 6:47 4:57 15:39 11:44 27:23 Third-Down Conversions 2-4 4-5 0-4 3-4 6-9 3-8 9-17 Fourth-Down Conversions 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 Average Field Position UNC-37 UNC-22 UNC-32 UNC-22 UNC-28 UNC-29 UNC-29 RED ZONE EFFICIENCY (INSIDE 20-YARD LINE) No Poss. TD FG Score Notre Dame 6 6 0 0 UNC 6 4 1 1 Sophomore running back Tarean Folston's 169 total yards and three scores provided a boost Notre Dame desperately needed to keep pace with North Carolina's offense. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA BY ANDREW OWENS AND DOUGLAS FARMER