Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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YOUNG DEFENSE GETS YOUNGER Senior linebacker Joe Schmidt wasn't the only Irish veteran miss- ing from the defense in the 55-31 loss to Arizona State Nov. 8. As it turned out, fifth-year senior cornerback Cody Riggs joined his teammate on the in- jury list in Notre Dame's second loss of the season. Schmidt, who suffered a dislocated and fractured ankle against Navy Nov. 1, did not travel with the squad to Sun Devil Stadium. Riggs, how- ever, traveled, dressed in uniform and tested his injured foot in pregame warm-ups before the coaching staff decided he could not play. "We put him through pregame, and he just didn't have that fire coming out of his backpedal," Kelly said. "We were going to get matched up with [Arizona State redshirt junior wide receiver Jaelen] Strong, and we just felt like he wasn't at the level that we felt ARIZONA STATE GAME NOTES NOTRE DAME VS. ARIZONA STATE QUARTER-BY-QUARTER COMPARISON Arizona State 1st Qtr. 2nd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 4th Qtr. 1st Half 2nd Half Total Time of Possession 5:47 8:59 5:24 9:36 14:46 15:00 29:46 Third-Down Conversions 0-2 3-6 1-4 1-3 3-8 2-7 5-15 Fourth-Down Conversions 0-0 0-0 0-0 1-1 0-0 1-1 1-1 Average Field Position ASU-49 ASU-22 ASU-15 ASU-41 ASU-35 ASU-30 ASU-33 Notre Dame 1st Qtr. 2nd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 4th Qtr. 1st Half 2nd Half Final Time of Possession 9:13 6:01 9:36 5:24 15:14 15:00 30:14 Third-Down Conversions 2-3 1-4 1-4 1-2 3-7 2-6 5-13 Fourth-Down Conversions 0-0 0-0 1-1 0-2 0-0 1-3 1-3 Average Field Position ND-23 ND-23 ND-33 ND-33 ND-23 ND-33 ND-28 RED ZONE EFFICIENCY (INSIDE 20-YARD LINE) No Poss. TD FG Score ASU 5 4 1 0 ND 6 3 1 2 Freshman linebacker Nyles Morgan (right), who finished with four tackles in his first career start, was part of a youth-laden defense that showed improvement in the second half at Arizona State. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA BY ANDREW OWENS AND DOUGLAS FARMER