Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BY ANDREW OWENS D uring the postgame press conference following Notre Dame's 31-28 Music City Bowl victory, a reporter covering LSU asked Irish sophomore quarter- back Malik Zaire whether this was his "Rudy" moment. "Rudy was a one-hit wonder, wasn't he?" Zaire quipped without hesitation. For one evening, the bad feelings of a four-game slide in November were replaced by happy ones after the first Notre Dame victory in 59 days. Just as Zaire hopes the Dec. 30 bowl win did not merely represent a lone moment of fame, the same can be said about the general feelings surrounding the Irish program after playoff hopes were replaced by November's misery. "I haven't really played a lot since my senior year in high school, so just being out there and getting that feel- ing of, 'Alright, I'm doing this again,' I was kind of nervous," Zaire admit- ted after the three-point win. "After a while it was, 'Okay, they hit pretty hard so you have to stop being ner- vous.'" Zaire's nerves did not show, from the opening series through the final whistle. He started the game by en- gineering a 15-play, 66-yard drive that took 7:56 off the clock and staked Notre Dame to an early 7-0 lead. The Irish scored touchdowns on three of their first four drives with Zaire finally getting the bulk of the snaps after senior Everett Golson's 22 turnovers in the final nine games of the regular season. For the first time since the 31-0 drubbing of Michigan Sept. 6, the Irish did not provide the opponent a giveaway. "Offensively, we can take care of the football if we practice the right way," head coach Brian Kelly said. "We had no turnovers today against an aggres- sive LSU defense, so there's no rea- son why we can't play mistake-free football. We also learned we can play physically and tough, even if we're a little banged up and don't have the guys. "We don't need to have one guy and have him on the field. We can rally around other players, and play smart, tough football. We can play that at any time, and I think we saw that today." Zaire and Golson both saw action, though the sophomore played much more than the senior against the Ti- gers. Zaire completed 12 of 15 passes for 96 yards with one touchdown, but his biggest contributions came on the ground. He rushed 22 times for 96 yards and one touchdown, leading the way for an attack that racked up 263 yards on the ground — the most since the Irish totaled 281 in the season opener against Rice Aug. 30. Mean- while, Golson was 6-of-11 passing for 90 yards and rushed one time for six yards. Kelly mostly relied upon Zaire to run and Golson to throw, utilizing the signal-callers' respective strengths in Notre Dame's most complete perfor- mance since its 31-27 loss at Florida State Oct. 18. "There were plays that just being familiar with both of them I felt they could execute and help us move the ball down the field," Kelly said. "We went back to just a feeling of what I