Blue and Gold Illustrated

Georgia Tech and with a trip to Clem- son looming, Notre Dame might have been affected by either — or both — during a mostly sloppy first half, but eventually the Irish pulled away for a 62-27 win over UMass at Notre Dame Stadium. In its second-ever game against a Mid-American Conference opponent, the Irish found themselves with a mere 21-20 lead late in the second quarter until a pair of positive special teams developments — a rarity during head coach Brian Kelly's tenure — changed the trajectory of the game. First, with 4:24 left in the second quarter, sophomore punter Tyler New- some pinned the Minutemen at their own 1-yard line. After a three-and-out from the Irish defense, freshman CJ Sanders re- turned a punt 50 yards for a score, marking the program's first such play since 2009. "Our special teams were outstand- ing today — Tyler Newsome, our punter, having a 52-yard average, CJ Sanders returning a punt for a touch- down, stopping a fake." With Sanders' score, Notre Dame began an 8:58 stretch of game time in which it scored 27 unanswered points to extend the lead to 48-20 and put UMass away for the afternoon. For the fourth straight game, the Irish dominated on the ground. After a 91-yard TD romp last week against Georgia Tech, senior running back C.J. Prosise followed it up with a 57-yard score against the Minutemen for the game's first touchdown. He finished with 149 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries. "We were pretty good up front offensively," Kelly said. "We were able to control the line of scrimmage around the football today. I think that was the difference in the ball- game." Freshmen running backs Josh Ad- ams and Dexter Williams spelled Pro- sise to the tune of 133 and 48 yards, respectively, with both scoring a touchdown. "It shows how much confidence the coaching staff has in him," Prosise said of Adams, who was called upon for carries well before the game became a rout. "He does a great job every time he goes in. He does his job and doesn't try to do anything extra. He can defi- nitely rotate with me. "I tell [Adams] all the time we've got to go through this together. The team's counting on us, and we've got to do our jobs." Between the prolific running game and Sanders' score, Notre Dame man- aged 35 first-half points, but the de- fense struggled to give the Irish much breathing room while allowing 20 points. The Minutemen amassed 276 yards in the first half, recording an 83-yard touchdown run from Marquis Young and adding a three-play, 75-yard touchdown drive later in the half. "We challenged our football team at halftime to play to a higher stan- dard," Kelly said of the lackluster half. "I think they played to a higher stan- dard in the second half, offensively and defensively. "We gave up two big plays in the first half that we weren't pleased with,

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