Blue and Gold Illustrated

to run the football," Kelly said of the ground game against Clemson. "We knew today was going to be a better opportunity to run the football by the way they designed their defense." Notre Dame relied less on the read plays that had worked so well the first four games of the season. Instead, Pro- sise got the ball on the outside with greater frequency during the first half of the game. "It was really trying to find different ways to get him on the perimeter, and they fire a lot of their edge players," Kelly said of the early game plan. "Sometimes it's a matter of trying to build some speed and get him to the perimeter, either by putting a tight end on the edge of your offense or by trying to get some hand-off sweep action and get him outside of that edge pressure." Notre Dame sopho- more quarterback De- Shone Kizer actually flipped the ball forward to Prosise on several of those plays, resulting in three catches for 31 yards on what was otherwise blocked like a run play. Prosise now has 779 rushing yards, 187 receiving yards and 10 total touch- downs on the season. SPECIAL TEAMS DELIVERS It was not a perfect performance for the Irish special teams, but the plays it did make turned out to be significant. "We had some good things in special teams," head coach Brian Kelly said. "We had a great kick from Justin Yoon, which was a great momentum piece for us just before the half. We had a fumble recovery on a kickoff." Early in the second quarter sopho- more punter Tyler Newsome pinned Navy at its own 3-yard line. The Mid- shipmen tried to get out of their own end zone — but instead fumbled the ball, which set up an easy Notre Dame score. Late in the second quarter, Notre Dame got the ball back with just 24 seconds remaining in the half and the score tied 21-21. A 13-yard gain by C.J. Prosise and a 28-yard reception by junior wide receiver Torii Hunter Jr. got the Irish in Navy ter- ritory, setting up a long field goal attempt. Fresh- man placekicker Justin Yoon ended the half by drilling a 52-yard field goal to put the Irish up 24-21. On the opening play of the third quarter, sophomore linebacker Nyles Morgan stripped Navy junior returner Dishan Romine of the ball and junior cornerback Devin Butler recov- ered the fumble. The offense converted that miscue into a touchdown, putting the Irish up 10 at 31-21 and taking back all the momentum Navy had gained in the second quarter. The fumble to open the half was the ultimate game-changer. "It was huge for the 'search and de- stroy team' to do that," sophomore Freshman kicker Justin Yoon converted a 52-yard field goal — the third-longest kick in school history — to put the Irish up 24-21 at halftime. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA

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