Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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TURNING POINT Although Notre Dame led 14-0 early in the second quarter, Wake Forest had been moving the ball relatively well with 111 yards on 19 plays in the first quarter. The Demon Deacons drove 74 yards to Notre Dame's 1-yard line, where they faced fourth-and-goal. Junior linebacker Jaylon Smith, lined up at end, stormed inside off the edge and stopped the zone read play between quarterback Kendall Hinton and running back Tyler Bell for no gain with 10:51 left until half- time. Two plays later, freshman running back Josh Adams broke through the right side, slipped a couple of tack- les and recorded the longest play from scrimmage in Notre Dame history with a 98-yard touchdown scamper. From a potential 14-7 deficit to be- ing down 21-0 two plays later was a dramatic turnaround. STAT OF THE GAME Freshman Josh Adams' 98-yard touchdown run was the longest play from scrimmage in the Foot- ball Bowl Subdivision this year, but it also marked the second time this season Notre Dame had a touch- down run of at least 90 yards. Senior C.J. Prosise tallied from 91 yards in the 30-22 victory ver- sus Georgia Tech Sept. 19. In the previous 126 years of Notre Dame football, there had only been two 90-yard runs from scrimmage by an Irish player: Bob Livingston's 92- yard touchdown versus USC in 1947 and Larry Coutre's 91-yard score versus Navy in 1949. This was also the 11th time this year that Notre Dame scored a touchdown that covered at least 50 yards, which is believed to be a school record. The 1988 national champions scored 10 times from 50 yards or more. RED ZONE DEFENSE COMES THROUGH While Notre Dame's big-play ex- plosiveness stole the show against Wake Forest, specifically freshman running back Josh Adams' 98-yard scoring run, the Fighting Irish red zone defense carried the day. The Demon Deacons penetrated Notre Dame's 20-yard line four different times, and on three of them they came away with no points. They had a first-and-goal at the nine in the second quarter that ended with a stop on fourth down from the 1-yard line. Later that same quarter, a first-and-10 at the Notre Dame 12 saw Wake Forest end up back at its 33. Then in the fourth quarter, a first- and-goal at the 1-yard line featured a fumble that lost eight yards. The Irish defense will need to make more of these stops to reach a cham- pionship level. THREE OBSERVATIONS BY LOU SOMOGYI