Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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position. Getting that kind of disruption has allowed Irish defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder to use his front to attack the opposition backfield with greater consistency. With Day and Okwara pressuring the backfield, VanGorder has not needed to design linebacker and safety blitzes to create some havoc. The more Okwara has been able to get into the backfield — forcing op- ponents to spend more time trying to block him on the edge — the more productive the pressure packages have become. "He's in position to affect the quar- terback more in a pass rushing situ- ation," Kelly said of Okwara's edge production. "We're much more of a four-down team now, where he was [previously] a bit of a drop player." Now Okwara is able to spend most of his time on the attack. After moving back and forth between outside line- backer and defensive end, he is finally PLAY CHART (NO. OF PLAYS) Yards ND WF (-) Yards 10 9 0-5 Yards 22 41 6-9 Yards 7 13 10-19 Yards 8 8 20-29 Yards 1 2 30-39 Yards 0 0 40-49 Yards 0 0 50 or more Yards 1 1 BIG PLAYS (25 YARDS OR MORE) Notre Dame • 2-9 ND2 Adams rush for 98 yards and a touch- down Wake Forest • 1-10 WF35 Wolford pass complete to Brent for 52 yards to the ND13 OFFENSE QB: DESHONE KIZER RB: JOSH ADAMS, Dexter Williams WR: CHRIS BROWN, Corey Robinson WR: AMIR CARLISLE, Torii Hunter Jr. WR: WILL FULLER TE: CHASE HOUNSHELL , Tyler Luatua, Alizé Jones LT: RONNIE STANLEY LG: QUENTON NELSON C: NICK MARTIN RG: STEVE ELMER RT: MIKE MCGLINCHEY DEFENSE DE: ROMEO OKWARA, Doug Ran- dolph DT: SHELDON DAY, Jonathan Bonner NG: ISAAC ROCHELL, Jerry Tillery DE: ANDREW TRUMBETTI, Grant Blankenship WLB: JAYLON SMITH MLB: JOE SCHMIDT, Jarrett Grace SLB: JAMES ONWUALU, Greer Mar - tini CB: KEIVARAE RUSSELL, Torii Hunter Jr. (nickel) S: ELIJAH SHUMATE, Matthias Farley S: MAX REDFIELD CB: COLE LUKE SPECIAL TEAMS Kick Return: CJ Sanders, Josh Ad- ams, Tyler Luatua, Chris Brown, Te'von Coney, Greer Martini, An- drew Trumbetti, Jarrett Grace, Mat- thias Farley, Devin Butler, Corey Robinson Kickoff Coverage: Tyler Newsome, Nicco Fertitta, Max Redfield, Nick Coleman, Matthias Farley, Devin Butler, Te'von Coney, Connor Cava - laris, Doug Randolph, Jarrett Grace, Nyles Morgan Punt Returner: CJ Sanders Punter: Tyler Newsome Placekicker: Justin Yoon Holder: DeShone Kizer Long Snapper: Scott Daly Others: Hunter Bivin, Nicky Baratti PARTICIPATION CHART