Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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11 One-hundred-yard rushers for Notre Dame this season after both freshman running back Josh Adams (18 carries for 168 yards) and soph- omore quarterback DeShone Kizer (16 carries for 128 yards) achieved the feat. That is the most in a regular season since 11 in 1983, with Allen Pinkett mainly doing the honors. 14 Touchdowns this year by Notre Dame that covered at least 50 yards after tallying three more versus Stanford: the 93-yard kickoff return by Sanders, a 73-yard catch by junior Will Fuller and a 62-yard run by Adams. The previous record was believed to be 10 by the 1988 national title team. 93 Yards on Sanders' touchdown return in the first quarter to help knot the game at 7-7. It was the first time since freshman George Atkinson III in the 2011 USC game that Notre Dame scored on a kickoff, a span of 57 games. 168 Rushing yards by Adams on 18 carries — breaking the 40-year single-game freshman record set by Jerome Heavens against Georgia Tech on Nov. 8, 1975, when he carried 18 times for 148 yards. It was also the fourth time Ad- ams surpassed 100 rushing yards this season, tying the freshman single-season mark set by Heavens in 1975. Adams' 760 yards rushing this year passed Heavens for second place among Irish freshmen all time, and he needs only 27 in the bowl to eclipse Darius Walker's standard of 786 set in 2004. 2002 The last season Notre Dame had a player return a punt and a kickoff for a touchdown in the same year, until Sanders did it in 2015. Sanders scored on a punt return versus UMass Sept. 26 and then the kickoff versus the Cardinal. Cornerback Vontez Duff did the honors 13 years ago with a punt return for a score in the opener against Maryland and then tallying on a kick return versus Navy in the 10th game. Sophomore DeShone Kizer's ninth rushing touchdown of the year, which gave the Irish a 36-35 lead with 30 seconds remaining in the game, tied the Notre Dame record for quarterbacks. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA