Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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24 SEPT. 12, 2016 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED game at 31-14 on a field goal with 9:14 left in the third quarter. The Longhorns scored the opening 10 points of the sec- ond half, including a 72-yard touch- down pass from Buechele to sopho- more wide receiver John Burt. Even faced with a daunting hole, Notre Dame fought back. "I'm proud of the resiliency they showed on the road down 17 points in the second half," Kelly said. "That's something that we can really build on." Kizer (29-yard run), Torii Hunter Jr. (five-yard catch) and Adams (17-yard reception) did the scoring in the Irish comeback, which was also sparked by a Crawford interception. "Anytime you come out here and compete as hard as we do and not come out with a victory is kind of a tough time," said Kizer, who com- pleted 15 of 24 passes for 215 yards with five scores and no interceptions, while also rushing for 77 yards and a touchdown. "Obviously this is a great team. We put a lot of heart out there. "To come back from the deficit that we did in the second half is a plus, but to come up short really hurts." Notre Dame opened the game with a 78-yard scoring drive with Kizer at quarterback, capped by a 13-yard touchdown catch by soph- omore wide receiver Equanimeous St. Brown to make it 7-0 with 12:28 left in the first quarter. Texas responded with a 75-yard scor- ing drive of its own. Buechele found junior wide receiver Armanti Fore- man for a 19-yard touchdown to tie the game at 7-7 with 9:30 remaining in the first quarter. Foreman, falling to the ground in front of the Notre Dame sec- tion of fans, hauled in the pass under tight coverage from senior cornerback Cole Luke. Notre Dame was ineffective on its next three drives, and with 12:26 left in the first half, Buechele and Swoopes led a 16-play, 88-yard touchdown drive to take a 14-7 lead. Buechele finished the drive with a one-yard touchdown run. The lead didn't last long. With Kizer at quarterback, the Irish responded with a 75-yard scoring drive. St. Brown caught his second touchdown of the game, a 30-yard reception up the seam while tumbling into the end zone to make it 14-14 with 3:40 remaining in the half. St. Brown finished with five catches for 75 yards. Notre Dame's defense, though, could not get Texas off the field. Sparked by a 68-yard connection from Buechele to former quarterback Jerrod Heard, Texas took a 21-14 lead with 1:12 left in the half on a Swoopes one-yard touch- down run. Kelly took some of the blame for the team-wide issues. "We have to coach better. We've got to be better as coaches," Kelly said. "It starts with me and our staff coaching better and then our players have to do their job. "We do that, and we've got some really key ingredients to this football team that as a head coach you really want." ✦ Junior quarterback DeShone Kizer completed 15 of 24 passes for 215 yards with five touchdowns, while also rushing for 77 yards and a score. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA TEXAS 50, NOTRE DAME 47 Sept. 4, 2016 ✦ Attendance 102,315 Royal-Texas Memorial ✦ Austin, Texas 1st 2nd 3rd 4th OT Tot. Notre Dame 7 7 14 9 10 47 Texas 7 14 10 6 13 50 FIRST QUARTER ND UT ND St. Brown 13-yard pass from Kizer (Yoon kick) 12:28 7 0 Drive: 6 plays, 78 yards, 2:32 UT Foreman 19-yard pass from Buechele (Domingue kick) 9:30 7 7 Drive: 11 plays, 75 yards, 2:58 SECOND QUARTER UT Buechele 1-yard run (Domingue kick) 7:13 7 14 Drive: 16 plays, 88 yards, 5:13 ND St. Brown 30-yard pass from Kizer (Yoon kick) 3:44 14 14 Drive: 7 plays, 75 yards, 3:29 UT Swoopes 1-yard run (Domingue kick) 1:12 14 21 Drive: 7 plays, 80 yards, 2:28 THIRD QUARTER UT Burt 72-yard pass from Buechele (Domingue kick) 14:29 14 28 Drive: 2 plays, 75 yards, 0:31 UT Domingue 25-yard field goal 9:14 14 31 Drive: 8 plays, 54 yards, 3:01 ND Kizer 29-yard run (Yoon kick) 7:39 21 31 Drive: 4 plays, 61 yards, 1:28 ND Hunter 5-yard Pass from Kizer (Yoon kick) 5:06 28 31 Drive: 3 plays, 6 yards, 1:14 FOURTH QUARTER ND Adams 17-yard pass from Kizer (Yoon kick) 10:57 35 31 Drive: 7 plays, 46 yards, 2:48 UT Foreman 19-yard run (Domingue kick blocked) 3:29 35 37 Drive: 8 plays, 68 yards, 1:54 ND Crawford PAT return 3:29 37 37 OVERTIME UT Swoopes 3-yard run (Domingue kick) 37 44 Drive: 4 plays, 25 yards ND Sanders 25-yard pass from Kizer (Yoon kick) 44 44 Drive: 1 play, 25 yards ND Yoon 39-yard field goal 47 44 Drive: 4 plays, 3 yards UT Swoopes 6-yard run 47 50 Drive: 5 plays, 25 yards ND UT Total First Downs 22 26 Rushing 10 14 Passing 11 10 Penalty 1 2 Rushing Attempts 46 59 Yards Gained Rushing 237 268 Yards Lost Rushing 31 31 Net Yards Rushing 206 237 Net Yards Passing 238 280 Passes Attempted 30 27 Passes Completed 17 16 Had Intercepted 0 1 Percent Completion 56.7% 59.3% Yards Per Attempt 7.9 10.4 Yards Per Completion 14.0 17.5 Total Offensive Plays 76 86 Total Net Yards 444 517 Average Gain Per Play 5.8 6.0 Fumbles: No-Lost 0-0 0-0 Penalties: No-Yards 8-64 11-104 Punts: No-Yards 7-268 6-330 Average Per Punt 38.3 55.0 Average Net Punt 34.0 43.2 Punt Returns: No.-Yards 2-51 3-30 Kickoff Returns: No.-Yards 5-95 2-29 Interception Returns: No.-Yards 1-22 0-0 Fumble Returns: No.-Yards 0-0 0-0 Miscellaneous Yards 0 1 Possession Time 32:42 27:18 Third-Down Conversions 7-16 8-18 Percentage 43.8% 44.4% Fourth-Down Conversions 0-0 2-2 Percentage 0.0% 100.0% Sacks By: No-Yards 0-0 3-19