Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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24 SEPT. 19, 2016 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED yards on nine plays for a touchdown. His two-yard run made it 32-0 with 8:30 left in the third quarter. Kizer once again led a productive day for the offense, converting high- percentage passes while leaning on a powerful running game. "He slides in the pocket well and es- pecially in the red zone," Kelly said of Kizer. "He's taken what's available to him instead of trying to do too much." Zaire finished 4-of-9 passing for 49 yards and also ran five times for five yards, but there was no switching back and forth between quarterbacks against the Wolf Pack. Sophomore running back Williams added a one-yard touchdown run with 38 seconds left in the third quarter to make it 39-3. Nevada scored its lone touchdown with 3:19 remaining in the game on a six-yard run by freshman running back Jaxson Kincaide. "If we were supposed to beat Notre Dame we wouldn't be in the Mountain West Conference," said Nevada coach Brian Polian, an assistant under Charlie Weis at Notre Dame from 2005-09. "I expected the Irish offense to be explo- sive. That was not shocking to me." Sophomore wide receivers C.J. Sand- ers and Equanimeous St. Brown had productive days for Notre Dame. St. Brown led the Irish with six catches for 85 yards, while Sanders had five catches for 46 yards and a touchdown. Sanders won game ball honors for his performance also on special teams, where he returned a punt 24 yards to set up one score and a kickoff 37 yards to set up another. Notre Dame was also able to ro- tate its other young receivers into the lineup. Freshmen Kevin Stepherson and Chase Claypool and sophomore Miles Boykin all saw extensive playing time, and junior Corey Holmes got the start in place of an injured Torii Hunter Jr. (concussion). "We felt like it was important to get Corey and Stepherson and those kids some touches early, some confidence," Kelly said. "If they got some confi- dence, they'd make some plays for us." Sophomore linebacker Te'von Coney, sophomore cornerback Nick Coleman, senior defensive end Isaac Rochell and senior linebacker James Onwualu each had five tackles to lead the Irish. Notre Dame opened the scoring on a 21-yard field goal by sophomore kicker Justin Yoon on the fourth play of the second quarter to make it 3-0. The Irish then forced a three-and-out, and Kizer needed just three plays to score. He found Sanders for a seven- yard touchdown, though Yoon missed the extra point, to make it 9-0 Notre Dame with 10:30 remaining in the half. On the ensuing kickoff, Nevada's Ahki Muhammad took a knee in the end zone after beginning his return, giving Notre Dame a safety. The two sides then traded intercep- tions — Kizer was picked off by ju- nior cornerback Kendall Johnson and Nevada fifth-year senior quarterback Tyler Stewart was intercepted by fifth- year senior nose guard Jarron Jones. Notre Dame then capitalized on the short field, scoring on a four-yard pass from Kizer to Stepherson to make it 18-0 with 8:23 remaining. Folston capped Notre Dame's final scoring drive of the first half with a two-yard scoring run to make it 25-0 at intermission. The Irish went 88 yards on 13 plays, sparked by a 25-yard catch-and-run by Sanders. Kelly did not take the victory over Nevada for granted, noting numerous upsets during the day. "You don't accidentally win football games. It's hard to win," Kelly said. "Just look around college football to- day. A number of teams are struggling to win. They're pedigree programs. "Our kids put in the time, and they put in the effort. It wasn't lucky that they won the game today. They pre- pared to win." ✦ Sophomore running back Josh Adams paced Notre Dame's balanced rushing attack with 10 carries for 106 yards. The Irish totaled 239 yards on the ground. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA NOTRE DAME 39, NEVADA 10 Sept. 10, 2016 ✦ Attendance: 80,795 Notre Dame Stadium ✦ Notre Dame, Ind. 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Tot. Nevada 0 0 3 7 10 Notre Dame 0 25 14 0 39 SECOND QUARTER NEV ND ND Yoon 21-yard field goal 12:57 0 3 Drive: 11 plays, 75 yards, 5:21 ND Sanders 7-yard pass from Kizer (Yoon kick failed) 10:35 0 9 Drive: 3 plays, 25 yards, 0:55 ND Safety 10:30 0 11 ND Stepherson 4-yard pass from Kizer (Yoon kick) 8:23 0 18 Drive: 3 plays, 4 yards, 1:05 ND Folston 2-yard run (Yoon Kick) 0:35 0 25 Drive: 13 plays, 88 yards, 4:28 THIRD QUARTER ND Kizer 2-yard run (Yoon kick) 8:30 0 32 Drive: 9 plays, 85 yards, 4:36 NEV Zuzo 27-yard field goal 3:54 3 32 Drive: 11 plays, 66 yards, 4:36 ND Williams 1-yard run (Yoon Kick) 0:38 3 39 Drive: 7 plays, 57 yards, 3:07 FOURTH QUARTER NEV Kincaide 6-yard run (Zuzo Kick) 3:19 10 39 Drive: 5 plays, 86 yards, 2:14 NEV ND Total First Downs 16 21 Rushing 7 10 Passing 5 9 Penalty 4 2 Rushing Attempts 30 46 Yards Gained Rushing 116 254 Yards Lost Rushing 17 15 Net Yards Rushing 99 239 Net Yards Passing 201 205 Passes Attempted 26 27 Passes Completed 12 19 Had Intercepted 1 1 Percent Completion 46.2% 70.4% Yards Per Attempt 7.7 7.6 Yards Per Completion 16.8 10.8 Total Offensive Plays 56 73 Total Net Yards 300 444 Average Gain Per Play 5.4 6.1 Fumbles: No.-Lost 0-0 1-0 Penalties: No.-Yards 11-88 9-94 Punts: No.-Yards 7-311 5-224 Average Per Punt 44.4 44.8 Average Net Punt 38.9 43.4 Punt Returns: No.-Yards 2-7 2-39 Kickoff Returns: No.-Yards 3-41 2-44 Interception Returns: No.-Yards 1-0 1-5 Fumble Returns: No.-Yards 0-0 0-0 Miscellaneous Yards 0 0 Possession Time 26:28 33:32 Third-Down Conversions 3-12 7-15 Percentage 25.0% 46.7% Fourth-Down Conversions 0-1 2-2 Percentage 0.0% 100.0% Sacks By: No.-Yards 0-0 0-0