Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/734095
www.BLUEANDGOLD.com OCT. 10, 2016 29 DONTE VAUGHN SHINES IN FIRST START Another change made by new de- fensive coordinator Greg Hudson and head coach Brian Kelly was to start freshman cornerback Donte Vaughn, who made his first intercep- tion of the season a week prior dur- ing Notre Dame's 38-35 loss to Duke. Vaughn spent much of the game matched up against standout Syra- cuse wide receiver Amba Etta-Tawo, who entered the game leading the nation in receiving yards. After beating fellow freshman cor- nerback Julian Love for a 72-yard touchdown in the first quarter, Etta- Tawo was held in check by Vaughn, finishing with six catches for 62 yards in the final three quarters. Notre Dame knew it could get Vaughn matched up against Etta- Tawo, and it felt it could have success. "We knew he was going to line up to our right and we wanted Donte over there, we wanted some size," Kelly said of the 6-2 Vaughn. "We helped him a lot. He had help over the top, we had people underneath him. "So Donte did what we asked him to do … he's a long, athletic kid, but we didn't leave him on an island." Vaughn finished the game with a career-high six tackles. He also broke up a pass during the game. DESHONE KIZER GETS BACK ON TRACK Junior quarterback DeShone Kizer has been putting up very good num- bers recently, but his overall play was heavily scrutinized by head coach Brian Kelly. Kizer set a career-best mark with 344 passing yards in a loss to Michigan State, which lasted just a week when he went for 381 yards in the loss to Duke. Despite the numbers, Kizer was called out by the Irish head coach after the Duke loss. "Below standard, it's not accept- able," Kelly said of Kizer's 381-yard performance. Kizer once again set a career high against Syracuse, piling up 471 pass- ing yards — the third-best single- game performance in Notre Dame history. Kizer passed for 356 yards in the first half, a Notre Dame record. The first half did not finish the way Kizer — and Notre Dame — wanted it to. He took a sack on third down with Notre Dame in Syracuse terri- tory. On Notre Dame's next posses- sion, Kizer stared down sophomore wideout Equanimeous St. Brown, which made it easy for Syracuse linebacker Zaire Franklin to read the pass and make an interception. Kelly was not pleased with the way Kizer finished the half, and noted that his quarterback was playing out- side of himself. "He tried to do too much," Kelly said of Kizer 's back-to-back mis- takes. "I said, 'DeShone, we need to get three points there, and you're trying to do too much,' and he has a tendency to want to do too much and put too much pressure on himself, and he's got to stop doing that." Kelly was pleased with Kizer 's second-half performance, although statistically it was not nearly as im- pressive. What it did, however, was show Kizer 's growth and ability to overcome crucial mistakes. "What I liked about him in the sec- ond half is he dropped the ball down," Kelly said. "[Kizer] took the easy com- pletions, made the smart decisions and I think he needs to continue to do that. "I thought the second half showed the kind of things I'm looking for him to do." Relaxing and having fun was something Kizer said during the week that he wanted to do against Syracuse. He played the game with a lot more emotion than he showed in SYRACUSE VS. NOTRE DAME QUARTER-BY-QUARTER COMPARISON Syracuse 1st Qtr. 2nd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 4th Qtr. 1st Half 2nd Half Total Time of Possession 8:04 6:14 8:47 5:33 14:18 14:20 28:38 Third-Down Conversions 1-3 0-4 1-6 1-2 1-7 2-8 3-15 Fourth-Down Conversions 0-0 1-1 0-1 0-0 1-1 0-1 1-2 Average Field Position SU-19 SU-42 SU-38 SU-23 SU-30 SU-34 SU-32 Notre Dame 1st Qtr. 2nd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 4th Qtr. 1st Half 2nd Half Final Time of Possession 6:56 8:46 6:13 9:27 15:42 15:40 31:22 Third-Down Conversions 1-3 0-3 0-2 2-4 1-6 2-6 3-12 Fourth-Down Conversions 0-1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-1 0-0 0-1 Average Field Position ND-30 ND-29 ND-15 SU-48 ND-29 ND-21 ND-26 PLAY CHART (NO. OF PLAYS) Yards SU ND (-) Yards 7 4 0-5 Yards 51 38 6-9 Yards 9 11 10-19 Yards 17 9 20-29 Yards 2 5 30-39 Yards 1 0 40-49 Yards 0 1 50 or more Yards 1 4 RED ZONE EFFICIENCY (INSIDE 20-YARD LINE) No Poss. TD FG Score SU 5 4 0 1 ND 3 1 1 1 BIG PLAYS (25 YARDS OR MORE) Syracuse • 1-10 SU25 Dungey middle pass complete to Philips for 25 yards to the 50 • 3-3 SU28 Dungey pass complete to E a-Tawo for 72 yards and a touchdown • 2-11 ND43 Dungey pass complete to Ishmael for 36 yards to the ND7 Notre Dame • 1-10 ND21 Kizer pass complete to St. Brown for 79 yards and a touchdown • 3-3 ND33 Kizer pass complete to St. Brown for 67 yards and a touchdown • 1-10 SU48 Kizer pass complete to Adams for 44 yards to SU4 • 1-10 ND46 Kizer pass complete to Stepherson for 54 yards and a touchdown • 2-10 ND41 Williams rush for 59 yards and a touchdown • 1-10 ND5 Adams rush for 28 yards to the ND33 Kizer's 471-yard performance throwing the ball was the third-best single-game performance in Notre Dame history. PHOTO BY RICK KIMBALL