Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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22 NOV. 28, 2016 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY MATT JONES B rian Kelly said he's going to wake up from this nightmare and his Notre Dame team will be 11-0. Or maybe not, the seventh-year Irish head coach said. Following a script that's become all too common in South Bend, Notre Dame blew another big first-half lead and eventually lost as home favor- ites, falling to Virginia Tech 34-31 on Senior Day. "I'm at loss for words really as to what to tell the team," Kelly said. "It's just been a difficult year." The loss moves the Irish to 4-7, ef- fectively ending their chances at go- ing to a bowl game. Notre Dame now faces No. 13 USC in Los Angeles, a game that has the potential to rival the 49-14 blowout in 2014. Notre Dame will end the season without consecutive wins, the first time since 1960 an Irish team has failed to do so. Virginia Tech's Joey Slye hit a 20- yard field goal with 4:16 remaining in the game to give the Hokies (8-3) their first lead of the game. It com- pleted a comeback that began with Tech trailing by as many as 17 points in the first half. Notre Dame junior quarterback DeShone Kizer — potentially play- ing in his final game at Notre Dame Stadium — went 13-of-18 passing for 199 yards in the first half. However, he was just 3-of-15 passing for 36 yards in the second half. "Really a tale of two halves," Kelly said. "Obviously, offensively we got it going very well in the first half; in the second half we weren't as sharp." The Irish started quickly, going up 7-0 less than four minutes into the game on a one-yard touchdown run by sophomore running back Josh Ad- ams. It capped a seven-play, 78-yard drive. Notre Dame has scored first in all but one game this season, the excep- tion a 10-3 loss at North Carolina State Oct. 8. Sophomore kicker Justin Yoon added a 25-yard field goal with 4:26 left in the first quarter to make it 10-0. Then, on the first play of the second quarter, sophomore wide receiver Chris Finke caught a 31-yard touch- down from Kizer to extend the lead to 17-0. Including the touchdown to Finke, Notre Dame outgained Vir- ginia Tech 204-4 yards to open the game. Virginia Tech got on the board on the ensuing drive, finishing with a 23-yard touchdown run by junior quarterback Jerod Evans to cut the Notre Dame lead to 17-7. Notre Dame extended the lead back to 17 with six minutes left in the half, when Kizer found sopho- more wide receiver Miles Boykin for an 18-yard touchdown. The Hokies then had a crucial scoring drive at the end of the half, capped by a 16-yard touchdown toss from Evans to junior wide receiver Cam Phillips to make it 24-14 at the break. "I don't think there was any great revelation at halftime," first-year Vir- ginia Tech head coach Justin Fuente said. "We had to play better. We were out there dropping the ball on the ground — just not playing Virginia Tech football." Fuente said once his team settled down and got their feet underneath The Hokies' ground game grinded out tough yards between the tackles and opened things up for an efficient aerial attack that was key to their rally. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA ANOTHER NIGHTMARE ENDING Irish blow a 17-point lead against Virginia Tech on Senior Day