Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com DECEMBER 2016 27 TAKING A CLOSER LOOK What Worked • Another Fast Start, Sort Of. For the eighth time this season, Notre Dame took its first offensive possession of the game right down the field for a touchdown. Much like the start to Notre Dame's win over Syracuse — which took just one play — the opening touchdown against USC came quickly. Sophomore running back Josh Adams took an outside zone handoff to the right and made a quick read, cutting behind fifth-year senior right guard Mark Harrell and then breaking the run to the backside. Adams raced 74 yards before USC junior cornerback Adoree' Jackson brought him down at the 1-yard line. Junior quarterback DeShone Kizer snuck the ball into the end zone on the next play. Unfortunately, Notre Dame's fast start ended with that series — the Irish failed to score another point in the first half. • Pass Defense Holds Its Own. USC had a fast start of its own, marching down the field on 10 plays, but the Irish pass defense came up with a third-down stop, forcing a field goal. On paper, the matchup of Notre Dame's freshmen de- fensive backs against USC's talented pass catchers — led by standout junior JuJu Smith-Schuster — did not favor the Irish. Jackson scored on a swing pass from 52 yards out in the third quarter, but outside of that play the pass defense kept USC in check. Southern Cal redshirt freshman quarterback Sam Dar- nold completed a high number of short passes, but the Irish were able to limit the big plays, with the Trojans averaging just 5.3 yards per attempt on the other 29 pass attempts before and after Jackson's burst. What Didn't Work • No Plan For Jackson. Although he is a cornerback by trade, Jackson now has six career touchdown recep- tions, and half of those have come against Notre Dame. He caught a 16-yard scoring pass against the Irish in 2014 and had an 83-yard touchdown reception against the Irish last season. He also entered the contest against the Irish ranked fifth nationally in punt return average and 10th in kick return average. With that history of success, Notre Dame troublingly failed to account for Jackson in all phases of the game. Three times he lined up in the backfield and on all three occasions the Trojans threw him the ball. He caught one pass and raced around the left end for a 52-yard score and had another that went for 12 yards, converting a third-and-11. He was open on the third attempt, but Darnold threw an errant pass. The Irish gave up a 55-yard punt return for a score to Jackson in the second quarter, which broke open what had been a tight game to that point. Notre Dame also made the unwise decision to kick deep to Jackson, who made it pay with a 97-yard return for a score that eliminated any chance for an Irish comeback. • Third-Down Loss. In all but one Notre Dame game this season, the winner of the third-down battle won the game. The Irish had the worst third-down conversion percentage in seven of their eight losses, with its 28-27 defeat to Navy the lone exception. Against USC, the Irish converted only 29.4 percent (5 of 17) of their third-down opportunities, while the Trojans made good on 41.7 percent (5 of 12) of their third-down tries. — Bryan Driskell Senior Tarean Folston was among a running back unit this season that did not lose a single fumble in 321 rushing attempts over 12 games. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA 2 Losing seasons suffered by head coach Brian Kelly in his 26 seasons as a college head coach. His first year at Central Michigan in 2004 produced a 4-7 mark, and his sev- enth at Notre Dame resulted in a 4-8 record. 3 Teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision, since the divisions were established in 1978, that still have never played a Football Championship Subdivision opponent (for- merly lower than Division I-A): Notre Dame, USC and UCLA. 3-10 Record for Notre Dame in its last 13 true road games, or when it played in the other team's home stadium (no neutral site). It dates back to the 28-21 loss to Pitt in November 2013. It was 0-3 this season after losing the season opener at Texas (50-47 in double overtime) Sept. 4, at North Carolina State (10-3) Oct. 8 and at USC in the finale. Two of the wins were 11th-hour rallies last year at Virginia (34-27) and Temple (24-20). 4 Notre Dame teams in history that lost at least eight games in one season: 1956 (2-8), 1960 (2-8), 2007 (3-9) and now 2016 (4-8). Meanwhile, USC's eight-game winning streak is its longest in one campaign since winning the last 10 games in 2008. 5 Opponents among the 12 on Notre Dame's 2016 schedule that finished above .500 versus Football Bowl Subdivision foes. Each of those foes came in the second half of the season: Stanford (9-3), Miami (8-4), Navy (9-2), Virginia Tech (9-3) and USC (9-3). 11 Games out of 12 this year when 4-8 Notre Dame scored the game's first touchdown. The exception was at North Carolina State Oct. 8, where the Wolfpack scored the lone touchdown of the game en route to a 10-3 victory. At USC, junior quar- terback DeShone Kizer's one-yard TD run gave the Irish a 7-3 lead at the 9:51 mark of the first quarter. It was the eighth time this year Notre Dame scored on its first series, be it on offense or special teams, and it did in each of the last five contests. 22 Points scored by Notre Dame in the fourth quarter over the last eight games, including six on a touchdown pass from Malik Zaire to Equanimeous St. Brown with 1:05 left against USC. The Irish scored only two touchdowns in those eight games, including the meaningless one versus the Trojans, while going 3-5. 59-31 Career record of Kelly (.656 winning percentage) through seven seasons at Notre Dame. The 31 defeats are now the most by a Fight- ing Irish head coach, eclipsing the 100-30-2 (.765) ledger during Lou Holtz's 11 seasons from 1986-96. 321 Rushing attempts by Notre Dame running backs this year — without losing a single fumble. The Irish lost nine fumbles this season at quar- terback, receiver or special teams, but none came from second year running back coach Autry Denson's crew. BY THE NUMBERS BY LOU SOMOGYI