Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/86484
through the air. Fresh- man Duke Johnson, one of the top all-purpose players in college foot- ball during September, contributed only 57 yards of offense. The Hurricanes had disciplined enough and we didn't make enough plays. It's that simple." A roughing the punter passes. Golson missed the first their chances early. Sophomore wide re- ceiver Phillip Dorsett dropped a pair of sure- thing touchdown passes in the first five plays of the game, setting the tone for a game full of butter-finger moments for the Miami receivers. Those missed op- portunities were com- pounded by mental mistakes to make for a dismal night for a Mi- ami team that had been on a roll before run- ning into the Irish. The Canes were flagged nine times for 76 yards. One holding call wiped out a Morris rushing touch- down. A pair of personal fouls extended Notre Dame's first possession and helped the Irish get out to an early lead. "Certainly we aided them on that first drive, and that's a team that doesn't need a lot of help," Miami head coach Al Golden said. "We didn't play smart enough, we didn't play penalty negated what would have been a three-and-out start to the game for Notre Dame. Two plays later, a late hit out of bounds tacked 15 extra yards on to a Robby Toma re- ception and pushed the ball across midfield. Sophomore quarterback Everett Golson got in- volved in the running game from there, bring- ing Notre Dame down to the 1-yard line, where Riddick punched in the game's first score. The two teams traded three plays of the game because he showed up late to a team meeting earlier in the week. He responded to his tem- porary benching well. He didn't have an in- completion in the first quarter and finished the game 17-of-22 passing for 186 yards. He also got involved in the rush- ing game for the first time this season, pick- ing up 51 yards on the ground with a mixture of designed runs and scrambles. "It was important for field goals after that. Mi- ami hit from 28 yards away. and sophomore Kyle Brindza answered for the Irish with suc- cessful kicks from 22 and 32 yards. Brindza is now 8 of 10 in his young ca- reer kicking field goals, after he missed a 34-yard try in the final seconds of the first half. That attempt was set up by Golson's most efficient drive as a col- lege quarterback to date. Golson drove the team 53 yards in the last min- ute of the half with four consecutive completed me after disciplining him to get him back in the game right away to let him know that I had trust in him and that I believed in him," Kelly said. Golson will be back in his starting role next Saturday when the Irish host 4-1 Stanford, which survived an overtime game with Arizona this weekend, and the ESPN College GameDay crew next Saturday. The Car- dinal and its top-ranked rushing defense will provide a stern test for the suddenly in-step Notre Dame running game. ✦