Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com OCT. 23, 2017 25 3 Teams in the 129-team Football Bowl Subdivi- sion to win three road games — not including neutral sites — through Oct. 7 against Power Five schools, with Notre Dame doing so against Boston College, Michigan State and North Carolina. The Fighting Irish join two top-10 squads — Georgia and Washington — as the only teams to have achieved that through six games. Entering this season, Notre Dame was only 3-10 in its last 13 games in the home stadium of its opponent, dating back to 2013. 4 Consecutive Notre Dame victories by at least 20 points — 49-20 at Boston College, 38-18 at Michigan State, 52-17 versus Miami (Ohio) and 33-10 at North Carolina — a first since head coach Charlie Weis' first season in 2005 when the Irish finished No. 9. That season Notre Dame defeated Brigham Young (49-23), Tennessee (41-21), Navy (42-21) and Syracuse (34-10) before rallying late for a 38-31 win at Stanford in the regular-season finale. 10 Straight victories for Notre Dame on Oct. 7, dating back to 1955. It is 16-1-1 all time on that date, with the lone defeat occurring in 1950 to Purdue, ending the school record 39-game unbeaten streak. 11 Quarterback hurries by the Notre Dame defense, with sophomore end Julian Ok- wara leading the way with three, while sophomore end Daelin Hayes and junior nose tackle Jerry Til- lery had two apiece. The Irish also had two sacks, which don't always tell the story of how effective the pass rush was. 13 Runs of at least 35 yards by Notre Dame this season after only six games, with ju- nior Josh Adams scoring on a 73-yard rush and sophomore Deon McIntosh tallying on a 35-yard scurry in the win at North Carolina. During last year's 4-8 season, the Irish had only seven — two of them in the final two games by Adams. 18-2 Notre Dame's all-time record against North Carolina in a series where the first game was played in 1949. The .900 winning per- centage is the best by the Fighting Irish among the 16 teams it has faced at least 20 times. Navy is second at .850 with Notre Dame owning a 76-13-1 record. 24-26 For the first time this year, Notre Dame failed to score once it entered the red zone. In the third quarter on a first down at the North Carolina 18-yard line, sophomore quarter- back Ian Book tossed an interception to safety Myles Dorn. Then at the end of the game, the Irish drove in- side the UNC 10-yard line before opting to take a knee and run out the clock. Notre Dame capitalized on the first two in the game with a touchdown and field goal. 34-4 Record under head coach Brian Kelly in his eight seasons when Notre Dame wins the turnover battle, as it did (3-2) at North Car- olina. That comes out to a .895 winning percentage. 73-10 The margin Notre Dame has out- scored its opponents this year af- ter a turnover by either team. North Carolina actu- ally finished with a 7-3 advantage, with Notre Dame scoring only once on the three turnovers it forced. 202 Career tackles for Notre Dame senior linebacker and captain Nyles Morgan after recording three against the Tar Heels. He joins 2015 Butkus Award winner Jaylon Smith as the two Fighting Irish players to reach that mile- stone since the 2013 season. 308.0 Rushing yards per game for the Irish at the halfway mark of the season after adding 341 more at North Carolina. At this pace, it would be the highest total at the school since the 1973 national champions pro- duced the 350.2 figure. Furthermore, the afore- mentioned McIntosh became the fourth different Notre Dame player to rush for at least 100 yards in a game (124) this year, which might at worst tie a school record. 2,544 Career rushing yards by junior running back Josh Adams after totaling 118 at North Carolina. This puts him No. 7 on the all-time Irish chart — and the most by a run- ning back in the Kelly era. At North Carolina, Adams surpassed 2010-12 Irish running back Cierre Wood, who totaled 2,447 under Kelly. At No. 6 is 1975-78 fullback/tailback Jerome Heavens with 2,682. BY THE NUMBERS BY LOU SOMOGYI 7-0 Record under head coach Brian Kelly with a first-time starter at quarterback. Sophomore IAN BOOK became the seventh, and three of those new starts were against ranked teams, with freshman Tommy Rees versus No. 15 Utah in 2010 (Rees is now the QB coach), sophomore Malik Zaire against No. 22 LSU in the 2014 Music City Bowl and DeShone Kizer versus No. 14 Georgia Tech in 2015. Also winning their first start were Dayne Crist (2010, Purdue), Everett Golson (2012, Navy) and Brandon Wimbush (2017, Temple). PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA