Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Irish football team started the fourth quarter with its undefeated record in jeopardy. And for the sec- ond week in a row, Notre Dame showed itself to be a team capable of scratch- ing and clawing its way to a win. "It's just who we are," F or the second week in a row, head coach Brian Kel- ly's fifth-ranked Kelly said. "We just keep fighting and keep play- ing, and we'll find a way to win." The 17-14 bullet-dodg- BY DAN MURPHY looking more and more like a BCS-bound team in South Bend. Playing without start- ing sophomore quar- terback Everett Golson, Notre Dame attempted only three passes in the second half. Kelly yoked his trio of running backs instead and let the se- nior duo of Theo Riddick and Cierre Wood, along with Atkinson, carry the team to victory. Riddick rushed for a career-high 143 yards and set up both of the offense's second- half scores. He appeared to be ing defeat of Brigham Young tasted more sour than sweet for most of those in the Notre Dame locker room, even though they devoured one of the nation's elite group of run stoppers on the ground to ice another win and push its record to 7-0. Sophomore running back George Atkinson III slipped inside a would- be tackler for a two-yard touchdown run to give Notre Dame its first lead of the second half early in the fourth quarter. From there, the Irish slammed the door on BYU's chance to play spoiler in what is swallowed up at the line of scrimmage on his first big run, but kept his feet and broke away for a 55-yard gain that put the Irish inside the 10-yard line. Four plays later, sophomore kicker Kyle Brindza poked through a 24-yard field goal to pull the score to 14-10. A 19-yard Riddick run through the middle of the Cougars defense put Notre Dame within striking distance again only a few minutes later. This time, Atkinson came around the end for his score on third down and goal. "It felt really good," Riddick said. "We've proven we can run the ball in previous games, and we proved it to- night." Notre Dame pushed around defenses like Miami and Navy — the four-eyed, pocket-protec- tor-wearing run defenses of the college football playground — during the first half of the sea- son. Against the Cougars, the offensive line showed they can bully some- one their own size as well. Riddick and Wood each ran for more than 100 yards, and the Irish posted 270 total rushing yards against a team that was allowing an average of 67.9 per game. "I was really im- pressed," BYU head coach Bronco Menden- hall said. "They were physical, and we had a very difficult time mak- ing consistent tackles. A lot of times, it seemed like we had good contact and the running backs kept driving their legs and running hard." Junior quarterback Tommy Rees wasn't asked to do much in his first complete game of the season. He threw 16 passes, completed seven of them and squeezed one touchdown out of