Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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TOP PLAYERS OF THE GAME BY LOU SOMOGYI mance proved pivotal in the victory. Spond, who played quarterback in high school, has an innate ability to make quick reads and adjust- ments in pass cover- age, and he has even garnered enough trust from the Irish coaching staff that he lines up as a cornerback in the nickel package. The junior notched Senior running back Theo Riddick charged the offense with his hard- nosed running style en route to 143 rushing yards on 15 carries against Brigham Young. back is part of a three- headed monster in the Irish backfield, but he stood out against a tough BYU defense. Notre Dame ran the ball extremely well on a unit that entered the week with the nation's third-best rush defense (67.86 yards allowed per game), with both Riddick and classmate Cierre Wood rushing for more than 100 yards en route to a team total of 270. Riddick displayed The senior running THEO RIDDICK OFFENSE: PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA escapability, found the lanes created by the of- fensive line and carried defenders on multiple runs. The converted wide receiver finished the day with 15 carries for a career-high 143 yards, including a 55- yard jaunt. backer Manti Te'o could make a case for this award weekly after leading the team in tack- les in all but one game (Michigan), but another linebacker 's perfor- Senior inside line- DANNY SPOND DEFENSE: five tackles, a tackle for loss and two passes bro- ken up, and closed the game with an intercep- tion. quite active against the tough Cougars defense, punting on four differ- ent occasions. While he received on-the-field criticism from Irish head coach Brian Kelly fol- lowing his final punt of the game that traveled 32 yards for a touchback with 22 seconds left on the clock, Turk busted two kicks that sailed 50- plus yards, one of which was inside BYU's 20- yard line. He averaged 40 net yards a punt for the game. The senior punter was SPECIAL TEAMS: BEN TURK