Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Brigham Young, Notre Dame was penalized a com- bined six times for 56 yards. Against Pitt, the Irish were flagged six times for 46 yards. • Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly said time of • In its two previous games against Oklahoma and possession wasn't all that important throughout his first two seasons. It is this year, with the Irish once again winning that battle against the Panthers. Notre Dame held the ball for 35 minutes and 23 seconds in the victory, including 11:32 in the first quarter alone. Kelly and Co. entered the game against Pitt averaging 32:22 of possession time through eight games, the 11th ing in on Notre Dame's single-season sacks record established by former Irish star and current New York Giants playmaker Justin Tuck, who registered 13.5 in 2003. Tuitt picked up 1.5 sacks against Pitt (combin- ing with fifth-year senior Kapron Lewis-Moore, senior linebacker Manti Te'o and junior nose guard Louis Nix III) to improve his total to 10 through nine games. Tuitt is now tied for third with Bert Berry (1996) and Mike Gann (1984) since the stat was first kept in 1982. In all, the Irish defense sacked Panthers quarterback Tino Sunseri five times. • Junior wide receiver TJ Jones has developed into a caught his first touchdown pass of the season since his move back to the backfield after two years of lining up as a slot receiver. It was his seventh career scoring reception, and it came with 2:11 remaining in regulation to cut the Irish deficit to 20-18. Sophomore quarterback Everett Golson ran for the two-point con- version to tie the game and force overtime. Riddick finished fifth on the team Saturday with 35 receiving yards and ended the night with 120 all-purpose yards. • Sophomore defensive end Stephon Tuitt is clos- • Notre Dame senior running back Theo Riddick best effort nationally. steady and reliable target for Golson. Jones now leads the team with 31 catches for 383 yards and three touchdowns this season after hauling in five balls for 53 yards and a touchdown against Pitt. • Good things continue to happen for Notre Dame when it wins the rushing battle. The Irish have won MISCELLANEOUS NOTES exploding for 172 yards and a touchdown, the Irish have still allowed only two rushing scores this sea- son, which is the lowest total in the Football Bowl Subdivision. Notre Dame didn't allow its first rushing touchdown until the eighth game of the year on the road against Oklahoma. Notre Dame has now given up 11 rushing touchdowns over its last 27 contests (dating back to the Tulsa game in 2010). Over the last 31 games, only five opposing running backs have registered touchdowns. • Irish opponents have combined for just 29 first 40 of their last 42 games when they outgain their opponent on the ground. Kelly now has a 157-23-1 career record when his squads outgain the opposition on the ground. • Despite Pitt senior running back Ray Graham downs in the fourth quarter and 25 in the second quarter. Against Pitt, Notre Dame gave up just 21 total yards and one first down from the fourth quarter on. • Kelly has a 38-14-2 career record in games de- cided by three points or fewer. He's now 55-14 in the month of November in his career and 21-2 since 2006 when the calendar moves to the 11th month. When his teams have surrendered 19 points or fewer, he's 127-6-1. Since the 2001 season, Kelly has amassed the third- most number of wins among active Football Bowl Subdivision head coaches. He is 119-34 since then, trailing only Oklahoma's Bob Stoops (125-31) and Texas' Mack Brown (121-30). • Notre Dame lost the first two games of the 2011 campaign, but had since rattled off victories in 17 of its last 20 games. The program's nine-game winning streak this year is the best start to a season since 1993, when it got off to a 10-0 start and lost the next game by two points to Boston College. Notre Dame has started 9-0 16 times in school history, and the other 15 occasions led to nine un- defeated seasons and eight national titles. Kelly is the fifth Irish head coach to start 9-0, joining Knute Rockne (five times), Frank Leahy (four), Ara Par- seghian (three) and Lou Holtz (three).