Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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leading rusher on the sideline. They ran for 55 yards against Notre Dame's tough front seven and never re- ally threatened to score while being outgained 584-209 in total yards. "That hurt us," head and Motta — a chance to wave goodbye to the Irish crowd one at a time. "Just magic," Te'o said describing his farewell. "Like everything's come full circle." Kelly lauded his se- coach Jim Grobe said about losing Harris. "I thought one of the things we needed to try to do is hang in there in the first half. We got too far behind and that cer- tainly didn't help." Notre Dame took its foot off the gas in the sec- ond half — "They took it easy on us," Grobe said. The Irish went into the locker room with a 31-0 lead after junior wide receiver TJ Jones broke wide open on a 34-yard touchdown catch and sophomore kicker Kyle Brindza added a 25-yard field goal. Sophomore running back George Atkinson III added a nine-yard score in the third quarter, and both coaches emptied their benches in the fourth. Notre Dame's seniors were free to enjoy their last quarter at home from the sidelines. Kel- ly's timeout gave his three starters on defense — Te'o, Lewis-Moore niors' ability to keep the emotions and distrac- tions of Senior Day from affecting their play. The Irish played their most focused game of the year against Wake Forest. The 38-point blowout was a stark contrast from the first five wins in South Bend this season, when Notre Dame squeaked away with a combined margin of victory of 25 points. "They were loose," Kelly said. "They were relaxed and excited about the game. We had talked about it all week, playing with enthusi- asm and let the emotions happen after the game. "You could see the fo- The 11-0 Irish travel to Los Angeles next week to play archrival USC, which suffered another deflating loss Saturday (38-28 to cross-town ri- val UCLA). For the second week in a row, the top-ranked team in the BCS stand- ings also lost. Baylor up- set No. 1 Kansas State 52- 24 in a runaway game. At the same time, Stanford was on its way to knock- ing off No. 2 Oregon 17-14 in overtime. Their defeats leave the Irish alone at the top of the polls with only the Tro- jans standing between them and a potential trip to Miami for the national championship game. The new standings cus in all of our seniors. I had a great sense and feel that they were ready to play, and they were not going to be denied today." Now only one game crank up the intensity of an already juiced rivalry. Conversation quickly shifted to a look ahead after Notre Dame's blowout win over Wake Forest. A team that clung to its "one game at a time" mantra since Au- gust, now has only one game left. "Not only is it the last stands between Notre Dame and its first un- beaten regular season in a quarter century. game," Te'o said. "It's a game where we can ac- tually do something and take this program to a place it hasn't been in a long time." ✦