Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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we have to do every game," Goodman said about the quick start. "Once you get out on a team they'll just put their own head down, and they'll beat them- selves. "If we go out and "It's something that miss a field goal or we just don't score and turn it over, it gives the other team the confi- dence that they actually can beat us when it's really us beating our- selves." Much of the credit for picking up the pace goes to Golson, who has found his groove this month under center. He completed 8 of 10 first- quarter passes for a to- tal of 129 yards. quarter, senior tight end Tyler Eifert caught an otherwise unremark- able 15-yard pass in the middle of the field. The catch was the fifth of the day for Eifert — and the 129th of his career, which broke a 35-year- old record at Notre Dame. Eifert finished the game with 130 career Early in the third EIFERT UNSEATS MACAFEE catches, two ahead of former Irish All-Amer- ican Ken MacAfee (128 catches) as the all-time leader in receptions for a tight end at a school that produced a lot of elite ones. Eifert's name now sits at the top of a list that includes cur- rent NFL players John Carlson, Anthony Fa- sano and Kyle Rudolph. "I'm just thankful for a long healthy career that has put me in a position to have the re- cord," Eifert said. "I'm pretty excited about it." The senior debated a good blocker. He did some good stuff in the run game, is very ath- letic and has some great hands. "A couple of times tonight [we] had really, really good coverage. They just went up and took the ball away from us." Eifert started the joining those other Irish alumni in the NFL af- ter catching 63 balls a year ago. Now, he joins 2011 graduate Michael Floyd as a player who stuck around for an ex- tra year and became the most prolific player at his position in Notre Dame history. Eifert's six catches against Wake Forest went for 85 yards, putting him at 1,710 career receiving yards and well within MacAfee's record of 1,759 yards in that cat- egory. "He's the perfect combination," gushed Demon Deacons head coach Jim Grobe. "He's night by using his 6-6 frame to box out a Wake Forest cornerback for his 11th career touch- down. His most impres- sive catch of the game came late in the first half when he stepped in front of another De- mon Deacons defender to turn what looked like a sure interception into a 38-yard completion. Sophomore kicker Kyle Brindza ended that drive with a 25-yard field goal to make the score 31-0 at halftime. "He's such an athletic person, and it all came together for him at the right time," said fifth- year senior wide re- ceiver John Goodman, who went to the same high school as Eifert in Fort Wayne, Ind. "To be one of his best friends out there, I think about [the record] more in that aspect rather than