For the fourth straight season, Notre Dame sent its seniors out with a victory, a wonderful change from the Charlie Weis era where the Irish lost their two final home games in devastatingly painful fashion.
But on Saturday, the Irish put together a complete victory, a late-season win that felt like a great pitcher grinding his way through an October baseball game. Very rarely did it look pretty, but while the Irish didn’t have their best “stuff,” they got out of Saturday with a crucial eighth victory.
It may have taken a few weeks longer than they wanted, but hitting the eight-win threshold shouldn’t be taken for granted. That’s four seasons in a row where Notre Dame has won eight games, a feat not accomplished in South Bend in 20 years.
Before we turn our focus to Stanford, let’s take a quick stroll through the good, the bad and the ugly from the Irish’s 23-13 victory over BYU.
THE GOOD
The running game. Just what the doctor ordered. As we mentioned all week, the Irish knew they needed to run the ball and they did exactly that, putting together a great performance by both the front five and the three Irish ball carriers.
It was a positive day on the ground for Cam McDaniel, Tarean Folston and George Atkinson, with all three running hard and picking up positive yardage. McDaniel did the heavy lifting down the stretch, doing his best to be a wrecking ball between the tackles to help seal the game.
McDaniel’s 24 carries were a career high. Folston got 13 carries, breaking a 43-yarder and scoring a touchdown. Atkinson averaged seven yards a carry on his six touches, and more importantly didn’t have a negative play.
DaVaris Daniels. The junior wide receiver started the scoring off with a big catch over the top of BYU’s defense. His 107 receiving yards were the first time he went over the century mark since his big day against Purdue, and also the first time he’s caught more than five passes since mid-September.
While there were still some inconsistencies by Daniels, Kelly talked about the evolution of Daniels as a wide receiver, and his ability to fight through the grind of a season.“I think he’s a young man that -- I think the wide receiver has that tendency to get those soft tissue injuries that I think they have to acclimate themselves to not being 100 percent,” Kelly said. “Maybe it’s not a great analogy, but they’re thoroughbreds in the sense that they want to run and they want to feel great all the time, and quite frankly sometimes they’ve got to get by at 80 or 85. And TJ has been able to do such a great job of understanding that, and I think TJ was very similar to Double‑D early in his career where he’d get banged up a little bit and it would affect his psyche and the way he played.
“I think Double‑D is getting through that now and understands that he’s not going to be necessarily 100 percent all the time, and he’s got to play through those things. I think we’re at that point now with the week off, he felt really good, obviously physically, as well. But I think that’s what we’re seeing with him, the grind of a long year. He’s not going to be 100 percent and he’s got to fight through those things.”
If we credit Daniels for anything, it’s for being up on his pop culture. After scoring his long touchdown, Daniels pulled his celebration right out of the new Hunger Games movie.
TJ Jones. No, he didn’t score a touchdown. No, he didn’t go for 100 yards. But Jones played big in his final game at Notre Dame Stadium, playing through the emotion of a very bittersweet Saturday for Jones and his family.
“I told myself, ‘Don’t cry,’” Jones said after the game. “I knew it was going to be emotional. I knew my mom was going to tear up and any time she does, it makes me tearup too, so I tried to hold it back and not get too emotional before the game.”
Jones was able to catch five balls for 95 yards, another good day at the office, especially in the weather conditions. It would’ve been great to see him go into the record books along side Golden Tate and Jeff Samardzija, but the win probably felt mighty good.
Matt Hegarty. A really impressive game for the junior reserve center, thrown into the fire after Nick Martin’s knee injury late in the first quarter. Hegarty had to go head-up with two massive nose guards, acquitting himself quite well.
“I thought he did a pretty good job,” Kelly said of Hegarty’s play. “Certainly going in there first time, you know, against a 320‑pound guy on his nose, he did not go against a four‑down where he was uncovered. He had somebody on his nose virtually the entire three quarters that he was in there, snapped the ball without any mistakes.”
Kyle Brindza. Notre Dame’s kicker showed just how clutch he is with a key game-clinching 51-yard field goal in the fourth quarter. With the temperature likely in the teens, even if the kick was wind aided, Brindza stepped up and drilled a beauty in a pressure packed situation.
That’s now 11 of 12 in the fourth quarter for Brindza on his career, who also showed some street-cred going sleeveless out there. After the game, Brindza talked about not wanting to let down the seniors by missing a key kick, and actually lobbied Kelly to take the kick.
“They said to punt and I said, ‘What are you guys talking about? This is my field goal range,’” Brindza said. “They asked me if I was sure and I said, ‘Yeah.’ He has confidence in me and I have confidence in myself, so I’m always in his ear, but he doesn’t mind.”
Dan Fox. What a great way to go out for the senior from Ohio. Fox had nine tackles, including two TFLs, one being a sack of Taysom Hill. Both Fox and Carlo Calabrese had great afternoons, with Calabrese chipping in seven tackles as well.
Jarron Jones, Sheldon Day and Stephon Tuitt. We already hit on Jones and Tuitt last night, but it is worth mentioning again. Another sneaky-good performance by Sheldon Day, who has come back from his ankle injury with a vengeance.
The home crowd. It was an uneasy Saturday around campus before the game, with nobody really sure of what would happen. But the crowd was energized from start to finish, and celebrated the senior class with a ton of respect.
The student section’s late-game chant of “Tommy, Tommy!” was a really impressive display that clearly meant a lot to Rees in the postgame press conference.
THE BAD
Nick Martin’s knee injury. What a tough break for the junior center, who looked to have potentially avoided a serious injury when he walked off the field under his own power, but will now miss the rest of the season with knee surgery.
“Nick has a significant knee injury,” Kelly said on Sunday. “He’ll be out for this game, and he will not be able to play in the bowl game. We’re still getting a little bit more information. We had an MRI. I’ll probably have a little bit more specific details, but he’s out for the season.”
It had to be a difficult moment for Zack Martin, seeing his brother down with an injury, ending their playing time together.
Tommy Rees’ fourth quarter interception. Rees threw the ball to Troy Niklas a little late, and BYU safety Craig Bills made an impressive one-handed interception. It’s the wrong time to start a late-game interception trend, and Rees will need to clean that up before Stanford on Saturday evening.
A bit of good news: The weather forecast for Palo Alto on Saturday is high-50s with a zero percent chance of precipitation and only light wind. Much better conditions than Rees has faced the past two games.
Safety Play. Austin Collinsworth got beat badly on a slant route near the goal line, something you just can’t give up. (He also fielded a blocked field goal, a no-no, but understandable considering the ball went straight into his arms.)
Matthias Farley continued his shoddy tackling, letting fullback Paul Lasike run through him for a huge 46-yard gain. Farley might have actually helped Lasike stay on his feet, with the former rugby player regaining his footing after coming into contact with Farley.
Eilar Hardy got the start and made eight tackles. Max Redfield chipped in three of his own, too. Change is a brewing at the position, but it’s also very possible that both Collinsworth and Farley are playing through a few injuries that’ll need an offseason to fix.
THE UGLY
This stays empty after a hard-fought victory.