How two Notre Dame defensive players stepped up when Irish needed it most
Neither Bo Bauer nor Ramon Henderson had ever started a game in their respective college careers until Saturday night in Charlottesville, Va. And until they walked off the field at Scott Stadium with smiles on their faces and a victory on the scoreboard, neither had played as well over the course of an entire game as they did in the three and a half hours prior to that not-so-fleeting moment of euphoria.
It will be well documented in the days after Notre Dame’s 28-3 victory over Virginia that Cavaliers junior quarterback Brennan Armstrong didn’t play because of injured ribs. And yes, that made a difference. It always does when one of the best quarterbacks in the country isn’t able to give it a go.
But sometimes backup quarterbacks rise to the occasion. Sometimes opposing defenses have just as hard of a time stopping the new guy as they would have the old one. That wasn’t the case when the Irish played the Hoos, and Bauer and Henderson were major reasons why.
"When we heard the news, at the end of the day, we’ve still got to go play them," Henderson said. "They’ve got to come play us. I don’t think any heads turn, it’s just like, 'We’ve got to go play. We’ve got to stop [the backup].'"
That, they did.
Bauer finished the game with a career-high nine tackles. Henderson had a career-high four. Their impacts were felt in areas much deeper than total counts. Bauer had 1.5 sacks and a pass breakup. Henderson recorded his first career interception — a rangy one in which he covered enough ground to suggest the sophomore defensive back will start plenty more games in his Notre Dame career.
Oh, and he did it all at safety. His natural position is cornerback.
“Tuesday I was told I’d be moving to field safety and starting if I got it all down, so it’s kind of like a hard transition,” Henderson said. “It’s very different from corner.”
One day he’s practicing at corner. The next day he’s got the flu — yes, Henderson said he was one of the first Irish players of roughly a dozen or so who battled a virus during the week. Then the day after that he’s practicing at a completely new position. And just a few days after that he’s hauling in Kyle Hamilton-like interceptions.
Henderson said he consulted his mom on Thursday to get motherly advice 48 hours in advance of one of the biggest nights of his life to date. Her advice? Simple.
"She just told me to be calm," Henderson said. "Be confident. Be myself. I’ve been doing this for a long time. I’ve been playing football since I was seven. At the end of the day, it’s just playing football.”
He played it oh so well. And so did Bauer.
Bauer started in place of graduate student linebacker Drew White, who was a game-time decision because of the illness that ravaged the Irish locker room throughout the week. There was no drop off from A to B. If anything, there might have been an uptick. White played the previous two games with shoulder and knee injuries.
“Bo did some really good things,” head coach Brian Kelly said. “He was extremely active. He gets our checks. We had a number of checks when [Virginia] went into the wildcat. So we had to those communicated. But he’s extremely active. He’s around the football, and he does a really nice job.”
With Hamilton missing a third-straight game due to a knee injury and White and graduate student defensive end Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa held out with the bug still slightly in their systems, Notre Dame knew it would need players who don’t get nearly as much recognition as those household names to come up big. In the end, it was Bauer and Henderson who came through.
Notre Dame held an opponent to less than 300 yards of offense for just the second time this season due largely to the play of Bauer and Henderson. Bauer was relentless in the box. Henderson made it hard for true freshman Jay Woolfolk to throw down field. Bauer and Henderson were both aided by a relentless Notre Dame pass rush, too.
"The d-line did a good job of moving around and making him a little nervous," Henderson said.
Depth wins championships. Whether or not Notre Dame has an opportunity to play for one will be determined in the next two weeks. But even if the Irish don’t get that chance, it showed Saturday in Charlottesville that depth also soundly wins games on the road.
And on that night, that’s all that mattered.
----
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue & Gold Illustrated.
• Watch our videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
• Sign up for Blue & Gold's news alerts and daily newsletter.
• Subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts.
• Follow us on Twitter: @BGINews, @MikeTSinger, @PatrickEngel_, @tbhorka, @GregLadky, and @ToddBurlage.
• Like us on Facebook.