Irish amass much-needed perceptual points in romp over North Carolina
Before Drew Pyne strolled off the field at Kenan Memorial Stadium on Saturday, the Notre Dame fledgling starting quarterback made a point to track down and have a word with Irish offensive line coach Harry Hiestand.
His effusive, rambling message, boiled down to its essence?
Thank you.
“It's what you hope Notre Dame football is going to be about,” offered head coach Marcus Freeman after the Irish offensive line dominated from overall slow start to untidy finish in a 45-32 romp over North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C., that was a late mistake on each side of the ball away from producing some genuine scoreboard shock from the Irish.
As it was, the Irish (2-2) extended their win streak in regular-season games against ACC opponents to 25, improved to 21-2 all-time against the Tar Heels and perhaps suddenly made the urge to relitigate Freeman’s hiring last December feel a little more awkward.
Notre Dame’s offensive line provided a good portion of the needed positive perceptual points, mashing the Carolina front seven, even when the Tar Heels (3-1) knew the run was coming, to the tune of 287 rushing yards and 576 total yards — both resounding season highs.
In fact, the rushing total was the highest since ND amassed 293 against North Carolina last October in a 44-34 victory at Notre Dame Stadium, while the total yardage was tied for the 10th most by an Irish team since 2010 and most this season in a game by more than 200 yards.
Pyne was sacked once, on a blitz early in the game, but generally was given all the time he needed to throw for almost double his passing yards from his first collegiate start against Cal on Sept. 17.
After having two of his first three pass attempts batted down at the line of scrimmage on Saturday, Pyne finished 24-of-34 for 289 yards and three TDs with no interceptions (171.1 pass-efficiency rating). The Irish started with a punt and a missed field goal on their first two possessions, then scored seven of the next eight times they had the ball.
“That all starts with our O-linemen,” Pyne said. “Coach Hiestand’s been unbelievable for our program, for our offense, for our offensive line, ever since he came. He demands such a high standard from every single one of those guys. All those guys respond to it really well.”
Hiestand is in the first year of his second tour of duty with Irish after coaching the ND O-line from 2012-17 and presiding over a unit in 2017 that won the Joe Moore Award as the nation’s best offensive line.
“They’re jelling,” Freeman said of the current O-line that started the season with All-America left guard Jarrett Patterson sidelined for the Sept. 3 opener with Ohio State and growing pains beyond his absence.
How translatable that jelling process is to the rest of the schedule will be tested in the coming weeks by more formidable defenses. But in a battle of units with something to prove, the Irish offense (114th in total offense coming in) clearly got the best of the Tar Heels’ defense (123 out of 131 in total defense).
Junior tight end Michael Mayer was one of the many statistical stars. His seven catches for 88 yards leaves him six short of replacing Tyler Eifert as the school record-holder for career receptions by a tight end.
And his 10-yard TD reception, which started a 24-point second quarter for the Irish, was the 12th of his career, leaving him four short of knocking Ken MacAfee out of first place in the school records books in that category.
Freeman announced after the game that Mayer’s most experienced tight end sidekick, junior Kevin Bauman, is out for the season with a left ACL tear, sustained in practice this past week. The Irish have numbers at the position but not much experience beyond Mayer.
“The thing you love about Michael Mayer is he comes to work every day,” Freeman said. “He prepares the right way. He sets the standard for how we prepare. He's a captain. He's a leader. He raises the play of those guys in his room.
“That's why what you'll see is those young guys stepping up, because Michael Mayer is in there making sure that everybody's gonna conform to a standard. Everybody's got a standard and everybody’s going to have to learn. And so, this is going to be good to see. His leadership capabilities have to really really rise.”
Meanwhile, sophomore wide receiver Lorenzo Styles added five catches for 64 yards and a TD.
Running backs Chris Tyree, Audric Estime and Logan Diggs each had more than 100 all-purpose yards and each scored at least one touchdown. Estime could have had three, but he fumbled at the goal line with 3:20 left and the Irish poised to extend their lead to 26 points.
Instead North Carolina recovered the ball in the end zone for a touchback, and nine snaps later converted a fourth-and-21 play for a 64-yard TD pass from Drake Maye to Antoine Green.
“We played really well, and the beauty of it is there's always room to get better,” said Freeman, whose team has an early bye week next week before resuming play Oct. 8 in a Shamrock Series matchup against BYU (3-1) in Las Vegas.
Perhaps the most convincing sustainable improvement Saturday came from the Notre Dame linebacker corps.
Defensively overall ND held North Carolina to a season-low 367 yards, roughly 180 fewer than their nation’s fourth-best average. And the nation’s No. 13 rushing team was limited to a season-low 66 yards and 2.4 yards per carry.
That despite captain and 2021 leading tackler JD Bertrand missing most of the game. He sat out the first half completely as a consequence of a fourth-quarter targeting call against Cal last week. He then picked up his second targeting call in as many weeks in the fourth quarter against the Tar Heels.
That disqualifies him from the first half of the Oct. 8 matchup with BYU.
“It’s targeting,” Freeman said, agreeing with the call. “And you can argue all you want, but as I told JD on the field, ‘It's our job to learn from that situation. We have to change or you're going to continue to get targeting penalties, no matter if we agree or disagree.’”
Bertrand did force ND’s first takeaway of the season while in the game, blitzing and hitting Maye in the backfield and jarring the ball loose, with defensive end Justin Ademilola recovering.
Fellow linebackers Jack Kiser and Marist Liufau led the Irish defense with nine and six tackles, respectively. Liufau combined with defensive end Isaiah Foskey on a sack. Reserve linebacker Prince Kollie saw his first action on defense this season and recorded two key tackles.
Defensive end Rylie Mills had two sacks among his five tackles.
"I think a big emphasis was just looking for and learning a lot from our mistakes,” Liufau said of the defense’s continual evolution. “So, learning a lot from our losses and using that to move forward and get better every day."
Saturday Notre Dame undoubtedly got better, and with Freeman five games into his head coaching carrer out X-and-O-ing North Carolina coach Mack Brown, the FBS' active wins leader with 259 and one of only five active coaches to capture a national title at the FBS level.
How much better needs some post-bye week context, with BYU, Stanford, UNLV and unbeaten Syracuse all preceding a Nov. 5 clash with a top 5 Clemson team.
“I think if you don't look at those tough situations and say, ‘We're going to be better because of it,’ you haven’t used it as a positive situation,” Freeman said. “It shouldn't take a loss to be able to say, ‘We're gonna evaluate everything we're doing in our program with a critical eye.’
“That's why I keep saying, ‘We can't only focus on the outcome of the games’. And we know that's how we’re judged — wins and losses. We get that, but sometimes that can mask the reality of your team getting better.
“And that's what we’ve got to continue to focus on, what it takes to get better as a football team.”
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