In his fifth season Notre Dame grad senior wide receiver Braden Lenzy has blocked to the whistle’s echo and has been unrelenting in his route-running opposite the play.
In other words, doing the dirty work.
Still, there have been moments, albeit sparingly, when the 6-foot, 182-pound Lenzy has showcased a skill set that had him in the conversation for an NFL look a year ago.
And during Friday’s 45-38 Gator Bowl victory by No. 21 Notre Dame over No. 19 South Carolina at TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville, Fla., Lenzy went beyond bearing the brunt of the unrewarding tasks.
Rather, his shining moments played a big part in rewarding head coach Marcus Freeman with his first postseason victory.
Lenzy was on the other end of Tyler Buchner’s longest career touchdown pass to a wide receiver — 44 yards. Not only did that catch receive public praise from wide receivers coach Chansi Stuckey, but it also kept Notre Dame in the thick of the highest-scoring Gator Bowl to date.
But his most important play came on a fourth-quarter fake punt in Irish territory, which resulted in a Notre Dame touchdown three plays after. The Irish took their first lead of the game after Lenzy’s clutch 20-yard catch and run — one that received the appropriate recognition from Freeman.
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“I remember saying it after the Navy game, when he had that big catch for a touchdown,” Freeman said. “You know what, you don't know when your number is going to be called. For a guy like Braden, just continuing to do his job and run as hard as he can ... that's an unselfish position.
“It's just great to see him get the opportunities to go make a play and make them today."
Since hauling in five passes for 67 yards and one touchdown against the Midshipmen on Nov. 12, Lenzy combined for one 25-yard grab over the two games that followed. Before the Navy game, he was blanked in the previous two outings. But not even those performances could sour a supposed sweet ending to his Notre Dame career.
In what is expected to be his final game in an Irish uniform, Lenzy finished with four catches for a career-high 89 yards (22.3 yards per catch) and one touchdown. He finished eight catches and 41 yards shy of matching last season’s career-best 32 catches for 350 yards. He had three touchdowns each of the past two years.
Special teams plays a pivotal role
South Carolina’s Pete Lembo and Notre Dame’s Brian Mason went into their bag of tricks to close out the season, living up to the hype of an expected elite special teams matchup.
While it looked like one special teams coordinator (Lembo) pulled a fast one on another (Mason), the Irish defensive field goal unit was not caught off guard by a potential fake kick. However, a communication breakdown on the Notre Dame defense let Lembo get an early leg up on Mason.
“The communication was: Do we have everybody covered?” Freeman said. “Yep. Because we've repped so many different fakes on field goal and punt, it was just a miscommunication. Are we good? Do we need to call a timeout? No, we're good. We've got everybody covered.
“It was a miscommunication between two guys. Anytime you've got two guys covering one guy, maybe somebody is open. That's what happened.”
But later, Mason countered with the fake punt, which resulted in the flip pass to Lenzy from upback Davis Sherwood in what essentially was a jet sweep.
“We ran a punt earlier in the game,” Freeman said. “We wanted to see the look we would get, and after we ran the punt, (Mason) said it's there if we want it. Right before we went out there, he said it's there. I said, 'Let's do it.' We've been practicing that fake all year long.
“Listen, there's no more games left, and I wanted to run it. I knew going into the game if the opportunity presented itself, I wanted to run it. Mase said let's do it here, and said let's go. We executed; it was beautifully executed.”
Notre Dame punter Jon Sot (four punts, 205 yards) had the upper leg on Kai Kroeger (six punts, 240 yards) by averaging 51.2 yards per punt compared to Kroeger’s 40 yards. However, the Gamecocks’ punter twice pinned the Notre Dame offense inside its 20-yard line. Sot had no such punts.
South Carolina had the advantage in the return game, taking a pair of punts for 12 yards and two kickoffs for 52 yards. The Irish had one punt return for seven yards and a kickoff return for 18 yards.
Notre Dame’s Blake Grupe (37 yards) and South Carolina’s Mitch Jeter (45 yards) were both successful on their lone field goal tries.
Irish fare fine minus Foskey, Mayer
There’s no discrediting defensive lineman Isaiah Foskey's and tight end Michael Mayer's impact on the Notre Dame football program.
Foskey finished his four-year career as the all-time sacks leader with 26.5. Meanwhile, Mayer became the all-time leader among tight ends in career receptions (180), receiving yards (2,099) and touchdown receptions (18) in just three seasons. He also holds the single-season records: 71 receptions, 840 yards and nine touchdowns.
Although the Irish were without both consensus All-Americans on Friday, their absences did not noticeably affect their respective positions.
Notre Dame’s defensive line collectively finished with 14 tackles (seven solo), three sacks, 4.5 tackles for loss and three quarterback hurries. Junior Jordan Botelho — who started in Foskey’s place — had two quarterback hurries and matched a career-high with two sacks. He also had two sacks against Syracuse on Oct. 29.
Despite coming into the game with zero catches on the season, sophomore tight end Mitchell Evans caught three passes for 39 yards and his first career touchdown. Before Friday, he had just two catches for 21 yards in his career, both as a freshman in 2021.
Hash Marks
- Freeman is just the second first-year Irish head coach to register four wins over AP Top 25 teams in his first season. Terry Brennan did the same in 1954. Freeman is also the first coach to finish his first full season with a bowl game victory against a ranked opponent.
- Notre Dame improved to 20-21 all-time in bowl games with the win.
- After being down 14 points, the Irish completed their largest comeback in a bowl game since being down 13 points against Florida in the 1992 Sugar Bowl. Notre Dame’s best bowl comeback was a 22-point come-from-behind win over Houston in the 1979 Cotton Bowl.
- The Irish are 4-1 all-time against South Carolina.
- The Gamecocks suffered their first loss of the season when scoring first. They were previously 7-0.
- The combined 28 points (21-7 South Carolina) in the opening quarter were the most in a first quarter in Gator Bowl history.
- By appearing in the game Friday, graduate student safety Houston Griffith played in his program-record 62nd Notre Dame game. Griffith passed defensive tackle Kurt Hinish, who played in 61 games from 2017-21.
- Graduate student offensive lineman Josh Lugg matched Hinish by playing his 61st game. Graduate student cornerback TaRiq Bracy is fifth all-time, along with defensive lineman Jayson Ademilola (who did not play) with 55 games. Linebacker Bo Bauer (out for the season due to injury) played in 56 games.
- Bracy matched his career-high eight tackles (Florida State on Oct. 10, 2020) and had his first forced fumble of the season. He has three in his Notre Dame career.
- Sophomore running back Logan Diggs notched a career-high 170 all-purpose yards (89 rushing, 81 receiving).
- Sophomore wide receiver Deion Colzie made his first career start. He did not record any catches.
- Freshman cornerback Benjamin Morrison secured his sixth interception of the season before later leaving the game and not returning. That marked the most picks by an Irish player since linebacker Manti Te’o had seven in 2012.
- The NFL had a limited presence at Friday’s game, according to the press box seating chart. Only Eagles senior personnel director/advisor to the general manager Dave Caldwell and Jaguars scouting assistant Holden McAbee were on hand.
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