Notre Dame 35, NC State 14: Numbers, Turning Point & More
By The Numbers
0 Turnovers committed by Notre Dame in four of its last five games: at Michigan State (Sept. 23), Miami (Ohio) (Sept. 30), USC (Oct. 21) and now North Carolina State (Oct. 28). Those four wins boosted head coach Brian Kelly’s record at Notre Dame to 23-3 when the Irish don’t commit a turnover. All three of the losses occurred last year (naturally).
2 Consecutive years North Carolina State scored on a blocked punt against Notre Dame. The Wolfpack defeated the Irish 10-3 last year on a 16-yard touchdown off a blocked punt with 12:43 left in the game. The first tally in this year’s game came on a blocked punt by the Wolfpack’s Germaine Pratt that was recovered in the end zone by Kelvin Harmon for a touchdown.
6 This was only the sixth time the Wolfpack played a game where both teams were ranked in the Top 15 — the most recent previously occurring in the 1992 Gator Bowl when No. 12 North Carolina State lost 27-10 to No. 14 Florida.
Even more notable, the last time the Wolfpack have played in such a regular season contest was 1980, when it fell as the No. 15 team to No. 8 North Carolina. Conversely, since 1980 the Irish have had nearly 60 such contests (including bowl games).
8 Different Notre Dame players who have returned two interceptions for touchdowns in the same season, with sophomore cornerback Julian Love joining that club on his 69-yard tally on the opening possession of the second half. Prior to Love, the most recent to achieve the feat was safety Tom Zbikowski in 2005. Love also had a 59-yard pick six this Sept. 23 at Michigan State.
11 Rushing touchdowns by Notre Dame junior quarterback Brandon Wimbush this year after this second quarter score on third-and-6. That already eclipsed the single season school record of 10 by a signal-caller, set by predecessor DeShone Kizer in 2015.
61-15-1 Record for the Fighting Irish against first-time visitors to Notre Dame Stadium (dedicated in 1930), with North Carolina State the most recent. More significant is it snapped a three-game losing streak to Power 5 Conference teams making their first visit to the building. The previous three were Louisville (31-28 in 2014), Virginia Tech in 2016 (34-31) and Georgia this Sept. 9 (20-19), all of which came down to the closing minutes.
110 Carries it took for junior running back Josh Adams to reach the 1,000-yard rushing mark this season — the quickest to do so in Notre Dame history. The previous standard was 120 by Reggie Brooks in 1992.
Adams now has 1,169 yards rushing this season, well in sight of the “official” single season school record 1,437 set by Vagas Ferguson in 1979. However, when you include bowl games — which have been done since 2002 — Allen Pinkett had 1,505 yards rushing in 1983 and Brooks 1,458 in 1992.
Adams also is the first Irish running back to rush for at least 150 yards five times in one season. Ferguson in 1979, Brooks in 1992 and Julius Jones in 2003 had four apiece.
339 Passes thrown by North Carolina State quarterback Ryan Finley — dating back to last Nov. 16 versus Miami — before he threw an interception. That came by the aforementioned Love, who proceeded to return it for a 69-yard touchdown in the third quarter to extend the Irish lead to 28-14.
The NCAA record is 379, which also was set by an NC State quarterback, Russell Wilson in 2008-09.
1944 Notre Dame had not knocked off top-15 ranked opponents by at least 20 points in back-to-back weeks since Nov. 25 and Dec. 2, 1944, when the Irish defeated No. 10 Georgia Tech (21-0) and No. 12 Great Lakes Naval Station (28-7). That ended with the 35-point win versus then No. 11 USC last week and the 21-point decision this weekend versus No. 14 NC State.
Semi-professional and World War II team Great Lakes was coached by the legendary Paul Brown.
1989 The most recent season until now that Notre Dame defeated Associated Press Top 15-ranked teams on back-to-back weekends. The Irish toppled No. 11 USC this Oct. 21, and now the No. 14 Wolfpack. 35-14.
Coincidentally, those victories 28 years ago also occurred on the same date: 28-24 versus No. 9 USC on Oct. 21 just like this season, and then 45-7 against No. 7 Pittsburgh on Oct. 28.
Turning Point
Notre Dame limited North Carolina State to 89 yards total offense in the second half, but the game-changing event occurred on the Wolfpack’s first possession of the second half.
With Notre Dame leading 21-14 and NC State facing third-and-10 at the Irish 42-yard line, Wolfpack quarterback Ryan Finley and his offensive linemen assumed they had a “free play” when they thought the Irish had jumped off-sides. It was not called, and under heavy duress, Finley threw off balance toward the sideline, resulting in an interception by sophomore cornerback Julian Love that was returned for a 69-yard touchdown and the always much sought two-score lead.
Honorable mention to the next series when the Irish defense stuffed the Wolfpack on fourth-and-1 at the Irish six for a one-yard loss. It was similar and at the same part of the field as last week when, trailing 14-0, USC lost one yard on third-and-one at its three-yard line and then missed a chip-shot field goal.
Stat Of The Game
There are so many that can be used: Snapping Wolfpack quarterback Ryan Finley’s streak of 339 passes without an interception, limiting him to a 46-percent completion rate (17 of 37) after entering at 69.4 percent, the second straight Irish game without a turnover (and fourth in the last five), the enormous disparity in rushing yardage (318-50) Notre Dame owned…
However, we are looking at cumulative effect throughout the year. After falling behind 7-0, Notre Dame tied the game 29 seconds later, and answered with another touchdown quickly after trailing 14-7.
In 480 minutes of football action this year, Notre Dame has trailed in only 29:53 by our count: 12:47 versus Georgia, 11:26 at Boston College and 5:40 versus NC State. That means Notre Dame has not trailed 94 percent of game action this season.
Brian Kelly’s Take On His Team’s Mental Framework And Will To Dominate
“What's impressive to me is that they consistently come out with the energy and the mindset to get after their opponent… We don't talk about winning. Winning is not even part of our vocabulary. We didn't talk about winning any games this year. It's about the mindset that we've created to dominate our opponent.
“Most impressive for me, coaching for as long as I have, when you get a punt block (to fall behind 7-0 early), it has a tendency to really affect your football team. Our guys never flinched. It was as if nothing ever occurred other than let's get back out on the field and get back to work.
“That's hard to build. It took us a long way, a long time to get to that, and our guys just have that never-flinch, keep-playing, one play at a time, and the cumulative effect of that is what you saw today is that we could run the ball 15, 16 consecutive times at the end of the game against a very, very good North Carolina State football team.”
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