Notre Dame Bounces Back

There wasn’t a more deserving person to lead Notre Dame’s post-victory fight song than new defensive coordinator Greg Hudson.

The 49-year-old former Irish linebacker — who took over an embattled defense just six days prior — was the unanimous pick by the players to lead the victory march, Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly said.

“Incredible. He’s a former player, and I can’t imagine how special that was for him,” junior safety Drue Tranquill said of Hudson.

And though the 50-33 Notre Dame win over Syracuse at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., featured plenty of room for improvement on defense, it was a step in the right direction.

Syracuse’s high-powered offense started fast, keeping pace with Notre Dame’s own big opening quarter. But some halftime adjustments proved crucial, and the Irish limited the Orange to just six second-half points.

“We just had a little pep talk in the locker room to make sure we really put our foot down and just asserted ourselves on defense,” junior linebacker Nyles Morgan said.

Kelly fired third-year defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder before preparation for Syracuse’s uptempo offense started. He was pleased with the team’s response.

“It was not an easy week to prepare,” Kelly said. “The staff did a great job preparing for a very difficult offense. It’s probably not the matchup you want when you’re making a change defensively. … It took us a little bit to get acclimated to them, and once we did I thought our defense did a nice job.”

Offensively, junior quarterback DeShone Kizer had another career day for the Irish. He completed 23 of 35 passes for a personal-best 471 yards with three touchdowns and an interception.

After an embarrassing loss to Duke the week prior, Kelly was critical of Kizer’s play, wanting the quarterback to raise his standard. And though Kizer put up huge numbers en route to a 33-27 halftime advantage — he had 170 yards and two touchdowns through the game’s opening period — Kelly said he liked his quarterback’s second-half performance even better.

“He has a tendency to want to do too much,” said Kelly. “He puts too much pressure on himself. He’s got to stop doing that.

“What I liked about him in the second half was he dropped the ball down, took the easy completions, made the smart decisions, He needs to continue to do that.”

Notre Dame finished with 654 yards on offense (471 passing and 183 rushing). Syracuse had 489 yards (363 passing and 126 rushing).

The Kizer-led attack was clicking from the first snap. He found an open Equanimeous St. Brown across the middle on the opening offensive play, and the sophomore wide receiver broke multiple tackles en route to a 79-yard touchdown just eight seconds into the game.

“To have the first play go the way it did got us off to the right start,” Kizer said. “Then we put together a couple drives that led to 50 points. When you’re still leaving out quite a few touchdowns, you’re playing good ball.”

Syracuse responded with an eight-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that was capped by sophomore quarterback Eric Dungey’s three-yard run, but fifth-year senior defensive lineman Jarron Jones blocked the extra point and senior cornerback Cole Luke scooped it up and returned it for a two-point conversion. Then Kizer found St. Brown again, this time for a 67-yard score that gave Notre Dame a 16-6 lead.

Kelly and St. Brown said after the game that Notre Dame had anticipated getting some long scoring plays. The porous Syracuse defense — which entered as the 111th-ranked unit in the country, allowing an average of 466.8 yards a game — was no match for the Notre Dame offense.

“It’s always possible [to start like that], I always envision myself and what I’m going to do before the game,” said St. Brown, who finished with four catches for 182 yards and now has six touchdowns through five games. “I don’t know when it’s going to happen, but it usually happens. That’s good.”

Notre Dame and Syracuse combined for 339 yards in what was a wild first quarter. Syracuse star receiver Amba Etta-Tawo had a 72-yard touchdown catch from Dungey, and Notre Dame sophomore slot receiver C.J. Sanders returned a kickoff 93 yards for a touchdown to give the Irish the lead, 23-13, before the first 15 minutes had expired.

“I don’t know about street ball, but I have been in games like that,” first-year Syracuse head coach Dino Babers said. “Notre Dame has a very dynamic offense, and when they come out it’s a big splash. … It takes a while to get around them.”

Early in the second quarter, Dungey scored on a one-yard run to make it 23-20. Kizer then led a 71-yard scoring drive to answer, capping it with a three-yard run. Notre Dame sophomore kicker Justin Yoon also hit a 31-yard field goal, putting the Irish up 33-20 with 5:03 left in the half.

A 74-yard punt return by Syracuse’s Brisly Estime late in the half set up a 14-yard touchdown pass from Dungey to Ervin Philips with 30 seconds left to close the Irish advantage to 33-27 at halftime.

Things settled down after halftime. Freshman wide receiver Kevin Stepherson caught a 54-yard touchdown pass with 11:23 in the third quarter to make it 40-27, and Irish sophomore running back Dexter Williams flashed his immense potential on a 59-yard touchdown run with 8:26 left in the quarter to increase the lead to 47-27.

“Overall, there’s certainly things we can do better, but the big picture here is I’m proud of the way our kids bounced back from a disappointing loss last week,” Kelly said.

“We go on the road and we make a change on defense, and play with great energy and enthusiasm, and come up with a win.”

Yoon added a 39-yard field goal in the fourth quarter, while Dungey ran for a five-yard touchdown to cap the scoring.

Dungey finished 31-for-51 passing for 363 yards with two touchdowns, and also ran the ball 17 times for 49 yards and three scores.

Hudson, who was hired as a defensive analyst in June, was a stranger to most of Notre Dame’s players. The former Purdue defensive coordinator rallied the troops during a difficult week and was nearly moved to tears of joy as he exited the field after the win.

“He just did a good job taking his role and not doing too much,” senior defensive end Isaac Rochell said. “He’s done a good job balancing the idea that he’s new, but he also has a lot of experience.

“We just trust him, we trust this staff, and we leaned on that.”