Notre Dame glides through some speed bumps and can see 11-1 on the horizon
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Maybe it’s only fitting Notre Dame had one more hurdle added to its racecourse this week. What’s another in a long line of them?
The Irish were already playing without All-American junior safety Kyle Hamilton for the third straight week, were entering their first game without graduate student wide receiver Avery Davis, weren’t sure until game day which quarterback Virginia would play and had the flu sideswipe 13 players in practice this week.
All in advance of the game considered to be the trickiest obstacle left on the schedule.
As if that wasn’t enough, graduate student linebacker Drew White arrived Friday with a 103-degree fever. Graduate student defensive end Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa popped a 101-degree temperature pregame. The bug circulating the Irish clubhouse knocked out two starters and two team captains.
“It was a difficult week for us,” head coach Brian Kelly said.
What followed was not a Michael Jordan-level flu game, but it was still plenty impressive.
Saturday’s final score and on-field output gave zero hints about a week’s worth of snags. The No. 9 Irish beat Virginia 28-3 for their fifth straight win and 40th in a row over an unranked team. They’re 9-1 and staring an 11-win season down the barrel, with games against 3-7 foes Georgia Tech and Stanford all that remain.
“They didn't think about it in the sense of, ‘Wow, why all this?’” Kelly said. “They took it as, ‘You know what, we're going to play our best football, we're going to play together.’ They did some really good things tonight.”
It’s worth noting up front that perhaps Notre Dame’s troubles would have turned into taut tripwire if Virginia junior quarterback Brennan Armstrong had played.
Armstrong, the nation’s leader in total offense, injured his ribs in a 66-49 loss at BYU on Oct. 30. Virginia kept his status intentionally under wraps and did not make a public announcement until shortly before kickoff. His replacement, freshman Jay Woolfolk, couldn’t deliver anywhere that level of potency. Without Armstrong, Virginia’s skilled receiving corps became a lesser threat.
At the same time, Notre Dame has nothing to apologize for regarding Armstrong’s absence. An Irish defense without three of its own starters — including, you know, a potential top-five pick — shoved Virginia’s downgraded offense in a box. The Cavaliers went three-and-out on their first two drives, gaining four total yards. They crossed Notre Dame’s 40-yard line six times and scored three points. Notre Dame recorded a season-high seven sacks.
“There are a lot of people on that team who can go,” sophomore safety Ramon Henderson said.
Among them, wide receivers Dontayvion Wicks and Ra’Shaun Henry. Entering the game, Wicks’ 23.14 yards per catch led all Football Bowl Subdivision players with at least 40 receptions. His 19.9 average depth of target was tops in the FBS among qualified receivers, with Henry right behind him at 19.7. Those two high-end deep threats had three receptions for 36 yards.
Offensively, Notre Dame averaged 6.8 yards per play and cleared the 400-yard mark for the third straight week. The Irish ran for 249 yards, did not allow a sack and punted once. Yet there’s a feeling this comfortable win should’ve been even more of a laugher. The Irish failed to convert a red-zone quarterback sneak on fourth-and-one on their opening drive and fumbled on the Virginia five-yard line in the fourth quarter.
Still, this was another week where the offense distanced itself from a futile first five games and put forth a sound performance without Davis, who was Notre Dame’s most reliable receiver before his injury. Sophomore tight end Michael Mayer and senior wide receiver Braden Lenzy raised their hands to help, combining for 10 catches, 107 yards and two touchdowns. Lenzy also had a 30-yard run and drew a pass interference penalty.
“He got himself dirty tonight, and that goes a long way to winning football games,” Kelly said of Lenzy. “He was a heavy contributor for us.”
In a way, this game is representative of this season. It’s easy to see what Notre Dame doesn’t have and didn’t have coming into the year — a top-flight quarterback, a dominant offensive line, a consistently reliable secondary outside of Hamilton, to start — and think about how those flaws could make it vulnerable in a game like this one and overall. There’s a reason winning 10 games felt like a good outcome in the preseason.
The Irish, though, simply find ways to transcend all the worry and continue to find themselves in better shape down the stretch than where they started. It seems they also recognize the rarity of that. Lenzy, channeling Kelly for a moment, offered that “winning is hard” during his postgame press conference. Kelly spent his eight-minute session talking over the music reverberating from Notre Dame’s pulsing locker room next door.
As 11-1 feels more inevitable than possible, one wonders where it might lead. The College Football Playoff remains a long shot, but to be creeping closer to consideration given the speed bumps and shortcomings is a fine place to reside.
“We’re better than we were in September and October,” Kelly said. “We’re playing young players who are much more mature. We’re ascending.”
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