Another year, another 10-win season. There’s a sentence that Notre Dame fans aren’t used to seeing.
The Irish capped off a 10-2 regular season Saturday with a 45-24 win over Stanford that ended the way you want all ND games to end – with the biggest drama being whether the Irish give up too many points in garbage time.
Things weren’t so easy early on, as the Cardinal inexplicably were on fire on offense early in the game, jumping out to a 17-7 lead. But an Isaiah Foskey blocked punt (glad the Irish decided to play him today) turned the tide, and from there – and specifically from Ian Book’s clutch 3rd-down TD pass to Tommy Tremble – it was a dominant day by the Irish.
Let’s discuss the 10th Irish victory.
Once ND remembered where Claypool was, things went great in the passing game
I’m not…exactly sure where the Irish thought Chase Claypool was most of the first half, but when Ian Book hit him for consecutive passes late in the second quarter to give ND the lead and take a load off ND fans’ shoulders, it sparked the Irish offense. Claypool was only found one more time in the game – also a TD pass – but the threat of his existence made things easier on Book from then on.
No one player monopolized the target share in the game, which saw Book find seven different receivers (including a pop pass to Jafar Armstrong) on 17 completions. After a slow start, Book was very effective down the stretch, even with the poor field conditions and spotty weather.
Ian Book finally didn’t lead the team in rushing
A running topic of conversation this month has been that Ian Book led ND in rushing in four consecutive games, which was a good thing for Book and probably not the greatest thing for the Irish offense as a whole. That wasn’t the case today, as Book actually ranked fourth on the team behind Tony Jones, Braden Lenzy and Jafar Armstrong – the latter of whom looked like Jafar today for the first time all season.
Book did have a couple of big runs, the last of which was a key fourth-down scramble that enabled the Irish to punch in essentially the clinching score. Again, the ND quarterback was really good today.
Clark Lea finished strong
Dominant second halves on the defensive side of the ball have become a theme for ND most of this season, and DC Clark Lea will get some more deserved kudos this evening. The Irish assistant saw his unit start very poorly, like in the Louisville game, but just as in that matchup, the Irish defense locked down after that, as the Cardinal did essentially nothing until garbage time. And just for good measure, ND posted a defensive touchdown in the final moments to secure the cover. #GreatTeamsCover.
Hopefully it’s too early for Lea to garner head-coaching attention from the sorts of jobs that could compel him to leave South Bend, because we’d like him around a while, please.
Best thing about 10 wins is…
The word that keeps coming up for me when the streak of 10-win seasons, now three, comes up is ‘hollow’. (I promise this is going to a pretty good place.) The endings to 2017 and what happened on Oct. 26 of this year have soured a healthy portion of ND fans just a bit on this string of 10-win seasons.
The best thing about Brian Kelly at Notre Dame is that these 10-win seasons do in fact feel somewhat hollow. ND fans could, and practically did, throw parades for Ty Willingham and Charlie Weis when they had 10-win seasons (the latter, it must be said, against a schedule no better than the one these Irish faced this year). Kelly has made winning 10 common enough that just doing it, in and of itself, isn’t enough. There are plenty of negative things you would be justified in saying about Kelly’s time at ND, but in my view this is the best thing that’s come out of it. Just 10 wins isn’t enough. This fan base is now hungry for more, and that’s a credit to him. Whoever comes next will inherit high expectations as a result.
Bowl destination is…
We’ll find out officially next week where Notre Dame is headed for its postseason game, but Auburn’s victory over Alabama essentially ended ND’s chances at the Cotton Bowl. The Irish aren’t passing Bama, so there are too many teams in their way at this point to get to Arlington. Since the ACC seems content to send a low-rent team that ND already defeated to Miami’s Orange Bowl to get destroyed by (quite possibly) the Tide, that locks the Irish out of the big bowls. Whether it’s the Citrus or the Camping World, you can probably book your tickets to Orlando.
Then again, good things have happened there in recent years.
(Photo credit: Indy Star)
Great recap Andy. I wasn’t even too worried (just a bit miffed) early. Feels like Lea always reigns it in and fixes any issues (except for, you know, the game best forgotten). To his credit the Stanford QB was very good early but it always felt like a game ND was about to get a hold of. That great punt block definitely triggered it.
Ian Book in the past 4ish games has been awesome. Seems like he flipped a switch to be calm and just do what he needs to do. Bodes well for next year.
Gotta thank David Shaw for those late game timeouts too. Without them, I would have lost money for betting on ND to cover, which thankfully Ade and Kareem got home for the TD in the last minute. First nice thing Shaw has ever done for me.
That turnover was kharma for Shaw calling those timeouts when the outcome was clearly decided. I thought at the time that Shaw was trying to close the gap to hurt ND in the polls, not to send a message to his own team.
rank Bama behind ND you cowards
Notre Dame and Alabama have the same 10-2 record and ND has more wins over ranked teams. Facts only!
Bama’s best win is a 7-4 team currently losing 41-7 in the 3rd quarter. Again, facts only!
41-7 now….Speaking of, A&M gave up 47 Bama, and weren’t good against Auburn or Clemson, is Elko’s seat hot now? Would seem a convenient guy for Jimbo to ditch at 7-5 to mix it up, unless he just holds tight and they blame the schedule. Not sure if it would happen but they’ve gotten carved up defensively several times this year in the biggest games…What a shame!
What if Clark Lea was the real brains behind the Elko operation the whole time?
Would you really want to face Bama, even with Jones at qb, coached by Saban?
Not I, sir. Those receivers and their RBs would blow us up.
I get the hollow feeling of the 10 win season. It does feel good though. Better than 9 wins would. And 10 wins is impressive given the running game. It just so bad, and they clearly aren’t confident in it at all. I don’t know enough to know if Chip Long calls good games or not, but his calls must be affected by the need to constantly cover for the poor run game. If ND had a solid run game, how much pressure is off book to constantly produce? Book has limitations and he got no help from the run game when he was forced to play against his strengths. If he was off, the game was in danger of being lost. So 10 wins is impressive, especially since most were solid double digit victories.
Also, I can’t remember an ND team that had a turnover margin like this one. Protecting the ball (8 turnovers total right?), and the many quarterback strips by the DL is also impressive. I hope those things continue, and that a running game appears next year that can help Book (if he comes back).
I thought Chip had a masterful game. Love the mis-directions and passes and screens coming off the jet sweep fakes since everyone now knows Lenzy is a problem. A couple of those looks early in screens or routes to Jones were fun.
And they were hitting Kmet going vertical on looks Book was unwilling/unable to do in the first half of the season that stretches a defense vertically and keeps them honest. If that’s now consistent in the arsenal for next year, that’s great.
I think big problem is: 2 OL injuries (and 3 after Banks injury) and inexplosive RBs. That hamstrings an offense when there’s no threat there. This team/play calling with a Dex, Josh Adams or Prosise would be pretty dynamic IMO. But they don’t have that.
(Also I’m kinda reluctant to think Tyree solves all the problems. I’m from VA and what I hear from people close is he often gets dinged. He’s not a JK Dobbins or anything that’s gonna carry it 20+ times …but I guess we’ll see and he’s at least more athletic than anything else ND has)
I think our younger RBs (C’Bo & Williams) have a chance to step up next year. Armstong will be healthy. The Oline will be a year older, it will be better Jeff (Quinn)? Therefore, I think the run game will be better.
I think the biggest addition for 2020 is Lenzy. His speed opened up the field for Long in November, as the coaches grew more confident in his execution. He put enough on film this year that he has to be treated as a serious threat whenever he’s on the field next year. The best part is that he can both spread the field to the sidelines and pull a safety deep on a post route to open up WR/TEs running beneath him.
If Tyree is half what he looks like, he should be able to capitalize on a good situation. That said, losing #83 is going to suck. Claypool was the guy this year, and it’s hard to know how he’ll be replaced. Anybody hearing anything about Austin’s prospects for next year?