Boston College came to South Bend on Saturday looking to play spoiler on Senior Day. The Eagles would go home to Chestnut Hill suffering one of their worst losses in school history. Notre Dame absolutely pounded and humiliated BC to move to 8-3 on the season with 5 straight wins before the season finale at USC coming up.
The best plays of the day for Boston College were a couple sideline catches and a 4th down stop in the 4th quarter with the stadium swarmed in snow. I think that’s about it.
Stats Package
| STAT | IRISH | BC |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 44 | 0 |
| Plays | 63 | 58 |
| Total Yards | 437 | 173 |
| Yards Per Play | 6.93 | 2.98 |
| Conversions | 8/14 | 7/16 |
| Completions | 13 | 9 |
| Yards/Pass Attempt | 6.24 | 5.31 |
| Rushes | 38 | 36 |
| Rushing Success | 60.5% | 41.9% |
| 10+ Yds Rushes | 8 | 0 |
| 20+ Yds Passes | 3 | 3 |
| Defense Stuff Rate | 27.5% | 17.4% |
Those two passing plays for BC totaling 71 yards amounted to 41% of their total offense on the day. And if we’re honest, the snow globe weather that rolled in early during the 3rd quarter flattered the Eagles and turned the game into a slop fest. Notre Dame only had one series in the 3rd quarter (ending in a touchdown) and their only other series’ in the 4th quarter ended in the aforementioned turnover on downs and a late 3 & out.
All but the last drive entered BC territory with 9 out of 10 drives getting inside the Eagles 30-yard line.
In the end, Notre Dame ended with a dominant +3.95 yards per play differential. With 4 quarters of good weather, I think Notre Dame could have out-gained this Boston College team by 500 yards.
Offense
QB: C+
RB: A
TE: A
OL: A
WR: B
Drew Pyne played solid early on, outside of back-to-back poor throws deep in Boston College territory to finish Notre Dame’s first series. He looked sharp in the 1st quarter going 9 of 12 for 111 yards, including 3 pass plays of 20+ yards. But, then he went into a funk in the 2nd quarter throwing 6 straight incompletions and only completing one pass before halftime. The run game was so good that it didn’t matter.
The second half didn’t offer a great environment for passing as Pyne went 4 of 7 for 45 yards before the game turned into a bunch of handoffs and burning clock. Overall, the team didn’t ask him to do much (he was 3 of 5 converting on 3rd down through the air which is solid) and he was okay in that role.
The offensive line and run game dominated and finally were able to rip off explosive plays. On 8 snaps, the Irish gained 179 yards rushing which was more than Boston College gained the entire game.
That about sums things up.
Rushing Success
Diggs – 9 of 15 (60%)
Estime – 7 of 11 (63.6%)
Tyree – 4 of 6 (66.6%)
Evans – 1 of 1 (100%)
Pyne – 0 of 1 (0.0%)
Styles 2 of 2 (100%)
Payne 0 of 2 (0.0%)
The 4th down stop with Tyree on the field (interesting decision to have him carry the ball in that spot) overshadowed his game, I thought. It didn’t feel like he was as strong as Diggs or Estime and yet Tyree finished with 8.3 yards per carry and 1 touchdown.
Overall, finishing with 281 rushing yards at 7.4 per carry is laughably good. If there wasn’t bad weather in the 2nd half this was going to be a 350-yard rushing game, I have no doubt.
The top 2 Irish backs combined for 26 carries for 193 yards and 3 touchdowns.
Defense
DL: B+
LB: B+
DB: A
The 2.98 yards per play for BC was the lowest mark for a Notre Dame opponent since Boston College came to South Bend back in 2019 and finished with the exact same 2.98 YPP.
The Eagles just had nothing to rely on in this game. They couldn’t protect quarterback Emmett Morehead (4 sacks allowed) and the run game couldn’t muster a single explosive play. In fact, the only explosive plays for Boston College were there aforementioned 2 pass plays.
It was the first time Boston College was shut out since a September 17, 2016 49-0 loss at Virginia Tech. In this Holy War series, this was the 2nd worst defeat for the Eagles only trailing the 1992 54-7 beatdown.
Stuffs vs. Boston College
Bertrand – 2
Kiser – 2
Liufau – 2
Botelho – 1.5
Foskey – 1
Watts – 1
Rubio – 1
Hart – 1
Tuihalamaka – 1
Onye – 1
Sneed – 1
Ademilola, Justin – 0.5
Ehrensberger – 0.5
Burnham – 0.5
Notre Dame’s stuff rate was very good, but combined with 5 turnovers it created an unbearable situation for the BC offense to work under. They appeared happy to pick on Benjamin Morrison and that was a very bad idea. The true freshman ties the Notre Dame single-game record with 3 interceptions, my goodness.
There isn’t much more to say is there?
Final Thoughts
I’ve been sick and under the weather for a few days so I’m keeping this recap brief. The way Boston College showed and performed they do not deserve much thought.
Congratulations to Isaiah Foskey on becoming the all-time sack leader at Notre Dame.
Michael Mayer was a wild man for jumping from about the 10-yard line (see the header photo) and nearly scoring a touchdown. That’s a dangerous play with the ball risking fumbling into the end zone so maybe don’t do that against a tougher opponent!
We were trying to figure out in our Slack why Freeman wore his beanie like this the entire game? Weigh in with your thoughts below.
Freeman’s “get back” assistant who stands behind him all game (he’s the one with the beard and long dreads) wasn’t wearing a hat and looked to have a long-sleeved shirt (maybe double layered?) with a polo on top. That dude looked freezing in the second half!
I can’t remember a Notre Dame home game with this much snow, it got really bad there for a while in the second half.
It was nice that the offense got Matt Salerno a touchdown on Senior Day. He almost broke a punt return before he tripped himself up, too. However, even attempting to field the punt that he muffed was a huge mistake.
Sneaky big performance for Blake Grupe’s confidence as he nails all 3 field goals in the game. The two from 41 and 46 yards were pretty impressive in this nasty weather.
People really liked Jeff Hafley’s potential at Boston College but if they don’t beat Syracuse next week a 3-9 season is going to be rough to overcome going into year 4. He just signed an extension 51 weeks ago that takes his contract through 2026, too. Notre Dame isn’t schedule to play the Eagles in the regular season again until 2025.
Xavier Watts’ sack (where he rung Morehead by the neck and swung him down) was quite a flash of violence from the Irish safety.
I was surprised to note that Logan Diggs scored only his 2nd rushing touchdown of the season against Boston College.
There’s been some consternation around the web regarding Steve Angeli not getting into the game in place of Pyne. I didn’t think it would happen. He’s already burned 2 games and it made no sense to waste a 3rd to hand off in a snow game. If something happens to Pyne next week you’d hate to burn an entire year for Angeli.
Loved this game – the snow, the dominant performance, the shutout. I will say, if we had a better qb, we’d probably have scored 60. Watching this Southern Cal- UCLA game, we are going to have to be ready for a shootout next week.
I tell you what, THEY have to be ready to get physically assaulted, a midwestern team is coming to PLAY
I feel good about our ability to run all over them. I just don’t think we’re going to stop them from some of their explosive scoring plays
That was hands down the most fun I’ve ever had at a ND home game ever. It was like getting snow day off school as a kid, but your team keeps scoring. Dope vibes today! Go Irish!!!!!!
Very fun game imo and hope you feel better EM!
Of course the focus this week will be Southern Cal’s clownfraud defense and schedule (which are very more than valid points) but I wanted to quickly bring up something interesting I found out about SC’s OL.
Southern Cal opponent and sack% ranking nationally
Rice- 78th
Stanford- 69th
Fresno State- 41st
Oregon State- 121st
Arizona State- 120th
Wazzu- 57th
Utah- 10th
Arizona- 129th
Cal- 127th
Colorado- 128th
UCLA- 67th
Despite this Southern Cal allows a sack on 4.8% of their plays which ranks 40th in the country
Feel like ND should be able to really get some pressure on defense in the coliseum
Yeah, this game is not going to be 48-45. Williams is excellent but SC hasn’t played a defense like ours all season. The opposite is not true.
the closest is Utah but they are shockingly soft this year
nowhere near as physical or edgy as previous years utah teams
and they still sacked Southern Cal 4 times
cautiously excited
It’ll be an interesting matchup. Surprisingly enough, USC made the cut to be one of the nine semifinalists for the Joe Moore award. I never really sensed they’re THAT good on that level, but a beast QB and a good RB (Dye, now injured) can’t hurt them function at a higher level too.
I want to marry that Evans fake sneak to off tackle handoff to Estime out of a full house backfield for a touchdown.
Felt like a 4 horsemen homage
Better to save a entire season of eligibility for Angeli by not playing him yesterday. Is getting him 15+/- snaps on a day and point in the game where throwing the ball would be a bad idea, going to affect anything this season? Not likely. Now if he is needed in an emergency next week he doesn’t lose a year. In the end that extra year might not mean anything for the QB room at ND but, it might for Angeli.
Yep, exactly. The message board consternation about this is silly. It was snowing and windy – those wouldn’t be valuable reps, and now they can play him as much or little as they want in the next two games without compunction.
I think maybe some of it is bound up in the thought that he has to be better than Pyne, which, probably in some ways (he has to have a stronger arm, right?) but not enough to get over that he’s a true freshman 3-star. As bad as Pyne is, I can’t imagine he’s not the best QB for right now on the roster.
Yes, Eric, please do feel better soon. And many thanks for making the effort to write this excellent summary. It felt good to read, especially as I was at the two worst BC losses, ’93 and ’02, with my boys no less. Ray was 3 in ’93, even, so I had to minimize my agony. So though they are NOT a “rival” i confess lingering trauma which is always good to assuage. Yesterday was REALLY SWEET. Plus to see such a complete game.
USC is for sure a rival, and it will be fascinating to see how we can handle the Coliseum, which can be annoyingly loud when the crowd gets motivated, and that QB.
USC is like Miami, in that they have a home crowd advantage when their team is good, because the bandwagon fills up. With a CFP spot on the line, I think the Colosseum will be rocking, until we can quiet them down
Exactly!
Great write-up as usual. Hope you feel better soon.
Any update on Kenny Minchey?
All seems to be going as planned with Minchey.
Also — actually it was super cool of Tommy Reese to have called that TD play for Matt Salerno, don’t you all think? MF didn’t even know that Matt had never scored a TD, so good for Tommy. He also highlighted Michael Mayer in a very nice way.
Matt’s punt return must have been equally great for Matt to do, tripping over his own feet or not. Hmmm, however, him having even tried for the fair catch, well, we’ll hope that’s a cautionary note to him to not get cocky against USC.
I loved Coach Freeman’s genuinely proud and happy look when they told him at the presser we rushed for 283.
I think as long as there’s not a near white-out at the Coliseum, the fair catch issue won’t come up
Ideally Joseph gets healed up and that will solve the Salerno punt return issue right there.
Because he’s cool as shit, that’s why.
Is that not Mathias Farley (sp?)? I always assumed that it was.
Kinda looks like Farley, but it’s not. Dreads guy has been around for years, Farley is on the Raiders active roster at the moment and has been hanging around on various NFL rosters and practice squads consistently since he left Notre Dame in 2016.
The man with those glorious locks is Fred Hale. Associate Director, S&C.
Good lookin out. Seems like a very interesting job.
Well that was a blast. I’m kinda jealous of the seniors. I mean my extremities aren’t, but that looked like a hell of a lot of fun.
Probably the one thing that makes me most optimistic about Freeman is how quickly he learns and fixes problems. That is not a common trait among head coaches and speaks very well of him. Yeah, BC is terrible, but having this team mentally ready to craphammer them on Senior Day is no small feat. Many more experienced coaches have struggled with and outright failed at that.
Beat SC!
Also he already makes good decisions about 4th downs, and has corrected his end-of-half mismanagement stuff from the first five games he coached. Things are already noticeably better on gameday decisionmaking-wise.
Feel pretty comfortable in thinking he learned a lot about a qb room this year in that I guarantee he will never have a less experienced, less talented qb room than he had this year. I will always be curious if BK stuck around would he have rolled with that qb room? or looked to upgrade with a grad transfer?
Pleased with the development of the offense. The OL has improved weekly and developed as a unit. Worse thing for an OL is injuries and/or substitutions disrupting working together. Nice to see Pyne get the ball out of his hands, the inclusion of short and outlet passes, and looking for secondary receivers. Not every QB can be a Penix, etc, who are fourth or fifth year. Those counteract any blitzing a defense an opponent tries, of course. The offense is diversifying and drives are sustained as well as more disciplined without stupid penalties. The Irish now don’t just rely on running to the left and up the middle. Another contribution to it is the inclusion of pulling guards. Hard to tell against BC whether the RBs,, who were poor at blocking a Navy blitz, have improved. The play-calling even included QB designed rollouts to the right. Lots of steps forward and reasons for optimism.
Freeman’s gone bald. losing a bet with Niumatalolo that Navy wouldn’t get within two touchdowns.
Nice positives, thanks. I also see growth — I suspect starting with MF. But credit to Tommy. BK was a tough changeover for him, plus he was close with McNulty. And though Drew’s gonna be Drew, it was super good when he came down early from the booth and kinda chest bumped Drew. Of all guys to understand a physically not especially blessed QB, who still has tons of fighting spirit, Tommy would be the guy.
Feel better soon, E!
I’ve been wondering who that guy is for years. Also there looks to be the exact version of him but a white guy with a blondish beard too, but dreads guy is always right around the head coach on the sideline, either Kelly or now Freeman.
On3 apparently updated their rankings based on SR seasons. All these updates are just from their rankings, not their version of the composite.
ND commit updates:
Jagusah is now top 10.
Absher up to #56 (On3 already had him in the top 100, way higher than everyone else).
Edwards now in top 300.
Some ouchies:
Greathouse down to #162 (didn’t he just have an insanely good season?)
James, Flores, Houstan, Flannagan, and Shuler drop out of the top 300.
Vernon down to #257.
D Bowen down to #220.
Bell, still a 3 star, despite being #82 (247), #120 (rivals), and #109 (ESPN).
ND current recruit updates:
Hillman now in top 300.
Minchey #204, #17 QB (not sure if there was much of a change here).
Former recruit updates:
Keeley has 17 sacks. Alas.
Vizzina apparently had a rough season, going 3-7 (still ranked #60).
Dante Moore dropped to #55.
Some random thoughts:
How is there a guy named Mickens from IN and not committed to ND? Worse, he’s committed to LSU.
Michigan has 0 committed top 100 players.