A record day for Irish
Football has been played at Notre Dame since 1887 and through all the years it is believed the Fighting Irish never had one game in which two teammates each ran for 200 yards.
That all changed yesterday as Notre Dame ran through and around Boston College, with running back Josh Adams carrying the ball 18 times for 229 yards and quarterback Brandon Wimbush, who was mostly ineffective as a passer, rushing for 207 yards, most ever for an Irish signal caller, and four touchdowns in 21 attempts.
“We were just told that after the game,” Adams said of the record. “A lot of that credit goes to the offensive line for dominating and mandating their will on the other team. It’s definitely a blessing. It’s exciting to have. It’s definitely an honor, especially being at the University of Notre Dame and all the guys that came before us.”
All the running around produced a 49-20 Notre Dame victory in which all seven of its TDs came on the ground. The Irish averaged 10.1 yards per carry, a modern era record besting a 1942 contest against Naval Station Great Lakes, as 51 attempts produced 515 yards.
That number fell 1 yard shy of the most ever allowed by the Eagles. They were carved up in a 2012 loss to Army, which had three players break the century mark.
Adams and Wimbush had five runs of at least 35 yards, taking full advantage of an Eagles defense that was missing linebacker Connor Strachan (knee).
The Eagles found themselves in a 14-10 halftime deficit largely because of a pair of long Adams runs that set up Wimbush touchdowns. The first came on thirdand-2 when Wimbush faked a handoff to the wide receiver in motion and gave the ball to Adams, who ripped off a 65-yard gain to the BC 2.
“(BC is a) very aggressive group, downhill linebackers, and we wanted to create a little misdirection and pull,” Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said. “That’s a play we use against certain defenses that (are) very aggressive to the line of scrimmage.”
The second Adams burst was a read option in which the offensive line opened a hole and there were no maroon jerseys in the second level until Isaac Yiadom caught up to him at the 17.
The 129 yards generated by those two plays represented nearly half of Notre Dame’s 271 yards of total yards in the first half.
The yards were easier to come by in the second half for the Irish as the offensive line wore out the Eagles in the trenches opening bigger holes.