Irish throw Book at Demon Deacons
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Ian Book rushed for three touchdown sand threw for two more, and No. 8 Notre Dame beat Wake Forest 56-27 on Saturday.
Book replaced Brandon Wimbush in the starting lineup and was 25 of 34 for 325 yards with touchdown passes covering 3 yards to Brock Wright and 7 yards to Chase Claypool, along with three short scoring runs.
He helped the Fighting Irish (4-0) more than double their previous season high for scoring and roll up a season-best 566 total yards, surpassing the previous high midway through the third quarter.
Before this one, Notre Dame hadn’t scored more than 24 in a game, and its wins over Michigan, Ball State and Vanderbilt came by a total of 20 points.
“I didn’t sleep great last night, because that’s a pretty big decision to make when you’re 3-0 and your quarterback that was leading your football team was 13-3 as a starter,” coach Brian Kelly said. “But I had a lot of confifidence in Ian and I thought our offense played to the level that it was capable of. That certainly showed itself today.”
Jafar Armstrong had touchdown runs of 1 and 30 yards, and Tony Jones Jr. added a short scoring run for the Irish, who will ride their best start since 2015 into next week’s showdown with No. 7 Stanford.
Matt Colburn had a 2-yard touchdown run and Nick Sciba kicked two fifield goals for Wake Forest (2-2), which has lost two straight. Fresh- man Sam Hartman was 12 of 24 for 110 yards before he exited after taking a hard hit midway through the third.
“Notre Dame outplayed us. They outcoached us. They outprepared us. They were just more ready to go than us today, and they showed it ,” Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson said. “The score’s probably closer than the game was.”
So much for t hat quarterback controversy. It sure looks like the job belongs to Book, whose only previous start came last season in a rout of North Carolina and who led the rally that led to a victory over LSU in the Citrus Bowl. Kelly played it coy in the days before the game, s ayi ng both of hi s QBs would play. But as the points and yards kept piling up for the Irish, Wimbush never s aw t he f i el d and never even took offff his baseball cap.