EYES ON THE PRIZE
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Ian Book threw three touchdown passes and ran for two scores in his final home game at Notre Dame, leading the second-ranked Fighting Irish to a 45-21 victory against Syracuse on Saturday.
The fifth-year senior led the Irish to a victory as a starter for the 30th time, the most ever for a Notre Dame quarterback. The Irish (10-0, 9-0 ACC, CFP No. 2) ran their winning streak to 16 games, best on the country, and their home winning streak to 24.
“It’s hard doing any 24 things consecutively — I have trouble doing two in a row.,” Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly joked after his team provided him with his 102nd victory in South Bend, three behind all-time Irish leader Knute Rockne. “It was about finishing for our seniors with a win at home and getting Ian into the record books as the winningest quarterback at Notre Dame.”
Next up for the Irish, who are playing this season in a pandemic as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference, is the Dec. 19 league championship game in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Book was 24 for 37 for 285 yards, with touchdown passes of 21, 28 and 26 to Javon McKinley, who had seven receptions for 111 yards.
Book scored on runs of 28 and 17 yards and rushed for 53 yards while improving to 30-3 as a starter and passing Notre Dame greats Tom Clements, Ron Powlus and Brady Quinn for most victories as a starting quarterback.
Kyren Williams added 110 yards on 20 carries, giving him 1,011 for the season, and freshman Chris Tyree had a 94-yard TD run for Notre Dame’s final touchdown and finished with 109 rushing yards as Notre Dame totaled 283 on the ground and 568 total.
“I think our guys got to measure themselves up against one of the better teams in the country I was proud of the way they competed,” said Syracuse coach Dino Babers, whose Orange (1-10, 1-9) managed 414 yards on the Irish defense, ranked 10th nationally coming into the game, and took a 7-3 lead in the second quarter.
Notre Dame started its run thanks to a roughing the passer by Syracuse that Book later turned into a 28-yard TD run. Linebacker Marist Liufau’s fumble recovery
and return to the Syracuse 21 was followed by Book’s first TD pass to McKinley.
Then Book engineered a six-play, 68-yard scoring drive that took just 32 seconds, finishing it with a 28-yard TD pass to McKinley and the Irish were up 24-7 at half.
The takeaway
Syracuse: Babers’ young team, which was a 33{-point underdog and with 71.6 percent of its roster either freshmen or sophomores, moved the ball on the Irish defense in closing out the season. The Orange finished their final game of the season with 229 rushing yards against Notre Dame’s No. 4 rushing defense.
Freshman Sean Tucker rushed for 113 yards, including a 40-yard TD, and sophomore Cooper Lutz ripped off a 80-yard TD run late in the game.
“Lutz was really good — I didn’t know he was that fast — and Sean’s been steady all year,” Babers said. “I want them to understand that we didn’t finish this thing the way we wanted to from a won-loss record. You’ve got to turn a negative into a positive.”
Notre Dame: Book’s string of pass attempts without an interception, dating back to the season opener against Duke, ended at 267 when Ja’Had Carter picked off an underthrown long pass early in the third quarter.
Book finished with 348 total yards, becoming only the second Irish player to move past 10,000 yards (10,008) in total offense. Quinn, who played for Notre Dame from 2003-06, is the leader with 11,944.