Book, Irish run to rout of Bulls

QB rushes for 3 TDs in 1st half of ND’s 20th straight home win

SOUTH BEND – Ian Book just needed to stick to the routine against South Florida.

The Notre Dame quarterback ran for three first-half touchdowns, and the seventh-ranked Fighting Irish rolled to a 52-0 on Saturday, their 20th straight at home.

“I don’t need to make any superhero efforts,” said Book, who moved into third place on ND’s total offense list ahead of Tommy Rees and behind Brady Quinn and Jimmy Clausen. “Just get the ball to all our playmakers on the perimeter and let our running backs do what they’ve done the last two weeks. I didn’t need to put any big pressure on myself.”

Notre Dame (2-0) led 35-0 at halftime and for the second year in a row posted a 52-point shutout against the Bulls.

“We talked all week about the standard we had set for our football team, and it’s really just a mindset for our offense,” ND coach Brian Kelly said. “It was a point of emphasis, and we got off to that fast start and obviously that set the tone for the day.”

Book, who started with three straight completions, capped the opening drive with a 4-yard touchdown run. He is the first Notre Dame quarterback in the modern era to run for three touchdowns in one half. He added 143 yards on 12-of-19 passing before exiting with 2 minutes, 21 seconds left in the third quarter. Freshman Drew Pyne took over.

“Ian was better today — he managed the things we wanted him to do,” Kelly said.

Freshman Chris Tyree scored from 1 yard about five minutes after Book’s first touchdown run. It never got better for the first-year coach Jeff Scott’s Bulls (1-1), who were a late add to Notre Dame’s schedule after the Irish joined the Atlantic Coast Conference for the season.

“They’ve got a playoff-caliber team and they really dominated the game from the beginning to the end,” said Scott, a former co-offensive coordinator for Dabo Swinney at Clemson. “I felt like I was playing Clemson there for the majority of the day.”

Reserve C’Bo Flemister ran for a career-high 127 yards, Kyren Williams had 62 yards on 10 carries and Tyree 65 on eight.

Meanwhile, the Irish defense limited USF to 65 yards in the first half and 231 total while using three new starters.

Notre Dame’s special teams got into the act in the third quarter with the help of a high snap over the head of USF punter Trent Schneider. When the Australian picked it up 36 yards behind the line of scrimmage, Osita Ekwonu blocked Schneider’s kick, and freshman Jordan Botelho recovered the ball as it was going into the end zone for a 45-0 lead with 3:23 left in the quarter.

“From our side, obviously it was a very disappointing from the first drive all the way through the game,” Scott said. “We’re not going to make any excuses.”

Notre Dame had touchdowns on five of their six possessions in the first half, outgaining USF 279-65.