Well, this is one hell of a Hangover. Not many people would have predicted that Notre Dame would have beat Utah (except for yours truly), and perhaps no one predicted it would be such a tremendous ass-whopping in a 28-3 win(hey, I’m not a fucking fortune-teller).
Before I begin, I want to give a special thanks to two different groups of people.
First, the Henson Family. Holy shit, I was not prepared for these fellas and their barrage of hospitality. Dad and I wandered over to meet some of Subway Domer’s biggest fans, and I think it is safe to say that there was no disappointment to be found. They greeted us with 40 oz.’s of Mickey’s and Todd was drinking a personal favorite of mine, PBR. Thanks again fellas, and you instilled my theory that the “tailgate toss” game is completely gay, and in no way should be substituted for cornhole or washers. Awful.
Next, Dad and I drunkenly (not sure if the old man was as buzzed as me, but you get the idea) made our way to the Joyce lot to meet up with fellow Subway Domer writer, KGG. I have never met KGG, or Brawling Hibernian for that matter (BH and I need a date). I was not even surprised. KGG was as cool as I had hoped, and he was rocking a Subway Domer t-shirt. (I left mine in the closet, in the hopes that the ushers would not recognize the asshole that they have tried to kick out sooooo many times before). KGG had an extra pair of tickets, which sat Dad and I with KGG’s in-laws… Utah fans (really, really, nice people and a pleasure to get to know- but they disappeared after halftime). I actually lost track of KGG on the way in as I sold my original pair of tickets to a father and son for an obscenely low price… I’m a sucker for father and son outings to Notre Dame Stadium. I still have to contact KGG and thank him once again, but I thought I would do it here first. Thanks!
Let’s finish this Hangover…
To begin, I have to start with the end. Normally, something like this would be plugged in to the end of the post, but it was a scene so powerful and joyful, that I have to put it out front and in center. The post-game celebration.
As I asked in the Bagpipe Monday post to not undersell this victory, so to am I asking you to not look at the celebration of victory as an over-the-top behavior for a storied program such as the Irish. This win marks what I believe, and many others, to be the turning point for this program. The students were rushing the field, hugging their classmates and dormmates in what was an exercise in “shedding” the crusty skin of the recent past. It was an awesome sight.
These seniors and 5th year seniors, had hoped more for themselves and this program. They came to Notre Dame during a 2 year BCS bowl run, and the future looked bright for Charlie Weis and Notre Dame. Instead, things took a dramatic turn for the worse in 2007, and never got much better. These players endured, held their heads high, and continued to play for Our Lady. I thank them, and I am happy and proud that they were given such a great gift of a victory over a ranked team, on senior day, and the celebration afterwards (a present they gave themselves).
No adjustments were needed. The Fighting Irish defense, ridiculed for their lack of halftime adjustments, needed none on Saturday as they dominated from start to finish. In a performance that equalled what TCU did to the Ute’s just a week earlier, Notre Dame held this team to just 3 points, 71 yards rushing, and 194 yards passing. Utah was averaging 41 points, 175 yards rushing, and 245 yards passing coming into the game.
Not a bad job. In fact, it wasn’t just those obvious numbers that stand out, it was how those numbers were accumulated; by being physical. The Irish were as physical on defense as I have seen in a long time. They played fast, and they played fierce. Notre Dame kept the big plays to a minimum and did not allow the big “explosive” plays that have haunted them for most of this season- and many seasons before.
Thank-you Brian Smith. You know, Brian has took a lot of shit over the years from the media and from the fans. Some of it was deserved, and some of it was misplaced anger. Through it all, there was something that you could never say about Brian Smith; you could never say that he didn’t love Notre Dame or that he didn’t have the passion to play football in the Blue and Gold. The reason why, was hard to miss from Saturday. There Brian stood, next to his father who also played football for the Irish, both men were as emotional as I have ever seen a father son on Senior day. Tears flowed down their faces as constant as the rain poured down into the stadium in the first half. Not only was it touching, but it reminded you that these guys have been through so much adversity over their time at Notre Dame, and here they stood- ready to fight one last time underneath the shadows of history, Touchdown Jesus, and the Golden Dome.
Then, to make it a fitting ending for Smith, he goes out and starts the game in place of Carlo Calabrese and walked off the field with a team-leading 10 tackles and a victory in his final game at home. I was as proud of Brian as a fan can be with the players they cheer for in the fall. It was a good feeling for me, so I can only imagine what kind of feeling it was for Smith and the rest of the seniors.
Sean Cwynar doesn’t have Ian’s dreadlocks, but he has his heart. I have to admit that I was more than a little worried about Ian Williams season-ending injury. Williams was the anchor of what has been an improving defense, and it appeared that his breaks on the sideline during the games he played in, only showed the lack of depth the Irish had at nose tackle. On Saturday, I watched Sean Cwynar really grow up and become that guy we need on the inside. He played hard, and he played physical. He registered 6 tackles, and he showed himself to be not just a blocking dummy for the opposing offensive line, but he became a disruptive force.
All hail the Prince of Michiana. Holy shit, Prince Shembo! During fall camp, I remember hearing about Prince Shembo being hailed as one of the hardest hitters on the team. I heard more and more good stuff about the Prince, but I figured it was a lot of lip service and Shembo at best would be a good special teams player this year.
Shembo did become a very good special teams player, but throughout the course of the year, he has got more and more playing time at linebacker as he has developed mentally in this defensive system. On Saturday, Shembo looked dominant as racked up 5 tackles, 1 sack, and 2 QB hurries. He did this, coming off of the bench early in the first quarter for an injured Darius Fleming. Those stats put him 3rd on the team in sacks for the season.
Prince Shembo p[lays with fire, speed, and power, and he has only scratched the surface of his potential. To become a better team, Notre Dame needs better production from their outside linebackers. It would appear that this Prince, is getting the job done. 55 to stay alive…
Chipping in for the cause. Much of the credit for the dominant performance has been directed towards the front 7 of the Notre Dame defense. When Utah head coah, Kyle Whittingham, was interviewed after the game, he made special mention of Notre Dame’s front seven as the ones in particular that made the biggest difference in the game.
This game, however, was not only a complete game in the three phases (offense, defense, special teams) but it was complete by all the units of these teams doing their job. It would be wrong, to not point out just how good the Notre Dame secondary played on Saturday- especially cornerback Gary Gray and safety Harrison Smith. In what was a small act of irony, the two seniors played their asses off on senior day. The irony being that they are both scheduled to come back for a fifth year (both have said that they would apply).
Gray was stuck to his man, whoever it would be, all day long. You know it is good coverage, when you could look at about 4 plays and say that Gray could have been called for pass interference- but wasn’t. That means he was doing as good of a job as he possibly can, and the referees couldn’t do a damn thing about it. He had the Utah WR’s throwing fits after the plays. It was an awesome sight.
Harrison Smith was equally stout as he racked up 7 tackles and an athletic interception that would have had the Harrison Smith haters speechless. His steady play this year has been welcoming as he FINALLY has been able to stay at one position for an entire season. It only took 4 years. He was able to position himself on the field in a variety of ways that had Utah QB, Jordan Wynn, completely confused. This is what we were promised when Smith first came to Notre Dame.
Tommy, Tommy, Tommy-boy. Go ahead. Look at Rees’s stat line. 13-20 for 129 yards. Not even mediocre. 3 TD’s & 0 INT’s… AHA! There’s the money-maker. Rees wasn’t asked to do a whole lot on Saturday, and that is what made his performance so great. He did exactly what he was supposed to do.
I was one of many that was overly concerned with Rees’s arm strength- or lack there of. You see, it just didn’t matter. He made the throws that he had to make, and a few that were just beautiful, such as the 26 yard rainbow drop to Duval Kamara for a touchdown.
Tommy didn’t really even come close to getting any of his passes picked off, and didn’t fumble or mishandle a snap. He looked comfortable, and in control of the offense at ALL times, and despite engineering an offense that only gained 256 yards- it felt like he made more out of that 256 than most people would ever think.
Folks. He isn’t acting like a freshman quarterback. He has the rest of the team rallying around behind him, and if he can find a way to win these final two games against Army and U$C, not only will there be a QB controversy heading into the spring, he will have made himself a true Notre Dame legend in a short period of time.
Notre Dame only rushed the ball for 127 yards. I say that with some sarcasm mixed in to it. The Fighting Irish outrushed the Utes, who only gained 71 yards on 29 carries- the exact same amount of carries Notre Dame tallied up. It actually goes back to what Charlie Weis used to say about it’s not how many yards you get running the ball, but how many times you run the ball. What he meant, was that the running game needs to be a factor; something to be accounted for by the defense.
While Cierre Wood led the Irish rushing attack with a hard earned 71 yards filling in for the injured Armando Allen, it was Jonas Gray that stole the show as far as the running game was involved. Gray only carried the ball 3 times, but he amassed 44 yards with those carries, and he was a shoelace away from scoring a touchdown on a long run instead of only gaining 36 yards. It has/had Irish fans wondering where Gray has been for most of the season. I kind of got a funny feeling that we will see a bit more of Jonas during the remainder of the season.
And then there is HUUUUUUGGGGHHHHEESSSSS!!!!!! Robert carried the ball 4 times for 21 yards, but again, it was more of how he did it. he did it at the end of the game- to seal the deal. The game wasn’t on the line, but it is encouraging to see the power used to beat the opponent down to end it. Hopefully, that sight will be seen more before this season is over, and with it… Robert’s career at Notre Dame.
Duval Kamara could have stopped the rain if he had wanted to. That’s what kind of a day that he had on Saturday. Duval caught 2 passes for 38 yards, and two touchdowns… on senior day. Kamara has had new life breathed into him with the emergence of Tommy Rees and the fact that Notre Dame’s receiving corps is still too thin for a spread offense.
Kamara had a great freshman year- a record-setting year that is now obsolete thanks to his teammate Michael Floyd. Since then, he has fell into the background of what was one of Notre Dame’s most talented units on the team. It’s nice to see him making plays again in his final game inside Notre Dame Stadium. If the Irish are going to win their final 3 games and then a bowl game, they are going to need the same type of production from Duval.
Finally we were oh, so special. Notre Dame’s special teams made a huge difference in the game, and basically won the game for the Fighting Irish. The kickoff return by Bennett Jackson for 35 yards didn’t net a drive that resulted in any points, but it helped set a tone, and helped set up a game of field position.
Robert Blantons blocked punt, and subsequent return for a touchdown ignited the team and the crowd to put the Irish up 7-3- a lead they never let go of.
Ben Turk only averaged about 36 yards a punt, but they never allowed a dangerous return man in Shaky Smithson to get the best of them. In fact, Smithson had -2 yards.
Austin Collinsworth’s forced fumble on the opening kickoff of the 2nd half, sparked a one-play TD drive by the Irish to increase their lead to 21-3.
When you stop and look at the 28-3 win, 14 of those points are almost directly related to special teams play. Notre Dame’s other 2 touchdowns came on 61 and 63 yard drives, so you can see why the special teams units were needed and performed well on Saturday.
I better just stop right here. A great victory that spawned a new hope for this team and this fanbase. Fucking loved it!
