This could be the signature win Texas have been waiting for since Strong took over the program from Mack Brown, although it would be wise to wait and see the effect of this win.
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This might’ve been the most impressive win a Notre Dame opponent had this weekend given the circumstances: Temple won 10 games past year, while Army won nine total games from 2013-2015.
“I think we can make it work”, Strong said Monday.
Jefferson noticed that things looked, sounded and felt different. The real rushing story, however, was in Texas’ usage of back-up quarterback Tyrone Swoopes as a power back. With Folston and Josh Adams, Notre Dame has a nice 1-2 running back punch.
Brian Polian’s side didn’t do much to show it’ll be competitive against Notre Dame this weekend with this narrow win over an FCS side that went 4-7 previous year.
Notre Dame quarterback DeShone Kizer throws a pass during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Texas, Sunday, Sept. 4, 2016, in Austin, Texas. We evaluate week to week. Changes in the coaching staff are probably needed, but I wouldn’t hold my breath on that.
While Kelly said last week the pair had “embraced knowing that both of them will play” he acknowledged Tuesday that they still don’t like the idea of sharing the position.
The freshman also showed some leadership. It wasn’t against Texas. Stanford gets a week off before starting a tough five-game stretch: USC, at UCLA, at Washington, Washington State, at Notre Dame. But until vast strides are made on that side of the ball, the burden will be on Kizer and company to outscore teams every week.
As the scoreboard blared “Swoopes There It Is!” in the aftermath of a dog pile Shane Buechele knew better than to jump in – but did so anyway (his father, former Texas Rangers’ infielder Steve Buechele, advised him to always stay out of dog piles), I saw WWE star and World’s Strongest Man Mark Henry on the field.
All summer long the talk was Notre Dame’s defense would be able to limit the big plays and improve on defense despite losing Sheldon Day, Jaylon Smith, Keivarae Russell, Joe Schmidt, Romeo Okwara, and Matthias Farley.
“The message we wanted to send (to the Irish) was, ‘We’re more conditioned than you guys, and we’re going to show it, ‘ and that’s the thing behind this offense is get the defense exhausted so we can make big plays like we did”, Burt said.
Sunday night, they got their wish.
Zaire, who started the second half but wasn’t heard from again after Kizer raced 29 yards for a touchdown with 7:39 left in the third. We’ll know more about what kind of team David Cutcliffe is fielding this year after Duke faces Wake Forest and travels to Northwestern between now and its September 24 game at Notre Dame Stadium. I can’t help them with that. Before the game, McConaughey paid the team a little visit, doing his best Coach Taylor as he psyched the players up for a win.
When the Associated Press Top 25 comes out Tuesday, Texas is likely to be ranked for the first time under Strong. Hunter Jr. had already caught a touchdown pass in the game and potentially had another in the third quarter. We’ve worked hard in the offseason and we’ve gotten tremendously better.
His scheme is too complex, they say, too NFL-oriented. “Swoopes/Buechele together won the game!” Texas defensive back should have been called for targeting and maybe thrown out of the game, hitting Hunter in the head with his shoulder and helmet, resulting in Hunter spread out on his back for a few minutes before going to the locker room.
Kelly said Notre Dame sent the tape to supervising officials from the Atlantic Coast Conference and got confirmation that targeting should have been called.
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“We had (young) guys out there who hadn’t played yet”, Onwualu said. “I guess they’re going to be reaching out to them to find out why it wasn’t reviewed. Clearly, win or lose, player safety should be at the front of this game and we don’t believe that that was the case in this instance”.
