INJURY REPORT: Miami LB Darrion Owens will miss the rest of the season with a knee injury. On three occasions did Michigan find itself with the ball in front of the Notre Dame net, but was turned away by a pesky wall of white Irish shirts.
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Quarterback DeShone Kizer came in for the injured Malik Zaire and threw a 40-yard touchdown pass to Will Fuller with 12 seconds left Saturday and No. 9 Notre Dame beat Virginia in a thrilling finish, 34-27.
“We’re not going to make any excuses for where we are”, Kelly said.
“Those are two good football teams we’ve played and gotta give them credit, there are things that we can do for us to play better to be on the other side of that”, said London.
But Virginia rallied to take a 27-26 lead before Kizer marched Notre Dame into position for the winning score. Sophomore DeShone Kizer delivered the 39-yard touchdown throw.
Notre Dame (2-0) will now turn the offense over to Kizer, who actually threw his first career touchdown pass for the Irish in the first quarter as the holder for a fake field goal. “We need to elevate him to that next level”.
“That last drive our offense put together was pretty special”, Johns said. Virginia lost its first game of the season against UCLA. He ran 4 yards for a first down on fourth-and-2 from the Notre Dame 28, and later found the speedy Fuller behind Maurice Canady. Many thought Zaire could be the quarterback to lead Notre Dame to the college football playoffs. Notre Dame had punted on two straight possessions.
“You always want to just try to freeze time and go back and rewind, but you can’t”, he said.
The Irish passing game was stagnant for most of the first half, too, with Zaire totaling 38 yards on 5-of-13 passing. Though not the most graceful pocket passer, Johns is a deceptively good mover who was sacked only once by Notre Dame. “As you know, we ran a quick slant on third down previously that the corner came up and defended quite well, so we ran a double move off of that”.
Zaire was projected to have a big year for the Irish, and their season is only going to get tougher without their star quarterback. Because IU could not generate an attack, the defense could not hold up against the nationally ranked Fighting Irish.
The Irish were already without starting running back Tarean Folston, who suffered a season-ending ACL tear in the team’s opener against Texas. “They never let down”, Kelly said. Kelly said he thinks his standout linebacker is close to full form. “Those are hard injuries [to Folston and Zaire], no question”.
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“That really falls on the leadership of this team”, Virginia senior Ross Burbank said. “DeShone doesn’t have to win it by himself”. Just says a lot about the resolve of the group we have out there. So he understands the FCS-FBS dynamic better than most, and his Virginia teams have played accordingly. Kizer’s poise and confidence allowed him to lead the Irish to victory, which was largely assisted by C.J. Prosise’s monstrous rushes. Mizzell ended the game with 66 yards on 18 carries.
