The Irish will face both teams at Alumni Stadium, with Illinois State at 7 p.m. Friday before Sunday’s encounter with Missouri, which kicks off at 5 p.m.
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Wright had one, but even that didn’t make getting away from the Longhorns easy.
Notre Dame and Texas are two powerhouses in the world of college football.
“When you know you are going to [play] the whole game, you can rely on rhythm to get yourself going”. Texas – more pointedly, Charlie Strong – needs this game. Texas vs. Notre Dame. The Irish picked up a ton of easy third-down conversions past year because of coverage busts and a nonexistent pass rush – they’ll have to earn some of them this time.
Whether it was big question marks at quarterback, a lack of talent on the roster, or a poor culture inside the locker room that led to the team losing more than a handful of players to transfers and dismissals (including almost an entire starting offensive line), Texas football was in a bad place.
At 40:34, senior midfielder Cindy Pineda sent a corner kick into the box that Kaitlin Klawunder, making her first appearance of the season, nodded home for her third-career goal and her second-career game victor.
“He’s gained the trust of the ten guys around him, including the guy that counts the most, Brian VanGorder, and that’s huge”, Kelly said last month.
With just over seven hours until kick-off, it won’t be long until we find out just what kind of team the Irish have and if the pundits are justified in their optimism towards Texas or if they’ll be eating a side of crow tomorrow morning with their breakfast. The team fields two powerful backs in sophomore D’Onta Foreman and Chris Warren.
The Texas offense ended up with as many three-and-outs (8) as first downs in the 38-3 smackdown, matching the fewest first downs given up by a Notre Dame team in the Kelly Era, also logged in a 27-3 mashing of Army in 2010.
As it did against the Gaels, Stanford’s defense remained strong with 10 men, but in the 86th minute the Irish cut a ball back in the box and a little toe poke from Jon Gallagher snuck its way past Epstein to level the score. Studstill must protect the secondary against the deep ball, which is sure to come in new Texas offensive coordinator Sterlin Gilbert’s game plan.
In fact, he’ll see a bunch of them Sunday night. Whichever quarterback can best connect with a young receiving corps will likely be the one that Kelly eventually turns the keys over to. But the team has some proven options at the position. This year the Longhorns seek revenge as they host the Irish for the season opener Sunday night down in Austin. A season ago, Kizer threw for over 2,800 yards and 21 touchdowns.
“They have both have been outstanding, they both make plays”, Kelly said.
Texas hasn’t had three consecutive losing seasons since the late 1930s. He torched Texas for 49 yards and two touchdowns – on 9.8 yards per carry – last September. Campbell, the Heisman Trophy victor that season, was kept out of the endzone and rushed 29 times for 116 yards.
“And for Texas, you feel this buzz this off-season as this is the point of the breakthrough and the true freshman quarterback, but yet Swoopes is still there and the big dominating tandem in the backfield”.
“We play crowd noise in practices and whatever but it’s nothing like that every lives up to how it’s going to be in the actual game in the stadium”, says Irish cornerback Cole Luke.
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I think we all expect the Texas Longhorns to be above average defensively but the question is can the offense lend a hand and put points on the scoreboard.
