Final score in season opening blowout on Saturday: Notre Dame 38, Texas 3

With all the talk and anticipation prior to Saturday’s game, a person well-versed in Irish football history probably would have thought that the renowned Four Horsemen of Notre Dame were about to face the biggest Longhorn Stampede in Texas football history.

Even if this stampede had been rushing toward the campus of Notre Dame for nine anxious months, it could not survive in Notre Dame Stadium.  There, in the center of the university’s new Campus Crossroads Project, and in the heat of early September, the beat of the Longhorn stampede was drowned by the roars of cheering Irish fans, and the Longhorns’ hopes for victory disappeared in the dust.

In spite of the hype, the media, and the huge number of visiting fans, the Fighting Irish completely contained the Longhorns’ offense, ripped holes in their defense, and held their special teams to one solitary field goal.

The game quickly slipped away from the Longhorns beginning in the first quarter. The Irish scored two unanswered touchdowns with relative ease.  Malik Zaire’s touchdown pass to Will Fuller completed a 55 yard drive, and Josh Adams’s 14 yard run secured a 95 yard touchdown drive, giving the Irish a 14-0 lead.

In the second quarter, the Longhorns defense had a little more to be proud of, holding the Irish to a field goal by freshman kicker, Justin Yoon, with 7:53 to play.  However, the Texas offense continued to choke, punting the ball five total times in the first half.

Longhorns’ kicker Nick Rose provided the only opportunity for Texas points in the first half, but Irish coach Brian Kelly succeeded in icing him by calling two consecutive timeouts with four seconds remaining on the clock.

Rose went on to miss the 52-yard attempt, and both teams trotted to the locker rooms with an Irish-dominant score of 17-0.

The second half was not much different from the first half.  With the exception of a Nick Rose field goal to put the Longhorns on the board midway through the third quarter, the scoring was all Irish, and the student section saw plenty of push-up action.

Josh Adams scored his second rushing touchdown of the night, and Zaire completed two more touchdown passes: one to Will Fuller in the third quarter and one to Chris Brown early in the fourth quarter.

With so much success, Zaire actually earned himself a spot on the sideline in the fourth quarter, giving redshirt freshman quarterback DeShone Kizer a chance to take a few snaps.

Although Kizer had no completions, no touchdowns, and no incredible runs, he did not make any mistakes, and he maintained the 38-3 lead while efficiently running out the clock for the Irish to end the game.

The spotlight certainly shined on Irish quarterback Malik Zaire.  In the air, Zaire connected with his receivers for 313 yards, three touchdowns, and a total of 19 completions in 22 attempts.

The key receiver for the Irish was Will Fuller, who caught the ball seven times, scored twice, and gained 142 yards for the night.

Although Zaire is also a mobile quarterback (running nine times for 16 yards) by no means did he try to make it a one-man show.  On the ground, he handed the ball to his running backs a total of 43 times for 198 yards.

On 20 different occasions, Zaire gave hand-offs to his senior running back from Virginia, C.J. Prosise, who doubled the amount of carries in his career on Saturday.  Prosise carried the ball for 98 yards, bringing his career rushing yards to 224.

This timely performance helped the Irish to rebound after the devastating loss of junior running back Tarean Folston, who tore his ACL during the first quarter.

For Irish special teams, freshman kicker Justin Yoon was only one for two on field goal attempts, but he made all five of his point-after attempts.  Punter Tyler Newsome kicked the ball away four times with an average of 41.2 yards.

Texas’ only bright spots of the night were the field goal by Nick Rose and a zero in the turnover column.  The Texas offense only produced 163 total yards and held the ball for 20:50.  With zero touchdowns, one field goal, and only eight first downs, it is no wonder that Longhorns’ punter, Michael Dickson, was so busy.  Dickson punted a total of 10 times, with an average 42.3 per kick.

This convincing 38-3 victory over Texas provides the Irish with good momentum as they travel to the University of Virginia this weekend to face the Cavaliers.

James Pratt is a junior majoring in political science and Spanish.  He particularly enjoys cycling and singing.  Contact him at James.A.Pratt.34@nd.edu.