Blue & Gold Illustrated: 2012 Notre Dame Football Preview
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FOR THE RECORD • Notre Dame finished 6-0 at home in 2015, making it the second season since 1998 in which the Irish were unblemished at Notre Dame Stadium. The other occasion came in 2012 when head coach Brian Kelly's squad went 6-0 at home en route to a 12-0 regular season and BCS National Championship Game berth. • Notre Dame finished 79th in the nation for red-zone touchdown percentage in 2015 while converting only 58.5 of opportunities into such scores. The Irish have consistently struggled in the red zone under Kelly, and even the 2014 team that was heavily criticized for red-zone play finished 45th in the country. In Kelly's first four seasons, Notre Dame was 100th (53.33 percent) in 2013, 112th (48.33 percent) in 2012, 28th (66.67 percent) in 2011 and 87th (56.52) in 2010. • The Irish (5.63) achieved the eighth best average yards per rush in the nation in 2015, with the best previous finish under Kelly coming in 2011, with a 4.82 average and No. 26 rank in the country. After the transfer of Greg Bryant in August and the season-ending injury to Tarean Folston in the season opener, Notre Dame relied on C.J. Prosise, a converted receiver, and true freshman Josh Adams to run wild all season. By The Numbers 5 The number of starters that were lost to injuries for the remainder of the regular season through two games of the 2015 campaign. During fall camp, senior nose guard Jarron Jones suffered a knee injury that held him out until the bowl game, while freshman cornerback Shaun Crawford's torn ACL ended his first campaign with the Irish. In the season opener, a knee injury struck junior running back Tarean Folston and the next week quarterback Malik Zaire (frac- tured ankle) and tight end Durham Smythe (knee and shoulder) went down with long-term injuries. 13 The number of teams that forced fewer turnovers than Notre Dame's 14 in 2015. Perhaps more alarm- ing than the 14 takeaways was the team's minus-six turnover margin, a figure eclipsed during the Brian Kelly era only by the 2011 Irish that featured a stag- gering minus-15 net total with 29 giveaways by the offense. 15.5 SHELDON DAY'S number of tackles for loss in the 2015 season, which marked the most by an Irish player since 2006. He also notched 45 tackles, four sacks, 13 quarterback hurries, four passes bro- ken up and two forced fumbles. QUOTABLE "I like where we are. We're going to keep banging at the door. Keep playing Ohio State, keep playing Florida State, keep playing Alabama, keep playing these teams in these kinds of venues, in these kinds of games. "We don't want to be playing directional teams with no profile to them. Big names, great traditions, New Year's Six games. Keep playing them, get in them. Keep building your program, keep recruiting, keep doing it the way you're do- ing it, and we're going to win these games. "We've made significant progress since where we were in 2012. We'll get there. Hopefully we won't have as many injuries. We'll get back here again. We'll win them." — Head coach Brian Kelly following the 44-28 loss to Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl "All of the sudden, I have this pressure. There's all this obligation that you have as a Notre Dame quarterback, I just never really prepared myself for, I guess. "Going into the summer, I literally hit rock bottom. I wasn't throwing the ball well. I was the third-string quar- terback. Am I even playing the right sport? I was thinking to myself: 'Why did I even play football? I could be out there throwing the ball 93, 94 miles per hour. Why not just play baseball?' I was contemplating everything." — Sophomore quarterback DeShone Kizer on Showtime's "A Season With Notre Dame Football" 134 ✦ BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 2016 FOOTBALL PREVIEW PHOTO BY ANDREW IVINS TOP FIVE GAME PERFORMANCES 1. FULLER TORCHES PIT TSBURGH — Junior wide receiver Will Fuller pulled off the proverbial hat trick at Pittsburgh in November with three scores. Fuller, a Pennsylvania native, recorded seven recep- tions and 152 receiving yards in addition to the three touchdowns. Pittsburgh head coach Pat Narduzzi often tested Fuller in one-on-one situations, and the receiver made that decision look silly with one of the most pro- ductive afternoons of his Irish career. 2. DAY TORMENTS TEMPLE — Notre Dame's of- fense rarely took a backseat during the 2015 season, but Temple's defense held the Irish to only 24 points in Notre Dame's four-point victory on the road Oct. 31. With the Irish offense held to less than 30 points, the defense needed to assert itself and make plays. Senior cornerback KeiVarae Russell pulled off a late interception to help the Irish improve to 7-1, but senior defensive tackle Sheldon Day's performance throughout the eve- ning helped keep the Owl offense at bay. Day's disruptive evening included six tackles (2.5 for loss) and a sack. He also registered a forced fumble and one pass broken up. He was constantly after Temple quarterback P.J. Walker during his brightest game in a fantastic senior year. 3. KIZER EXCELLENT AT STANFORD — Notre Dame heartbreakingly fell short at Stanford, 38-36, in the reg- ular-season finale, but little of that blame can fall on the Irish offense. Other than some more red-zone woes, the unit moved the ball up and down the field against the Cardinal defense. Sophomore quarterback DeShone Kizer directed an Irish offense that amassed 533 yards of total offense, which were the most against Stanford's defense since 2012. Kizer finished with 128 rushing yards and a late go- ahead score as well as a 13-of-25 performance throwing the ball with 234 yards and one touchdown. The final 88-yard TD drive that temporarily put Notre Dame ahead 36-35 would have gone down as an all-time classic in the Irish annals, but the defense surrendered a field goal as time expired to send head coach Brian Kelly's squad home with a defeat. 4. OKWARA MANHANDLES WAKE FOREST — Senior defensive end Romeo Okwara's best performance in an Irish uniform came on Senior Day in a 28-7 win over Wake Forest. Okwara registered three sacks and five solo tackles while disrupting Wake Forest's offense throughout the afternoon. One sack forced a fumble, while the other two came on third down and forced Demon Deacon punts. Notre Dame did not generate a consistent pass rush during the 2015 season, but when it did, Okwara was usually doing the disrupting. 5. ZA I R E S E TS T H E TO N E AG A I N ST T H E LO N G - HORNS — This performance often gets forgotten be- cause of how bad Texas ended up being in 2015 and because Malik Zaire started only two games, but his season-opening performance in a 38-3 blowout win over the Longhorns foreshadowed just how dynamic the Irish offense would be in 2015. The lefty completed 19 of 22 passes for 313 yards with three touchdowns, which are sparkling statistics regardless of the competition. He also added 16 yards on the ground. Senior defensive end Romeo Okwara registered five solo stops, three sacks and a forced fumble versus Wake Forest in his final contest at Notre Dame Stadium. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA