Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com SEPT. 19, 2020 25 0 Positive tests for Notre Dame's football team in the final round of testing the Friday before the Duke game. Of all the various stats in a football game, this off-the-field data is the most impressive of all. 1 This marked the first-ever conference game in Notre Dame's football history that began in 1887. All 15 Atlantic Coast Conference teams this year will play — supposedly, and at least on paper — 10 regular-season league contests, and the two best will play in the ACC championship game held in Charlotte, N.C., either Dec. 12 or Dec. 19. 14 Rushing yards gained on sophomore punter Jay Bramblett's fake punt in the second quarter when the Irish trailed 3-0 and were facing fourth-and-eight from their 21-yard line. That set up the touchdown that put Notre Dame ahead for good at 7-3. It marked the first time in the 11-year Brian Kelly era that a punter ran a fake for positive yardage. 19 Consecutive home victories for the Fighting Irish, which ties the sec- ond-longest streak by the program since the opening of Notre Dame Stadium in 1930. The 1987-90 teams also recorded 19 straight wins. The school record is 28 that began in 1942 and was snapped in the second game of the 1950 season versus Purdue. Notre Dame's current streak also is fourth nationally among active teams, behind on Clemson (23), Ohio State (21) and Central Florida (20). 25 Straight wins by Notre Dame against unranked opposition, which is currently second nationally to Alabama's 91 straight that dates back to 2007. The school record for the Fighting Irish is 29 from 1990 (36-31 home loss to Stanford) to 1994 (30-11 road defeat at Boston College). 90-90 Sophomore running back Kyren Williams' 112 rushing yards and 93 receiving yards against Duke was the first 90-90 per- formance by a Notre Dame player in those categories since 1983, and likely only the second in school history. The 1983 regular-season finale, a 23-22 loss at home to Air Force, saw sophomore running back Allen Pinkett amass 193 rushing and 93 receiving for 286 total yards. 10,097 Official attendance for the first COVID-19 experience at Notre Dame, with the mostly socially distanced audi- ence limited to the student body, faculty/staff and family members of both teams. In the 90-year history of Notre Dame Stadium that opened in 1930, that was the fifth-smallest crowd recorded, per the record books. The other four were in the 1930s, with the smallest at 6,663 versus Haskell in 1932, a 62-0 Irish win at the height of The Great Depression. The current capacity is 77,622 and the 20-per- cent maximum crowd cap would be at 15,525. BY THE NUMBERS BY LOU SOMOGYI 3 Receptions for 38 yards by freshman tight end MICHAEL MAYER. Those are the highest totals ever in an opener by a Notre Dame freshman tight end, and the first time any Irish freshman caught at least three passes in the first game of the sea- son since wideout TJ Jones nabbed three for 41 yards and a score in head coach Brian Kelly's debut ver- sus Purdue in 2010. Mayer's most crucial grab came in the fourth quarter when, with the Irish hanging on to a 17-13 lead, he snatched a short pass on third-and- seven and was about to be tackled several yards short of the first down before he shook off the defender and bulled his way for the seven yards to set up a touchdown. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS