It’s become clear that Notre Dame could have run out onto the field blindfolded against USF, and it wouldn’t have mattered. The Irish dominated the second quarter on both sides of the ball. They’ve shown no signs of letting up as they take a 35-0 lead into halftime. The only misstep was Jonathan Doerer’s missed 38-yard field-goal attempt.
On the second play of the second quarter, Ian Book finished off what had a been another nice drive for Notre Dame by scoring his second rushing touchdown of the day and the Irish’s second from the 1-yard line on the day. When the offense had the ball next, it only did so for less than two minutes thanks to another short field that culminated in a 26-yard touchdown run from C’Bo Flemister. Even the drive that ended in the missed field goal began with Chris Tyree running for 31 yards.
The defense kept USF from gaining a single first down the entire quarter. To add insult to injury, there was a bad long snap on Trent Schneider’s fourth punt attempt of the game, and Schneider was just barely able to get the ball out of the end zone before he was tackled. The ball only got to the Bulls; 21, ultimately setting up Book’s third rushing touchdown and second from only 1 yard out. Talk about the completely opposite directions this game is going in for the two teams.