Tag: Brandon Wimbush

Notre Dame College Football Playoff round one highlight: Riley Leonard sets a record

Riley Leonard just keeps using his legs.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish quarterback [autotag]Riley Leonard[/autotag] has set a record against the Indiana Hoosiers during the first round of the College Football Playoff.

Leonard set the record for rushing touchdowns in a season by a Notre Dame quarterback with 15. He passes [autotag]Brandon Wimbush[/autotag], who set the previous mark in 2017.

Leonard’s 1-yard run capped off a 9-play, 78-yard drive that took 5:44 off the clock.

While the run was nice, it was a deep toss from Leonard to [autotag]Jordan Faison[/autotag] for 44 yards that set the Irish up in the red zone.

The drive came after a baffling decision from Indiana to punt, and the touchdown made the score 27-3 in favor of the Irish.

Notre Dame place kicker Mitch Jeter (98) celebrates scoring a field goal during the first round of the College Football Playoff between Notre Dame and Indiana on Friday, Dec. 20, 2024, in South Bend.

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How Sam Hartman fared in his one start vs. Notre Dame

It was so nice of @dtranquill to introduce himself to Notre Dame’s future quarterback all those years ago…

Back in late September of 2018, Notre Dame was riding a 3-0 start but struggling mightily on offense. [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] decided before the Wake Forest game that [autotag]Ian Book[/autotag] would replace [autotag]Brandon Wimbush[/autotag] as the starting quarterback and after guiding the Irish to a 56-27 victory, the rest was pretty much history in terms of that quarterback controversy.

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Plenty of people thought they had seen a glimpse of Notre Dame’s future beyond Book at quarterback when [autotag]Phil Jurkovec[/autotag] got playing time late.  It was a different young quarterback from that afternoon that would go on to play for the Irish years later, though.

[autotag]Sam Hartman[/autotag] was a freshman playing in just his fourth game at Wake Forest that day.  It was a day he’s probably long forgotten or at least put in his past as it was one of his roughest for the Demon Deacons.

Hartman completed just 12 of 24 passes for 110 yards.  He threw for no scores, ran for no touchdowns, but didn’t turn the ball over, either.  After having rushed for over 60 yards in each of his first three games, Hartman was swallowed up by [autotag]Clark Lea[/autotag]’s defense, putting up just 11 rushing yards on 16 attempts (3 sacks included).

Here’s to hoping (and assuming) Hartman will play a lot better as a 23 year old for Notre Dame than he did as an 18 year old against them.

Related items –

5 immediate thoughts on Sam Hartman’s game-changing decision

Notre Dame fans clearly thrilled for Hartman’s arrival

Here are some pictures from that game five years ago in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Watch: Notre Dame quarterback commit CJ Carr at Elite 11 Regional camp

The Irish have a elite quarterback option in their 2024 recruiting class

If there is one position holding back [autotag]Notre Dame[/autotag] from joining the elite’s of college football, it’s at quarterback.

Head coach [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag] has found a one-year stop-gap answer in transfer [autotag]Sam Hartman[/autotag], but after what we saw during the Blue and Gold game, the depth behind him isn’t great.

You know who is great? Irish commit [autotag]CJ Carr[/autotag]. The 6-foot, 3-inch and 195 pound signal caller is the 5th quarterback and 41st overall player in the 2024 class according to the 247Sports composite.

Yes, the Irish had had higher ranked commits at the position ([autotag]Jimmy Clausen[/autotag], [autotag]Dayne Crist[/autotag], [autotag]Gunner Kiel[/autotag] and [autotag]Brandon Wimbush[/autotag]), but none has the skill set that Carr possesses.

Want proof? Check out the video below as Carr earns himself an invite to the Elite 11 finals, the top camp for quarterback prospects.

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Photos from last Notre Dame-USC game with both teams ranked

Do you remember this game?

When Notre Dame and USC are both ranked, the Irish have an all-time series lead, 17-14-2. Not counting Saturday’s meeting, that has happened only twice since 2007. One was in 2009, when an Irish fourth-quarter rally came up just short in a 34-27 loss. The most recent such occurrence before Saturday was in 2017, which was a 49-14 Irish victory to kick off the four-game winning streak that was brought into the 2022 contest.

[autotag]Josh Adams[/autotag] was the star of the show, running for 191 yards and three touchdowns on 19 carries. [autotag]Brandon Wimbush[/autotag] threw two touchdown passes but also ran in for two scores himself while picking up 106 yards on the ground. [autotag]Te’von Coney[/autotag] paced the Irish’s defense with 11 tackles, two tackles for loss, a sack, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.

The Irish went on to win the Citrus Bowl over future Brian Kelly employer LSU, while the Trojans fell to Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl. Perhaps this game was an omen of how both programs’ season would end. In any case, here are some memories of that night at Notre Dame Stadium:

WATCH: Star-Filled Notre Dame Zoom Meeting

The fun started with Lou Holtz and Digger Phelps jumping on a Notre Dame Zoom meeting but it certainly didn’t end just there!

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before…

Lou Holtz and Digger Phelps log into a Zoom meeting…

And Justin Tuck, Rudy, Tim Brown, Raghib Ismail, Ian Book, Hannah Storm, Brandon Wimbush and a ridiculous amount of other former Notre Dame stars are there to join them.

That’s exactly what happened Tuesday night and the Twitter account @NDLoyal was there to share it with all.

Every Zoom call I’ve ever been on I find myself being like Ian Book is for the majority of that two minutes.

Pretty cool to see that many familiar faces getting together on a random Tuesday night.