Tag: Juju McDowell

Five keys for Notre Dame to defeat South Carolina

What the Irish need to do to get a Gator Bowl win

The wait between the regular season finale and bowl games is always difficult, but for [autotag]Notre Dame[/autotag], game week is finally here. Their opponent, [autotag]South Carolina[/autotag] makes it two USC’s in-a-row and there are certainly similarities between them.

[autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag] will coach his second bowl game and will look to find a way into the win column after last year’s difficult loss to [autotag]Oklahoma State[/autotag] in the [autotag]PlayStation Fiesta Bowl[/autotag].

This venue is different, the [autotag]TaxSlayer Gator Bowl[/autotag] but the objective is the same, get a bowl win and momentum going into the 2023 season. For the Irish to do that, there are keys to their success and here are five of them.

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Tale of the Tape: Leading Rushers – Audric Estime vs. Juju McDowell

The Irish should have the edge here.

Notre Dame’s offense has been ravaged by skill players leaving for one reason or another lately. Running back is one position that has not been affected, so [autotag]Audric Estime[/autotag] remains the Irish’s top rusher heading into the Gator Bowl. Estime needs 175 rushing yards to crack 1,000 for the season, but he would have to top his career high of 134 against North Carolina to do it. While it’s not impossible, a lot of things will have to go his way for it to happen.

South Carolina has lost some depth at running back since the regular season ended, so Juju McDowell becomes the Gamecocks’ top rusher by default. He has been more efficient catching passes than taking handoffs, so it makes you wonder how often the Gamecocks will run the ball. They won’t completely abandon the run, but it will be interesting to see how many times they implement it. Hopefully, a month to prepare for this game was enough to figure that out.

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