Tag: Kevin Austin

Notre Dame wide receiver has tremendous showing at NFL combine

Big day for a big-time playmaker!

Former Notre Dame wide receiver Kevin Austin surprised some when he declared for the NFL draft this past January after having really only one season in the sun with the Fighting Irish.

Austin needed a strong showing at the NFL combine this week to have his stock rise and he got exactly that with his showing Thursday.  Austin ran a 4.37 40-yard dash, had a vertical leap of 39″, and an 11-foot broad jump.  The vertical was the third-highest of the day while his broad jump was second best.

Austin pulled in 48 receptions for 888 yards and seven touchdowns for Notre Dame in 2021.  By no means does his workout Thursday make Austin a household name in this draft but it certainly should help him climb up the majority of draft boards.

Related:

All 100 Notre Dame NFL draft picks since 2000

Notre Dame WR Thomas prepping like he’s going to contribute in ‘22

He could be the one to step up

The Irish are going to need playmakers to step up this fall and it looks like second-year wide receiver Jayden Thomas is getting ready to do so. The Georgia native didn’t see the field often in his first season, two other freshman receivers, Lorenzo Styles Jr. and Deion Colzie did.

Last years leading receiver Kevin Austin is gone, with returning veterans Braden Lenzy and Avery Davis leading the way. His two classmates will contribute as well, we can’t forget about tight end Michael Mayer either, but there will be room for others to step up.

Thomas seemingly wants to be that guy and the potential is there for him to do so. The former two-sport star, baseball, is putting his full focus on football. It looks like it’s paying off.

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Notre Dame receiver earns degree

A pretty significant piece of paper…

Wide receiver Kevin Austin entered Notre Dame in the fall of 2018 with a whole lot of potential but had various issues that kept his playing time limited over his first three collegiate seasons.  2021 saw it all come together for Austin as he hauled in 48 receptions for 888 yards and seven touchdowns.

Austin used that senior season to his advantage as he declared for the 2022 NFL draft shortly after the Fiesta Bowl concluded.  Austin, who was just invited to the NFL combine, will now have a fancy piece of paper to carry with him wherever he goes because he just earned his degree from Notre Dame.

Austin tweeted out a short clip of getting his degree on Thursday afternoon.

Austin attended Notre Dame after being a four-star recruit out of North Broward Prep in Fort Lauderdale.

Related:

Notre Dame football coaching tracker

Notre Dame’s all-time all Super Bowl team

The five plays that loomed large in Notre Dame’s loss over OSU

These plays made the difference

The Marcus Freeman era started off with a bang. The Irish came out of the gates strong and just kept the pressure on Oklahoma State and did everything they needed to win the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl. It was fun to see and as always there were plays that weren’t scoring play that changed the game, here are those five plays.

Five Stars: The best and worst of Notre Dame’s loss to Oklahoma State

Not the way to start the Freeman era

This game was a true tale of two halves, with the Irish taking the first but unfortunately that’s not where the game ended. The Oklahoma State Cowboy’s took the second half and the game in Marcus Freeman’s head coaching debut. There was some good in this game, along with some bad. Take a look at the best, 5-stars, and worst, 1-star of Notre Dame’s season ending loss to OSU.

Fiesta Bowl: Fourth-Quarter Analysis

That’s all, folks.

It’s natural that there will be some growing pains as Marcus Freeman settles into his new role as Notre Dame head coach. Some of them will happen on the field, and some will happen off of it. The Fiesta Bowl was one of those on-field occurrences as the Irish gave up 30 unanswered points while falling, 37-35, to Oklahoma State. The Irish’s major bowl drought will live for another year after they blew the biggest lead in program history.

The fourth quarter began with one of the craziest sequences you’ll see in football. With the Irish (11-2) driving, Logan Diggs literally had the ball ripped from him by Kolby Harvell-Peel, giving the Cowboys (12-2) good field position. The ensuing drive went well for the Pokes until the last possible moment. Brennan Presley was about to score a touchdown on a run when Drew White forced a fumble, which was recovered by Ramon Henderson in the end zone for a touchback.

Jack Coan, who set a Fiesta Bowl record with 509 passing yards, nearly gave the Irish lead back on a long throw to Lorenzo Styles, but Styles couldn’t complete the catch. That was as good as it got for the offense on that drive, and Jay Bramblett had to come out for another punt. The Cowboys reached the red zone on the drive that followed, but a face-mask penalty knocked them out of there. The Irish were able to prevent the Pokes from getting back there, but Tanner Brown kicked a 41-yard field goal to get something out of the trip downfield.

The Irish’s offense went with an all-pass attack on the next drive, and that worked for a while as it got the ball to the Cowboys’ 24-yard line. However, the next two plays were disastrous for Coan. First, he was sacked by Brock Martin for the second time in the game. Then, he threw an interception to Malcolm Rodriguez, snuffing out the Irish’s best chance to score the entire second half.

The drive that followed was all about eating the clock and getting any number of points to erase any doubt about the game’s outcome. As he had since late in the first half, Spencer Sanders did a fantastic job managing his offense, completing long passes and even calling his own number when needed to. It was that last item that erased all of that progress because he fumbled the ball at the Irish’s 11, and White recovered it.

Blessed with a break, it was up to the Irish to make something happen. What happened was nothing because after a 4-yard completion to Chris Tyree to advance the ball to the 15, Coan threw three straight incomplete passes. The Cowboys took over in the red zone but didn’t do anything fancy. They just ran the ball and forced the Irish to use all of their timeouts, paving the way for a 25-yard field goal from Brown.

With 2:16 left, the Irish absolutely needed a score to still have a chance at the win. Coan completed a couple of first-down passes, and Diggs even gave the pass-heavy offense a bonus with a 14-yard run. The Irish got further help from a defensive holding call, and Coan capped the drive with a 25-yard touchdown pass to Kevin Austin. Only 71 seconds had gone off the clock, so this game hadn’t quite been decided yet.

The Irish needed to recover an onside kick, but Jason Taylor got his hands on it before the ball even traveled the necessary 10 yards. All the Cowboys had to do was kneel a couple of times, and they did just that before celebrating the biggest comeback in program history. That definitely is not something the Irish wanted to be on the receiving end of, but that’s how it goes in football. Onto 2022.

Watch: Coan finds Austin to give Notre Dame life in PlayStation Fiesta Bowl

The Irish are still alive!

It looked like the game was over, after the Irish went for it on 4th down deep in Oklahoma State’s territory and came up short. The defense held, allowing just a field goal, which kept Notre Dame still somewhat in the game.

The offense needed to come up big and they did. A very quick 8-play drive that went 76-yards in just over a minute was exactly what the Irish needed. Quarterback Jack Coan found wide receiver Kevin Austin for a 25-yard scoring strike which brought the Irish within 2-points of the Cowboy’s and a little life still left for Notre Dame.

Fiesta Bowl: Second-Quarter Analysis

We’re one half away from the major bowl skid ending.

Notre Dame might not have dominated the second quarter like it did the majority of the first, but it’s still playing very well. While this is true for practically every football game, this year’s Fiesta Bowl really will come down to who successfully executes more plays. Right now, that’s the Irish as they lead Oklahoma State, 28-14, at halftime.

After forcing the Cowboys to punt in the early moments of the quarter, the Irish went back to work on offense. At that point, they erased any doubt that this virtually would be an all-passing attack from them. Braden Lenzy had most receptions from Jack Coan, but the touchdown would go to Michael Mayer from 16 yards out.

Frustration then took over the game as both teams took turns getting into field-goal range only to have their kickers miss wide right. The Cowboys had some chances for big gains, but passes from Spencer Sanders were either dropped or broken up. No doubt the scoreboard operator at State Farm Stadium was getting a little antsy from not being able to add to the scores.

The Irish had one more chance to get something before halftime. The drive started well enough with a couple of first downs before they were aided by a questionable roughing-the-passer call. A few plays later, a 20-yard completion to Kevin Austin set up first-and-goal. It then took only two plays for Coan to hit Mayer in the end zone from 7 yards out for his second touchdown of the quarter.

The Cowboys also had an opportunity to get points on the board before heading into the locker room. Sanders found Brennan Presley on back-to-back plays for a combined 54 yards before running 12 yards himself to make it first-and-goal. He then hit top receiver Tay Martin for a 9-yard touchdown. The drive had lasted all of 39 seconds.

Every time it seems like the Irish are leaving the Cowboys dead in the water, the Cowboys receive new life. The question now is whether the Irish successfully can go for the kill. Tune into the second half to find out.

Fiesta Bowl: First-Quarter Analysis

Looking pretty awesome right now, no?

It would be completely unfair to judge how the Marcus Freeman era is going to go based on one quarter. However, if the first quarter of the Fiesta Bowl is any indication, this is going to be one fun era of Notre Dame football. Naturally, we could have a completely different mood by the end of this game. In the meantime, we gladly will feel good about this 14-7 lead against Oklahoma State.

The first drive for Tommy Rees’ offense under Freeman lasted 99 seconds because that was all it took to reach the end zone. With Kyren Williams having opted out, Rees decided to go with all passes on the drive, and it paid off. On the first two plays, Jack Coan completed passes of 25 yards to Chris Tyree and 15 yards to Kevin Austin. Soon after, Coan found Lorenzo Styles for a 29-yard touchdown.

Despite giving up a first down on its first play, the Irish’s defense promptly settled in. With the Cowboys facing third-and-7, Isaiah Foskey sacked Spencer Sanders for an 11-yard loss to snuff the drive out. The teams then traded three-and-outs before Chris Tyree ended the Irish’s next offensive drive by taking another Coan pass 53 yards to the house on third down. That outcome had looked unlikely considering the Irish had just been penalized for back-to-back false starts.

After that, there was another swap of three-and-outs, and that served as a precursor to the Cowboys finally finding some life on offense. Mixing up runs and passes, they successfully executed a drive that started at their own 18-yard line and ended with Sanders throwing a 9-yard touchdown pass to Jaden Bray.

The touchdown was a message that the Cowboys weren’t going to just roll over in this New Year’s Six bowl. Another one was sent when Brock Martin sacked Coan to force another three-and-out for the Irish. The Cowboys had the ball when the clock hit zero on the quarter, and they would love to get this game tied soon.

Watch: Coan finds Styles Jr. as Notre Dame strikes first vs OSU

What a start

The Irish have started the game exactly how they wanted to, getting the ball and marching down the field to put up point. Of the five plays, none of them were run plays, as offensive coordinator Tommy Rees wanted to test the Oklahoma State defense’s secondary. They failed.

Coan completed passes to running back Chris Tyree, wide receiver Kevin Austin, then Tyree again before the scoring strike. Coan found a streaking Lorenzo Styles Jr. over the middle of the field for a 29-yard touchdown score, as the Irish took an early 7-0 lead in the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl. A very nice start for new head coach Marcus Freeman.