Tag: notre dame highlights

67 days until Notre Dame football returns

Continue the countdown to Notre Dame football today by reliving a memorable run from a forgettable game and year as we hit 67 days to go!

Check one more day off the calendar as we have just 67 more to go until we get Notre Dame football officially back in our lives.  We’ll be breaking down plenty of position battles, starting spots and everything regarding the 2020 Fighting Irish football team.

Yesterday we counted down by looking at the Notre Dame/Pitt rivalry that has been played 68 times.  Today we look back at a memorable run before a forgettable collapse.

67: Josh Adams touchdown run length against Virginia Tech in 2016

Already leading 24-21 late in the third quarter against Virginia Tech, 4-6 Notre Dame was looking to have a chance to perhaps get into a bowl game if they could finish that win off and then get an upset at USC a week later.

Josh Adams then took a handoff at his own 33 yard line and ran 67 yards in a sign of things to come for the Irish in 2017, as he put Notre Dame up 31-21.

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The bad news was that Notre Dame couldn’t finish the deal and wound up falling to 34-31 and ultimately finished the year just 4-8.

It was an impressive highlight for Adams however who found the end zone 21 times that year and 41 times with Notre Dame.

Related – Way too early game-by-game predictions for Notre Dame football in 2020

PSA: A Notre Dame Highlight to Keep You Safe (March 16 Edition)

That’s why we will provide you a Notre Dame highlight to watch each day and think about for the rest of the day whenever you wash your hands.

These are crazy days we’re living.  I work my day-job in downtown Chicago and live in the suburbs and take the commuter train each day to work.  Immediately upon getting off the train the last week I’ve begun walking straight to the bathroom and washing my hands because God only know what germs are infesting anything, let alone public transportation.

Thanks to our friends at the Auburn Wire, we were just reminded that the CDC says you need to scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds with soap in order for your hand-washing to take effect.  The Auburn folks offered a great way to pass that twenty seconds, which gets incredibly tedious after doing it dozens and dozens of times a day.

In that same capacity, we’re here for you at Fighting Irish Wire.  That’s why we will provide you a Notre Dame highlight to watch each day and think about for the rest of the day whenever you wash your hands.

Our first play?  Irv Smith carrying the entire Indiana football team to the end zone to start the 1991 season.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DEUN9LdMBA]

Alright, so the highlight runs forty seconds or so but the play takes about 20 seconds exactly from when the play starts to when the celebration in the end zone begins.  Play that in your head the rest of the afternoon as you hopefully keep the Coronavirus as far away from you and yours as possible.

Watch: Tony Jones, Jr. Camping World Record Long TD Run

You don’t need an extra gear when you stiff-arm an opponent for 17 yards and carry him into the end zone.

Tony Jones, Jr. has had some big plays in his career but almost in the form of Jonas Gray years ago, he just doesn’t seem to have that extra gear and be able to run away from defenders.

The good news though?

You don’t need an extra gear when you stiff-arm an opponent for 17 yards and carry him into the end zone.

Jones did just that in the third quarter of Saturday’s Camping World Bowl on an 84 yard touchdown run that set the record for longest run in the history of the Camping World (formerly the Blockbuster, MicroPC, Champs Sports) Bowl.

It appears Notre Dame was indeed ready to play on a Saturday when many around the team hinted at focus not being there for large parts of the week.

The run was also the longest ever by a Notre Dame player in a bowl game.  The Irish lead 27-6 in the third quarter at the time of this post.

Notre Dame Football: Plays of the Year – Number 6

He might not be the fastest receiver in the 2020 NFL Draft but his ball skills are as good as anybody else’s.  Enjoy your final game with Claypool in a Notre Dame uniform on Saturday because come 2020 he will be missed in blue and gold.

#83Nation.

As we near the end of the 2019 calendar year its a good time to look back at everything that went on in 2019 both personally and for our favorite sports teams.  We’re counting down the 10 best plays of Notre Dame’s 10-2 regular season.

We will unveil the plays  now through Friday – feel free to leave comments in our forum if you agree or disagree or are just looking for some general Notre Dame or college football conversation.

Here’s what we have so far:
No. 10 – Cole Kmet Gives Notre Dame the Lead at Georgia
No. 9 – Kyle Hamilton Announces His Arrival
No. 8 – Finally, A Perfected Executed Screen Pass
No. 7 – Special Teams Shift Momentum

Which brings us to number six:

Chase Claypool didn’t enter Notre Dame with the star hype that some receivers in fairly recent memory did like Will Fuller or Michael Floyd, but he’ll leave with an impressive list of accomplishments and being a downright nasty target for Ian Book over the last two seasons.

Claypool started his senior campaign fine, but far from special.  In 2019 he had four touchdown receptions through the teams first eight games which isn’t bad, but hardly impressive compared to his final month of the regular season.

After multiple clutch catches by him helped lead to a comeback win over Virginia Tech to start November, he soared scoring eight times over his final four regular season games.

I wish I could take one catch and say that it was Chase Claypool’s biggest moment but I simply can’t.  For that reason I award the sixth best play of the season to my favorite two Chase Claypool touchdown receptions this season:

The first for me was actually his fourth on a November afternoon against Navy.  He simply goes up over the Navy defender, gets both hands on the ball and is able to keep his foot in-bounds all while maintaining possession.  It seemed like a lot to type but he makes it all look incredibly easy during his fourth score that day.

The other Claypool catch that especially stood out to me was his 41 yard go-ahead touchdown reception against Stanford the final weekend of November.  Claypool again out-works the defenders, leaps and makes the acrobatic catch all while maintaining possession and giving Notre Dame their first lead of the day, one they would never look back from.

He might not be the fastest receiver in the 2020 NFL Draft but his ball skills are as good as anybody else’s.  Enjoy your final game with Claypool in a Notre Dame uniform on Saturday because come 2020 he will be missed in blue and gold.

#83Nation.

Notre Dame Football: Plays of the Year – Number 9

He had a huge impact in the Louisville but that impact came from Louisville altering a game-plan to largely stay away from the true freshman.  The same can be said about the USC game where the game plan was built on USC’s extremely talented group of wide receivers not being able to get past the trusted Hamilton.

As we near the end of the 2019 calendar year its a good time to look back at everything that went on in 2019 both personally and for our favorite sports teams.  We’ll be doing that in the coming days here at Fighting Irish Wire during the course of the week as we continue to get ready for the Camping World Bowl versus Iowa State on Saturday, December 28.

We will unveil the plays twice a day from now through Friday and feel free to leave comments in our forum if you agree or disagree or are just looking for some general Notre Dame or college football conversation.

Without further interruption your Number Nine Play:

Sometimes you know something is special when you first see it, even if you don’t necessarily see it or them do something that special.  Keep that in mind as we go through the ninth play.

A year ago at this time Kyle Hamilton was a high school player who was watching his recruiting ratings soar after a fantastic senior year at The Marist School in Georgia.

A year later he looks like the real deal at the collegiate level, intercepting four passes, breaking up six more and making 39 tackles along the way to being named a Freshman All-American by Pro Football Focus.

That is why our number nine play of the year for 2019’s regular season is:

Kyle Hamilton’s interception return for a touchdown versus New Mexico

You can forget that it was the first home touchdown of the year for Notre Dame and ultimately it wasn’t a huge play in a game the Irish wound up winning 66-14.

He had a huge impact in the Louisville but that impact came from Louisville altering a game-plan to largely stay away from the true freshman.  The same can be said about the USC game where the game plan was built on USC’s extremely talented group of wide receivers not being able to get past the trusted Hamilton.

His pick-six against New Mexico was the first real highlight he had in a Notre Dame uniform and it coming in his first game at Notre Dame Stadium will be the thing of legend when he’s a first round NFL Draft pick in a couple of years.

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No. 10 – Cole Kmet’s touchdown reception at Georgia