Tag: Spencer Shrader

Social media reacts to Notre Dame’s bad first half vs. Clemson

Brutal.

It’s been a couple of years since Notre Dame has had a halftime deficit like the one against Clemson on Saturday. The exact score is 24-9, and there are few signs that the Irish are primed for a comeback.

The recently dominant defense suddenly looks very mortal, and the offense has not done much to inspire other than a few nice runs by Audric Estime that ultimately led to nothing more than field goals. The Irish are lucky that Spencer Shrader has made all three of his field-goal attempts, or [autotag]Sam Hartman[/autotag]’s pick-6 would look a lot worse.

To make matters worse, Chris Tyree muffed a punt, leading to a Tigers field goal. The Irish’s own punt team hasn’t been much better at stopping returns either.

On top of that, the Irish didn’t call a timeout when they had two left, so the Tigers were able to run the clock out on the half despite facing fourth down. [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag] flat-out admitted on ABC that with less than a minute left, they weren’t going to do that. Huh?

Basically, everything that could go wrong in that first half for the Irish did, and their fans are none too pleased as you can see from these tweets:

Social media reacts to Xavier Watts’ two first-half interceptions

That’s six picks for him this season.

Christian Veilleux had to know [autotag]Xavier Watts[/autotag] would be one of his biggest challenges when he led Pittsburgh’s offense against Notre Dame. He most certainly did not have two first-half interceptions by Watts in mind. Yet that’s exactly what happened, and they both set up all 14 points scored by the Irish’s offense in the half. The Irish led, 17-0, at the break.

Watts’ first pick set up the touchdown by [autotag]Audric Estime[/autotag]:

This one set up a chip-shot field goal for [autotag]Spencer Shrader[/autotag] right before halftime:

You have to give Watts mad props for emerging as perhaps the one Irish defender you absolutely do not want to mess around with. If you don’t have a half-decent offense, which is the case for the Panthers, players like Watts will make you pay. Watts has done just that, and he’s going to be a major reason the ride back to the Steel City will be a long one.

Here is what social media is saying about Watts:

Social media reacts to face mask penalty leading to Louisville TD

Was this the right call?

Notre Dame has not looked good against Louisville, and the penalties certainly haven’t helped. One face-mask penalty wiped out a nice reception for [autotag]Mitchell Evans[/autotag]. However, Evans was able to get it back a few plays later, and it set up a 54-yard field goal for [autotag]Spencer Shrader[/autotag], tying his own program record.

But a late face-mask penalty by Marist Liufau on third down in a close game proved even more costly. With the Cardinals given new life, they continued to march down the field, and Jawhar Jordan ran 24 yards for a touchdown to put the Cardinals up, 24-13. Jordan also ran for a 45-yard score earlier in the second half.

Whether Liufau should have been whistled for the face mask is debatable, but what’s not is that it took the wind out of the Irish’s defense. Most Irish fans disagreed with the penalty as you’ll see from the following tweets:

Social media reacts to Spencer Shrader’s 53-yard go-ahead field goal

Nick kick.

Notre Dame came out of the locker room looking to make noise against Louisville in the second half. That’s exactly what happened when [autotag]Cam Hart[/autotag] forced and recovered a Jamari Thrash fumble on the first play from scrimmage.

On third down of the resulting possession, [autotag]Sam Hartman[/autotag] appeared to throw a long touchdown pass, but [autotag]Chris Tyree[/autotag] was unable to haul it in. That left [autotag]Spencer Shrader[/autotag] to come on and try to give the Irish their first lead of the game. He did just that with a 53-yard field goal that made the score 10-7.

Obviously, the Irish will need more than Shrader to beat the Cardinals. Still, it’s nice to know they have this asset. This especially is true when the Cardinals’ Brock Travelstead missed a 42-yard field-goal attempt at the end of the first half. But Travelstead rebounded on his next attempt from 44 yards out to tie the game back up at 10.

Here are some reactions to Shrader’s successful kick on social media:

How social media reacted to Notre Dame-Duke: Irish side

Are you happy, relieved or both?

It looked like for a second straight season, Notre Dame was headed for a letdown after losing to Ohio State. But the Irish got one final chance to prevent the upset by Duke, starting at their own 5-yard line.

It all came down to whether the Irish could convert on a fourth-and-long at the middle of the field. [autotag]Sam Hartman[/autotag] found a bunch of real estate nearby and picked up the first down in amazing fashion:

With the Irish now in field-goal range, they focused on just running the ball to put [autotag]Spencer Shrader[/autotag] in good position for a game-winning kick. [autotag]Audric Estime[/autotag] decided that wasn’t good enough and instead took it to the house from 30 yards out:

The Irish held on for the 21-14 victory. The fan base might have sweated off a few pounds watching this game, but there is happiness among it. Here are some of the best reactions on social media:

Social media reacts to Jaden Greathouse touchdown before halftime

Nice response to adversity.

After [autotag]Spencer Shrader[/autotag]’s 56-yard field-goal attempt hit the upright, Notre Dame got back on defense against NC State. The possession was a disaster as one penalty after another played a major role in the Wolfpack scoring their first touchdown of the day. Needing a big offensive play before halftime, the Irish got it on a 65-yard pass from [autotag]Sam Hartman[/autotag] to [autotag]Chris Tyree[/autotag]. One play later, Hartman hit [autotag]Jaden Greathouse[/autotag] from 12 yards out for a big score:

Just when it seemed like the Wolfpack were going to go into the locker room with all the momentum, Hartman took control of the situation in a collected manner. The result is the Irish had a 17-7 halftime lead. That’s what you want to see in a leader, and Hartman is one of them. Of course, Greathouse had to make the play, and he’s shown he’s good at that, too.

Here are some of the best tweets reacting to the score:

Social media reacts to Spencer Shrader’s program-long field goal

Nice leg on the transfer.

As advertised, NC State has provided Notre Dame with its greatest test so far, at least in the first quarter. The Irish’s offense was unable to do anything on its first two drive, but the defense likewise held serve on the other end.

On the offense’s third drive, it finally was able to put something together, getting to the Wolfpack’s 36-yard line on third down after [autotag]Sam Hartman[/autotag] was penalized for intentional grounding. [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag] opted to send [autotag]Spencer Shrader[/autotag] out for a 54-yard field goal, and the USF transfer had plenty of leg to split the uprights on the longest successful kick in Irish history:

The fact that Shrader hasn’t really been needed until now shows how easy the Irish’s first two games were. The tougher the opponent, the more valuable Shrader becomes with points coming at a premium. Hopefully, that doesn’t come very often, but regardless, here is what folks had to say on social media after the kick:

Social media reacts to Deion Colzie’s fourth-quarter touchdown

Mercy.

We’re running out of ways to describe how dominant Notre Dame has been against Navy. The Irish didn’t fail to score a touchdown or fail to put up any points on a drive until [autotag]Spencer Shrader[/autotag] missed a 42-yard field goal attempt late in the third quarter.

That quickly was forgotten as [autotag]Sam Hartman[/autotag] went right back to work once his defense did its job once again. He ended a seven-play, 60-yard drive with his fourth touchdown pass of the day, a 25-yarder to [autotag]Deion Colzie[/autotag] that gave the Irish a 42-0 lead:

Nobody could have asked for a better opening to the season. The Irish have dominated on both sides of the ball, and if this game lasted any longer, there’s no doubt they would continue to pour it on. That’s the main takeaway from this game, and they’ll leave Ireland happy.

Here are the best tweets regarding Colzie’s touchdown catch:

Notre Dame special teams taking shape for 2023

Notre Dame’s special teams were outstanding in 2022 and the leaders of the unit for 2023 are starting to take shape.

Two weeks away from the season-opener in Dublin, Ireland we’re starting to see the picture of what Notre Dame’s special teams units will look like.  New special teams coordinator [autotag]Marty Biagi[/autotag] met the media following Friday’s practice session and named four winners in special teams competitions in fall camp.

[autotag]Bryce McPherson[/autotag] will be Notre Dame’s punter while Chris Tyree will return punts for the Irish.

“Right now, Bryce (McFerson) is going to be our starting punter going in and he’s earned that in how he competed in camp,” Biagi said, “He’s done really well. This spring, I wanted him to prove that he can be more consistent. Even challenged him after the spring game, he had had a really good spring but then performed the spring game, not to the level that was the right standard. We used that as a learning experience. Hey, these are elements that you’re going to have to deal with, with no excuses and practice those things. He’s come out and done really well from a consistency standpoint.”

“CT (Chris Tyree) has done a really good job this camp,” Biagi said. “Really showing he can protect the ball. He wants to be the guy, which is exciting. He’s putting himself in situations when he’s out there, he’s not just catching gradually doing it. There’s an intent that you see. He caught a ton of balls this summer just to prove the point ‘I want the opportunity to do this’. He’s done well.”

-Notre Dame Special Teams Coordinator Marty Biagi on Aug. 11

Tyree’s ball protection was key in him winning the job.  He remains in contention to be one of Notre Dame’s kickoff returners as well as his battle with [autotag]Devyn Ford[/autotag], [autotag]Jadarian Price[/autotag] and [autotag]Jeremiyah Love[/autotag] remains open according to Biagi.

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Biagi also added that backup and walk-on quarterback [autotag]Dylan Devezin[/autotag] will handle the holding duties and extra point and field goal attempts.  As expected, those will be handled by graduate transfer [autotag]Spencer Shrader[/autotag] who enters after playing the last few years at South Florida.

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Notre Dame players named to preseason award watch lists

Will anyone win this year?

It’s the time of year when we start seeing award watch lists come out in anticipation of the college football season. With Notre Dame expected to be highly ranked once again, there are plenty of players who are ripe for watching. Whether or not any of them actually take home any of this hardware is anyone’s guess right now, but they’re at least on the radar of those who know college football best.

In some cases, more than one Notre Dame player is on the watch list for the same award. Also, as different award watch lists come on different days, it can be difficult to keep track of them all. Rest assured, we will be doing just that as these lists continue to come out.

At season’s end, we’ll find out if any of them or maybe somebody different becomes the first national award winner for the Irish since [autotag]Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah[/autotag] won the Butkus Award in 2020: