Notre Dame Football: Alize Mack was Unsung Hero vs. Wake Forest

Alize Mack was quietly instrumental to the Notre Dame football win over Wake Forest.

It didn’t matter that the Irish were 3-0 coming into last Saturday. A lot of people felt that Notre Dame football was not worthy of its top 10 ranking. A win over Michigan pushed the Irish to No. 8. After that, there was a good reason for many to be questioning the team’s position in the polls.

Wins over Ball State and Vanderbilt ended up being much closer than anyone expected. While sitting at 3-0, head coach Brian Kelly made a tough and risky choice to bench his starting quarterback, Brandon Wimbush, in favor of Ian Book.

Book made sure his coach made the right decision in trusting him. In his second career start, the quarterback looked confident and comfortable passing 25-34 for 325 yards and two touchdowns.

Why did the quarterback find so much success? Largely due to the fact that everyone played well. It was hard to say one person had more to do with the win than anyone else.

That said, when you look to Book’s success, you can’t help but credit Alize Mack for having a huge part in it.

Coming into the game, Mack said he was excited and thought that the team would find a lot of success through the air. He was right.

With any quarterback, finding a rhythm is pivotal. With Mack, Book was able to find that rhythm right away. Mack caught four of the five passes he was targeted on during the first drive of the game.

From anywhere between eight to 24 yards a reception, Mack made sure his quarterback felt comfortable.

Alize Mack finished the day with six catches on eight targets and 61 yards. While he came just five yards shy of leading all Notre Dame receivers — thanks to Michael Young’s 66-yard reception — Mack’s early presence was huge for Notre Dame’s 56-point day.

Mack was the reason why Book was able to get settled in so quickly and feel confident. Without his performance, it could have been a completely different story for the Irish. That makes Mack this week’a Slap The Sign Unsung Hero of the Game.