Notre Dame Football: Compliments, criticisms and conclusions vs Virginia Tech

Notre Dame football was expected to win by a wide margin as they hosted the Virginia Tech in South Bend. Despite almost doubling the amount of total offense of the Hokies, the Irish would be seriously tested and would score with 0:29 left in the game to secure the victory 21-20.

Here are the compliments, criticisms and conclusions from the Notre Dame football victory over Virginia Tech.

Compliments

Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah continues to shine on defense

Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah has been a force on defense for Notre Dame football all season. The game against Virginia Tech was no exception. JOK would finish the game with a fumble recovery, two tackles, and one pass deflection, as he was seemingly wreaking havoc all over the field in the rover position. Owusu-Koramoah has become a strength of the Irish defense and has developed into a reliable playmaker.

Kyle Hamilton is a legitimate ball hawking playmaker for the Irish

Freshman stud Kyle Hamilton added another interception in the game against Virginia Tech, bringing his season total up to three, as he came up with a big interception on a pass by Quincy Patterson II to secure the win for the Irish with 0:02 remaining in the game. Notre Dame has relied more on Hamilton as the season has progressed and he has rewarded them for their confidence. The future with Hamilton is extremely bright.

Ian Book comes through in the clutch

Ian Book led an 18 play, 87-yard touchdown drive to lead the Irish to a victory. The drive culminated in a seven yard scramble by Book for the touchdown. He led the Irish on a 2:53 drive that began with just 3:19 on the clock and one timeout remaining. Despite struggling for most of the game, Book came up big in the biggest spot of the game and willed Notre Dame football to a victory.

Criticisms

Ian Book looked out of sorts against Virginia Tech

Despite leading the Irish to victory, Ian Book did not look good for most of the game, completing just 29 of 53 passes for 336 passing yards and two touchdowns and two interceptions. Book should have been charged with a third interception that likely would have cost the Irish the game, but benefitted from a roughing the passer penalty on Eli Adams that negated the interception. He looked uncomfortable in the pocket again and made critical mistakes throughout the game.

The Irish running game struggles for the second-consecutive game

After a dismal performance against Michigan, the Irish run game failed to show for a second straight game, rushing for only 106 yards in the game on 38 carries — averaging a pathetic 2.8 yards per carry. Ian Book would pace the run game, rushing for 50 yards on 13 carries. Jafar Armstrong would serve as the lead back and would be second in rushing yards for Notre Dame with 37 yards on 19 carries. However, Armstrong would fumble on a goal line rush at the end of the first half, resulting in a 98 yard fumble return for a touchdown by Virginia Tech’s Divine Deablo, shifting the momentum in favor of Virginia Tech going into halftime.

The fumble was critical, because instead of Notre Dame taking a 21-7 lead at the half, the score ended up 14-14 with Virginia Tech receiving the ball to begin the second half. The Irish need to get more from their run game if they hope to have continued success against opponents moving forward.

Conclusions

Chase Claypool will be catching passes on Sundays next year

Chase Claypool exhibited his ability to make incredible catches all game long, as he led the Irish in receiving yards with 118 yards on eight receptions. Claypool has developed into one of the most reliable receiving options in college football and looks every bit the part of a future NFL receiver. He was Ian Book’s go-to receiver all game, a trend that will likely continue for the remainder of the season.

Notre Dame needs to figure out what ails its offense

The past two games have not been kind to the Irish offense, as they have struggled mightily. Some of the struggles can be attributed to the losses of Tommy Kraemer and Robert Hainsey to injury. Notre Dame has struggled to find any semblance of a run game and Ian Book has continuously had happy feet in the pocket — not looking comfortable. Brian Kelly needs to determine if Book or backup Phil Jurkovec is the most viable option to lead the team moving forward. In addition, they need to figure out how to get more of a push in the run game to prevent the offense from becoming one-dimensional.

The Irish were lucky to win

As the old adage goes, sometimes it is better to be lucky than good. Notre Dame football, despite not looking sharp during large swaths of the game, was lucky to be able to drive down and score the game winning touchdown with under 30 seconds left. That said, they cannot rely on luck to win the remaining games and will need to play much sharper than they have their past two games if they hope to keep their chances of playing in a New Years Six bowl game alive.