Notre Dame Football: The play that changed everything against Georgia Tech

The Notre Dame football team closed out the “pre-Clemson” portion of the schedule with a victory over Georgia Tech.

The performance of the Notre Dame football team against Georgia Tech probably left much to be desired. However, as predicted, the Irish avoided a significant letdown against the Yellow Jackets and can now move forward to attempting to topple the nation’s top team.

With Georgia Tech still rebuilding, it was a question of how much the Yellow Jackets would threaten the Irish on Saturday afternoon. Due to a Kyren Williams fumble, Georgia Tech stayed in the game much longer than expected.

With Notre Dame leading 17-7 at the start of the second half, the Yellow Jackets threatened to pull within 3 points. A 39-yard pass from Jeff Sims to Jalen Camp moved Georgia Tech down to the Notre Dame 22-yard line. After a 5-yard penalty, defensive end and captain Daelin Hayes provided a much-needed momentum swing and altered the complexion of the game.

The 6’2, 285 lbs. defensive linemen from Ann Arbor registered his first sack of the season and a forced fumble when he drilled Sims early in the 2nd half. The fumble was recovered by Notre Dame defensive tackle Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa.

Ian Book then led the Irish offense on a six play, 65-yard drive to make the score 24-7; essentially putting the game out of reach. It was all due to the play made by Hayes.

“But elevating the play of Daelin Hayes might be singularly as important as anything that happened today,” said Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly during his post-game press conference.

Hayes finished the contest with 5 tackles, 2 sacks and 2 forced fumbles. His performance against Georgia Tech was by far his best of the 2020 season. Hayes looked like a 5th year senior and captain who possessed 5-star recruit ability.

Notre Dame will certainly need him and all the defensive linemen to perform to their ability against Clemson on Nov. 7.