Notre Dame Football: Questions answered in the 2021 Blue-Gold game
By Andrew Hall
The Blue defeated the Gold, 17-3, in this year’s Notre Dame football spring game, a game that answered some questions.
The (nearly) annual Blue-Gold game represents nothing more than a glorified practice. However, it is a glimpse into the 2021 Notre Dame football team, and Saturday’s contest answered several questions while many remain unanswered.
The Irish quarterbacks battled on opposite sides of the Blue-Gold Game. Prohibitive favorite Jack Coan finished the afternoon with 197 yards on 18-of-32 passing. Drew Pyne, his challenger, completed 11-of-23 passes for 146 yards. Both players threw interceptions.
Notre Dame opted to pass the football rather than run in their final spring practice. This led to less than eye-popping statistics from the running backs. Chris Tyree finished with the most yards, 46. Kyren Williams only rushed the ball 3 times for 16 yards.
The wide receiving corps entered the spring as one of the largest question marks. Graduate student Avery Davis and Senior Lawrence Keys III acquitted themselves well on Saturday. Davis caught 5 passes for 84 yards. Keys snagged 5 passes for 115 yards. Braden Lenzy caught 5 passes for 88 yards but occurred mostly against lesser competition in the later quarters.
Both defenses only allowed 234 and 324 yards. Linebacker Shayne Simon and Safety Justin Walters intercepted passes of Coan and Pyne, respectively. Linebacker Marist Liufau led the Gold with 5 tackles, a sack and 2 tackles for loss.
On the Blue squad, Kiser collected 8 total tackles.
Freshman Tyler Buchner stole the show in the second half with a nearly perfect touchdown drive. He finished with 140 yards passing on 6-of-9 passing. Buchner added 10 yards and a touchdown on the ground. Most importantly, he led multiple touchdown drives.
Brian Kelly and the rest of the Notre Dame football coaching staff now begin the process of refining the team and answering the remaining questions. The Fighting Irish opened the 2021 season against Florida State on Labor Day weekend.
Here are the top questions that the Irish answered on Saturday afternoon.