The Notre Dame Fighting Irish dominated this game and was virtually flawless in their 38-3 defeat of the Texas Longhorns in front of a packed Notre Dame Stadium. With the win, Notre Dame improves to 1-0 on the season and Texas falls to 0-1. Notre Dame is now on a six-game winning streak against Texas and improves to 9-2 in the series against the Longhorns. This game was Texas’ worst season opening loss since 1988 when they lost 47-6 to BYU.
Malik Zaire played brilliantly, carving up the Longhorn defense all game long. One thing that Notre Dame was looking for at the quarterback position was a lack of turnovers. Last season, quarterback Everett Golson, who has since transferred, was a turnover machine at times, but Zaire delivered tonight as he didn't commit a single turnover.
Notre Dame was so far ahead that they put in their backup quarterback and the rest of the backups for the last 10 minutes or so of the game. In the game Zaire went 19-for-22 with 313 yards and three touchdowns. One of Notre Dame's star players, Tarean Folston, got hurt six minutes into the game and left the game with a knee injury. He returned later in the game to the sideline on crutches. He recorded three carries for 19 yards prior to his injury. As a result, Notre Dame’s true freshman running backs Dexter Williams and Josh Adams were able to play in this game. Notre Dame’s offensive line played fantastically in this game, opening up big holes for the running backs and giving Zaire plenty of time and space to make throws all game long.
Notre Dame opened the scoring in this one as Malik Zaire threw a 16-yard pass to Will Fuller for the first of his two touchdowns on the day to make it 7-0 with 6:29 left in the first. With 1:29 left in the first, true freshman running back Josh Adams scored his first career touchdown on his first career carry as he was the man in motion and pushed his way past the Longhorn defenders.
Notre Dame would score once more before halftime to make it 17-0, after freshman kicker Justin Yoon nailed a 38-yard field goal. With four seconds left in the first half, Texas kicker Nick Rose lined up for a field goal and Notre Dame called two timeouts in a row to ice Rose. It worked because he would go on and miss the one that really counted wide left, going into halftime with the Fighting Irish up 17-0.
Nick Rose would get his revenge when with 8:36 left in the third quarter as he nailed a 41-yard field goal. Notre Dame would add another touchdown with 5:36 in the third, as Malik Zaire threw a bomb down field to Will Fuller, who was running slowly but still beat both of the defenders covering him. Fuller turned on the jets for the last 10 yards to make it a 66-yard TD reception. That score made it 24-3. Notre Dame continued their onslaught with 2:00 left in the third, as Josh Adams ran it in from 25 yards out for his second score of the night to make it a 31-3 game. Notre Dame would add another one with 11:46 left in the game as Malik Zaire tossed it to Chris Brown in the end zone for the easy throw and catch to make it 38-3.
Notre Dame played well from start to finish against a rebuilding team that only five years ago was in the title game. The defense played well forcing Texas into eight three-and-outs. Texas only had eight first downs all game and accumulated only 163 yards. Notre Dame also had four sacks on Jerrod Heard and Tyrone Swoopes. With this big win the 11th ranked Irish will almost certainly move up at least one spot in the rankings.
Next week Notre Dame goes to Charlottesville, Virginia to face off against the Virginia Cavaliers who fell this week to UCLA. Texas looks to get back on the right track next week when they go back home to Austin, Texas to face Rice who won their last game.