Deshone Kizer played hero when nobody thought he would be in the game to lead Notre Dame to a 34-27 win. Notre Dame didn’t play well all game, but they were clutch down the stretch and improve to 2-0 with the win. With the loss Virginia falls to 0-2 on the season. With this win, Notre Dame is 1-0 when playing in the state of Virginia.
All game long Notre Dame and Malik Zaire didn’t look as fresh and as dominant as they did last week against Texas. In Malik Zaire’s 2 and a half quarters this afternoon, he went 7-18 with a touchdown. You have to give Virginia tons of credit as they hung in after a first quarter. Notre Dame didn’t look good to start the game but got out to a 12-0 lead and looked to run all over the Cavaliers. The Fighting Irish didn’t play well in the red zone and went 0-10 on third downs in this game.
Notre Dame got on the board first with some fanciness when Kizer, who at that time was still the backup QB, faked a pass backwards to the kicker Justin Yoon on a field goal attempt and then fired a pass to Durham Smythe who ran it in for the touchdown to give Notre Dame a 7-0 lead.
With 3:09 remaining in the first, Justin Yoon made it 9-0 with a 32 yard field goal. With 7 seconds left in the first quarter, Justin Yoon hit another field goal, this time from 45 yards out to make it a 12-0 game. Virginia turned the tide in the second quarter as quarterback Matt Johns tore up the Notre Dame defense. With 10:54 left in the first half Matt Johns hit Evan Butts in the end zone for the 4 yard touchdown. Johns would hit Keon Johnson for the 42 yard touchdown with less than four minutes leftr in the half to give Virginia a 14-12 lead.
The third quarter was all Notre Dame, as they started to beat up on Virginia and looked as if they were going to start to blow them out. With 7:54 left in the 3rd quarter Malik Zaire passed it to Will Fuller in stride for the 59 yard touchdown to put them up 19-14. Six game minutes later, Zaire tried a QB sneak and got 3 yards. When he was tackled his ankle rolled up under a player. He tried to get up and walk to the sideline but he took one step and then collapsed. The game completely changed after the injury.Eevery player for the Irish looked affected as they really didn’t play well after Zaire was carted off. The very next play, Deshone Kizer handed it off to CJ Prosise who ran it in for the touchdown to put the Irish up 26-14. The 4th quarter the Cavs tore up the Irish defense. With 13:42 left in the fourth quarter Matt Johns ran it in for a 4 yard touchdown.
With 1:54 left, Albert Reid ran it from the 1 yard line to give UVA a 27-26 lead, which many thought was the go ahead touchdown; however, the Irish got the ball with 1:15 left and had all 3 timeouts to go. With 12 seconds left in the game, Deshone Keyser fired a 39 yard bomb to Will Fuller who caught the ball in stride and got 1 foot in bounds. Deshone Kizer also converted the two point conversion to make it a 34-27 Notre Dame win.
It was announced after the game that Malik Zaire is out for the season with a fractured ankle. Many thought Zaire could be the quarterback to lead Notre Dame to the college football playoffs. The Irish have now lost two offensive starters. Last week against Texas they lost starting running back Tarean Folston for the season with a torn ACL.
Right after the game Brian Kelly talked about Malik Zaire’s injury, “Well, I don’t have exactly what happened other than we know there was an ankle injury and I will talk to our team physician when we get in there but it wasn’t great news at the initial diagnosis but we will find more when I get into the locker room.” Later in his press conference he announced the Zaire news. Brian Kelly called the Notre Dame win bittersweet as they improved to 2-0 but lost their junior QB.
Will Fuller talked about the game winning touchdown, he said, “When I beat him and I saw the ball in the air, it was like it was up there for a million years.”
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish try to improve to 3-0 with Deshone Kizer at the helm against the 19th team in the country, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. The Virginia Cavaliers go up against William & Mary.