The Notre Dame Fighting Irish defied the experts and beat the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 30-22. The Irish improve to 3-0 after taking down the Jackets in this highly anticipated matchup. The Yellow Jackets fall to 2-1 on the season. Deshone Kizer in his first career start went 21/30 with 1 touchdown and 242 yards for the Fighting Irish, but he also threw an interception for Notre Dame’s first turnover of the season, on a breakdown in communication by him and Corey Robinson. Notre Dame running back CJ Prosise ran for 128 yards in this one, rushing for three touchdowns on the day on 22 carries. Georgia Tech QB Justin Thomas threw for 121 yards and 2 touchdowns on the day.
Many experts said Georgia Tech’s triple option offense would tear up the Notre Dame defense and Notre Dame would get blown out without Malik Zaire. That didn’t happen, to say the least. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish first got on the board when Deshone Kizer hit Will Fuller for another big gain for a touchdown, this time for 46 yards to put Notre Dame up 7-0. Georgia Tech tied it up in the 2nd quarter when with 5:26 left Patrick Skov, the former Stanford star, ran it for the 5 yard touchdown. With 1:40 left in the 2nd quarter CJ Prosise ran 17 yards for the touchdown, but Justin Yoon missed the extra point so Notre Dame was only up 13-7 at the half.
With 12:10 left in the 3rd quarter, Notre Dame kicker Justin Yoon nailed a 29 yard field goal to make it 16-7. With 13:54 left in the 4th quarter, Prosise ran it right down the middle for a 1 yard touchdown to make it a 23-7 game. But the speedster wasn't done, as with 7 minutes left in the game, he ran it 98 yards for the touchdown to extend the Irish lead to 30-7. That was the longest running touchdown in Notre Dame Stadium history. With 48 seconds left Patrick Skov ran it in from 21 yards out, and the Ramblin' Wreck of Georgia Tech converted the 2 point conversion to make it a 30-15 game. With 22 seconds left Patrick Skov ran it in from 15 yards out to cut the lead to 8. However, it was too little and too late, as the Fighting Irish moved on with an impressive victory.
Note: In the 3rd quarter after Drue Tranquil made a key stop in the end zone to prevent a touchdown, he got up and celebrated with one of his teammates, then collapsed, clutching his knee. According to Brian Kelly, it doesn’t look good.
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish have another trap game next week when they play UMass at Notre Dame Stadium. The Minutemen almost pulled off a miraculous victory over Temple on Saturday. Next week Georgia Tech goes to Wallace Wade Stadium when they face ACC opponent Duke Blue Devils.