Quick Recap: Notre Dame handles Florida State on the ground with 42-26 win

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish remain undefeated and get their second ACC win of the year with a 42-26 win over the Florida State Seminoles. There were a lot of concerns about Notre Dame’s two week break and if the Irish would be a little rusty against FSU. Those concerns were proved to be right fairly early in the game.

On the second play of the game, Kyren Williams put the ball on the ground and the Noles turned a short field into a field goal. Lawrence Keys III also got in on the turnover action when he muffed a punt. That time, Florida State turned it into a touchdown to make it 14-10 Irish. After a Notre Dame 3 and out, the Noles went deep with a Jordan Travis to Tamorrion Terry touchdown to take the lead at 17-14.

Notre Dame answered with a Kyren Williams touchdown on the next drive to make it 21-17, and the Irish never looked back from there.

Notre Dame racked up over 500 yards of offense while Kyren Williams looked unstoppable running the ball with 185 yards and 2 touchdowns. The Irish also got help on the ground from freshman Chris Tyree with a 100+ yard game of his own on their way to rushing for over 300 yards for the night.

Ian Book had a solid albeit unspectacular night with over 200 yards passing with 2 TD’s and 60 yards on the ground with a rushing touchdown that made it a 16 point game in the middle of the 3rd.

For all of the talk about the return of Kevin Austin and a healthy Braden Lenzy, it was Javon McKinley that had the big night and lead the Irish in receptions (5 on 5 targets) as well as yards with over 100.

There are some major questions defensively for the Irish coming out of this game, but they overcame offensive and special teams turnovers while only allowing 6 points in the second half (so typical Clark Lea).

We will have much more about this game on OFD, so stay tuned.