Notre Dame Football: Blue beats Gold 17-3 in eye-opening spring game

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish concluded their spring practice season with the Blue-Gold game, and Blue won the special dinner (or whatever they get) by the final score of 17-3.

In most spring games we see a heavy lean towards the run game, but on Saturday the Irish truly showed that they are working on finding its quarterback for 2021 on the day Ian Book was drafted by the New Orleans Saints.

If you enjoy non-scoring reps — the first half had you covered. The special rules and high winds obviously had some impact on the game, but going into the half, it was Jonathan Doerer 3, Harrison Leonard (LACROSSE BRO KICKER) 3.

Things got cooking once Tyler Buchner (without a red jersey) was cut loose with a 4 play, 75 yard drive that ended with him in the endzone on a 7 yard run. The other touchdown for blue came after an underthrown bomb from Buchner to Braden Lenzy. Walk-on running back Leo “Captain Lou” Albano finally punched it in from the one and we have arrived at the 17-3 final score.

It was the defense that really ruled the day. Both Jack Coan and Drew Pyne were picked off once, and it was a real struggle moving the ball — especially in the first half. Marist Liufau and Jack Kiser led all tacklers with 5 and 8 tackles, but performances by Litchfield Ajavon and D.J. Brown helped keep the scoring down.

It was a light day on the ground, but Chris Tyree did get the bulk of the carries with 10 attempts for 43 yards. Lawrence Keys led all receivers with 5 receptions for 115 yards with Braden Lenzy and Avery Davis also catching 5 balls a piece for 88 and 84 yards respectively.

I don’t want to overreact to the spring game, but I don’t want to discount it either. I’ll have much more about the game, this spring, and some general thoughts over the next few days. No doubt, the podcast will be lit.