Senior receiver DuvalKamara pulled in two touch-down catches. Senior safetyHarrison Smith intercepted afirst quarter pass. Senior line-backer Brian Smith led theIrish with 10 tackles.Throughout all of Notre

Dame’s 28-3 victory over UtahSaturday, seniors led the way,just as they have for the past11 months.“It’s not a moment. It’s the

culmination of what we’ve beenworking on since December,”Irish coach Brian Kelly said.“You don’t just pull these out ofa hat. You don’t just wake upone day and go, ‘Oh, let’s riseup today.’ It’s the consistency ofapproach on a day-to-day basisand how we go to work everyday.”Notre Dame’s rout dropped

the Utes to No. 23 in the BCSstandings and marked theteam’s first win over a rankedopponent since a 41-17 victoryover No. 19 Penn State in 2006.“Through the last three

weeks, we certainly have had agreat deal of adversity thatwe’ve had to overcome togeth-er as a group,” Kelly said. “Inthose times, to steal a quotefrom [former Irish] coach [Ara]Parseghian, ‘Adversity elicitstraits sometimes that we didn’tthink we ever had.’”One such example of those

traits could be in freshmanquarterback Tommy Rees, whothrew for 129 yards and threetouchdowns in his first careerstart, includingtwo thirdquarter strikesto Kamara toput the gameout of reach.“[The] sen-

iors have donean unbeliev-able job allyear, whetherit be preparingus, keeping usfocused —especially inthe past twoweeks” Reessaid. “Youknow, to sendthem off with a win is trulyspecial.”Notre Dame (5-5) relied on a

productive running game tomove down the field, as sopho-more running back CierreWood tallied 71 yards on theground while junior Jonas Grayaveraged 14.7 yards on threecarries. Rather than spread the

field, Kelly said the game planfocused on getting the game tothe fourth quarter with therunning attack while putting

Rees in situ-ations tosucceed.“I wasn’t

going to putthis game onT o m m yRees. I wasgoing totake shotswhen wehad oppor-t u n i t i e sbecause he’san accuratethrower ofthe foot-ball,” Kellysaid. “But it

was all going to be predicatedon our ability to get this thinginto the fourth quarter andhave a presence on defense aswell.”The Irish turned in their most

complete defensive perform-ance of the season, yielding afield goal on Utah’s first pos-session of the game and then

holding an explosive offensescoreless for more than 50minutes. Despite coming off a42-7 rout at the hands of TCU,Utah headed into Saturday’smatchup averaging 41 pointsper game.“I don’t think we ever had

control of the line of scrim-mage,” Utes coach KyleWhittingham said. “[NotreDame has] big, physical guys,and they’ve got 245-poundinside linebackers that willcome up and smack you. Thefront does a nice job with theirtechnique and staying square.”In addition to Brian Smith’s

10 tackles, sophomore line-backer Manti Te’o added ninetackles and one sack as theIrish held the Utes to just 265yards of total offense.“It feels great,” Brian Smith

said. “I’ve been a part of SeniorDays where we lost, and theseniors went out with a look ontheir faces — it just broke myheart. I’m glad that [this seniorclass] didn’t go out that way. Itwas a collective effort from theseniors all the way down to thefreshman. It just feels great to

get a win.”Notre Dame struggled on

offense to start the game, fail-ing to convert a first down onits first three possessions of thegame. With the first quarterwinding down and neitherteam taking control of thetempo, junior cornerbackRobert Blanton blocked a Utahpunt, scooped up the loose balland ran it in for a 7-3 lead.After watching tape, Blanton

said that special teams coordi-nator Mike Elston hoped totake advantage of the smallsplits on the Utah line withpressure from the outside onpunt return.“I think any time you block a

punt in the game, I think we’veall seen enough games, theygenerally lead to real goodthings for you down the road,”Kelly said. “That was a big playfor us, but it was a point ofemphasis as well.”The Irish seized the momen-

tum and kept building on it, asRees and the offense connectedfor three more scores, includ-ing a three-yard pass to juniorreceiver Michael Floyd to give

the team a 14-3 lead headinginto halftime.The special teams unit made

its impact felt again in the sec-ond half, as freshman widereceiver Austin Collinsworthforced a fumble on the openingkick that was recovered by theIrish. On the ensuing play, Reesfound a wide open Kamara inthe corner of the end zone toextend the lead to 21-3.With two games remaining

against Army and USC, theIrish need one more win tobecome eligible for a bowlgame. With a victory over aranked opponent under theirbelts, Kelly said that his play-ers are moving in the rightdirection.“You play it hard for four

quarters,” Kelly said. “You getit to the fourth quarter and youclose. My career has been builton closing games out andbuilding the mentality of thatfootball team. That’s what wehad to make sure we gotdone.”

Seniors earn victory on Senior Day; freshman Tommy Rees throws three touchdowns

Monday, September 19, 2005 o bserverTHE

Michigan State 44 , Notre Dame 41

player of the game

Tommy ReesIrish quarterback

Rees may have only thrown for 129yards, but he completed 65 percent of

his passes and three touchdowns.

quote of the game

“We should give our fans what theywant, and show them that we

appreciate their support.”

Manti Te’osophomore linebacker

stat of the game

156.8 yards

The Irish defense held the Utahoffense 156.8 yards under its yardsper game average, as the Utes only

gained 265 yards.

play of the game

Robert Blanton’s six-yard blocked puntreturn for a touchdown

Notre Dame’s first touchdown cameon Blanton’s momentum-changer,giving the Irish the lead for good.

Monday, November 15, 2010 o bserverTHE

IRISH INSIDERNotre Dame 28, Utah 3

Contact Chris Masoud atcmasoud@nd.edu

By CHRIS MASOUDSports Writer

SUZANNA PRATT/The Observer

Junior receiver Michael Floyd, right, celebrates with his teammates after catching a touchdown pass from freshman quarterbackTommy Rees in the second quarter during Notre Dame’s 28-3 victory over No. 14 Utah.

Senior honors

“It’s not a moment. It’s theculmination of what we’ve

been working on sinceDecember. You don’t just

pull these out of a hat. Youdon’t just wake up one

day and go, ‘Oh, let’s riseup today.’”

Brian KellyIrish coach

A+

The Observer u IRISH INSIDERpage 2 Monday, November 15, 2010

Seniors set tone; others take noteSaturday’s celebration started slowly.

Fittingly, the seniors set the tone, andeveryone else followed suit.First, the yellow-coated ushers

opened one stairwell for the Class of2011 to run down to the field.Then, a junior

dressed as a cowleapt out of thestands near the10-yard line. Ashe crossed thepainted sidelineto reach the play-ing field, an usherand two membersof the IndianaState Police torehis costumedhead off to pre-vent him fromgoing further.If the cow had

waited 60 seconds, he could havejoined the juniors in the lowest rows ofSection 30, who convinced the ushersthey were seniors, and took to the fieldin rowdy, hat-waving fashion.The rest of the junior class followed

without hesitation. Before long, waveafter wave of underclassmen foundtheir way to the corner of the endzone.For the previous three hours, the

seniors on the playing field led NotreDame in its rout over Utah. Apparently,unbeknownst to the rest of the world,these seniors had been leading theIrish for a few weeks now.“I don’t want to get too philosophical

other than to say that our seniors real-ly provided great leadership over thepast few weeks, and it was evidenteven in our bye week,” Irish coachBrian Kelly said. “That’s a time wheregenerally at 4-5, seniors check out.”

All season long, the Irish appeared tolack leaders on the field. By namingcaptains on a game-by-game basis, itcan be argued Kelly robbed the teamof designated leadership.But, when a team loses two games it

expected to win, someone within theteam must step up, designation or nodesignation. Apparently, these seniorsdid so. They set the tone.Then junior cornerback Robert

Blanton provided proof that the propertone can yield results, giving NotreDame both the lead and the momen-tum with his blocked punt and subse-quent return for a touchdown.Sophomore running back Cierre

Wood started to evade tacklers once hesensed a hint of Utah discouragement.Freshman quarterback Tommy Rees

shook off his initial jitters in his firstcareer start once he had a lead towork with. Each of his three touch-down passes was thrown with preci-sion accuracy, and the Irish, freshmanthrough seniors, were rolling.“It was a collective effort from the

seniors all the way down to the fresh-man,” said senior linebacker BrianSmith, who led the Irish with 10 tack-les to close his career at Notre DameStadium. “It just feels great to get awin today.”The tone set by the seniors resonated

most loudly with the freshmen. In addi-tion to Rees’ performance, BennettJackson energized the crowd with 53return yards on only two kickoffs,including a run to the Notre Dame 44-yard line to open the game. AustinCollinsworth and Daniel Smith collabo-rated to force and recover a fumble,respectively, on the opening kickoff ofthe second half. Even when junior line-backer Darius Fleming left the gamewith a concussion after only a handful

of plays, freshman Prince Shembofilled in with five tackles, two quarter-back hurries and one sack.“[Getting the seniors a win] was our

number one goal,” Rees said. “Theseniors have done an unbelievable joball year. Whether it be preparing us,keeping us focused, especially in thelast two weeks. To send them off with awin is truly special.”There it is again — the seniors set

the tone for the rest of the Irish, sameas the Class of 2011 as a whole, break-ing past the ushers first, only to waitfor the rest of the student body to jointhem.In reality, the past four years have

included more disappointment thansatisfaction for this team’s 36 seniors.Yet, by leading the way to NotreDame’s biggest win since a victory overNo. 3 Michigan in 2005, they set thestage for the coming years. Last week,senior receiver Duval Kamara — twotouchdown receptions Saturday — saidthe strife of the past will be worth-while, once Notre Dame reaches anational championship, and he can sayhe “was part of building that.”Notre Dame took a big step toward

that lofty goal Saturday. The seniors,the same ones who have sufferedthrough a career 20-26 regular seasonrecord, provided the beginning pushwhich led to that big step.As senior safety Harrison Smith said

after recording his third career inter-ception: “Leaving [Notre DameStadium] with a win is like turning thepage.”

The views expressed in this columnare those of the author and notnecessarily those of The Observer.

Contact Douglas Farmer atdfarmer1@nd.edu

Aquarterbacks: Tommy Rees did exactlywhat was asked of him, completing 13of his 20 passing attempts, and neverputting the ball near a Utah defender.Three touchdowns don’t hurt either.

report card

Douglas Farmer

Sports Editor

Arunning backs:With the exception of afew missed blocks, the running backsdidn’t miss a step, even withoutArmando Allen, averaging more than5.5 yards per carry.

Areceivers:Rees connected with six differentreceivers, even if he only had 13 comple-tions. Michael Floyd and Duval Kamaraboth gave Rees big windows on all three oftheir touchdown catches.

B+offensive line: Utah sacked Rees twice,and made two other tackles in the back-field, but the offensive line did an excel-lent job of protecting a freshman quar-terback and sophomore running back.

Adefensive line: Ian Williams had been theanchor of the defense all season, butSean Cwynar and Hafis Williams filledin admirably to fill the void, allowing therest of the defense to swarm the ball.

Alinebackers:Utah’s lack of a productiverunning game Saturday was largely dueto the aggressive play of the linebackers,led by Brian Smith and Manti Te’o, com-bining for 19 tackles.

Adefensive backs: Utah attempted fourfourth down conversions, and on threeof those, an Irish defensive back eitherbroke up the pass, or stopped the Utesshort of the first down.

special teams: Robert Blanton’s puntblock return for a touchdownchanged the dynamic of the game,and Ben Turk consistently put theUtes in poor field position.

Acoaching: Lacking his starting quarterbackand three starters at the skill positions,Brian Kelly devised a gameplan thatworked to perfection. Bob Diaco’s defenseperformed excellently as well.

3.96overall:For a team coming offtwo disappointing losses, andmissing numerous players, NotreDame could not have played amore complete game.

JAMES DOAN/The Observer

Senior running back Robert Hughes gained 5.2 yards per carry during Notre Dame’s 28-3 win over No. 14 UtahSaturday. Hughes and the rest of the senior class led Notre Dame to its first win on Senior Day in three years.

adding up the numbers

21Of the 36 seniors, 21 saw playing time Saturday,including walk-ons Brian Castello, PatrickCoughlin, Dan Franco and Michael Garcia.

45 Notre Dame snapped a 45-game streak in whichUtah scored more than three points, a streakstretching back to Sept. 22, 2007.

8The Irish defense rushed Utes quarterback JordanWynn eight times, a season high. The previoushigh was five against Western Michigan.

25 Michael Floyd’s touchdown reception was his25th in only 27 career games. He now ranksthird on the all-time Irish receiving list.

10Notre Dame has received the opening kickoff inall 10 games this season

3 Senior safety Harrison Smith intercepted Wynnin the first quarter. The pick was Smith’s thirdof the season, and of his career.

9.9Freshman quarterback Tommy Rees complet-ed 13 passes for 129 yards, yielding an aver-age of 9.9 yards per completion.

49 Utah ran 69 plays, compared to Notre Dame’s49, but the Irish averaged 5.2 yards per play,compared to the Utes’ 3.8

SUZANNA PRATT/The Observer

Irish freshman quarterback Tommy Rees turns to hand the ball off to senior running back Robert Hughes. In his first careerstart, Rees completed 13-of-20 passes for 129 yards and three touchdowns.

In his 11 months on campus, Irishfreshman quarterback Tommy Reeshas undoubtedly heard all the namesof Notre Dame’s quarterbacking leg-ends — Bertelli, Lujack, Theismann,Montana and Quinn.Of all those names, and the many

others, none accomplished Rees’ featof throwing three touchdown passes inhis first career start Saturday.“You know, in the beginning running

out there you get [butterflies], but allpositive butterflies,” Rees said. “You’reanxious to play, and once the firstseries comes, they’re all gone.”Rees turned in an efficient perform-

ance in his starting debut, throwing for129 yards on 13-of-20 passing. Thoughthe statistics did not compare withRees’ 400-yard plus performance inrelief of injured starter Dayne Cristduring Notre Dame’s 28-27 loss toTulsa on Oct. 30, Irish coach BrianKelly said Rees did a good job withinthe designed game plan in beating No.14 Utah 28-3.“Tommy is a young man that really

understands the game of football,”Kelly said. “Whether you’re in thespread and five wides or you’re run-ning tackle pull or power, which we

ran probably more times than I thinkwe’ve run power here in a long time,he can handle the adjustments that aremade. We felt the game plan was suchthat he could handle what we gavethem.”Rees and the rest of the Notre Dame

offense got off to a slow start, as anearly stop on fourth down and a bat-ted-down pass highlighted a first quar-ter in which Notre Dame struggled tomove the ball. Rees said he neededsome time to get acclimated to thegame.“Obviously the first couple of drives

weren’t that great for us offensively, soit kind of just happened that way,”Rees said. “Just going with the pace ofthe game, and things started clickingthere. That blocked punt for a touch-down really helped the offense outbecause we were struggling, and jump-started the whole sideline and theteam. From that point on we startedrolling.”Notre Dame’s — and subsequently

Rees’ — success offensively was builtaround a consistent running game anda passing game that gave Rees a num-ber of high percentage throws in orderto minimize turnovers. Utah coachKyle Whittingham said Notre Dame’sgame plan put Rees in position to suc-ceed.“I think they did a nice job with the

freshman quarterback … Gave him nottoo much on his plate. Enough to movethe football and get the points theyneeded to win the football game,”Whittingham said. “They did a greatjob of putting him in situations to suc-ceed. They didn’t ask a bunch ofthrows of him down the field. Whenthey did, they did a nice job.”Rees’ rare forays into the vertical

passing game resulted in two touch-downs to senior wide receiver DuvalKamara, as the senior caught Rees’second and third touchdowns of theday.Rees said he has built a rapport with

Kamara in practice all season.“Throughout the bulk of the season

I’ve been working with Duval,” Reessaid. “So we have a good chemistryand connection, and he’s workedextremely hard to put himself in thisposition.”After his stellar debut, the freshman

will move forward in the starting quar-terback role and prepare for his sec-ond start. But he will not soon forgethis debut.“I couldn’t be happier,” Rees said.

“Getting the win is the most importantthing. To send the seniors off I ’mecstatic.”

Notre Dame 14, Utah 3Michael Floyd three-yard pass from TommyRees (Ruffer kick) with 12:25 remaining.Drive: 3 plays, 61 yards, 1:43 elapsed.

Saturday’s 28-3 victoryover Utah represented thefirst Notre Dame win onSenior Day since 2007,when Notre Dame beatDuke 28-7. With the win,the Irish improve to 92-24-4all time in Senior Daygames.“The team needed [a win]

badly,” senior cornerbackGary Gray said. “But mostlyfor the seniors because it isour last chance playing in[Notre Dame Stadium].Since I’ve been here wehaven’t beaten a rankedteam. Just for the seniors togo out with a win is great.”The Utes — who came into

the game ranked No. 14 —represented the highest-ranked opponent the Irish

have beaten in a Senior Daygame since the 1987 season,when they disposed of No.10 Alabama. The win alsomoved the all-time mark forNotre Dame in Senior Daygames against ranked oppo-nents to 16-11.

Blanton’s big playJunior cornerback Robert

Blanton’s blocked punt andsubsequent touchdown inthe first quarter was thefirst blocked punt for NotreDame since the Hawaii Bowlin 2008. The last Irish play-er to return a blocked puntfor a touchdown was ToryanSmith, who did so in a Nov.15, 2008 game againstNavy.“We worked really hard

this week on getting a punt,”Irish coach Brian Kelly said.“That was something wetalked about, let’s get one.”

The touchdown was notthe first of Blanton’s career,however, as he returned aninterception to the end zonein a 2008 game againstPurdue.

Duval finds the end zoneSenior wide receiver Duval

Kamara, who set NotreDame freshman records forcatches and touchdowncatches in 2007 but hasstruggled to find consistentproduction since, recordedtwo touchdowns in his finalgame at Notre DameStadium. Kamara’s 26-yardreception in the earlymoments of the second halfwas his first touchdownsince 2009 againstWashington State. When hegrabbed a 12-yard passminutes later, he completeda multiple-touchdown effortfor the second time in his

career. Kamara had previ-ously hauled in two touch-downs against Navy in 2007.“It felt amazing [to catch

two TD passes],” Kamarasaid. “I haven’t been in theend zone in a while in thisstadium.”Kamara’s heavy playing

time was partly the result ofan injury to freshman widereceiver TJ Jones, who hadbeen playing ahead ofKamara for a majority of theseason.“[Jones] got injured during

the week. It was prettyphysical the last ten days ofpractice,” Kelly said. “He’s atough kid, but he got bangedup a little bit. We just didn’tthink he could go. We want-ed to make sure that he’shealthy moving forward.”

The Observer u IRISH INSIDERMonday, November 15, 2010 page 3

Rees’ efficiency carries Irish in win

By CHRIS ALLENSports Writer

Contact Chris Allen atcallen10@nd.edu

By CHRIS ALLENSports Writer

NDUTAH

3rd140

4th00

Second quarter

Notre Dame 0, Utah 3Joe Phillips 46-yard field goal with 8:31remaining.Drive: 9 plays, 24 yards, 4:39 elapsed.

Notre Dame 7, Utah 3Robert Blanton six-yard blocked punt return(David Ruffer kick) with 2:01 remaining.

Third quarter

Notre Dame 21, Utah 3Duval Kamara 26-yard pass from Rees (Rufferkick) with 14:47 remaining.Drive: 1 plays, 26 yard, 0:13 elapsed.

Notre Dame 28, Utah 3Kamara 12-yard pass from Rees (Ruffer kick)with 9:09 remaining.Drive: 5 plays, 63 yards, 2:17 elapsed.

Total283

scoringsummary

First quarter

statisticsRushing Yards

Passing Yards

Penalty Yards

24-39-194

13-488-214-143- -3

4-444-334-321-254-235-171-111-9

13-20-129

19-803-444-212- -7

4-392-382-252-152-71-5

Rees

WoodGrayHughesRees

FloydKamaraWoodEifertHughesToma

Wynn

AsiataWideDunnWynn

SmithsonBrooksChristopherMoeaiAsiataWideMoalaMatthews

receiving

rushing

passing

Contact Chris Allen at callen10@nd.edu

1st73

2nd70

Time of Possession

Time of Possession

Senior Day victory brings Notre Dame relief

The Observer u IRISH INSIDERpage 4 Monday, November 15, 2010

Facing a top-20 opponent for the second time this season,

the Irish performed much better against No. 14 Utah than

they did earlier in the season against Stanford.

Seniors led the way for Notre Dame during its 28-3 victory

Saturday. Senior linebacker Brian Smith led the team with 10

tackles while senior receiver Duval Kamara pulled in his first

two touchdowns in more than a year. Senior running back

Robert Hughes also added in 28 total yards.

Freshman quarterback Tommy Rees also connected with junior

receiver Michael Floyd for a touchdown in the second quarter.

Junior cornerback Robert Blanton started the Irish scoring

with a blocked punt return for a touchdown

in the first quarter.

Senior Dayupset

Clockwise from top: Irish coach Brian Kelly talks with quarterback Tommy Rees; receiver Michael Floyd pulls in a pass from Rees; cornerback Robert Blanton, 12, celebrateswith teammates after his blocked punt return for a touchdown; defensive end Kapron Lewis-Moore deflects a pass; running back Cierre Wood finds a hole for a gain.

JAMES DOAN/The Observer

SUZANNA PRATT/The Observer

JAMES DOAN/The Observer SUZANNA PRATTThe Observer

JAMES DOAN/The Observer