#8 Irish Head North For Clash With #19 Wolverines

Notre Dame Notes | Michigan Notes

	GAME DAY INFORMATION
Date	Saturday, October 26, 2019
Time	7:30 p.m. ET
Site:	Michigan Stadium • Ann Arbor, MI • Capacity 107,601 (FieldTurf)
TV:	TV: ABC (national) Chris Fowler (play-by-play) Kirk Herbstreit (analysis) Maria Taylor (sideline)
Radio:	Notre Dame Radio Network
Tickets:	Notre Dame Ticket Exchange powered by VividSeats.com

THE COACHES
	Head Coach	At School	Overall	vs. Opponent
Notre Dame	Brian Kelly	85-36 (10th year)ˆ	256-93-2 (29th year)ˆ	3-3
Michigan	Jim Harbaugh	43-16 (5th year)	101-43 (12th year)	2-3

	IRISH VS. WOLVERINES - BY THE NUMBERS
2	QB Ian Book is the first Notre Dame QB to start and win consecutive matchups vs. Southern Cal since Rick Mirer (played 1989-92).
3	Brian Kelly is the first Irish coach to post three or more shutouts in his Notre Dame career since Lou Holtz. Prior to the shutout of Bowling Green, the last Irish shutout took place in 2014 vs. Michigan (31-0), and Kelly’s first shutout as the Notre Dame head coach came vs. Wake Forest in 2012 (38-0).ˆ
4	Brady Quinn, Tommy Rees, Jimmy Clausen, Ron Powlus and Ian Book are the only quarterbacks in Notre Dame history to record four or more touchdown passes in three games in their career. Book joined the group after recording five passing touchdowns vs. Bowling Green.
4	QB Ian Book threw just four incomplete passes vs. Bowling Green, a total which was one fewer than his passing touchdowns total. Phil Jurkovec> completed five of seven passes and added a touchdown, which put the Irish at equal amounts of touchdowns thrown to incomplete passes.
7	Brian Kelly has now totaled seven wins over rival Southern Cal. Only two Irish coaches have totaled more wins vs. Southern Cal than Kelly: Lou Holtz (nine) and Frank Leahy (eight).
10	Brian Kelly is in his 10th season as the head coach at the University of Notre Dame. He is the fifth Irish coach to spend a decade or more at the school (Knute Rockne, 13; Frank Leahy, Ara Parseghian, Lou Holtz 11).
15	Notre Dame has won 15 consecutive games at Notre Dame Stadium, including a 6-0 clean slate last season. It is the third-longest winning streak at home for the Irish since Notre Dame Stadium opened in 1930.
21	TE Cole Kmet has totaled 21 receptions over the last four games, which tied for the most among FBS tight ends during that timespan. Kmet missed the first two games of the season with a collarbone injury.
22	Notre Dame remains perfect in redzone scoring percentage, converting on 22-of-22 visits inside the 20. Nineteen of those scores were touchdowns (11 rushing, eight passing). Just two other teams boast perfection in the redzone (Iowa and LSU), and, of those teams, only LSU (31) has totaled more redzone touchdowns than the Irish.
25.8	Notre Dame’s defense led the FBS after Week 7 in opponent passing completions per touchdown, holding squads to 25.8 completions per touchdown.
30	Notre Dame has held its opponents to 30 points or less in 20 consecutive games, the longest streak in FBS after Washington surrendered 35 points to Oregon last week. The streak spans defensive coordinator Clark Lea’s entire tenure with the Irish.
176	RB Tony Jones Jr. rushed for a career-high 176 yards vs. Southern Cal. It marked just the 12th time this season that an FBS player rushed for at least 175 yards against Power 5 opponent (it has happened 20 times entering Week 9).
271	With 52 total points vs. Bowling Green, it marked the second time this season the Irish recorded at least 50 points. The last time Notre Dame reached that plateau in multiple games in a season was in 2011, when the Irish did it twice (vs. Air Force and vs. Navy). It is Notre Dame’s largest shutout margin since 1996, when Lou Holtz’s Irish beat Rutgers, 62-0.
270	The Notre Dame Stadium sell-out streak stands at 271 consecutive games, the second-longest in NCAA history.
352^	Games coached by Brian Kelly in his career, second among active coaches in the NCAA to Mack Brown (North Carolina).
1,242	Notre Dame running backs have gone 1,242 carries without losing a fumble – dating back to Nov. 21, 2015. It is the longest active streak in the FBS, trailed by Northwestern’s 1,152-carry streak.

ˆ Includes 20 regular-season wins and two postseason appearances vacated under discretionary NCAA penalty.

LAST TIME: MICHIGAN

• September 1, 2018 — In the first game of the 2018 season, Notre Dame hosted Michigan at home, the first meeting of the teams since 2014. The Irish were victorious, topping the Wolverines 24-17.
• In his first collegiate game, RB Jafar Armstrong rushed for a pair of touchdowns and QB Brandon Wimbush threw for 170 yards, completing a touchdown pass to WR Chris Finke. LB Te’von Coney led the defense with 10 tackles, recovering a DT Jerry Tillery-forced fumble to seal the game for the Irish.
• The first victory led to an undefeated season, as the Irish punched their ticket to the College Football playoff as a No. 3 seed and played No. 2 Clemson in the Cotton Bowl.
• A full history of the Notre Dame-Michigan series can be found here.

HOME FIELD WIN STREAK

• Notre Dame completed an undefeated season at Notre Dame Stadium in 2018 for the second time in four seasons (2015, 6-0) after finishing 6-0 following a 42-13 win over Florida State. From 1990-2011, only the 1998 campaign (6-0) saw a perfect Notre Dame home slate.
• Notre Dame has won 15 straight games at home dating back to Sept. 30, 2017, starting with a victory over Miami (Ohio). It is the third-longest home winning streak for the Irish since Notre Dame Stadium opened in 1930 (28 straight from 1942-50; 19 straight from 1987-90).

 

ENTERING GAME 7

TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS

• Prior to the break, Notre Dame defeated rival Southern Cal at home, 30-27, on an impressive effort from all three phases. RB Tony Jones rushed for a career-high 176 yards, while K/P Jonathan Doerer put his name in the Irish record books as the first Notre Dame kicker to make three field goals of 40 yards or more in a single game.
• For the first time in Notre Dame history, an Irish team recorded six touchdown passes in two games during the same season (vs. New Mexico and vs. Bowling Green). The six touchdown passes match the Irish team record for passing touchdowns in a game.
• With 52 total points vs. Bowling Green, it marked the second time this season the Irish recorded at least 50 points. The last time Notre Dame reached that plateau in multiple games in a season was in 2011 when the Irish did it twice (vs. Air Force and vs. Navy).
• Against Bowling Green, Notre Dame’s 35-0 halftime lead was the largest since opening a 35-0 halftime margin over Rutgers in 1996.
• The Irish notched a top-10 ranking for the 24th-consecutive week — the fourth-longest active streak in college football (behind Alabama, Clemson and Georgia). This is the most consecutive weeks within the top 10 for Notre Dame since 1991 (50).
• Notre Dame has been ranked in the top 25 for 37 consecutive weeks, the longest such streak for the Irish since the 1997 season.
• The contest vs. Virginia marked the second-consecutive week Notre Dame appeared in the week’s highest-ranked matchup (lowest total of both squads’ rankings). From 2015-2018 among all FBS teams, it has only happened three times: Alabama (Weeks 7-8, 2016; Weeks 10-11, 2018) and Penn State (Weeks 8-9, 2017). As the current AP rankings stand, the only other team with back-to-back top-ranked matchups in 2019 was Florida in Weeks 6-7. No other team is currently scheduled to take on the same slate.

IAN BOOK NOTABLES

• Junior quarterback Ian Book leads all Power 5 quarterbacks in fourth-quarter passer rating (174.3) since the start of the 2018 season. The average rating stands at 126.8.
• Book is the first Notre Dame quartrback to start and win consecutive matchups vs. Southern Cal since Rick Mirer (played 1989-92).
• Book opened the game vs. Bowling Green with nine consecutive completions and recorded nine passes of 15 yards or more in the first half. That week, Irish quarterbacks totaled nine completions for 20 or more yards, which tied for the FBS lead (Texas Tech and Miami, Fla.). Book accounted for seven passes of 20 or more yards.
• In Notre Dame’s matchup against New Mexico, Book’s 406 yards of total offense was just the 11th time an Irish quarterback has compiled over 400 yards of total offense since 1996. It was the most since Book posted 399 at Northwestern last season, while DeShone Kizer’s 472 yards against Syracuse in 2016 marked the most recent game with a QB reaching over 400 yards of total offense. Six of the top 12 single-game yardage performances from a quarterback since 1996 have occurred during the Brian Kelly era.

HEADED FOR THE RECORD BOOKS

• Book threw five touchdown passes in the first half vs. Bowling Green, matching his career high (vs. New Mexico, 2019) and marking the first time in program history an Irish QB recorded five touchdown passes in a half.
• Brady Quinn, Tommy Rees, Jimmy Clausen, Ron Powlus and Ian Book are the only quarterbacks in Notre Dame history to record four or more touchdown passes in three games in their career.
• Book’s 37 career touchdowns put him in eighth place in Irish history.
• Book received the game ball for his performance vs. Bowling Green, the first game ball of his Notre Dame career, and was selected to the Davey O’Brien Award Great 8 list for Week 6. Book also was named a Top 20 finalist for the 2019 Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, presented by A.O. Smith, recognizing player performance on and off the field.

BOOK SOLID LATE

• Book boasts a 70.7 percent completion rate in the fourth quarter since the start of 2018, which leads Power 5 quarterbacks.

NOTEWORTHY DEFENSIVE NOTABLES

• Notre Dame’s defense led the FBS after Week 7 in opponent passing completions per touchdown, holding squads to 25.8 completions per touchdown.
• The Irish forced a shutout vs. Bowling Green for the first time since 2014 (vs. Michigan, 31- 0), scoring 35 points in the first half. Notre Dame’s 35-0 halftime lead was the largest since opening a 35-0 halftime margin over Rutgers in 1996. It is Notre Dame’s largest shutout margin since that game, when Lou Holtz’s Irish won, 62-0.
• Notre Dame’s defense held Bowling Green to just four drives that ended in Notre Dame territory (out of 11 total), the farthest point reached by the Falcons being the Notre Dame 23-yard line.
• In 2019, Notre Dame has outscored opponents 48-16 in the third quarter.
• Notre Dame leads the nation in turnover margin with a +10 ratio in six games this season. Only six teams in FBS have recovered more fumbles than the eight by the Irish defense.

FOLLOW HIS LEA-D

• Notre Dame has held 20consecutive opponents to 30 points or below, a streak only topped by Washington (20) for the FBS lead in that category. The streak spans Clark Lea’s entire 18-game tenure as defensive coordinator with the Irish, and includes ranked opponents LSU, Michigan, Stanford, Virginia Tech, Syracuse, Clemson, Georgia and Virginia.

BORN TO (STOP THE) RUN

• The Irish defense held Virginia to just four total rushing yards, marking the fourth-lowest total by an opposing team of Notre Dame since 1996, and the fewest in the Brian Kelly era. Notre Dame produced tackles for loss on 44.8 percent of Virginia’s rushing attempts, a rate that led the FBS. The four yards was also the lowest total against a ranked team since Nov. 26, 1966 (Southern Cal, 51-0 win, -12 rushing yards).
• In the first half, Notre Dame held Virginia to -2 rushing yards. In their previous four games, the Cavaliers had rushed for an average of 55.75 yards in the first half.
• Notre Dame’s defense held Georgia to just 34 total yards of offense in the first quarter. The Bulldogs gained at least 150 yards in the first quarter during each of their first three games this season.

NOTEWORTHY OFFENSIVE NOTABLES

• Notre Dame remains perfect in redzone scoring percentage, converting on 22-of-22 visits inside the 20. Nineteen of those scores were touchdowns (11 rushing, eight passing). Just two other teams boast perfection in the redzone (Iowa and LSU), and, of those teams, only LSU (31) has totaled more redzone touchdowns than the Irish.
• With help coming from both sides of the ball, the Irish stand at a turnover margin of +10, averaging +1.67 per game. The per game number leads FBS.
• Notre Dame running backs have gone 1,242 carries without losing a fumble – dating back to Nov. 21, 2015. It is the longest active streak in the FBS, with Northwestern’s 1,152-carry streak the next closest.
• The Irish totaled 573 yards of total offense vs. Bowling Green, having a 100-yard receiver (Javon McKinley) and 100-yard rusher (Tony Jones Jr.) for the first time since 2018 at Virginia Tech (WR Miles Boykin and RB Dexter Williams).
• In the first half vs. Bowling Green, Notre Dame recorded 339 yards of total offense, 255 in the air. The Irish averaged 10.6 yards per play and scored five touchdowns. The five touchdown passes in the first half are the most by an Irish team in a single half.

THEY SAID IT – ON THE OFFENSE

• “Tony [Jones Jr.] has been kind of pigeonholed into this kind of journeyman back, but he does so many things well. He just doesn’t have 4.3 speed. But he blocks, he’s tough, he’s physical, he’s going to get you the extra yard. Who wouldn’t want a back like that? He plays through nicks and bumps. He practices hard. He’s a great teammate. Give me a boatload of Tony Joneses and I’ll take them in a heartbeat.” -Head Coach Brian Kelly
• “In the second half, our tempo was really what was going well. We started to get in a rhythm. Coach Long was calling the right plays at the right time, and we were getting in a rhythm, moving the ball down fast, and the running backs obviously did a great job tonight. That goes to show you the O-line was also doing a great job. When you rush for that many yards, you can’t complain.” -QB Ian Book on the second half vs. Southern Cal

NOTEWORTHY SPECIAL TEAMS NOTABLES

• K/P Jonathan Doerer etched his name in Notre Dame record books vs. Southern Cal, becoming the first Irish kicker to make three field goals of 40 or more yards in a single game since 1996.
• Doerer made a career-long 52-yard field goal on the opening drive of the second half vs. Southern Cal, while also making a 45-yard field goal with 15 seconds remaining in the first half. Doerer added a 43-yard field goal in the fourth quarter. All three surpassed his previous career-long (36 yards).
• Doerer’s 52-yarder also places him in the Irish record books, matching the third-longest field goal made in Notre Dame history. Dave Reeve (1976 vs. Pittsburgh) and Kyle Brindza (2013 vs. Arizona State in Arlington, Texas) both had 53-yard field goals for the Irish.
• Notre Dame’s last made field goal of 50 yards or longer came in 2015, when Justin Yoon netted a 52-yarder against Navy.
• Lending voice to the importance of veteran players making their mark on special teams, in the first quarter at Georgia, WR Chase Claypool recovered a Georgia muffed punt return at the Bulldog eight-yard line to set up a Notre Dame touchdown drive (QB Ian Book one-yard pass to TE Cole Kmet). It was Claypool’s first-career fumble recovery.

NOTEWORTHY INDIVIDUAL NOTABLES

• RB Tony Jones Jr. posted a career-high 176 rushing yards vs. Southern Cal, marking his fourth 100-yard rushing performance of the season and the fifth of his career. His previous rushing career-high came this season vs. Virginia (131 yards).
• Jones surpassed 100 rushing yards with fewer than three minutes remaining in the first half vs. Southern Cal, and is now tied for 14th in Notre Dame history with four 100-yard rushing games in a season.
• Jones has rushed for first downs on 40 percent of his rushing attempts with more than 10 yards to go since last season, a rate which ranked first among all FBS running backs after Week 7.
• LB Asmar Bilal recorded five tackles in the first quarter vs. Southern Cal, totaling 11 (8 solo) on the game and leading the Irish defense. His 11 total tackles mark his single-game career-high, passing his previous total of nine.
• LB Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah notched his first career sack on Southern Cal’s opening drive, setting up an eventual punt for the Trojans.
• K/P Jonathan Doerer made three field goals of more than 40 yards vs. Southern Cal, becoming the first Irish kicker ever to do so in a single game. (See Noteworthy Special Teams Notables for more details.) Doerer was awarded a game ball, the first of his career.
• WR Braden Lenzy notched his first career rushing touchdown (second career TD), a 51-yard score, in the second quarter vs. Southern Cal. It was Notre Dame’s longest rushing touchdown of the season, as well as the longest rushing play of the season.
• WR Chase Claypool caught two touchdown passes vs. Bowling Green, totaling 61 yards on three total receptions while catching three passes for 47 yards vs. Southern Cal. Claypool surpassed the 100-career receptions mark on his first catch vs. Virginia, and on his 108 career receptions, Claypool has recorded 1,469 yards (13.6 average) and 10 touchdowns in four seasons. He joins a group of just 14 other Irish players who have reached the 100-career receptions mark since 1996. The most recent receivers to reach the benchmark were Chris Brown and Will Fuller V.
• Claypool also plays a role on special teams, lending voice to the importance of veteran players making their mark on special teams, in the first quarter at Georgia, Claypool recovered a Georgia muffed punt return at the Bulldog eight-yard line to set up a Notre Dame touchdown drive (QB Ian Book one-yard pass to TE Cole Kmet). It was Claypool’s first-career fumble recovery. He also added six catches for 66 yards and a touchdown at Georgia.
• Cole Kmet has totaled 21 receptions over the last four games, which tied for the most among FBS tight ends during that timespan. Kmet missed the first two games of the season with a collarbone injury. With his second catch vs. Southern Cal, Kmet doubled his career total entering the 2019 season (17) in those four games.
• Kmet recorded his second touchdown of the season vs. Bowling Green, and posted four catches for 65 yards vs. Virginia, totaling 13 receptions over two games (vs. Virginia and at Georgia). Just two Irish tight ends have totaled more receptions over a two-game span (most was 16 by Kyle Rudolph in 2010 vs. Michigan and Michigan State) since 1996.
• Kmet totaled a career-high nine catches at Georgia, which tied the program mark for receptions in a single game by a tight end. He tallied 108 receiving yards and a touchdown (seven receptions for 68 yards and a touchdown coming in the first half), and was named the John Mackey Award’s Tight End of the Week in Week 4.