Irish Sack Florida State 52-3

The University of Notre Dame football team (8-1) piled up a season-high eight sacks while handling Florida State (1-9) 52-3 to earn the Irish their seventh-consecutive win in 2024. Senior defensive lineman Rylie Mills led the sack parade with a career-high three while adding two other tackles and a quarterback pressure. 

The Irish offense was a team effort. Quarterback Rylie Leonard threw for 215 yards, one touchdown and added two more scores on the ground. Jadarian Price provided perhaps the highlight of the day with a 64-yard scoring run and finished the game with 94 yards rushing. Jaden Greathouse led the team with five receptions for 66 yards while Mitchell Evans and Deion Colzie caught touchdown passes. 

Sophomore Luke Talich capped the scoring in the game with a 79-yard interception return for touchdown with under two minutes remaining.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Notre Dame received the opening kick off and scored quickly. On third down, Leonard found Aneyas Williams out of the backfield for 28 yards, then connected with Mitchell Evans for nine yards to the Florida State 34-yard line. 

The next play call was a run up the middle, with Leonard having the option to keep or hand off the ball. He kept it, cut outside behind a block from Evans, then Kris Mitchell sealed off his defender and Leonard lept into the end zone for a 34-yard score. 

Florida State nibbled its way down field on its first offensive possession. Converting two fourth-and-short runs, the Seminoles earned a first-and-goal inside the Irish five-yard line. The Notre Dame red zone defense, outstanding all season, stepped up again to hold the Seminoles to a 23-yard field goal.

The teams traded three-and-outs twice moving into the second quarter until Jadarian Price burst out for a 17-yard run to start an Irish possession. Freshman offensive tackle Anthonie Knapp, who started his ninth consecutive game this evening, returned to the line after missing a few plays with a minor injury. Knapp would throw the key block to spring Price through the left side of the line. The sophomore running back from Denison, Texas, outraced the FSU defense and fought off the final defender for a spectacular 65-yard touchdown run. 

Senior defensive lineman Rylie Mills snuffed out Florida State’s next possession himself with back-to-back sacks. The Irish offense started with a 21-yard completion to Jaden Harrison, but could move no further. Both teams kept trading short possessions as the game moved into the final two minutes of the first half. 

Notre Dame put together a drive before half, overcoming a sack with a 15-yard completion to Beaux Collins and a 10-yard Leonard run on fourth-and-one. 

The drive looked to have stalled at the FSU 26-yard line when Jordan Faison dropped a pass in the open. After contemplating a field goal attempt before Florida State called a timeout, the Irish drew up another pass to Faison, who made the catch this time and finished off the play at the FSU 12-yard line. 

Leonard then dropped a perfect fade pass to Evans in the end zone for a 12-yard touchdown pass to give the Irish a 21-3 lead at the half. 

Mills’ career-high third sack of the game backed up Florida State’s first possession of the second half and Jordan Clark ended the drive with his first interception in an Irish uniform and fourth of his career. Clark’s pick gave the Notre Dame offense the ball at the FSU 40-yard line. 

The Irish started off with a throw-back screen to Jaden Greathouse for 10 yards, then a middle screen to Greathouse picked up 20 yards to the Seminole six-yard line. Leonard did the rest, dancing into the end zone untouched for this second rushing touchdown of the game and 13th of the season – one off the Notre Dame single-season record. 

The sack party in Florida State’s backfield continued on the next drive. FSU moved the ball into Notre Dame territory but back-to-back sacks from Donovan Hinish (who had a career-best two in tonight’s game) and Jaylen Sneed on fourth down ended the threat at the Notre Dame 40-yard line. 

Notre Dame tacked on three more points, with much of the yards coming from a Leonard-to-Harrison connection for 26 yards which included 15 more yards tacked on when FSU roughed the quarterback. The drive stalled at the 15-yard line, however, and Mitch Jeter converted the 28-yard field goal. 

A Mills pressure ended yet another Florida State drive and the Irish took over at their own 37-yard line. Leonard connected with Jeremiyah Love for 13 yards and a Seminole pass interference penalty pushed the ball to the 35. Greathouse made a leaping catch of a perfectly placed pass from Leonard, falling down with the ball at the two-yard line. Love then capped the drive with a two-yard run to keep his streak of a rushing touchdown alive (all nine games of the 2024 season, tied for the fourth-best streak in school history). 

The back up Irish defense earned a quick stop to get the second and third string offense on the field. Mishawaka, Indiana, native Justin Fisher caught a 16-yard pass, then transfer running back Jake Tafelski logged his first catch at Notre Dame to move the ball to the FSU nine-yard line. 

One play later, Steve Angeli threw a beautiful fade pass to Deion Colzie in the end zone for a seven-yard scoring strike. 

The Irish reserves were not done scoring. Florida State drove into scoring range, but sophomore Luke Talich jumped an out route at the 21-yard line and raced untouched for his first career interception and touchdown.