The only meeting of top-15 teams before primetime on Saturday brought No. 14 Georgia Tech and its tricky option running game to No. 8 Notre Dame. And despite a late rally, the Fighting Irish made it look like a mismatch for the most part, throttling the Yellow Jackets until the final seconds and riding C.J. Prosise to a 30-22 victory.
Georgia Tech vs. Notre Dame final score, with 3 things to know from the Irish’s 30-22 win
Notre Dame picks up a third win over Power 5 competition despite a late rally.
Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
Notre Dame’s defense controlled the game by keeping the explosive Georgia Tech attack in check for almost the duration of play, yielding just three plays of more than 20 yards to a team that had 16 in its first two games of 2015. And the Irish limited the damage done by those explosive plays, too: After B.J. Snoddy’s 48-yard run set up the only Yellow Jackets score of the day, just three other Tech drives crossed midfield, two of them doing so only in the final few minutes of play.
For the Irish, the win was a welcome start to DeShone Kizer's stint as Notre Dame's starting quarterback. Kizer, a redshirt freshman forced into action by a season-ending injury sustained by Malik Zaire last week against Virginia, was steady and unspectacular, tallying 231 passing yards, a touchdown, and an interception.
Notre Dame is now the nation’s only team with three wins over Power 5 competition.
Three things to know
1. Notre Dame's defense is superb. Georgia Tech came into this game with the nation's No. 2 scoring offense and No. 1 rushing offense. The Irish held the Yellow Jackets to 22 points and 216 yards on the ground — the latter a program low since 2013. The Yellow Jackets did score a pair of touchdowns late, against substitutes and soft coverage, but this game belonged to Notre Dame's defense, brilliantly coordinated by Brian VanGorder and expertly quarterbacked by Jaylon Smith.
2. Kizer still has one heck of a supporting cast. Prosise was the star of the day, punctuating his 198 rushing yards with a 91-yard burst to the end zone to cap the scoring and set a new Notre Dame Stadium record for longest rush. But Will Fuller also added another touchdown catch, and 131 receiving yards.
The Notre Dame roster has been ransacked by injuries to date — and is especially emaciated on offense, where Zaire and starting running back Tarean Folston are out for the year — but the skill position talent is still there for Kizer to win games by being a glorified custodian and avoiding mistakes. That ferocious defense will make most point totals stand up.
3. There are holes too big for Georgia Tech to overcome. Some teams might be able to rally back from the deficits Georgia Tech faced in the second half, like the 23-7 hole that Notre Dame put the Yellow Jackets in early in the fourth quarter. But Georgia Tech doesn't have a traditional passing game, just Justin Thomas throwing haphazardly in situations the Yellow Jackets try to avoid by design — and its furious rally in the final minutes, which featured smart exploitation of soft Notre Dame coverage, was too little, too late.
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