Notre Dame Football: 3 takeaways from dominant win over South Florida

Notre Dame football got off to a fast start on both sides of the ball and never looked back. What did we learn from the USF win?

Despite missing eight key contributors, Notre Dame steam rolled South Florida in South Bend. It was a textbook blowout, with Notre Dame scoring on five of their first six possessions.

Ian Book kicked off the party with a nice opening drive capped off by his first of 3 rushing touchdowns. South Florida’s offense just could not sustain any success in the first half. A 42 yard run by Johnny Ford set up the Bulls in Notre Dame territory down 14-0.

A peculiar decision was made by Jeff Scott to run out of a fake punt formation at the Notre Dame 33 on fourth-and-5. I wonder if just sending your offense back out there rather than a trick play would have led to a better chance to converting. In the end this did not make a difference, but it may have help shifted the momentum at the time.

After this Notre Dame showed no slowing down led by a dominant offensive line and an efficient running attack. Brian Kelly was preaching to his team at halftime to finish strong saying, “I’m tired of being the nice guy.”

The second half was more of the same as South Florida could not capitalize on any opportunities and Notre Dame pounded the rock. C’Bo Flemister finished as the leading rusher with 13 carries for 126 yards and a touchdown. Tommy Tremble had a touchdown and also contributed in the blocking game and was able to be a valuable 6th blocker.

What did we learn from Notre Dame’s 52-0 win over USF?