Notre Dame 38, Texas 3

Sept. 5 – Malik Zaire was nearly perfect, hitting 19-of-22 passes for 313 yards with three touchdowns, finding Will Fuller for a 16-yard score to start out the scoring and connected again with Fuller for a 66-yard play in the third. Josh Adams came up with touchdown runs from 14 and 25 yards out, and Chris Brown closed out the win with a six-yard catch. Texas only made a little noise in the third quarter on a 41-yard Nick Rose field goal in the third.

Notre Dame

– That was it. That was all the offseason hype coming together at once. Texas might not be back to its form of a decade ago, but it’s still a big-time, big-name program and the Irish came out and ripped through it like it was some FCS also-ran. The defense was dominant against the Longhorn running game, and was phenomenal in all phases outside of one big pass play, but the story was Malik Zaire, who pitched a near-perfect game. It’s only Week One, and the Irish looked razor sharp.

– Will Fuller caught seven passes for 142 yards and two touchdowns. Punter Tyler Newsome was fantastic with three of his four punts put inside the 20 averaging over 41 yards per kick

Texas

– Maybe Notre Dame really is that good. The Longhorns had no answers on offense, but that was to be expected to some extent. The defense was the real disaster with no chance to come up with any sort of stop against what the Irish offense wanted to do. There wasn’t any pressure on Malik Zaire, and there wasn’t a stop to change the game. The D was on the field for over 39 minutes, and it showed. Throw this one way – the season starts next week after this horrible performance.

– Tyrone Swoopes completed 7-of-22 passes for 93 yards. Jerrod Heard completed one pass for ten yards.

Notre Dame – Texas Game Rating: C-

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Notre Dame Embarrasses Texas In South Bend

Follow and/or Contact @RichCirminiello

Notre Domination.

Notre Dame thoroughly dominated Texas this evening much the way other major programs shooed aside FCS visitors earlier in the day. If you changed the uniforms and the helmets, and looked solely at the film and the numbers, you’d be convinced that a team from the Missouri Valley Conference had spent the day in South Bend.

After watching the Irish run circles around the ‘Horns, two questions quickly surface: Is Notre Dame this good, or is Texas this feeble? There’s actually some truth to both. The Irish operated like a legit top 10 squad, bolstered by their line play and the emergence of Malik Zaire behind center. Zaire was sharp beyond expectations, particularly considering the spotlight he’s under and the challenge of facing a Charlie Strong-coached D. UT, on the other hand, is just sad right now, having lost its last three to TCU, Arkansas and ND by a combined margin of 117-20.

The Longhorns still don’t have a Big 12-caliber quarterback, and the O-line is a total mess. Strong inherited personnel problems when he took over a year ago, but tonight’s performance is inexcusable. And if the defense, the one thing the coach felt he could count on, plays the way it did tonight, Texas will have a difficult time matching last year’s 6-7 mark.

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Notre Dame Serves Notice Against Texas

Follow and/or Contact @PhilHarrisonCFB

College football world, let me introduce you to Notre Dame.

Year after year after year, the Irish get elevated in the polls only to fall flat at some point in the season. If today is any indication, the Golden Domers might just be as real as an angry Donald Trump presidential campaign.

For those of you wondering why Everett Golson was allowed to back in the U-haul and load up his football gear, maybe seeing Malik Zaire complete feats of impressive athletic endeavors was enough to put that to rest.

The 6-0, 220-pound junior has an electric arm, was on point with his decisions and accuracy, and has the ability to move the chains with his legs when things break down.

Notre Dame is simply better with the dynamic Zaire under center than what it would have been with Golson.

But it’s not all him. The talent on both sides of the ball looks to have been upgraded from years past. The schedule isn’t easy for the Irish, but the athleticism across the board may just be able to hang with any team on its schedule this year. Is it possible that Brian Kelly’s team is actually underrated this time around? Time will tell, but notice was served today.