Malik Zaire was 19-for-22 with 313 yards and 3 touchdowns Saturday in Notre Dame’s 38-3 trouncing of Texas. He gained just 16 yards on his feet. Damien Dennis/The Pit
[dropcap]N[/dropcap]otre Dame Head Coach Brian Kelly was very careful to mention during his post-game press conference Saturday night that this counts as one win.
“We opened up with a great win against Michigan; so it’s a long journey for our football team,” Kelly said. “We are excited about the win, but we’ve got a long way to go.”
The Fighting Irish opened the 2015 season at home with demolishing force to beat the Texas Longhorns, 38-3. In just his second start ever, junior quarterback Malik Zaire performed exceedingly well, throwing the ball for 313 yards and 3 touchdowns.
With 6:29 remaining in the first quarter, Zaire targeted Will Fuller for a 16 yard pass into the endzone, putting the Irish ahead 7-0 early into the contest.
“We have a lot to improve on,” Fuller said when asked about the offensive performance. “I can’t wait to watch film because winning that big knowing you have something you need to improve on gets me that much more into a groove.”
Fuller finished with 142 yards on seven receptions and 2 touchdowns. Zaire finished 19-for-22 through the air.
Zaire would hook up with Fuller again in the third quarter on a huge 66-yard pass to push the Notre Dame lead to 24-3 at the time. The quarterback would connect with Chris Brown on a 6-yard pass in the fourth for Notre Dame’s final touchdown of the game.
While Zaire’s running ability was never a cause for concern – he ran for a gain of just 16 yards against Texas – nobody knew what to expect out of his arm.
“He clearly has the ability to throw the football as much as we would need him to throw it and throw it accurately, which he did tonight,” Kelly said.
“We talked about on defense containing their quarterback and not allowing him to throw and he had all day to throw the football and they were able to execute on some big plays,” Texas Head Coach Charlie Strong said about pressuring Zaire.
Notre Dame out-gained Texas offensively, totaling 527 yards to the Longhorns’ 163. Texas quarterback Tyrone Swoopes was contained himself, completing just 7-of-22 passes for 93 yards.
Texas’ only scoring run came with 8:36 left in the third, as the field goal unit put up 3 thanks to Nick Rose’s 41-yard attempt.
Strong said that in the preseason, he’s talked with his team about protecting his quarterback and giving him time to make plays, something Texas failed to do Saturday.
“We had to protect Tyrone, protect him – along the middle there to build – we’ve got to give the guy a chance to play the ball,” Strong said.
Texas had 103 yards total through the air but just 60 on the ground.
For Notre Dame, C.J. Prosise excelled in his new role for the Irish. With 20 touches, Prosise ran for a gain of 98 yards. But it was freshman Josh Adams that truly led the backfield.
After Tarean Folston went down with an injury, Adams was used to fill the hole. Totaling just 49 yards, the freshman was able to find the necessary holes and tally himself 2 touchdowns.
“Any time when a freshman can come in and pick up all the protections early on, it’s been my feeling that he’s ready to play, provided he’s got the skill and also what kind of skill he has,” Kelly said.
He added, “We felt like he was a kid that was under the radar last year. He had a knee injury that kind of took him off the radar a little bit. But he’s just scratching the surface. He’s got elite speed. He’s got great size. Got good ball skills and obviously he’s a kid that we believe in.”
Despite all the positives coming out of the game, Kelly is treading water lightly after last year.
“So all in all for a first game, this is what you should look like and it’s something that you can build on,” he said.
On the opposite side, Texas’ Strong felt his team just didn’t prepare well enough.
“Well, it’s always a shock (when) you go get embarrassed. You would have figured we would have came out and played much better than we did,” he said. “And you can’t take anything away from Notre Dame. But you can still look at it at the end of the day at 38-3 and I think we are a better football team than that.”
Up Next
Texas will open their home schedule Saturday (9/12) against Rice in Austin, Tx with a 7 p.m. kickoff. The Irish hit the road to take on Virginia Saturday with a 3:30 p.m. kickoff.
