Players of the Game From the Notre Dame Gator Bowl Victory Over South Carolina

The No. 21 Notre Dame Combating Irish  (9-4) capped off the 2022 season with a come-from-behind victory over the No. 19 South Carolina Gamecocks (8-5). Notre Dame’s 45-38 victory was its most factors scored in a bowl sport since 2008. There have been a number of standouts on either side of the ball and on particular groups, however three gamers stood above the remainder.

OFFENSE – Logan Diggs, Working Again

Stats: 13 carries, 89 yards, 6.8 YPC, 1 TD / 2 catches, 81 yards, 1 TD
Runners Up: RB Audric Estime, QB Tyler Buchner, WR Jayden Thomas

There have been a number of gamers that might have earned this award, and early within the sport there isn’t a method I believed Logan Diggs would get the nod from me. I didn’t like how Diggs ran early within the sport, as he was a bit tentative and wasn’t operating with a lot authority.

But it surely’s not the way you begin, it is the way you end. Diggs turned the sport utterly round when he caught a fast slide cross from Tyler Buchner after which out ran the South Carolina protection on his approach to a 75-yard landing. A 24-10 sport wherein the Irish had been completely being outplayed seemed rather a lot totally different after that play, and regardless of just a few pricey errors the Irish regained and stored the momentum after the large play from Diggs.

Within the second half Diggs ran with extra authority, and he gave Notre Dame its first lead of the sport when he burst by way of the road and raced 39 yards for one more landing. By the tip of the night time Diggs had racked up 170 yards of offense and two big touchdowns.

Backfield mate Audric Estime was arguably probably the most constant again on the night time, and he sparked the bottom assault within the second half, however the massive performs from Diggs had been sport changers. Buchner was named the sport MVP and he did some nice issues within the win, however he had two actually unhealthy picks within the sport (the opposite was a tipped cross) and missed just a few too many layups to be the POTG for me.

DEFENSE – Jordan Botelho, Defensive Finish

Stats: 4 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, 2 sacks, 2 QB hurries
Runners Up: S Xaver Watts, DL Rylie Mills, LB JD Bertrand

Junior edge Jordan Botelho earned his first begin of the season and he was tasked with filling the huge footwear of Isaiah Foskey, who sat out the sport as he prepares for the NFL Draft. Botelho did his greatest Foskey impression, dealing with the sting within the run sport and offering some very essential pressures.

Botelho made an excellent learn early on a Spencer Rattler faux, bringing him down for a loss on the play. On the ultimate play of the third quarter, Botelho gained across the edge, battled and finally introduced down Rattler for his second sack, which pressured a punt. That was with the sport tied 31-31, and the Irish offense adopted that cease with a scoring drive that gave Notre Dame its first lead of the sport.

Botelho additionally had two extra nice pressures that pressured incompletions, together with a third-down stress that ended a drive. It was Botelho that sparked the second half cross rush that bought Rattler utterly out of his sport.

SPECIAL TEAMS – Braden Lenzy, Broad Receiver

Stats: 1 catch, 20 yards

The 2 gamers of the sport on offense and protection made sport altering performs, and that is additionally true of Braden Lenzy. He not solely made big performs on offense, performing in a method the place he might make his personal case for being the participant of the sport there, Lenzy made the particular groups play of the sport.

With the sport tied 31-31 early within the fourth quarter, Lenzy was referred to as on to execute a shovel cross on a faux punt. His timing was excellent and he used his pace to outrun the South Carolina protection for a 20-yard achieve, which bought the Irish into South Carolina territory. The drive ended three performs later when Diggs raced 39 yards for a rating.

If that is the final sport of Lenzy’s profession he ended it in spectacular vogue. He caught three different passes for 69 yards, together with a 44-yard landing cross after which changing a Third-and-7 on a well-executed slant route. The faux punt was icing on the cake for the veteran.

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