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Show DAILY HERALD C4 Monday. September 6. 2004 COLLEGE FOOTBALL Notre Dame taking loss to BYU in stride i . Avani Patel CHICAGO FRANK BOTTDaily Herald quarterback Matt Berry (8) throws the ball under pressure from the Notre Dame defense in win. Berry threw for 167yards in relief of injured starter John Beck. Saturday's 20-1BYU 7 line six side its own line times and inside the twice. Payne averaged 46.8 yards per punt with a long of BYU 20-ya- Continued from CI they're such a storied program. Basically, I am really pleased with the win. I just felt like our guys prepared well. They felt like they had something to prove. What we are really going to do is to prepare well for Stanford." Stanford rolled over San Jose State 43-- 3 on Saturday. First, the good news: The BYU defense was terrific, holding the Irish to just 11 total rushing yards and 10 points. Ryan Grant, who was supposed to start at running back for Notre Dame, dressed but did not play against BYU because of a nagging hamstring problem. Notre Dame ran for 204 yards against BYU last season in South Bend but was forced to throw 47 times on Saturday. Brady Quinn completed 26 of 47 for 265 yards and one touchdown. BYLPs defensive line, which rotated Manaia Brown, Shaun Nua, Vince Feula, John Den-neHala Paongo, Michael and Daniel Marquardt and Justin Carlson-Madducompletely overwhelmed Notre Dame at the point of attack. Senior linebacker Brady Poppinga contributed 9.5 tackles (seven solo), 1.5 tackles for loss, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery and one sack. In his first start, middle linebacker Cameron Jensen had seven tackles. Matt Payne and the punt coverage team was huge, pushing Notre Dame back in y, x, , 63. Then, the not-sgoo- While BYlTs offense drove 75 yards on six plays in just 1:58 on its . first possession and scored a touchdown, it struggled for consistency the rest of the night. With three possessions starting on Notre Dame's side line in the secof the ond quarter, BYU managed only a Payne field goal BYU finished with 285 total yards, 129 coming on three long pass plays two to Todd Watkins and one to Austin Collie. "When you look at it, unless I missed it," said Notre Dame coach Tyrone Willingham, "it really came down to about e three passes that they , 50-ya- for 167 yards, one touchdown and one interception that was returned for a touchdown by Notre Dame in the fourth quarter. Before he left the game, Beck was for 96 yards. "It feels great (to win)," Berry said. "It was difficult coming in off the bench but I was ready when my opportunity came. I made it a little too interesting at the end but the guys came through, that's why it's a team game." Crowton said Beck's injury is a right shoulder sprain Beck's throwing arm and bruise similar to the one suffered by Brandon Doman in 2001 and that in the locker room were negative. "He has the opportunity to come back next week," Crow-to- n said. Correction: Two BYU freshmen, B J. Mathis and big-tim- had." Watkins had a to set up BYUs first touchdown and a grab for a key first down in the game's closing seconds. Collie, a freshman playing in his first college game, showed tremendous acceleration in making a fingertouchtip grab on a down catch from Matt Berry in the third quarter. "It was exciting," Collie said. "Coming out of the tunnel with all the boys, it was a rush I'd never felt before. I thought high school was big with five or six thousand people but Kar-lan- d Bennett, were taken off the active roster before the Notre Dame game. A third player on the list was incorrectly identified. It should have been Billy Turner, a freshman linebacker from California, not Billy Skinner, a freshman defensive back from Texas. Mathis and Bennett are the renters of the apartment identified in an incident in August under police investigation as an alleged rape. ... Crowton said on Sunday that he has decided to redshirt Mathis and Bennett pending the investiga- 37-ya- 42-ya- 65,000 is something else." Berry, who came in during TRIBUNE In a game as capricious as college football, the ability to forget and forge on can be a coach's and player's most important asset. In that regard, Notre Dame one game and one loss into its season is in good shape. Less than an hour after the clock had run out late Saturday night on their season-openin- g 7 loss at Brigham Young, the Irish were already bandaging the scab with everything they could muster. "I'm disappointed, obviously, but we got a pick for a touchdown and played great run defense and made some things happen up front,'' defensive coordinator Kent Baer said. "I've got a lot to build on" Despite a haphazard showing by the offensive line, right guard Dan Stevenson echoed that sentiment. "It's all mistakes we made," he said. "It's not lack of effort or lack of ability." Said safety Tom Zbikowski: "We're going to be a good We played hard, but we didn't show how good a team we are. Next week we're going to show how good a team we are." But No. 8 Michigan will be a tough team against which to rebound when it visits Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday. And after the Irish managed just 11 net rushing yards and 11 yards and converted only three of 16 third downs against BYU, any optimistic as- sessment may seem delusional But one game is too soon to concede a seasoa Notre Dame's best hope for turning around a campaign that has begun on the wrong foot is building on what 20-1- ball-clu- punt-retur- b. n it did well. The defensive front, for instance, held the Cougars to just f 22 yards rushing. The young, untested sec- - s ' I DOUOIAS C. PI ZACAssoc Kited Press BYU defensive lineman Brady Poppinga (49) grabs Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn during the second quarter on Saturday. Even with the running game ondary gave up three big plays: comA mostly ineffective, Quinn said "We still should have won this pletion that set up the Cougars' first touchdown. game. scorA "We definitely have enough talent, and our passing game is ing strike that provided BYU with its final points. strong enough that we still A third-dow- n completion with should have come out with the 1 minute 42 seconds left that alwin." lowed the Cougars to run out In a program that too often in the clock. recent years has used the quarBut with 8:19 left, cornerback terback as little more than a Preston Jackson put the Irish caretaker, Quinn's statement back in the game when he serves notice that the Irish now see themselves as team that can picked off BYU backup quarterback Matt Berry and ran the survive a bad rushing game and ball back 38 yards for a touchstill prevail. "I do like the way our team down, cutting the deficit to tried to battle, tried to fight and tried to come back," coach TyQuarterback Brady Quinn and the Notre Dame offense rone Willingham said. "Because it would have been very easy, couldn't close the gap but dison the road, in this stadium played hints of better days to come. this team plays very well at Quinn, though under pressure home to kind of give it up, and all night, opened up the offense our guys didn't do that." Added offensive coordinator and spread the ball around to Bill Diedrick: "You're going to seven receivers. His .553 comhave highs and lows, and pletion percentage was the second best of his career, arid Rhe-m- a you've got to be able to come touchback from both of those. This is McKnight's down reception from Quinn a low. This one hurts. But (the was the longest of his career. season) doesnt stop here." 50-ya- first-quart- 42-ya- rd third-quart- 20-1- 7. tion. I Darnell Dickson can be 5 reached at or by the second quarter after start-in- g quarterback John Beck went down with a shoulder injury, completed 15of-2- 3 passes -- No. 25 Purdue shuts out 344-255- ddicksonheraldextra.com S3 overmatched Syracuse Pete DiPrimio t--- WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. So who's carrying whom? Let's ask Purdue defensive end Ray Edwards. "Purdue is known for its fast defense and we tried to keep that up," Edwards said in the aftermath of Sunday's 51-0 Shy season-- opening victory over visiting Syracuse that turned defensive vulnerability into a myth. "We PURDUE 51 wanted to SYRACUSE 0 take it to them." Think the defense is a weak link? Listen to strong safety d Bernard Pollard of the Boilermakers. "I didn't envision a shutout, but I knew we could play well," the former South Side standout said. "We have the athletes. We've practiced hard. We can be a good defense. We can play like this every week." Now that Purdue's defense n has squashed talk by stuffing Syracuse into irrelevance, consider the matter settled. For now. "Speed kills," defensive coordinator Brock Spack said, "and we've recruited for speed. We took advantage of that (against Syracuse), Now we have to keep it up." Even without starring corner-bac- k Antwaun Rogers (out with a strained Achilles' heel), the youthful defense feasted on Syracuse quarterback Joe Fields, a true freshman, and tailback Walter Reyes, a true stud (1,347 yards rushing and 21 TD i last year). L. "Nobody expected this," Purdue quarterback Kyle Orton said "I thought the defense would be good, but I didn't think they'd be this good this 75-ya- second-class-citize- FREE wings with a minimum purchase of $12 dinner STUDENT ATHLETE BUILDING www.byH.tdttUgtndttrilla jly r JYfLIn( IHXSllK ' ' ".'.'AYS "N. vp" XT ,.: v . '''' HEARD, ALWAYS CONSIDERATE, ' " ..." ' :' " first-quart- slow-foote- 67-ya- MICHAEL Press CONROYAssociated Purdue quarterback Kyle Orton, top, is tackled by Syracuse's KeMn Smith on Sunday.-Purduwon, 51-- e 0. 25th-ranke- TICKETS TO MWC GAMES BYU SPORT MEMORABILIA LEGENDS GRILLE DINNER FOR 2 He ran for 32 yards and even added a pooch punt in three quarters of work. "I don't like first games," he said, "because you never know how good the opponent is going to be and you're not sure how good you are. It's hard to settle down." . Purdue's quick-strik- e attack displayed speed it's lacked for four years. Junior college transfer Brian Hare showed some of it with his touchdown catch. Senior receiver Taylor Stubblef ield, once the d butt of jokes, showed more with his third-quartTD reception Even backup tailback Brandon Jones made a statement with a touchdown reception Add Stubblefield's spectacusecond-quarte- r lar touchdown catch and you have a passing attack as good as advertised. "It's nice to see that much wide receiver speed on the field," Orton said. When Syracuse braced for the pass, tailback Jerod Void led a rushing attack that totaled 237 20-ya- THE early." Added coach Joe Tiller: "When you lose eight defensive starters, that's a big concern. I was real anxious to see how we handled that." Pollard's first career interception helped the Boilers handle Fields, while Edwards and fellow end Anthony Spencer, a former Bishop Luers standout, helped contain Reyes. The Heis-ma- n Trophy candidate finished with just 31 yards rushing. "Coaches kept telling us all week how great this back was," Edwards said. "When we went out, we were fired up." Syracuse coach Paul Pasqualoni, already under fire after last year's 6 record (2-- 5 in the Big East), never saw this coming. "We were hoping to play through our inexperience, but we didnt do enough offensive-ly,- " he said. "And we gave up too many big plays on de-fense." Orton flashed nationally televised Heisman Trophy form with his career-bes- t four touchdowns, phis 287 passing yards. 6-- 32-ya- d, yards "In a game like this there's a lot that pleases you," Tiller said with a smile, "and what pleased me the most was our punting because we only did it once." Orton misfired on his first three pass attempts and five of his first seven That cost the Boilermakers a likely touchdown, a problem that was compounded when usually reliable kicker Ben field-goJones botched a attempt. Void made amends six minutes later with a TD run and a Purdue lead. The Boilermakers made it 14-- 0 just before the end of the first e ouarter with the - ' connection. n 37-ya- al 7-- 0 Orton-to-Har- I UNLV lost to No. 14 Tennessee on Sunday. For a game recap, see CJ. QtrDaDoae.ccmQin) |