Notre Dame guts out 23-13 victory at Texas A&M

Few humans have looked happier than graduate student defensive tackle Howard Cross III as the clock ticked down on Notre Dame’s Week 1 win over Texas A&M.

Cross skipped around the line of scrimmage. He banged his chest with his eyes aimed squarely toward the heavens. He let out a “Ha-ha!” of pure, unadulterated relief.

No. 56 and his teammates put their body and soul on the line throughout the 88-degree and hellishly humid Saturday night at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas. Now, they were reaping the reward.

When the scoreboard read 0:00, the Notre Dame bench raced onto the field. Players, coaches and staffers grinned, screamed and hugged each other on the way to the still-100 percent full visiting fan and family section, who chanted “S-E-C!” during the game’s final seconds and continued cheering well past the horn.

After the alma mater, senior quarterback Riley Leonard embraced quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli. With all the energy he had left, Leonard yelled, “Got it done when counted, baby!”

Leonard was right. On a night when nothing was easy, the Irish got it done. Notre Dame beat Texas A&M 23-13 in a hard-fought, gutsy win, starting head coach Marcus Freeman’s third season 1-0.

“Man, that was a huge victory for our football program over a really, really good football team,” Freeman said. “We always say execution fuels emotion, and when you have success like that, you’re emotional.”

Leonard felt that more than most, having struggled through most of his Notre Dame debut. 

The Duke transfer finished 18-of-30 for 158 yards, averaging 5.3 yards per attempt. The offensive line, with its six career starts, took its fair share of losses to Texas A&M’s dominant defensive front. Through three quarters, the only breakthrough was a 47-yard touchdown scamper for junior running back Jadarian Price.

But when Notre Dame got the ball at its own 15-yard line with 6:23 to go in a game tied at 13, Leonard and the Irish offense showed their resolve.

The dual-threat quarterback totaled 49 yards with his arm and his legs during that 8-play, 88-yard drive, guiding the Irish to Aggie territory. On the first snap after the 2-minute warning, Jeremiyah Love did the rest.

The sophomore running back squeezed himself from a tiny hole created by sophomore tight end Cooper Flanagan, and from there, he exploded into the secondary. Love found the end zone from 21 yards out, giving Notre Dame a 20-13 lead.

“Everybody had all the confidence in the world that we were gonna be able to score,” Leonard said. “It was just a matter of when. And finally, by the fourth quarter, we kind of got things going. And that last drive meant a lot to us.”

The Irish got a stop on the ensuing Texas A&M possession, with sophomore cornerback Christian Gray breaking up Aggie redshirt sophomore quarterback Connor Weigman’s fourth-down pass in his first career start.

South Carolina graduate transfer kicker Mitch Jeter made his third field-goal of the night four plays later, sealing the game.

“It’s rewarding,” Freeman said. “A lot of work went into this first game, from a lot of different people.”

Those people included strength coach Loren Landow, team dietician Alexa Appelman, athletic trainer Rob Hunt and sports science maestro John Wagle, who had Notre Dame in peak physical shape to prevail in the fourth quarter in College Station. 

The Irish outscored the Aggies 17-7 in the second half, and that was no accident.

“You say it’s gonna be a fourth-quarter game, it’s gonna come down to the very last minute,” Freeman said. “It’s never fun when it goes that way, but I’m proud of how we finished.”

Notre Dame comes home for Week 2, with Northern Illinois on the docket for 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday in South Bend. The stat sheet that day will say many things, but the only one that matters is 1-0.