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Rockne's Roundtable
November 1, 2009 Always On Call
by TODD D. BURLAGE
Assistant Editor
SAN ANTONIO – Irish junior Robert Hughes certainly would prefer to be the starting tailback for Notre Dame, or at least a bigger part of the offense. But give the reserve runner credit for being ready every time his number has been called this season.
With starting junior tailback Armando Allen not dressed Saturday with an ankle injury, Hughes became the workhorse in a 40-14 rout of Washington State at the Alamodome.
Hughes finished with 131 yards on 24 carries. The effort gave Hughes his first 100-yard game since he recorded a career-high 136 yards against Stanford during the last game of his freshman year in 2007.
Hughes also showed his versatility with four catches for 51 yards, and proved once again that this Notre Dame team features more depth than at any time in the Charlie Weis era.
“I just try to focus on doing my job,” Hughes said afterward. “Whenever your number is called, you got to make the best of the opportunity.”
Hughes continues to produce when called upon. Allen was also held out of the Purdue game and Hughes responded with 15 carries for 68 yards and a touchdown. Against Washington a week later with Allen still not full speed, Hughes was called on again and he answered with eight carries for 70 yards and a score.
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Goodman's 64-yard touchdown reception was the first of his collegiate career.
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Weis said that when Hughes finally realized he needed to be more of a bruising runner, the results were quick to follow.
“Once he made that decision,” Weis said, “run with my pads down, leaning forward, not trying to make everyone miss. Once he made that decision, that kind of cleaned up for him how he is going to play the game…I really don’t know when the switch went on, but the switch definitely went on, and he decided this is what he is going to be."
Holy Hail Mary
Writing a post-game notebook has become impossible without including Golden Tate every week. The Irish junior receiver enjoyed another solid game Saturday with four catches for 80 yards. Included in that production was a 50-yard touchdown catch on a Hail Mary pass that may hold up as the most memorable offensive moment of the season.
On the last play of the first half, Tate leapt over a pack of three defenders and pulled down a pass that Irish junior quarterback Jimmy Clausen threw 62 yards in the air for the touchdown. The play gave Notre Dame a 30-7 halftime lead and sucked any drama from the outcome of this game.
“That’s what Golden has been doing ever since he set foot on campus,” Clausen said. “I was just trying to get it there, throw it as far as I could and Golden went up and made one spectacular play. It might be the play of the year.”
Tate said he stays after practice on Thursdays and works on going up and catching passes thrown by the Jugs gun. The extra work obviously paid off.
The catch helped boost a nice efficient day for Clausen, who finished 22-of-27 passing for 268 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions.
“Coach (Weis) had confidence in just throwing it up and Jimmy has the arm,” Tate said. “Jimmy made a perfect throw, a very nice ball, and just being competitive I went up and caught it.”
Return Of The ‘Cat’
After using the Wildcat formation very sparingly against Boston College two weeks ago, the Irish went back to the offensive strategy and enjoyed tremendous results with it in the first half Saturday.
On Notre Dame’s first touchdown drive of the game, the Irish ran out of the formation four straight times and gained 57 yards on those four attempts, setting up a 7-yard passing touchdown. One offensive drive later, Irish junior receiver Golden Tate took the direct snap out of the Wildcat formation, bounced off a couple of tacklers and went 16 yards for a second-straight touchdown.
The Irish ran six plays out of the Wildcat formation Saturday for 76 yards, an average of 12.7 yards per play. Tate enjoyed the most success, rushing for 61 yards on four carries out of Wildcat.
Return Of Rudolph
Charlie Weis took a proactive approach during practice last week to get sophomore tight end Kyle Rudolph back on track. Rudolph averaged 4.2 catches and 53.4 yards in his first five games this season, but managed only four catches and 20 yards total in consecutive games against USC and Boston College.
Weis spent parts of practice last week specifically working with the tight ends and trying to put in some plays to get Rudolph the ball more. The extra work obviously helped. Rudolph hit Washington State with six catches and 59 yards in his return to form.
“I had made my mind up along with the staff that he was going to get back in the action,” Weis said. “Even if I had to force feed him getting back in the action.”
“It’s nice to get things back and get things going in the right direction,” Rudolph said.
Mr. Automatic
Freshman placekicker Nick Tausch continued to be the model of consistency for Notre Dame Saturday.
Tausch connected on his 13th consecutive field goal on a 29-yard attempt in the first quarter to tie the all-time Irish record for consecutive made field goals. He later broke the record late in the third quarter with a 30-yarder.
Mike Johnston held the record previously, after he hit 13 straight field goals during the 1982 season. The only miss of the season for Tausch came on his first career attempt against Michigan in game two.
Interestingly, Tausch hasn’t been as steady on his extra point attempts, missing three of his 27 attempts this season, including one of his five tries against Washington when a kick in the first quarter was blocked.
Injury Notes
Injuries became a big problem for the Irish on the artificial turf of the Alamodome.
Irish sophomore guard Trevor Robinson had his right ankle rolled on in the first quarter, had to be helped from the field and didn’t return to the game. He emerged from the locker room in the second half on crutches and wearing a walking boot. Senior reserve Dan Wenger played in place of Robinson.
“I think that his is just kind of [he] rolled an ankle,” Irish head coach Charlie Weis said of Robinson. “But we weren’t taking a chance. He seemed to be walking around in the locker room.”
Maybe the most anxious injury moment came late in the third quarter when Irish junior quarterback Jimmy Clausen tripped and appeared to aggravate his turf toe injury. Clausen limped to the Notre Dame sideline and sophomore Dayne Crist took over for Clausen and played the rest of the game. Weis said Clausen could have returned.
Crist then suffered a knee injury in the fourth quarter when his leg was rolled on during a running play. Senior Evan Sharpley finished the game at quarterback for Notre Dame.
In addition to junior tailback Armando Allen (ankle), senior receiver Robby Parris (leg) also made the trip Saturday but did not dress for the game. Senior fullback/tight end Bobby Burger didn’t make the trip to San Antonio after suffering an injury against Boston College.
A Few Leftovers
• The win over Washington State was only the second in seven games in a dome for the Irish. The other victory came in the 1992 Sugar Bowl when the No. 18 Irish dumped No. 3 Florida, 39-28, at the Superdome in New Orleans. The Irish also improved to 15-0 all time on Halloween. The offsite game gave NBC a chance to televise a Notre Dame game in prime time for the first time in the 19 years the network has been televising Irish games. The official attendance was announced at 53,407 or about 11,600 short of capacity inside the 65,000-seat Alamodome.
• Crist hooked up with sophomore wide receiver John Goodman for a 64-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter. It was the first touchdown pass and catch of their respective careers.
• After giving up at least 275 passing yards in five straight games before Saturday, the Irish pass defense settled down against Washington State allowed just 104 yards, a season low by an Irish opponent this season, though the Irish did give up two touchdown passes.
• Staying to true to the “home” game theme more than 1,000 miles from home, Notre Dame brought the 400-member band to San Antonio. Seats on eight different commercial flights Friday out of Chicago were needed to get the entire band to Texas.
• Irish junior tight end Mike Ragone caught a second quarter pass for six yards Saturday. It was his first catch of the season and the second of his career, the other coming against Navy in 2007.
• Irish Heisman Trophy winner Tim Brown accompanied the team captains to midfield for the coin flip.
• The most common Halloween costume at the game was clearly the referee uniform.
