Once again a quick start andugly finish resulted in a NotreDame victory. After taking a17-3 lead into halftime, theIrish held on for a 23-17 vic-tory over Pittsburgh Saturday. “We got off to a pretty good

start offensively, but as we’veshown, we are really good atstubbing our toe,” Irish coachBrian Kelly said. “That’s us,so you’re going to have to getused to it, because I’m tryingto get used to it.”Junior quarterback Dayne

Crist had one of his best per-formances of the year, on his21st birthday, racking up 242passing yards on 24 comple-tions, including a first-quartertouchdown pass to junior widereceiver Michael Floyd. Cristadded a 10-yard scramble fora score midway through thesecond quarter and did notturn the ball over all day. “He saw some things today

that he feels better about,”Kel ly said. “He’s makingprogress.”The Panthers opened the

scoring halfway through thefirst quarter with a 26-yardf ie ld goal , but the Ir ishresponded with a methodical,fast-paced drive that culmi-nated in the Floyd-Crist con-nection for the Notre Damelead. Pittsburgh would miss afield goal before allowing a15-play, 80-yard drive cappedby the Crist run that gave theIrish a 14-3 lead.“They had us off-balance

defensively with the no-hud-dle offenseat a fastertempo thanwe couldhave everpracticed,”Pittsburghcoach DaveWannstedtsaid. “Theydid a goodjob. Theywere verye f f i c i e n tearly.”The Irish

had notshown this tempo in earliergames, but Crist said that ithad always been part of theteam’s offensive scheme.“We’ve really been doing it

since the summer, and youcan just see the way that weoperate i t , i t can be veryeffective,” he said. “It’s nicebeing able to switch thetempo at any point in the

game.”Senior kicker David Ruffer

added the first of his threefield goals in the second quar-ter to give the Irish a 17-3

lead headinginto the lock-er room, andopened thescoring in thesecond hal fwith a 50-yard field goalt h a timpressed hiscoach. “ N o b o d y

would havethought 50yards was likea u t oma t i c , ”Kel ly said.

“He kicked that thing into thenet — I had to look twice thatit was 50 yards. He’s just beenoutstanding.”The Irish offense, however,

began to sputter just as thePanthers found their rhythm.Pittsburgh found the end zoneon a rush from sophomorequarterback Tino Sunseri latein the third quarter and had

most of the momentum head-ing into the fourth quarter.Notre Dame looked poised to

regain control, driving fromits own 16-yard line to thePanther 15, but the offensefailed to punch the ball intothe end zone, leading toRuffer’s third and final fieldgoal that gave the Irish a 23-10 lead with under ten min-utes remaining. On the ensuing drive, facing

third-and-two near midfield,Sunseri rolled to his right andfound junior wide receiverJon Baldwin all alone for a56-yard score that stunnedthe home fans and broughtPittsburgh within one score.Though the Ir ish had con-tained Baldwin, the Panthers’most explos ive threat , formost of the game, it seemedthat he had slipped free at theworst possible time.“You can’t leave Baldwin by

himself all the time,” Kellysaid.When the Irish ran seven

plays on the next drive andfailed to score even a fieldgoal, sophomore punter Ben

Turk was able to p in thePanthers on their own 10-yard line, setting up a three-and-out with just over threeminutes remaining.Notre Dame got the bal l

back in a position to run outthe clock, but failed to convertmore than one first down, giv-ing the ball back to Pittsburghon its own 7-yard line thanksto another punt from Turk.“We flipped the field posi-

tion today,” Kelly said. “BenTurk was outstanding puntingthe football.”The Panthers looked to

advance down the field andset up a possible game-win-ning score, but strong defen-sive line pressure and solidtackling from the secondaryset up a fourth-and-four atthe Pit tsburgh 13. Sunserilooked for his favorite target,Baldwin, but senior corner-back Gary Gray was all overthe play and batted the passdown, allowing the Irish toescape with a tight victory.“We were in good cover-

age,” Kelly said. “Gary did theright thing, reacted to the

football, and came up with abig play.”When Crist took the final

knee to run out the clock, theplayers celebrated the tightwin with special gusto, realiz-ing the s ignif icance of themuch-needed win. Though thesecond half was fil led withNotre Dame struggles, Kellywanted his players to enjoythe victory — untill Monday.“We need to win games, and

it’s not a beauty contest yetfor us,” he said. “I just toldthem, ‘Enjoy the win.’ We’llmicromanage this and talkabout what we could havedone and should have done onMonday. Enjoy the victory. It’sa good win.”Senior quarterback Darrin

Walls, a Pittsburgh native,agreed with his coach.“I t was a great win. I t ’s

a lways good to beat yourhometown team,” he said.“We practiced hard all weekand definitely came out with awinning mentality today.”

Another fast start and late drama result in Notre Dame’s second straight win

Monday, September 19, 2005 o bserverTHE

Michigan State 44 , Notre Dame 41

player of the game

David RufferIrish kicker

Ruffer accounted for 11 of NotreDame’s points, including three field

goals that were never in doubt.

quote of the game

“As we’ve shown, we are really goodat stubbing our toe ... But that’s us. Soyou’re going to have to get used to it.”

Brian KellyIrish coach

stat of the game

28:38

Notre Dame held onto the ball for28:38 Saturday, the most time it hasdone so all season. Yet the Irish rank118th in the country in the statistic.

play of the game

Crist’s 10-yard touchdown run to givethe Irish a 14-3 lead in the first quarter

Crist’s run up the sideline from 10yards out gave Notre Dame control

of the game.

Monday, October 11, 2010 o bserverTHE

IRISH INSIDERNotre Dame 23, Pittsburgh 17

Contact Allan Joseph atajoseph2@nd.edu

By ALLAN JOSEPHSports Writer

MACKENZIE SAIN/The Observer

Junior receiver Michael Floyd stretches after a pass from junior quarterback Dayne Crist during the second quarter of Notre Dame’s23-17 victory over Pittsburgh Saturday. Floyd did not stay in bounds on the play, but did catch a touchdown in the first quarter.

Two straight

“We need to win games,and it’s not a beauty

contest yet for us ... We’llmicromanage this and talkabout what we could havedone and should have done

on Monday.”

Brian KellyIrish coach

A

The Observer u IRISH INSIDERpage 2 Monday, October 11, 2010

Ugly win is still a positive stepCan we really be happy at all

with Notre Dame’s win overPittsburgh? Wasn’t this just anoth-er example of letting a team off thehook that the Irish were much bet-ter than? Isn’t it pretty clear thatDayne Cristdoesn’t havewhat it takes tobe a successfulquarterback inthis offense?Isn’t this teamjust like lastyear’s?The nature of

Notre Damefootball fanslends itself toextreme highsand extremelows. A bad lossmeans that theIrish have no chance of beating anyother teams for the rest of the sea-son, so we’ll just have to wait fornext year — and fire our headcoach. A good loss shows thatNotre Dame can play with anyone,and that the team is just on thebrink of being the best Irish teamanyone’s ever seen — just waituntil next year.A good win (like the one against

Purdue) shows just how talentedthe Irish roster is, and how amaz-ing a coach we’ve hired and thatwe should be 8-3 going into USC —Utah should be a breeze. A bad win(like the win over Pittsburgh, formany) is basically a loss, becausecan we really expect this team tobeat any talented teams, especiallyif they show no pride in the schooland tradition which they repre-

sent?Notre Dame beat Pittsburgh. Sure

the victory was sloppy. Yes, theIrish let the Panthers back into thegame and showed very little killerinstinct by not scoring a touchdownin the second half. But they didbeat Pittsburgh, a team that theyshould have beaten. And winningthose games, those you should win,is a sign of a team that’s on therise.Brian Kelly summed up it nicely

in his post-game press conference.“This is not a transition year,” he

said. “This is a winning year. Wedon’t allow [the Irish players] togrow. But they’re growing. Andthat’s really what we’re goingthrough, some growing pains as wemove forward. But I’m a big believ-er that you can have those and stillwin football games.”This is an Irish squad with an

offense still trying to find its identi-ty. They have a quarterback whohas now made six career starts, anoffensive line with only two playerswho had ever started a game at thecollegiate level before this season,and a receiver playing the positionfor the first time in his life. This isa transition year, whether Kellywants to admit it or not.The difference is that it’s a team

transitioning while still beating theteams that it should. Does anyoneremember 2007, the last Irish teamto play an entire season with a newquarterback? Even last year’s team(a veteran one, for all intents andpurposes), if the offense had playedas poorly as the offense didSaturday, would not have beatenPittsburgh.

Dayne Crist is not an elite collegequarterback. He is a very talentedplayer who isn’t fully comfortablerunning a college offense or mak-ing all the reads and throws thathe needs to make over the courseof a game. But when asked ifCrist’s zero-interception perform-ance against Pitt was a step in theright direction, Kelly beamed. Hehad a look on his face that said,“Just wait. This kid’s going to besomething special, and you’re justseeing the beginning.” Crist is notan elite college quarterback, buthe’s going to be.It may not bring many changes onthe field yet, but the attitudearound the Notre Dame footballprogram is changing. Kelly said sohimself.“There’s something they’re start-

ing to develop a little bit and that isthey believe they’re going to win,”he said. “We’re not there yet, butwe’re taking the right stepstowards where we want to go as afootball team.”This team is not ready to be a

national powerhouse. They aren’tready to play in a BCS bowl, andthey probably aren’t even ready tobeat USC. But this is the beginningof something special. They arestarting to make strides in the rightdirection, and beating Pittsburgh, ateam that the Irish should havebeaten, is just one of those strides.

The views expressed in this col-umn are those of the author andnot necessarily those of TheObserver.

Contact Eric Prister ateprister@nd.edu

Bquarterbacks: Dayne Crist completed 12consecutive passes in one stretch, onlyto follow that with six consecutiveincompletions. He did not throw anyincompletions though.

report card

Eric Prister

AssociateSports Editor

Brunning backs:Aramando Allen and CierreWood both averaged at least four yardsper carry, but they only ran the ball 20times. The latter fact is not their fault, butit did limit their impact.

B+receivers:No Irish receiver made anybreathtaking ball, but they caught the ballconsistently, and eliminated nearly all mis-takes. Theo Riddick continued his rise, andMichael Floyd made a nice TD grab.

B-offensive line: The Irish line letPittsburgh defensive linemen spentquite a bit of time in the Irish backfield,sacking Crist three times and hurryinghim more often than that.

Bdefensive line: Pittsburgh was able togain yards consistently throughout thegame, but timely tackles for loss haltedits serious attacks, and strong pres-sure in the fourth ended the game.

B+linebackers:The Irish linebackers helpedcontain the Pittsburgh rushing attackfrom any big plays, but Pittsburgh stillaveraged 3.5 yards per carry, including5.5 from starter Ray Graham.

C+defensive backs: Pittsburgh managed 272yards through the air, including 56 on afourth quarter touchdown pass thatbrought the Panthers back into the ballgame.

special teams:David Ruffer converted allthree of his field goal attempts, includinga 50-yarder that even Irish coach BrianKelly admitted surprised him. PunterBen Turk averaged 46.6 yards per punt.

Bcoaching: The Irish came out ready to playSaturday, and the defense looked goodfrom the outset. But as the game pro-gressed, Notre Dame regressed, and thattraces back to Kelly.

3.08overall:Notre Dame won, andthat is what matters, but theinability to put Pittsburgh awaywhen the Irish had the chancewas unnerving, as usual.

TOM LA/The Observer

Junior quarterback Dayne Crist scrambles for a few yards during Notre Dame’s 23-17 victory over PittsburghSaturday. Crist and the Irish earned their second consecutive win, holding off a late charge from the Panthers.

adding up the numbers

18The Notre Dame defense recorded six tackles forlosses of 18 yards in the Pittsburgh backfield,including two sacks.

6:23 Notre Dame’s second touchdown drive lasted6:23, the longest scoring drive of the season,as it covered 80 yards in 15 plays.

12Crist completed 12 consecutive passesSaturday, the third-longest streak in schoolhistory.

19 Michael Floyd’s first quarter touchdown recep-tion was his 19th in his career. That moveshim into a tie for fifth place in school history.

9David Ruffer has connected on a field goal ineach of the nine games he has started at kicker.

11 Harrison Smith led the Irish defense with 11tackles, one interception and two passbreakups.

4.3Armando Allen carried the ball 13 times for 56yards, averaging 4.3 yards per carry, andCierre Wood added 28 yards on seven carries.

83 Freshman Bennett Jackson returned four kick-offs for 83 yards, bringing his two-game totalto 194 yards on returns.

TOM LA/The Observer

The Irish sideline signals in plays to the Notre Dame offense. In honor of October as National Breast Cancer Awarenessmonth, the Irish incorporated pink into their attire for Saturday’s 23-17 victory over Pittsburgh.

Saturday was a win for both of Irishcoach Brian Kelly’s families as the Irish wonon the field while supporting breast cancerresearch and awareness, a cause close tohis heart. From the pink armbands andtowels to Paqui Kelly’s pink Notre Dame jer-sey and the hug she gave her husband atthe end, Saturday’s “Pink” Game was a spe-cial one. “Anytime you get a chance to see your

family [it’s special], you know, because [thecoaches and team] spend about 80 hours aweek,” Kelly said. “We’ve got two families:football family and our own family. So whenyou get a chance to share it with your fami-ly, that’s a great day. Again, doing it atNotre Dame, it doesn’t get any better thanthat.”Kelly was able to bring both his families

together at the end of the game when hestood behind his players as they held on toone another and sang the Alma Materwhile he could hold close his wife and son.Saturday’s game was a win for Kelly’s

football family, but also for his own familywho has had to face the challenges ofbreast cancer twice before. Paqui, a two-time survivor of the disease, now champi-ons raising awareness and early detectionof the disease, as well as for raising funds tosupport its research. Saturday she wasshowing her support for the Irish andbreast cancer in head-to-toe pink, includingthe aforementioned pink jersey and the

new adidas Breast Cancer Collection’s pink,navy and white Notre Dame visor.The team and coaches also sported the

new adidas pink-accented line, wearingwhite polos with pink and navy accents forthe program’s first “Pink” game and tocommemorate October as National BreastCancer Awareness month, a month Kellywas proud his team could support. “Well I think college football and the NFL

have embraced breast cancer and height-ened its awareness nationally,” he said.“When you can do it on the college level,you know for obviously the publicity we geton TV and in the NFL, I think it’s such agreat cause and it’s awesome that we’reable to do that.”Kelly and his wife have also supported

breast cancer research through their KellyCares Foundation. The foundation focuseson supporting various organizations andcauses that share similar values as theKelly’s in three central areas: education,community and health with a focus onwomen’s health and breast cancer.Kelly Cares has already worked to turn its

support for breast cancer awareness andresearch into action in the Notre Damecommunity by donating to the Mike andJosie Harper Cancer Research Institute inHarper Hall. The donation brings scientistsfrom Notre Dame and Indiana UniversitySchool of Medicine-South Bend together incancer research to help prevent, diagnoseand treat the disease. Kelly was not the only one who was

happy to support the cause on Saturday. Hisplayers proudly sported pink wrist or arm-

bands on the field and used pink Gatoradetowels instead of white ones on the side-lines. They, too, were happy to help pro-mote breast cancer awareness for theirown families, their coach and for eachother, Irish junior quarterback Dayne Cristsaid.Crist said that supporting the cause

added an extra element to the game.“Just being able to represent such a great

cause, you know, that kind of adds to thewhole aura of the game and the pageantryof the game,” Crist said. “Obviously, withhow Coach Kelly was affected with breastcancer, that’s our leader and that’s whowere supportive of. And there’s tons of guysin the locker room who, unfortunately, wereaffected by that in one way or another.”Senior cornerback Darrin Walls, wearing

a pink, navy, and gold Irish football shirtafter the game, felt that having a “Pink”game brought the team and coaches closertogether, and that the game held a lot of sig-nificance for his team, as well as for NotreDame. “It’s big,” he said. “My grandma had

breast cancer and she overcame that. Ithink it’s big to show the support we haveas a team, just the concern we have, and Ithink that builds trust in coaches and thingslike that, so it’s a good deal. A lot of us haveknown someone who’s been dealing withbreast cancer, so it means a lot and oursupport shows that Notre Dame cares a lotabout things other than football.”

Notre Dame 14, Pittsburgh 3Crist 10-yard run (Ruffer kick) with 8:25 remaining.Drive: 15 plays, 80 yards, 6:23 elapsed.

Notre Dame 17, Pittsburgh 3Ruffer 32-yard field goal with 3:22 remaining.Drive: 5 plays, 30 yards, 2:11 elapsed.

Irish junior quarterbackDayne Crist celebrated his 21stbirthday in style Saturday, with242 passing yards and two totaltouchdowns.“No better present than get-

ting a win on your birthday,”Crist said. “The guys wished mea happy birthday. We werereally celebrating the win, andthere’s not a better feeling.”

Time of possessionThe Irish had the ball for

more time than they did in anyother game this season —28:38. Nonetheless, NotreDame’s average time of posses-sion remains among the lowestin the country, at 26:07. Only

two of the 120 teams in theFootball Bowl Subdivision holdonto the ball for less time:Houston at 24:03 and MiddleTennessee State at 23:57.“At the end of the day I’m not

a big time of possession guy,”Kelly said. “I’d rather havemore points on the board thantime of possession and sittinghere going we won time of pos-session but we lost.”Notre Dame ranks 82nd in

the country in points per gameat 24.33.

Touchdown marchesNotre Dame had its longest

touchdown drive of the seasonlast week against BostonCollege, lasting 4:44, until theIrish scored their first touch-down Saturday, covering 77yards in 13 plays and 4:50.

Their next touchdown drivelasted 6:23, as Notre Dameused 15 plays to cover 80 yards.The Irish had mounted only onetouchdown drive longer than6:23 in the last two seasons — adrive that lasted 6:40 againstPittsburgh in 2009.

Kicking, kicking, kickingSenior kicker David Ruffer

continued his streak of perfec-tion, as he sent three kicksthrough the field goal uprightsSaturday. Those three fieldgoals brought his season total to16, on 16 attempts. The streakof 16 consecutive successfulfield goals is the longest inNotre Dame history, yet alonethe longest to open a career.The previous record was heldby sophomore Nick Tausch, setlast year at 14 field goals.

Ruffer’s field goals were 32-,50- and 31-yards. The 50-yarder is the sixth-longest fieldgoal in history, and the first ofmore than 50 yards since 2003.“Ruffer is obviously doing

things that obviously not manypeople, including myself,thought he could do,” Kellysaid. “He’s just been outstand-ing. The kicking game and thekickers, in particular, were verystrong.”Sophomore punter Ben Turk

also performed above expecta-tions Saturday. Turk enteredthe game with a net puntingaverage of 36.52, but two 51-yard punts helped his averageon the afternoon reach 47yards.

The Observer u IRISH INSIDERMonday, October 11, 2010 page 3

Irish join others by playing in pink

By MEAGHAN VESELIKSports Writer

Crist marks 21st birthday with victory

Contact Douglas Farmer atdfarmer1@nd.edu

By DOUGLAS FARMERSports Editor

NDPITT

3rd37

4th37

Second quarter

Notre Dame 0, Pittsburgh 3Dan Hutchins 26-yard field goal with 7:26remaining.Drive: 12 plays, 68 yards, 6:22 elapsed.

Notre Dame 7, Pittsburgh 3Michael Floyd 1-yard pass from Dayne Crist(David Ruffer kick) with 2:36 remaining.Drive: 13 plays, 77 yards, 4:50 elapsed.

Third quarter

Notre Dame 20, Pittsburgh 3Ruffer 50-yard field goal with 12:11 remaining.Drive: 4 plays, 1 yard, 0:50 elapsed.

Notre Dame 20, Pittsburgh 10Tino Sunseri 4-yard run (Hutchins kick) with9:06 remaining.Drive: 10 plays, 77 yards, 4:50 elapsed.

Total2317

scoringsummary

First quarter

statisticsRushing Yards

Passing Yards

Penalty Yards

27-39-272

13-638-447-14

9-1115-493-425-303-212-19

24-39-242

13-567-287-51-3

7-757-595-381-372-151-11

Crist

AllenWoodCristHughes

RiddickFloydRudolphJonesGoodmanRagone

Sunseri

LewisGrahamSunseri

BaldwinShanahanStreetHynoskiLewisGraham

receiving

rushing

passing

Contact Meaghan Veselik at mvesel01@saintmarys.edu

1st73

2nd100

Time of Possession

Fourth quarter

Notre Dame 23, Pittsburgh 10Ruffer 31-yard field goal with 9:06 remaining.Drive: 11 plays, 69 yards, 3:21 elapsed.

Notre Dame 23, Pittsburgh 17Jon Baldwin 56-yard pass from Sunseri(Hutchins kick) with 7:23 remaining.Drive: 3 plays, 64 yards, 1:43 elapsed.

The Observer u IRISH INSIDERpage 4 Monday, October 11, 2010

Two weeks removed from a three-game losing streak, Notre

Dame created another streak Saturday — a two-game

winning streak — by defeating Pittsburgh 23-17.

Junior quarterback Dayne Crist led Irish by recording two

touchdowns in the first half, one a one-yard pass to junior

receiver Michael Floyd and the other a 10-yard run down the

sideline. Senior kicker David Ruffer converted all three of his

field goal attempts, including a 50-yarder in the second

quarter and a 31-yarder in the fourth quarter that gave the

Irish a 13-point lead.

Senior safety Harrison Smith led the Irish defense with 11

tackles and an interception. Sophomore linebacker Carlo

Calabrese added nine tackles.

Irish reach .500with victory

Clockwise from top: Theo Riddick holds onto a pass from Dayne Crist as a Panthers defender tackles him; Harrison Smith returns an interception 15 yards; Brian Smith (58)and Ethan Johnson (90) try to block a Pittsburgh field goal attempt; Kyle Rudolph reaches for a Crist pass; Crist runs with the football after faking a handoff to Armando Allen.

JULIE HERDER/The Observer

TOM LA/The Observer

JULIE HERDER/The Observer MACKENZIE SAIN/The Observer

MACKENZIE SAIN/The Observer