The season ending loss to the Florida State Seminoles had a few things in common with the season opening defeat to South Florida: the quarterbacks threw too many interceptions, especially in the red zone; the defense kept bailing out the offense only to see the O turn it over again. And the explosive Brian Kelly hissy fit on the sidelines, caught on national television.
This time quarterback Tommy Rees was his victim. When he see his box score 16-26-163, 1 td, 2 int, I think you can understand why.
He switched in and out with Andrew Hendrix, who was actually much worse: 3-8-24, int.
This loss was absolutely Cublike for the Irish. Seriously, it was something out of the Chicago Cubs playbook. Leading 14-0 as the third quarter neared close, the ‘Noles scored 18 unanswered to take the lead. Rees drove the Irish to the Florida St. 32, but got picked off by Terrence Brooks in the end zone with 2:43 to play.
Michael Floyd (5-61-1) had an AWESOME TD CATCH in his final game before the NFL.
Look:
Floyd left the game early with an injury, and it hurt the offense badly. But that’s all the bad news, here’s some good and neutral news.
-TD catch by Michael Floyd was his 100th reception of the season and makes him the first ND player ever to catch 100 passes in a year.
-Nine rushing yards by Florida State are fewest by an Irish opponent in any half this season – and fewest since 2010 Western Michigan game.
-Irish wearing names on back of their blue jerseys — third time that’s happened in Irish history
Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net, an official Google News site generating millions of unique visitors. He’s also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, Walter Football.com, Yardbarker, and Fox Sports
A Fulbright scholar and MBA, Banks has appeared on live radio all over the world; and he’s a member of the Football Writers Association of America, U.S. Basketball Writers Association, and Society of Professional Journalists. The President of the United States follows him on Twitter (@Paul_M_BanksTSB) You should too