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Photo by Rick Kimball/ISD
Notre Dame Football

Gold Tops Blue in Spring Game

April 22, 2017
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Ian Book may be the backup quarterback for the Irish this fall, but he played a lot like a starter in Saturday's Spring Game at Notre Dame Stadium. Book's Gold team beat Brandon Wimbush and the Blue team, 27-14 before a small crowd on a chilly Saturday afternoon.

"We had a glimpse of everything," said Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly. "What I was looking for more than anything else was in a competitive environment with a lot more snaps, was there consistency in some of the things that they were doing. I don't think there was one guy out there that we said, we didn't know he was capable of this.""

Book finished the game 17 of 22 for 277 yards and a touchdown while Wimbush was 19 of 27 for 260 yards and two interceptions.

The Irish stable of running backs: Tony Jones Jr., Josh Adams, and Dexter Williams combined for 133 yards on 21 carries and scores from Williams and Adams.

Williams took a handoff and bulldozed his way to a 41-yard gain making a few defenders miss. Book then found C.J. Sanders for a long 37-yard score for his first touchdown pass on the afternoon to give the Gold a 27-7 lead late in the third quarter. The Blue then went three and out on the next drive as they continued to struggle mightily on offense.

The Blue took over at their own 37 after a Gold punt. Wimbush found Miles Boykin on a nice accurate throw one of the few accurate ones in quite a bit. Jones Jr. had a good rush of about 15 yards a few plays later as the Blue finally put together a decent drive. Wimbush then made a highlight reel play on a sidearm throw on the run to Chase Claypool inside the five-yard line. The Blue then scored two plays later on a Wimbush touchdown run to make it 27-14 with 7:29 to play in the game.

"I loved everything that happened to him today," Kelly said of Wimbush's play. "It's how you take it, right. He's just wide-eyed, listening, paying attention and just totally committed to the process of getting better. And that's really what I think about more so than, you know, trying to label whether they played really well or they didn't play really well."

The Gold went three and out quickly as the Blue took over with under four minutes left deep in their own territory. Jones Jr. took a big run down the sideline as he seemed to get better as the game went on.

The Gold started the half with the ball and preceded to go three and out giving the ball back to the Blue. Wimbush found Claypool in third down for a big gain down to the 30-yard line. The Gold defense stood tall once again as they forced the Blue to turn it over on downs inside the redzone.

Wimbush hit Durham Smythe on the run for his first completion of the game for the Blue. Alize Mack made an outstanding juggling catch a few plays later getting a rise out of the crowd. Adams took it into the end zone on a 25-yard run to give the Blue the early advantage with 12:09 left in the first quarter.

Ian Book started the next drive quickly for the Gold with three straight completions before a Williams first down run. Williams then broke free for a 38-yard score just three plays later to tie it up with 9:43 left in the quarter.

Jones Jr. got his first touch on the ensuing drive on a four-yard carry.

The Gold forced a three and out giving them the ball back on their own 31. Ian Book hit former walk-on Chris Finke for 36 yards on the first play of the drive. But the Gold couldn't muster anything else on the drive, but a field goal from Sam Kohler gave them a 10-7 lead.

Wimbush started the next drive with a beautiful pass to Equanimeous St. Brown down the right sideline for 32 yards. Wimbush was then picked off on fourth down on a deflection brought in by Jalen Elliott. Elliott took it all the way to midway setting up the Gold in good position.

"I like the fundamentals showing up," Kelly said of his defense. "You know, the ability to spill the ball into the right locations. You know, being in good position."

Book found Sanders on the run for an 11 yard gain on the first play of the drive as the backup QB continued his strong start. Kohler extended the Gold lead to 13-7 with a 46-yard field goal with 2:55 left.

Wimbush rolled out and hit Boykin for a 38-yard gain on the first play of the drive for the Blue. The Blue went for it on fourth down, but Wimbush missed Boykin long to turn the ball over. On the final play of the quarter, Book launched a deep pass caught by Kevin Stepherson to get the Gold inside the five-yard line.

Deon McIntosh punched it in on the next play to give the Gold a 13 point lead just seconds into the second quarter. On the ensuing drive, Wimbush made a couple of completions to get the Blue to the other side of the 50.

Wimbush found Mack inside the 10 on third down; the Blue had struggled in the redzone up to that point.

After back to back tackles for loss, Wimbush was intercepted again, this time by Nick Watkins. The Gold took over at their own 16-yard line. Book continued his great half on another nice throw to Finke along the left sideline. Williams continued his strong half with a big gain on a screen pass.

The Gold were forced to punt after failing to pick up the first down. The Blue took over at their own 17 with 5:47 to go in the half. After picking up one first down, the Blue punted it back to the Gold with the punt ending up at the four-yard line.

Both sides continued the trend of punts as the Gold punted back to the Blue with under a minute left in half. The half ended with the score still 20-7. Wimbush finished the half 15 of 21 for 205 yards and two interceptions while Book was 15 of 18 for 223 yards.

"You could point to his performance today and say it was a surprise; it wasn't a surprise to me," Kelly said of Book's performance. "He's shown that. I thought he would go out and play really well. I'm glad he did."

Williams was the half's leading rusher with 55 yards and a score for the Gold while Stepherson and St. Brown led the game with 69 yards receiving for the Gold and Blue respectively.

Player of the Game:
Book. The sophomore backup quarterback looked very comfortable for most of the afternoon finding the open receiver nearly every time. Might be fair to say he outplayed Wimbush.

Unsung Hero: Mack. After missing all of last season, the junior from Las Vegas looked right at home with four catches for 39 yards.

Up Next: The Irish open the 2017 season at home on Saturday, September 2nd against Temple.
 
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