ISD Notebook
Redshirt freshman Ian Book made his first career start on Saturday against North Carolina due to an ankle injury starting quarterback Brandon Wimbush endured last week against Miami (OH) and led the Irish to a 33-10 victory over the Tar Heels to improve to 5-1 on the season.
It was obvious the youngster, ranked the 22nd-pocket passer in the 2016 recruiting class, wasn’t scared of the moment.
It took Book a few drives to settle down his nerves and take command of a very potent Irish offense.
Sparked by a fourth-down reception from Alize’ Mack for 13 yards on the fourth drive of the game, Book was able to get into a rhythm, capping an 80-yard drive with a six-yard dart to wide receiver Cam Smith on a drive where he totaled 35 yards through the air and 21 on the ground.
After the scoring drive Book was up-and-down, making some young mistakes throwing the football.
With possession of the ball at their own one-yard-line, the Irish offense decided to throw the ball deep. Chris Finke streaked down the right sideline, but was not able to catch up to a ball that was well overthrown and ultimately intercepted by Tar Heel safety Myles Dorm.
This was not the young signal-caller’s only mistake.
With a 19-7 lead in the third quarter, the Irish rolled into the red zone before Book’s inaccurate pass intended for Mack was once again intercepted by Dorm. This was the first time the Irish didn’t convert in the red zone all season.
Despite the up-and-down performance, Book was good enough in his first career start and showed he was not intimidated by the big stage. The redshirt freshman finished the game 17-for-31 with 146 yards and a touchdown as well as 45 yards on the ground.
IRISH RUN WILD ONCE AGAIN: Early on in the game, the Irish were unable to establish their 7th-ranked run game. That is until they started to lean on the left side of their offensive line led by Quenton Nelson and Mike McGlinchey.
Struggling on the first four drives of the game to get anything going on the ground, the Irish finally were able to open a massive hole on the left side of their line that junior running back Josh Adams was able to sprint through for a 73-yard touchdown to give the Irish a 14-0 lead in the second quarter.
This gave the junior workhorse his seventh rush of over 60 yards on the season.
The rushing attack primarily consisted of Adams with a sprinkle of Tony Jones Jr. throughout the first half, but the Irish featured redshirt freshman Deon Mcintosh and true freshman C.J. Holmes after intermission.
The field conditions and the lead gave the Irish ample opportunity to let the young running backs run wild.
Carrying the ball 12 times, McIntosh was able to rack up 124 hard-earned yards and a pair of touchdowns. Highlighting his night was a 35-yard scamper in the third quarter and a 24-yard sprint in the fourth.
Holmes was able to see some time in the fourth quarter, carrying the ball eight times for 32 yards to help seal the win for Irish.
The Irish passed their season average for rushing yards tonight racking up, 341 yards on the ground.
AGGRESSIVE DEFENSE: Tonight was another great night for an the Irish defense that has been very reliable throughout season and a big reason for their 5-1 start.
Facing their third freshman quarterback on the season, it was obvious that the Irish defense wanted to come out aggressive in order to make Tar Heel starter Chazz Surratt uncomfortable.
Forcing 12 three-and-outs throughout the game, the front seven of the Irish dominated the Tar Heel offense.
Irish punter Tyler Newsome pinned the Tar Heels at their one yard-line toward the end of the first half. Instead of being conservative, the Tar Heels decided to test the Irish defense, and Mike Elko’s unit rose to the occasion. On second down, North Carolina ran an inside zone that was stuffed for a safety by Jay Hayes and Jerry Tillery to give the Irish a 16-7 lead going into the half.
The domination trickled into the second half, when Julian Okwara was in pursuit of Surratt and timed his jump to tip a and intercept a pass that set up an Irish field goal.
This was the tale of the tape in tonight’s game for the Irish, domination of the line of scrimmage. The defense tallied three turnovers throughout the game and allowed only 265 yards.
THE MACK ATTACK: Coming into the season Alize Mack’s return was highly anticipated, but he’s had a very minimal impact to start the season. It seemed as if the Irish wanted to establish Mack as a focal point against North Carolina.
He missed a huge opportunity to shatter his season-high in yards when he dropped a screen pass on the last drive of the half that would’ve gone for a big chunk of yardage, but the 6-foot-4 250-pounder was targeted many times throughout the game, hauling in a season-high six receptions for 38 yards.
This is very exciting to see for Irish fans because Mack is talented enough to be a good outlet for the offense in the future as they have a stretch of ranked opponents coming up on their schedule.
YOON HITS HIS LONE ATTEMPT: Confidence is key to a kicker’s success and after missing his third field goal of the season last week, Justin Yoon was able to bounce back, converting his only field goal attempt this week.
Yoon was perfect on all four of his extra point attempts tonight along with his lone 29-yard field goal attempt in the third quarter following Okwara’s pick.