Notre Dame Football: Ian Book takes over in Irish victory

Notre Dame Football dominated Syracuse thanks to great play by Ian Book.

It was Senior Day in South Bend on Saturday as the Notre Dame Football Fighting Irish took on the Syracuse Orange. The 1-9 Orange went into the game at an extreme disadvantage against the 9-0 Irish but they started the game off very well. Notre Dame went up 3-0 in the football game before the Orange took over and went up 7-3. That score held for a while before Ian Book decided to take over the football game. The Irish took advantage of a couple of Orange mistakes and started to run away with it.

Ian Book decided to make some sweet passes and have a long touchdown run of his own to help the Irish score 21 unanswered points at the end of the second quarter. The 21 late half points improved Notre Dame’s second-quarter dominance even more. After 10 second quarters this season, they outscored their opponents 141-35 which is wildly impressive. You have to think that type of dominance really helped them in their successful quest to go undefeated.

The way Book took over really set the tone for the outcome of the game. It wasn’t completely perfect as he threw just his second interception of the season which ended a streak of 266 straight attempts without one. That wasn’t much of a big deal as he led the Irish to a 45-21 victory to move to 10-0. It was yet another undefeated regular season for the Irish.

Ian Book was amazing to get to 10-0 against the Orange. He threw for 285 yards and had three passing touchdowns. He also carried the ball eight times for a total of 54 yards. Remarkably, he also had two rushing touchdowns. The 339 all-purpose yards and five total touchdowns are the work of a great quarterback who just had a tremendous game. It was Book’s 30th career victory as Notre Dame’s starting quarterback which is a school record.

There are still some things to be sorted out for the Irish. They await their opponent in the ACC championship but it will be Miami or Clemson. That will be a big determining factor for the College Football Playoff later this season. The Irish are in a great position to be in the playoff and cap off a completely undefeated season.

Saturday’s win over Syracuse was the final roadblock between them and going into the ACC Championship without a loss. They can thank their quarterback, Ian Book, for a large portion of their success. Hopefully, the success continues in his final college games.