Notre Dame doesn’t need anyone dredging up November 1993 right now, but the setup is impossible to ignore. The last time the Irish beat a top-ranked, undefeated team from Florida in Notre Dame Stadium, they followed it by hosting Boston College the next week.
That was Florida State then. Miami (Fla.) last week.
Boston College this week.
So yes, the matchup comes with a little history hanging over it. But the real story is on the field, where a few key names could shape whether this turns into a tight Saturday or another comfortable one for No. 3 Notre Dame.
For Boston College, everything seems to run through Mason McKenzie. The redshirt junior from Caledonia, Michigan, arrived as a mid-year enrollee, won the starting quarterback job before his first Division I game and was named a captain, too.
That’s how much the Eagles trust him. He showed why in his debut against Cincinnati, running for a team-high 78 yards and throwing for 233 yards and a touchdown while going 18-of-35.
Since then, McKenzie has become the kind of quarterback who has to do almost everything. He leads Boston College in rushing with 676 yards on 145 carries and five touchdowns, even with 187 yards lost, mostly on sacks.
Through the air, he’s completed 131 of 229 passes for 1,616 yards, 10 touchdowns and eight interceptions. Marcus Freeman said earlier this week that you have to account for McKenzie at all times.
Find him. Stop him.
Boston College also leans on linebacker Anthony Palano, a native of Arlington Heights and a Buffalo Grove product who played high school football at the same school as former Irish defensive back Tom Zbikowski. Palano has bounced from South Dakota State to Washington State to Boston College, and he’s made an impact everywhere he’s gone. He leads the Eagles with 76 tackles and 7.5 tackles for loss, and he’s been piling up stops lately with at least seven in each of the last four games.
Palano was a mid-year enrollee, too, and was named a captain before his first game at Boston College. Against Rutgers in his second outing, he posted a season-high 13 tackles.
He has at least 12 tackles twice this season. Boston College’s defense has been uneven, ranking 87th against the run, 64th in pass efficiency defense and 50th in total defense, but Palano has been steady no matter how the rest of it looks.
On the Notre Dame side, Jordan Faison has quietly become one of the most reliable players on the roster. The 5-foot-11 senior captain from Weston, Florida, leads the Irish with 38 catches for 497 yards, and last week against Miami he added six receptions for 77 yards and a back shoulder touchdown catch near the corner of the end zone that looked easy only because he made it look that way.
Faison’s consistency has made life easier for everyone around him, including Micah Gilbert, who went off for 98 yards and two touchdowns on nine catches against Miami. The wide receiver room has been under scrutiny since Labor Day, but Faison has kept delivering.
Up front, Notre Dame may need Tionne Gray to do it again. With Francis Brewu and Jason Onye out against Miami because of injuries, the 6-5, 320-pound junior from St.
Louis stepped into a bigger role and came through with three tackles. Freeman said it was Gray’s best game in an Irish uniform.
He held the point of attack, pressured the offense and made plays in the middle of the line.
Gray’s season line now stands at 16 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, one sack and one pass breakup. If Brewu and Onye are still questionable, Notre Dame could need another strong showing from him.
The South Bend Tribune staff sees the Irish handling business. Mike Berardino has Notre Dame 45, Boston College 10, with “No 1993-style hangover this time.”
Tom Noie has Notre Dame 48, Boston College 10, saying this is the first Saturday since the Stanford game on Oct. 10 when the Irish can “just relax and let it rip without having the weight of the college football world on its collective shoulders.” Austin Hough picked Notre Dame 45, Boston College 9, with the Irish chasing a top four College Football Playoff seed and looking to pile up “style points” in the process.
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