SOUTH BEND, Ind. — One team lost its starting quarterback and starting running back and is in the College Football Playoff race. The other has arguably the worst offense in college football and seven losses in 10 games.
Notre Dame’s success in overcoming the losses of Tarean Folston and Malik Zaire in the season’s first two weeks is why it’s 9-1 and is two wins away from possibly — nothing is guaranteed yet — playing in a College Football Playoff semifinal game.
C.J. Prosise, who replaced Folston after he tore his ACL in the first quarter Sept. 5 against Texas, is one of 11 semifinalists for the Doak Walker Award and is 25 yards away from being Notre Dame’s first 1,000-yard rusher since Cierre Wood in 2011. His 11 rushing touchdowns are the most for a Notre Dame player since Jonas Gray’s 12 in 2011, too. When Prosise was knocked out of Notre Dame's Nov. 7 game against Pittsburgh, freshman Josh Adams tagged in and posted back-to-back games with over 140 rushing yards.
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And quarterback DeShone Kizer has been a revelation with his poised command of the Irish offense and 24 total touchdowns (16 passing, eight rushing).
“Tough losses, always is,” center and captain Nick Martin said. “But at the same time, it's part of the game. With coach (Brian) Kelly's next man in mentality, people bought into that. That's huge. When you buy into what coach preaches and believes in, and you have a team like this who fight together, that's how you get past it.”
Of course, talented depth is necessary for that next man in mentality to be more than a hollow cliche. Boston College certainly had to take that next man in approach after quarterback Darius Wade (broken ankle) and running back Jon Hillman (broken foot) were injured in September. In the season's first month, the Eagles averaged 5.16 yards per play (103rd nationally), so this wasn’t exactly a good offense with those guys healthy for most of the month.
But Boston College averaged 3.67 yards per play in October, worst among FBS teams, and is averaging 4.01 yards per play (ninth-worst) in November. Junior running backs Tyler Rouse and Myles Willis, and sophomore Marcus Outlow, have been largely ineffective on the ground. Steve Addazio’s Eagles have cycled through three redshirt freshmen/true freshmen quarterbacks in John Fadule (31/57, 400 yards, 1 TD, 4 INT), Troy Flutie (24/49, 382 yards, 3 TD, 1 INT) and Jeff Smith (21/63, 220 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT).
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The point here isn’t to criticize Boston College for a lack of depth — that’s certainly not the easiest program to recruit four-star backups like Kizer — but it’s more a reminder that Notre Dame’s ability to thrive despite injuries to Folston, Zaire and plenty others shouldn’t be taken for granted.