LOUISVILLE, Ky. – This wasn't Ian Book's best game, off by a long shot.
His passes cruised on occasion, including one that purportedly caused Louisville team promoter Elizabeth Scott to endure a messed up nose.
Notre Dame's lesser quarterback uniquely tossed behind his beneficiaries and darted out of the pocket whenever there's any hint of inconvenience.
Book completed the main half with only 63 passing yards, three sacks and a couple of bobbles, including one that was lost after he kept running up the back of tight end Brock Wright. That left a fallen Book to blast the front of his brilliant head protector into the plastic turf in clear disappointment.
It took him 24 snaps to discover 6-4 Chase Claypool, the most hazardous weapon available to him, as Louisville dropped into a Cover Two safeguard. As a matter of fact "corroded," Book completed with the same number of culminations (14) as surges, not the kind of run-pass balance hostile facilitator Chip Long was looking for.
But, after his ninth-positioned Fighting Irish had skated off with a 35-17 win before a record swarm at Cardinal Stadium, mentor Brian Kelly went simple on his returning starter.
"He realizes that he can be better," Kelly said. "We're not going to beat him with a shoe."
What's more, you questioned this kinder, gentler form of Kelly?
"That is to say, it's one game," Kelly said. "He should be better. He realizes that and he will be better. He's savvy. He's athletic. You saw the primary run he had (on a 37-yard scramble). He has changed his body."
Book bemoaned the "messy football" he organized in the main half, when Notre Dame fell into a 14-7 opening against a 20-point dark horse falling off a 2-10 bad dream and an instructing change. Be that as it may, when tosses should have been made down the stretch, Book made them.
On back to back plays halfway through the second from last quarter, he discovered Claypool for 31 yards on a shallow cross and redshirt rookie tight end Tommy Tremble for 26 yards and a touchdown. That burst pushed a shaky lead to two touchdowns.
After a Louisville field objective made it a two-score game right off the bat in the fourth, Book designed a 12-play, 75-yard scoring drive that included three straight third-down changes. The initial two went ahead goes to Tremble and redshirt green bean Lawrence Keys III, and Book later mixed for precisely 4 yards on third and 4 preceding hitting Claypool for 34 more.
Before that game-securing drive, Book (10-1 as the starter) had a couple of things to state to his colleagues.
"On the sideline he's a pioneer and he's been underlining that," Claypool said. "Being a skipper presently, he's truly putting his foot forward and saying, 'We should go, how about we fight back, we should go down the field and score immediately.' That's actually what we did when he said it."
As of now without tight end Cole Kmet and third recipient Michael Young, both out after clavicle medical procedure, Notre Dame lost adaptable running back Jafar Armstrong to conceivable crotch damage after three straight contacts (for 26 yards) on a game-opening touchdown drive. Tony Jones Jr. (112 hurrying yards) took up the leeway, yet Book needed to change in accordance with Armstrong's misfortune just as he managed a shockingly annoying Louisville pass surge.
Now and again it was anything but difficult to overlook the Cardinals surrendered 44.1 focuses per game a year prior, third-most noticeably terrible among the 130 FBS groups. Just Oregon State and Connecticut were simpler to sleeve around.
"There was some strange flushing from the pocket that we hadn't seen from (Book)," Kelly said. "I simply think he was escaping things somewhat speedy in light of the fact that there was some vulnerability. Perhaps thinking somewhat excessively. He simply needs to confide in it, and that will come."
Book, who attached another 130 yards going after the break, completed with 81 surging yards. He said he was "eager to return, watch the film and proceed onward from it," taking note of what most energized him was the quantity of crisp faces that ventured forward to make plays on offense.
Something very similar was occurring on resistance, where Clark Lea's gathering braced down subsequent to permitting touchdown drives of 88 and 75 yards on its initial two arrangement. From Myron Tagavailoa-Amosa and Ade Ogundeji in advance to center linebacker Drew White to youthful cornerbacks TaRiq Bracy and Houston Griffith to green bean security Kyle Hamilton (two pass breakups), the children were more than good on this night.
It was Tremble, truth be told, who got the game ball subsequent to making three gets for 49 yards.
"Our young players rose today around evening time," Kelly said. "We really need our veterans to venture up another degree of their play, which I'm sure they will. The uplifting news for me today around evening time as a lead trainer is simply the more youthful players appeared. Presently with every one of them together pushing ahead, this can be a quite decent football crew."
They will have 12 days to prepare for the home opener against modest New Mexico and about three weeks to plan for an outing to third-positioned Georgia. On the off chance that the Irish put in the work, Kelly will save the shoe.
"It was a messy win, I think, for us," wellbeing Alohi Gilman said. "Be that as it may, over the long haul, we'll keep on showing signs of improvement. We're simply going to continue battling. We're an incomplete item."
