2011 Maryland Terrapins Football: Maryland @ Notre Dame

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are touring the Atlantic Coast Conference. They like what they see, but then again, they're only seeing the nice part of town, otherwise known as the cushier section of a league which has flirted with the notion of inviting the Irish in the larger saga of conference realignment.

Yes, some whispers and backchannel talks over the past few months have touched on the possibility of Notre Dame joining the ACC. It's true that those discussions didn't have a lot of meat to them, but it was still noteworthy that America's biggest college football brand name was spoken of in connection with the nation's most tradition-laden... basketball conference. It is pure coincidence that Notre Dame scheduled a three-game ACC swing this season, but it's still rather fascinating that the Irish visited Wake Forest and Maryland before hosting Boston College on Nov. 19. Based on this experience of the ACC, Notre Dame has been treated well by the league. However, as Saturday night's game against Maryland underscored, the Irish aren't touring the rougher sections of the conference... places like Virginia Tech, Clemson, or Georgia Tech.

The first year of the Randy Edsall era at Maryland continued its dismal course on Saturday as Notre Dame throttled the Terrapins by 24 points on Saturday at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland. The Irish did whatever they wanted offensively and committed zero turnovers to cruise to the victory.

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Despite being just miles from Maryland’s campus, it was a “home” game for Notre Dame in its annual Shamrock Series game, where the Irish move a home game to a neutral site. Tommy Rees and the Irish moved the ball all over the field in their green jerseys, as Rees finished 30-38 for 296 yards and two touchdowns. Rees led Notre Dame on a five-minute, 70-yard drive to close the half, and a Jonas Gray one-yard touchdown run gave them a 24-7 halftime lead. Gray led the Irish with 136 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 21 carries.

Maryland’s chances of making it a game were squashed in the third quarter. Notre Dame opened the half with a six-minute drive in which Rees picked apart the Terps’ defense, going 9-9 for 58 yards, and ended with a Cierre Wood rushing touchdown. Five plays later, Lo Wood picked off Danny O’Brien and returned it 57 yards for a touchdown. Just like that, Notre Dame had put the game away at 38-7.

Unfortunately for Maryland, O’Brien would break his left arm later in the quarter. C.J. Brown came in relief to lead the Terrapins to two fourth-quarter scores. Wood finished with 99 yards on 18 carries for the Irish, leaving them one yard short of having two 100-yard rushers on the game. Michael Floyd led all receivers with 90 yards on nine receptions. Now at 7-3, Notre Dame prepares to host Boston College (3-7) next week.

Maryland Terrapins @ Notre Dame Fighting Irish Football Recap