“I thought it was a competitive atmosphere,” Brian Kelly said afterward. “Our guys played hard. I saw great leadership from our seniors working with the younger guys that got in there and got a chance to play.”
With a quarterback job up for competition, most of the hype for this game surrounded the four signal-callers, but Aaron Lynch put his mark on the game in his first action inside Notre Dame Stadium. Mere months removed from high school, Lynch had six tackles and 1.5 tackles-for-loss. His presence was felt constantly by the Gold quarterbacks.
"I told him after the game that I can't wait to see him to do that to other quarterbacks," said Gold sophomore-to-be quarterback Andrew Hendrix, the subject of numerous Lynch knockdowns.
Every spring game has its own special rules to adjust for the roster at the moment. The leading contenders for the starting job, Dayne Crist and Tommy Rees played for about a quarter in red no-contact jerseys with Hendrix and early enrollee Everett Golson playing the rest of the game in regular jerseys as they were free for hitting. The offensive line was its own special unit that played for both sides wearing green jerseys.
Rees started for the Gold squad, who grabbed an early lead on the opening drive. On the first play of the game, Rees connected with Mike Ragone down the seam for 24 yards. Early-enrollee Kyle Brindza connected on a 32-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead.
The Blue Team tied it up later in the quarter following Lo Wood’s interception of Rees. Starting for the Blue squad, Crist completed five-of-11 passes for 34 yards. Cierre Wood, also in limited snaps, drove the Blue offense with 39 yards rushing on seven carries, including 27 yards on a Blue scoring drive to tie the game, 3-3.
“I like the way Cierre looked,” said Kelly. “Confident in running the football is the way I would describe him. He was confident and decisive in his decisions.”
Crist led one more scoring drive that ended in a 45-yard Nick Tausch field goal. Rees finished 7-for-14 for 61 yards and an interception. Jonas Gray's day ended not much later with five carries for 16 yards.
The young throwers took over from there and the scoring picked up with their freewheeling style. Golson took over for Crist on the Blue Team and gained an early edge with one of the most prolific high school quarterbacks in recent years finding an early rhythm.
Hendrix's day picked up in the third quarter with the first touchdown drive of the game. Hendrix threw for a pair of first downs, including a fourth-down conversion to Luke Massa for 11 on 4th-and-10. Hendrix finished it off himself with a bullying 15-yard run that found its way through the arms of multiple defenders for a 10-6 Gold lead.
Hendrix got back to work a minute later after Ishaq Williams, another early-enrollee defender, stripped Golson and Brandon Newman recovered. A few players later, Hendrix followed his blockers into the end zone on a 10-yard keeper.
Golson, in his final action of the game, finished the spring on a high note as he ignited his team for a 70-yard touchdown drive. After a slow start, runs of 10 and 13 by Golson pulled the Blue Team out of a third-and-eleven hole. After passes that took the Blue Team inside the 40, Golson had a miraculous play up his sleeve. Pushed deep into the backfield, Golson began a long scramble that took him across the field for a 23-yard gain. One play later, Golson gave John Goodman an opportunity to make a fantastic leaping catch for a 15-yard touchdown.
The leading receivers in the game were Deion Walker with 46 yards, Robby Toma with 39, and Alex Welch with 31. Doing some ironman-like work was walk-on Patrick Coughlin who ran the ball a combined 11 times for 42 yards for both the Blue and Gold teams.
