SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Riley Leonard passed for three touchdowns and Notre Dame’s defense forced five turnovers as the No. 8 Fighting Irish beat Virginia 35-14 on Saturday.
Leonard was 22 for 33 for 214 yards as Notre Dame (9-1) raced to a 35-0 lead and won its eighth straight game.
Leonard’s TD passes came in the first half. He found Jayden Harrison with an 8-yard strike, Cooper Flanagan with a 2-year flare and hit Mitchell Evans with a 16-yard pass.
Notre Dame forced the five turnovers in the first half and four led to touchdowns. Xavier Watts intercepted a pass and recovered a fumble. Adon Shuler and Leonard Moore also had interceptions, while Max Hurleman recovered a fumble. Rod Heard II forced a fumble.
Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said the takeaways in the first half jump-started his team.
“When your defense is playing as well as we’re playing, it allows you to still be in the game and be in a position to win, maybe when you weren’t having the success you want offensively to start the game,” Freeman said. “And so the defense is doing a heck of a job, and offense is doing a good job, man.”
Freeman hopes that the Fighting Irish will have an opportunity to host a College Football Playoff game. Saturday’s game was the final regular-season home contest for Notre Dame.
“Let’s go to work,” Freeman said. “Let’s give this program a chance to play in this stadium one more time.”
Notre Dame capitalized on a Virginia miscue on the opening kickoff, setting up its first score. Former Notre Dame team member Chris Tyree muffed his attempt to catch the opening kickoff, and the ball ricocheted off the turf into the hands of Hurleman, giving Notre Dame possession at the Cavaliers’ 25.
Five plays later, Jeremiyah Love finished off the drive with a 4-yard sprint into the end zone. Love also scored on a 76-yard run in the third quarter and finished with 137 yards on 16 carries.
“I just trusted my ‘O’ line,” Love said of his spectacular 76-yard run that was Notre Dame’s offensive highlight. “Once I saw a hole, I hit it. I have breakaway speed, so … track meet after that.”
Notre Dame had two possible touchdowns and 151 yards wiped out by penalties in a 10-second span. A Leonard-to-Harrison strike for 78 yards was called back due to a hands-to-the-face penalty against Pat Coogan. A play later, a fake punt in which Jordan Faison raced 73 yards for a score was negated by an illegal formation penalty.
Virginia (5-5) replaced quarterback Anthony Colandrea with Tony Muskett at the start of the second half. Muskett capped a five-play, 75-yard drive with an 18-yard touchdown run. He also scored on a 2-yard run with 18 seconds remaining in the game.
“They’re not going to quit,” Virginia coach Tony Elliott said of his players fighting back from the dismal first half. “They’re going to fight. That’s part of our DNA. You have to have the resilience to just keep battling regardless of circumstances. Proud of the effort to play all the way to the end. We have a lot of coaching to do, lot of teaching to do, lot of improving to do.”
Elliott said that he will make a decision later on whether Colandrea or Muskett will start against SMU. Colandrea, a sophomore, was 8 of 21 for 69 yards with three interceptions. Muskett, a graduate student, was 9 for 14 for 103 yards.
“We’re definitely going to have to go back and evaluate the game and see what gives us the best opportunity the next two weeks,” Elliott said. “We have two good quality quarterbacks that we believe both can give us a chance. No decision is made until we can sit down and evaluate all of the circumstances and the entire situation.”
Virginia’s Malachi Fields caught four passes for 81 yards.
Jonas Sanker recovered a fumble and had a sack and another tackle for loss for Virginia, finishing with eight tackles from his safety position.
THE TAKEAWAY
Notre Dame: A punishing defense set up the offense and helped Notre Dame pile up style points as the window to impress the College Football Playoffs committee narrows.
Virginia: Turnovers sabotaged the Cavaliers’ hopes of securing another road upset of a Top 25 team and earning a bowl berth. Virginia, which beat then-No. 23 Pitt 24-19 a week ago, now must beat either No. 14 SMU at home or archrival Virginia Tech on the road to become bowl eligible.
POLL IMPLICATIONS
Notre Dame: The Fighting Irish solidified their hold on a Top 10 ranking with an impressive victory.
UP NEXT
No. 8 Notre Dame plays No. 16 Army at Yankee Stadium on Saturday.
Virginia hosts No. 14 SMU on Saturday.
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