Notre Dame football booms Florida State with eight sacks

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Notre Dame defensive tackle Rylie Mills may get praise from the “Costco Guys” for his three-sack performance against Florida State on Saturday night.

After the 52-3 win over the Seminoles at Notre Dame Stadium, Mills recognized viral father-son duo AJ & Big Justice for his favorite sack celebration. The dance, which involves bending the shoulders bilaterally with some toe tapping, became increasingly popular in the sport after it was combined with the duo’s song “We Bring the Boom.”

Mills, a 6-foot-2, 295-pound senior, and Notre Dame’s defense had plenty of opportunity to celebrate Saturday. The CFP No. 10 Irish (8-1) recorded eight sacks, intercepted two passes, one of which safety Luke Talich returned for a 79-yard touchdown when backups were out late in the game, and limited Florida State to 208 yards of total offense .

“I think as a defense we turned things around,” Mills said.

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Florida State’s offense felt its demise. The Seminoles (1-9) managed to kick a 23-yard field goal on their first possession, capping a 16-play, 75-yard drive, but they failed from there. Florida State stumbled on its next five possessions before halftime and finished the game with six three-and-outs.

The interceptions came in the second half as Notre Dame’s pass rush began to affect Florida State’s two-quarterback rotation. Starter Brock Glenn made both throws, with nickelback Jordan Clark getting the first score, ending FSU’s first drive of the second half. The interception came one play after Mills’ third sack of the game.

Clark praised Notre Dame’s defensive line for pressuring Glenn to throw a bad pass to tight end Kyle Morlock.

“I didn’t have to work too long or too hard tonight,” Clark said. “All praise goes to these guys. They work their tails off. [Defensive line] Coach Wash (Al Washington) does a great job keeping them ready and updated. You saw that tonight. You really saw that all year long. They really make our job as a secondary school very, very easy.”

The task could have become more difficult for Notre Dame’s defensive line when Howard Cross III, who started at nose tackle, left the game early in the second quarter with a left ankle injury. Mills immediately stepped up with back-to-back sacks in the next two games following Cross’ injury.

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman described Cross’ injury as an ankle sprain in the postgame press conference. He believed Cross might have been able to get back into the game if needed. But at the moment, Mills didn’t know how badly Cross may or may not have been injured.

Earlier in the week, Freeman praised the Mills-Cross duo for playing a big role in Notre Dame’s ability to generate a pass rush despite losing its top two defensive players, Jordan Botelho and Boubacar Traore. Mills did enough for them on Saturday night with five tackles, three sacks and another quarterback hurry.

“When Howard went down, I was just disappointed in him because I know how much he put in this week and how much he makes everyone better,” Mills said. “For me it was kind of a little frustrating. We saw our man go down, which is something you never want to see. Hopefully that’s what led to it.

“I just wanted to make sure Howard was OK. After that he was great. He was a leader on the sidelines, talking to young guys, talking to me, giving everyone pep talks.”

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Junior Donovan Hinish played more while Cross was out. He took advantage of the opportunities with five tackles and two sacks of his own. Senior defensive tackle Gabriel Rubio recorded a tackle and knocked off a screen pass to make his presence felt.

The rest of Notre Dame’s eight sacks came from junior defensive end Junior Tuihalamaka, junior linebacker Jaylen Sneed and a shared sack between freshman defensive end Bryce Young and sophomore linebacker Jaiden Ausberry. The Irish reached eight sacks in a game for the first time since a total of eight against Virginia in 2019.

“Rylie achieved individual fame today,” Freeman said. “He got the sacks, but there are a lot of people who contributed to Rylie getting the sacks. You’re talking about reporting and you’re talking about some of the other people at the top.”

Florida State’s quarterbacks combined to complete just 10 of their 26 passes (38.5%) for 88 yards. Glenn went 5 of 18 for 51 yards. Luke Kromenhoek was 5 of 8 for 37 yards.

These numbers aren’t possible without good play in the secondary to complement Notre Dame’s pass rush. But Clark wanted the big guys to get the glory.

“It was really the D-line,” Clark said. “Honestly, we’d like to acknowledge that, but when you have guys pass rushing like Rylie Mills and the rest of us tonight, it really makes it easier for us.”

Florida State became the fifth team to fail to reach 250 yards of offense this season against Notre Dame. Notre Dame hadn’t limited so many teams to so few yards since the 1988 season.

While a strong performance was expected against a weak Florida State offense, this defense’s successes are starting to pile up and add to a College Football Playoff resume that will feature three more wins.

“I think the entire defense was dominant,” Mills said. “You can just see that when the front end and the back end are on the same page. Seeing the backs cover the way they did, it’s difficult to get any completeness about us.

“That’s one of the great things about our defense. We feed each other. When the D-line is doing really well, the corners come up to us and say, ‘You guys are awesome.’ That’s great.’

“And then vice versa. They’re given choices and we’re like, ‘Dude, that’s great.’ Let them hold the ball.’ It works both ways.”

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