Riddick, Irish wear down BYU

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Theo Riddick is Notre Dame's smallest running back, but Brigham Young learned he has no shortage of power.

The 5-foot-11-inch, 200-pound Riddick ran for a career-high 143 yards against a Cougars defense that entered the game third in the nation against the rush, and George Atkinson III scored the go-ahead touchdown early in the fourth quarter as the No. 5 Fighting Irish rallied for a 17-14 victory Saturday.

"As a team, this was special," Riddick said. "We showed that we can run the ball."

He got no argument from Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly.

Riddick "just ran really hard, north and south, physical," Kelly said. "That gives energy for everybody. The O-line sees a guy who's really pounding it in there. He got us that energy we needed."

Cierre Wood added 114 yards on the ground for Notre Dame (7-0), which plays at No. 10 Oklahoma next week.

The Cougars (4-4) fell to 0-3 on the road as they surrendered a season-high 270 yards rushing.

"There were way too many times where we had a dude down in the backfield, in a hole, and we let him spring one for 12, 20, 40 yards, so that's not acceptable," linebacker Brandon Ogletree said.

BYU drove to the Notre Dame 31-yard line late, but Riley Nelson was sacked for a 9-yard loss. Moments earlier, Cody Hoffman was wide open for what would have probably been a touchdown, but Nelson's pass wasn't close.

"We were one or two plays short from being able to come away with a victory," BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall said.

After going 17 quarters without giving up an offensive touchdown, Notre Dame gave up two in a span of 2:18. Nelson threw a 6-yard scoring pass to a wide-open Hoffman and a 2-yard pass to Kaneakua Friel after an interception by Kyle Van Noy to put BYU up 14-7 at halftime.

Backup quarterback Tommy Rees, starting in place of injured Everett Golson for the Irish, completed 6 of 7 passes in the first quarter for 86 yards and a touchdown, throwing four of those to Tyler Eifert, including the TD. But Rees missed his next seven passes and the Irish attempted only three passes in the second half.

Rees' only completion after the break was a 31-yard pass to TJ Jones with about a minute left in the third quarter. Riddick ran for 19 yards to the BYU 5 to set up Atkinson's 2-yard TD run.

"That's a bracket buster team in basketball parlance," Kelly said. "That's a darned good football team."