Notre Dame Fighting Irish Edge out South Carolina Gamecocks late in Gator Bowl 45-38

Wow, what a bowl season and an exciting ending in a game between two programs with young and promising head coaches.

Notre Dame’s first-year head coach Marcus Freeman took his Ohio State mentality with him to battle second- year head coach of South Carolina Shane Beamer, who is the son of legendary VA Tech coach Frank Beamer.

It was the first-time the Irish and the Gamecocks squared off in a game since 1984 when South Carolina won 36-32. The Gator Bowl has taken place ever since 1946, introducing it as the sixth eldest college bowl. Wake Forest beat South Carolina 26-14. They only had 7,362 fans to watch in it’s early conception.

It was also the first college bowl nationally televised in 1955. Vanderbilt beat Auburn 25-13. It was broadcast on CBS.

Let’s take a look-see on how the Notre Dame Fighting Irish edged out South Carolina late in the Gator Bowl 45-38.

Tale of the Tape

Notre Dame Quarterback Tyler Buchner made his first start since week 2 against the Marshall Thundering Heard when the young QB injured his shoulder. He replaced starter Drew Pyne, who transferred and is now at Arizona State. Still, the offense did not miss a beat as Buchner carved up an SEC defense both on the ground and through the air.

Both teams entered the game at 8-4 and each recovered from slow starts. They also had signature wins against the Clemson Tigers with Notre Dame’s coming at home and South Carolina’s coming at Tiger Stadium.

Bowl Recap

The Gamecocks got off to a fast start as they jumped out to a 7-0 lead on an opening drive ending in a touchdown. Notre Dame then evened the score on a short scramble from Buchner before the Gamecocks went for a “Beamer Ball” play in a fake field goal for a touchdown to take the lead by seven.

South Carolina’s defense then picked off the Irish Sophomore for a touchdown and they were up 21-7 at the end of the opening stanza.

Notre Dame’s offense came storming back as the Irish took its first lead of the game 38-31 with 12:41 left in the fourth quarter. The Irish then drove down into the red zone again with a chance to go up 14, but the sophomore threw a costly pick six in which South Carolina took it back to tie the game 38-38.

But when the moment became bigger for the sophomore, he stayed calm and poised like he did the whole game. He threw a game winning touchdown pass and Irish won the Gator Bowl in the highest scoring played game 45-38 over South Carolina.

MVP

Buchner was deserving of the 2022 Gator Bowl MVP award. The sophomore not only played the game of his career so far, but he did it in timely fashion especially with Pyne transferring to Arizona State. The dual-threat sophomore threw for 274-yards with three touchdowns, ran 12- times for 61-yards and two scores.

The one area of improvement Buchner had coming into the season was his ability to potentially be Notre Dame’s first true dual-threat quarterback. He already was a natural runner, but his passing needed to be polished up. While it didn’t seem like Buchner was doing anything during his missed time, it seemed he and offensive coordinator Tommy Rees were walking it through while rehabbing his non-throwing shoulder.

During the “Big Game”, it all clicked for him and he ran the ball extremely well and was accurate on his deep touchdown throws. It looks like the light is coming on for Buchner at the right time and the young man should be very proud of himself and use this as momentum for next year.

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