CHARLOTTESVILLE, va. —
Notre Dame keeps winning games and losing players. Whether the ninth-ranked Fighting Irish can keep it up will depend on their replacements keep putting forth golden efforts.
Quarterback DeShone Kizer came in for the injured Malik Zaire and threw a 39-yard touchdown pass to Will Fuller with 12 seconds left Saturday as the No. 9 Irish beat Virginia 34-27.
The stunning victory was “bittersweet,” Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said. Zaire will miss the rest of the season with a fractured ankle, making it the second week in a row that a player expected to help carry the offense went down and his replacement stepped in and starred.
“Now, Deshone has to run our football team and we feel good about it,” Kelley said, even as he acknowledged that Kizer lacks experience.
“He’s got great weapons around him and we saw that tonight,” Kelly said.
The Fighting Irish (2-0) lost top running back Tarean Folston to a knee injury last week against Texas, and found a strong backup in C.J. Prosise, who ran for 155 yards, including a 24-yard touchdown, against Virginia.
Notre Dame squandered a 26-14 lead and fell behind when Virginia (0-2) scored with 1:54 remaining. With Zaire out, Kizer came to the rescue on the final drive. He ran 4 yards for a first down on fourth-and-2 from the Notre Dame 28, and later found the speedy Fuller behind Maurice Canady.
Fuller said he got Canady to bite on a double move, allowing him to run free.
