Very quietly, quarterback Alex Darras, whose family is synonymous with Notre Dame, has directed the Fighting Irish football team on an 11-game winning streak that has carried them to within one win from the TSSAA Class 3A playoff semifinals.
Coach Charles Fant’s Irish, who haven’t lost since a 15-12 setback against Knoxville Catholic in the season opener, are riding an offensive tsunami that has overwhelmed opponents and rendered most of them hapless by halftime.
In the winning streak, Notre Dame (11-1) led by an average score of 33-2 and had six teams shut out at the break, including five in a row.
Darras had a lot to do with that, although running back Auston Banks and wide receiver Kareem Orr weren’t exactly imitating wall flowers.
“When we start so fast it helps us get in the other team’s head and they doubt what they can do against us,” said Darras, whose dad, Chris, and grandfather, Mike, played football for the Irish – everyone on his father’s side of the family attended Notre Dame.
“That also gave our younger guys chances to play and that helped us stay healthy all year,” he added.
“I can’t think of many players that missed much time at all.”
How can the Chargers slow the quick-striking Irish?
“We have to control the clock a little bit,” Goodin said. “Of course, everybody tries to do that. You have to keep your offense on the ground and not turn the ball over. That’s the basic rule of football. Because Notre Dame is so opportunistic, you have to keep the ball out of their hands and shorten the game.”
When McMinn Central (10-2) takes on the Irish on Friday in the quarterfinal round at Finley Stadium, the Irish will be facing a team that has three of the last four meetings between the two schools.
That success includes McMinn Central’s 41-20 win in the second game of the 2012 season.
“They just blew us out,” said Fant, who was two games into his first season as head coach that year. “They had a great game plan against us.”
The Chargers’ defense will have to come up with a masterful plan to stay with the Irish in Friday’s game.
That’s because Notre Dame, ranked third coming into the playoffs, has scored 55 points in each of its two playoff games against Chattanooga Christian and Upperman, the team that eliminated the Irish in the quarterfinal round in 2013.
That offensive assault continued a pattern that became a nightmare for Irish opponents in the season’s third game.
McMinn Central coach Josh Goodin has been impressed with opponent’s remarkable run.
“They are really dang good,” said Goodin, slowing drawing out the words for emphasis. “They’re athletic and strong in all three phases of the game. They’ve scored on offense, defense and special teams. And they haven’t given up many big plays, if any, this season.
“They’re one of, if not the best, teams we’ve seen.”
Offensively, it starts with Darras, who was thrust into action as a freshman and has kept the starting job, save four games as a sophomore when he was injured.
“Our starter (Tanner Webb) went out in the first quarter of our first game and Alex has been back there ever since,” Fant said. “Tanner was a sophomore at the time and he later transferred to Silverdale.”
Fant could tell Darras had the “it” factor right away.
“The thing about Alex is that he’s so intelligent on the football field and the classroom too, that he’s an extension of the coaching staff,” the coach said. “He understands the game plan and can tell it to you backwards and forward. He’s our offensive general out there.
“He’s a tremendous asset to our team.”
Darras has completed 102-of-170 passes for 1,419 yards and 25 touchdowns, with five interceptions.
“As coaches, we have to step back and remember that he’s a young kid and we ask him to do a lot,” Fant said. “Early on we gave him too much in the passing game and his percentage wasn’t that great. Now, I don’t think there’s anything we can’t give him. We check off at the line, we speed up the offense, slow it down and he manages all of that. Because of what he can do, we’ve been incredibly successful.”
Fant has even toyed with the idea of letting Darras call some of his own plays.
As it is, Darras goes to the line of scrimmage a majority of the time with two plays called. He has the option to check to the second play if the first appears to be a bad choice.
Darras wouldn’t mind calling more plays and believes that might happen in his senior year.
“That’s something I’ve talked to coach Fant about,” Darras said. “I feel like if they have the confidence in me to call some plays, it will only help me if I get to play at the next level.”
Having the coaches’ trust has helped Darras from the start, especially in that first game when he relieved Webb.
“I was definitely nervous in that game,” he said. “It was good the coaches trusted me enough to lead the team that they put me in there as a freshman. After I was out there for a while, I felt comfortable in what I was doing.”
Now, Darras exudes confidence and that translates into a smooth-operating offense that only one team – Knoxville Catholic – has been able to outscore. In Game 2, East Ridge played the Irish surprisingly well and still lost by two touchdowns.
Since then Notre Dame’s margin of victory has ranged from a low of 28 to a high of 53.
That’s gridiron supremacy, at any level.
Goodin, who is in his sixth season at McMinn Central, said Loudon, Knoxville Carter and Grace Christian out of Knoxville are the three best teams his Chargers have faced this season.
Loudon beat McMInn Central, 35-7, but Carter pulled out a 7-0 win and the Chargers slipped past Grace, 27-26.
“Notre Dame is right up there with any of them we’ve played,” Goodin said. “If they’re not better, they’re just as good as the others.”
Notre Dame is gunning for its fourth trip to the semifinals, the first since 2005 when the dropped a 48-34 decision to Livingston Academy.
A win over McMinn Central would most likely earn a semifinal spot against perennial championship contender and No. 1-ranked Alcoa (11-1), which is a heavy favorite to beat Christian Academy of Knoxville (7-5) in the other upper bracket quarterfinal.
The Chargers would like nothing more than to achieve a third trip to the semifinals and first since 1995, the last year they’ve gotten past the first round in the postseason.
Is Goodin concerned more about any particular aspect of the Irish offense?
“Everything they do is a concern,” he said. “They run well, pass well and are dangerous on special teams. I don’t think there’s one thing I can point to that scares me more than anything else.
“If you take the pass away, they’ve got (Auston Banks, 1,690 yards rushing, 23 touchdowns) running and he’s dangerous. Take the run away and the quarterback and receivers do their job and punish you.”
TSSAA Quarterfinal Pairings
Game Start At 7 p.m. Local Time
Class 3A
McMinn Central (6-4) at Notre Dame (11-1)
Division II-AA
Baylor (8-4) at Montgomery Bell Academy (9-2)
(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)