The Notre Dame Fighting Irish were limping. They were dazed. They were confused. They were outplayed. They trailed the Penn State Nittany Lions 10–0 in the Orange Bowl, and it felt more lopsided than that. Then it seemed to get immediately worse when quarterback Riley Leonard was knocked out of the game on a hard hit late in the first half.
In came backup Steve Angeli, a third-year guy whose only game-on-the-line playing time at Notre Dame was in the Sun Bowl last season. At that moment, with two starting offensive linemen out injured as well, Irish coach Marcus Freeman could be forgiven for going into damage control, playing conservatively and just getting into halftime down 10.
