SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Maybe Notre Dame defensive tackle Rylie Mills will get a shout-out from the “Costco Guys” for his three-sack performance against Florida State on Saturday night.

Following the 52-3 victory over the Seminoles at Notre Dame Stadium, Mills credited viral father and son duo AJ & Big Justice for his favorite sack party. The dance, which involves flexing the shoulders with two arms and tapping the toes, began to become popular in the sport after it was combined with the duo’s song, “We Bring the Boom.”

Mills, a 6-foot-4, 295-pound graduating senior, and Notre Dame’s defense had plenty of opportunities to celebrate Saturday. The CFP No. 10 Irish (8-1) recorded eight sacks, intercepted two passes, one of which safety Luke Talich returned for a 79-yard touchdown as the backups were late in the game, and limited Florida State to in total 208 meters. offence.

“I think as a defense we turned up the heat,” Mills said.

SUBSCRIBE INDOORS AND SPORTS TO STAY INFORMED ABOUT NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS

Florida State’s offense felt the doom. The Seminoles (1-9) managed a 23-yard field goal to end a 16-play, 75-yard drive on their opening possession of the game, but they fell apart from there. Florida State punted on its next five possessions before halftime, closing the game with six three-and-outs.

The interceptions came in the second half as Notre Dame’s pass rush began to wear down Florida State’s two-quarterback rotation. Starter Brock Glenn threw both, the first of which snagged nickelback Jordan Clark to end FSU’s first drive of the second half. The interception came one play after Mills’ third sack of the game.

Clark credited the Notre Dame defensive line for pressuring Glenn into making a bad pass to Kyle Morlock.

“I didn’t have to work too long or too hard tonight,” Clark said. “All credit to those boys. They’re working their tails off. (Defensive line) Coach Wash (Al Washington) does a great job of keeping them ready and keeping them called. You saw that tonight. You’ve really seen that all year. They make our work as subordinates very easy.”

The job could have gotten tougher for Notre Dame’s defensive line when starting nose tackle Howard Cross III left the game early in the second quarter with a left ankle injury. Mills immediately stepped up with back-to-back sacks on the next two plays after Cross’ injury.

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman described Cross’ injury as an ankle sprain in the post-game press conference. He thought Cross could have gotten back into the game if necessary. But at the time, Mills did not know how seriously Cross was or was not injured.

Earlier this week, Freeman praised the Mills-Cross duo for playing a big role in Notre Dame’s ability to generate a pass rush despite losing its top two vyper defensive ends, Jordan Botelho and Boubacar Traore. Mills did enough for the two of them on Saturday night with five tackles, three sacks and another quarterback rush.

“When Howard went down, I was just devastated for him because I know how much he put into this week and how much he makes everyone better,” Mills said. “For me it caused a bit of frustration. We saw our guy go down, which is something you never want to see. Hopefully that led to that.

“I wanted to make sure Howard was OK. After that he was great. He was a leader on the sidelines, talking to young guys, talking to me and giving everyone a little bit of encouragement.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION ON THE INSIDER LOUNGE MESSAGE BOARD

CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE INDOORS AND SPORTS ON YOUTUBE

Junior Donovan Hinish played more with Cross sidelined. He took advantage of the opportunities with five tackles and two sacks of his own. Senior defensive tackle Gabriel Rubio recorded one tackle and batted down a screen pass to make his presence felt.

The rest of Notre Dame’s eight sacks came from junior vyper Junior Tuihalamaka, junior linebacker Jaylen Sneed and a shared sack between freshman defensive end Bryce Young and sophomore linebacker Jaiden Ausberry. The Irish reached eight sacks in a game for the first time since totaling eight against Virginia in 2019.

“Rylie achieved some individual glory today,” Freeman said. “He got the sacks, but there are a lot of people who contributed to Rylie getting the sacks. You talk about the coverage, and you talk about some of the other guys beforehand.

Florida State’s quarterbacks combined to complete just 10 of their 26 passes (38.5%) for 88 yards. Glenn finished 5 of 18 for 51 yards. Luke Kromenhoek was 5-of-8 for 37 yards.

Those numbers aren’t possible without good play in the secondary to complement Notre Dame’s pass rush. But Clark wanted the big boys to get the credit.

“It was really the D-line,” Clark said. “Honestly, we like to take credit for it, but when you get guys rushing like Rylie Mills did tonight and the rest of those guys, it makes it really easy for us.”

Florida State became the fifth team to fail to reach 250 yards of offense this season against Notre Dame. Notre Dame had not limited so many teams to so few yards since the 1988 season.

Even though a strong performance was expected against a weak Florida State offense, this defense’s performances are starting to stack up and add to a College Football Playoff resume that will feature three more wins.

“I think it was dominant from the entire defense,” Mills said. “You only see that when the front and back are on the same page. When you see the back end like they did, it’s hard to get completions on us.

“That’s one of the great things about our defense. We feed each other. When the D-line is doing really well, the corners come to us and say, ‘You guys are killing it.’ This is great.’

“And then the other way around. They get choices and we say, ‘Dude, this is great. Let them hold the ball.” It works both ways.”

——————————————– —- ———

• Chat with Notre Dame fans in the Insider Lounge.

• Subscribe to the Inside ND Sports podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud, Podbean or Pocket Casts.

• Subscribe to the Inside ND Sports channel on YouTube.

• Follow us on Twitter: @insideNDsports, @EHansenND And @TJamesND.

• Like us on Facebook: Inside ND Sports

• Follow us on Instagram: @insideNDsports