Can Notre Dame rebound from an embarrassing performance in a loss to Cincinnati last week?

The Irish will get a chance to do that when they play Virginia Tech tonight in Blacksburg.

The Irish offense did everything in its power to hand the Bearcats a 24-13 victory, which ended a streak of 26 straight victories in ND stadium.

The offense and its shortcomings are the responsibility of head coach Brian Kelly. Kelly’s insistence of staying with starting quarterback Jack Coan during the first half - except for a couple series when true freshman Tyler Buchner was inserted to try to spark the offense - shows why Kelly will never get ND a national title. In big games, Kelly falters.

After the halftime break, Kelly put in backup Drew Pyne, who managed to get the Irish some points on the board. Pyne performance was not great, but it was adequate enough to show that he should be given the chance to start a game. Also, by the time Kelly finally made the decision to play Pyne, ND was down 17-0.

Coan’s lack of mobility combined with his continued struggles hitting open receivers has severely hampered the offense. Pyne has mobility which helps avoid sacks and he shows he can throw the ball on the run. His passing stats are not great by any means, but a chance to start and play a complete game might be just what the Irish offense needs. His passing stats were better than Coan with a passing efficiency of 110.5 to 98.1 for Coan.

Adding to the woes was the awful performance of the ND defense, which took a giant step backward last week, giving up big plays at key moments in the game.

There is a lot of blame to go around and there is sure a lot of work to be done if ND expects to get a winning season in 2021. As the say, the buck stops at the top - Kelly. We will see how the Irish respond tonight. Kelly is 16-11 coming off a loss.

Interceptions plagued the Irish with Coan and Buchner both throwing one in the first half. Buchner’s pick led directly to a Cincinnati TD. Then immediately after Cincinnati scored, Chris Tyree muffed a kick return giving the ball right back to the Bearcats which resulted in a field goal. The final nail was driven into the Irish when QB Desmond Ridder threw a touchdown pass right before the half. That put the Irish down 17 points.

The ND defense put little pressure on Ridder during the game which gave him the time he needed to pick the Irish weak secondary apart. Big pass plays led to scores.

Kelly has to figure out the QB situation. Coan has had his chance. He has not improved since the first game, mainly because his inability to move in the pocket has led to numerous sacks. Buchner is a good runner but it’s obvious he’s not ready to run the offense. That leaves Pyne, who is not a great passer, but has yet to throw an interception. He can run so he avoids sacks and has speed which makes him a double threat.

Kelly said he will not announce who will start at quarterback this week until the Irish take the field Saturday night.

Virginia Tech is 3-1 with wins over North Carolina, 17-10; Middle Tennessee, 35-14; and Richmond, 21-10. The lone loss has been to West Virginia, 27-21.

ND leads the short series between the schools, 2-1. The last time they played was in 2019 with ND winning, 21-20.

The game will be televised on the ACC network. Service Electric Cable TV, Hazleton, which serves Tamaqua and most of Schuylkill County, carries the channel on dial position 25 and 525.

IRISH NOTES ... Pyne was nine of 22 passing for 143 yards and a score. Coan was 14 of 22 for 114 yards, and Buchner was 0-2. Kyren Williams rushed for 45 yards on 13 carries; Chris Tyree had 20 yards on five carries; and Pyne 10 yards on four carries. Michael Mayer, had eight catches for 93 yards; Braden Lenzy had four for 61 and a score; Avery Davis caught three for 39 yards; and Williams caught three for 19 yards ... Defensively JD Bertrand and Isaiah Pryer both had six tackles followed by DJ Brown with five. ND had one sack in the game while Cincinnati had four ... Kelly said fatigue as a factor that may have led to senior wide receiver Kevin Austin Jr. dropping a critical pass from Pyne in the fourth quarter. That drop, in my opinion, sealed the defeat for the Irish ... Tight end Michael Mayer is expected to play tonight. He had a calf tightness last week against Cincinnati but it should not keep him out of tonight’s game ... Looking at the rest of Cincinnati’s schedule, it very likely they will finish the regular season undefeated ... Last week’s game was the first sellout at ND stadium this year - something that is very unusual ... Notre Dame has allowed the third-most sacks per game (4.4) among the 130 FBS teams and has the nation’s fourth-worst rushing yards-per-carry average (2.4) ... It doesn’t get any easier today. Virginia Tech is the best sacking team that Notre Dame has faced or will face this season. The next closest to that among the remaining Irish opponents are North Carolina and Georgia Tech, who are tied for 65th ... There were a lot of area ND fans at last week’s game, many from the Panther Valley area. A group of about 15 got a tour of the stadium on Friday led by former Berwick High School and ND quarterback Ron Powlus, who is now the Associate Athletic Director for football with the Irish. His son is a freshman QB at ND but currently on the injured list. The tour by Powlus was arranged by Tamaqua’s Dave “Whitey” Williams, who was also at the game ... In my preseason picks I have the Irish winning tonight. After watching ND last week still struggling on offense and a questionable defense, I have to change the pick to the Hokies. As of Thursday, several media sources in the South Bend area ND were saying surprisingly that Coan would be the starting quarterback tonight ... No column next week as the Irish have the week off to prepare for arch-rival Southern California. The USC game has a 7:30 p.m. start on NBC.