Notre Dame's Auston Banks breaks through a hole in the Chattanooga Christian defense.Auston Banks jogged onto the field to take his place on Notre Dame's kickoff-coverage team.
Then an assistant coach called him back to the sideline. Banks dropped to his knees and jokingly begged to stay in the game for one more play last Thursday. He already had blistered Grundy County for 192 yards and three touchdowns on five carries in the first quarter.
"It was my senior night," Banks said Monday. "I wanted to give my team all that I have in my tank."
Instead, the coaching staff pulled him from the game and left him on the sideline like coaches pull NFL starters during preseason games.
Other, younger players need experience. Plus, there's no sense in risking the health of one of the area's best running backs in a blowout.
"At the end of the game, I was cheering on my teammates like they cheer me on," Banks said. "After we're up big, other guys get in and handle the rest."
The Irish (9-1) haven't been challenged in the fourth quarter since their second game, which ended up a 14-point win over East Ridge. Notre Dame's most dramatic game of the season came in week one, a 15-12 loss to Knoxville Catholic.
"I can still remember that game like it was yesterday," Banks said. "I wish we'd had that win."
Notre Dame's 2014 season continues Friday against Chattanooga Christian (4-6) at 7 p.m. at Eberle Field in a Class 3A first-round playoff game. Generally playoff games become tighter, and often one possession could determine the winner.
"We treat any situation the same: Whether it's a close game or not, we have to do our jobs," quarterback Alex Darras said. "We do have experience in playoffs."
There are benefits and drawbacks from such a successful season. While many of the top players haven't been accustomed to full-game fatigue and fourth-quarter pressure, they are fresher now than they would have been. And guys who will play key roles next year have played quite a bit, which sets them up well for 2015.
Notre Dame coach Charles Fant said the likes of Kolbie Bragg, Noah Bankston and Patrick Johnson have benefited the most from the blowouts. All three are sophomores who earned more playing time over the course of the season as the Irish invoked the running-clock rule several times.
"Being able to score as quickly as we have with our starters has been a blessing for us coaches, because it shows our preparation worked," Fant said. "It's given us us an opportunity for our second- and third-team players an awful lot of opportunity to play Friday night football."
Notre Dame has outscored its opponents 401-57 in its last nine games.
"I think the Signal game was the last time I played the whole game," Darras said. "That's good because it gets other guys experience."
The sad part of that equation is that second-string quarterback Nicholas Coronis suffered an ACL injury in his left knee last Thursday on a long run toward the left pylon.
"Once we get to this point of the season, it's nice to know those other guys have reps in case something happens," said senior linebacker Kelly Green. "It's nice that we've been able to spread it out a little more."
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6484. Follow him at twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP.