SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Nine thoughts on Notre Dame’s 31-24 win over Louisville that showcased just how deep the Irish might be on defense and reminded everyone where Marcus Freeman’s program needs to get better to make the College Football Playoff and win in it.
1. A few weeks ago, I sat in Gus Ragland’s office at Miami (Ohio), walking back his four seasons coaching the Notre Dame quarterbacks. Then we talked about game plans against the Irish secondary. It felt like describing a mountain without a summit. Miami couldn’t throw at Benjamin Morrison, so it wanted to take shots at Christian Gray. It didn’t work. Gray finished with one interception and created another. That didn’t get to Xavier Watts at the back or Jordan Clark in the nickel.
But maybe the story isn’t the players at all.
“I think (Mike) Mickens has done an incredible job with the DBs,” Ragland said. “I’ve seen a lot of those guys when they come in, there’s been question marks about who’s gonna play corner. He answered those questions very quickly with those star players.
“Cam Hart was a wide receiver, turned him into a draft pick. Morrison as a freshman, now he’s gonna be a first-rounder. Xavier Watts, from wide receiver to safety, and he’s the Nagurski Award winner.”
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Mickens’ impact showed even more against Louisville when Notre Dame played without its top three cornerbacks for the middle stretches of the game. Morrison missed time with an undisclosed injury. Gray didn’t play with a shoulder injury despite not being listed on the injury report. Jaden Mickey left the team last week with plans to transfer. It all meant Notre Dame’s secondary played Clark at boundary corner, freshman Leonard Moore at field corner and safety Rod Heard at nickel, with Watts and Adon Shuler at safety.
That’s still a talented group. But it’s not Notre Dame’s top lineup, which might be good enough for the Irish to go back-to-back as the No. 1 pass efficiency defense in the country. After the bye, Notre Dame should have Morrison and Gray at cornerback again. Moore can come off the bench. Heard and Shuler can share reps at safety. Watts is Watts at the back.
Defensive backs coach Mike Mickens’ short-handed group stepped up in Notre Dame’s win against Louisville. (Matt Cashore-USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
And Mickens will lead the group.
Notre Dame had plenty of impactful staff moves last offseason, adding Mike Denbrock, hiring Loren Landow and extending Al Golden. But keeping Mickens on the staff might be just as important.
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2. Marcus Freeman wants to be aggressive. That’s fine.
Notre Dame’s head coach also wants to use analytics. That’s fine, too.
Early in the fourth quarter against Louisville, math got shoved to the backseat in favor of attitude when Notre Dame went for it on fourth-and-3 at the Cardinals’ 46-yard line. Notre Dame led 24-14. Excluding Louisville’s two touchdown drives that were gifted by fumbles from Devyn Ford and Jadarian Price, the Notre Dame defense was pitching a shutout, if not a perfect game. At that point, the Cardinals’ other eight drives ended in fumble, fumble, punt, interception, downs, punt, downs and punt.
On top of that, Notre Dame’s punt game actually had worked while the offense had been sputtering. The move here was to punt, pin Louisville inside its 20 and let Golden go to work.
Instead, Riley Leonard got stuffed on fourth down, the only play call Notre Dame was going to run. Louisville took over at midfield, gained 17 yards in seven plays — Morrison’s corner blitz almost made this point moot — then booted a 56-yard field goal to make it a one score game.
Aggressive is good. Math is sometimes better.
3. Between Leonard’s 34-yard touchdown pass to Jaden Greathouse in the first quarter and his 34-yard completion to Jayden Harrison in the fourth, Notre Dame’s quarterback went 9-of-14 for 32 yards. He didn’t throw a pass more than 5 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. That’s not functional offense. It’s not the kind of quarterback play that can take Notre Dame anywhere in the postseason, assuming the Irish make the Playoff at all.
And yet.
The Leonard who hit Greathouse and Harrison, plus found Jeremiyah Love for the game-clinching screen, is the kind of quarterback Notre Dame can win with. But the book is out on Leonard. Sit on the short stuff. Take away his first read. Take your chances. Stop the quarterback run.
Leonard played winning football because he made a few key plays and didn’t turn the football over. That’s good. But Notre Dame’s offense can’t keep doing this and expect to run the table. The progress of the past couple of weeks is real, but it needs to be kept in context. An elementary passing game is advancing, but it’s not in junior high.
4. Notre Dame’s ground game has feasted on explosive runs this season, relying on Love or Price to make something out of nothing, whether that was their touchdowns at Texas A&M or Love hurdling a defender against Northern Illinois. Louisville did a nice job of not letting Love get loose and sending Price to the bench after stripping him in the second quarter.
It all meant Notre Dame had to win a different way on the ground, which it did with just enough quality runs, even if there wasn’t one explosive among them. Leonard didn’t have a run longer than 12 yards. Love didn’t have one go for double-digits. Price’s 16-yarder was the long Irish run in the game. Notre Dame managed a modest 29 carries for 120 yards. It won’t be a running game Denbrock frames. But it was enough, other than that quarterback sneak on fourth down that got stuffed.
5. Last week, Golden talked about “populating the football,” which is basically coach-speak for hustling. He didn’t think Notre Dame did a good job of swarming the football against Miami (Ohio), which meant Notre Dame wasn’t in position to take advantage when the ball did come out. That changed against Louisville. It wasn’t just Watts chasing down Tyler Shough. It wasn’t just Moore stripping the football either. It was Jaiden Ausberry not giving up on the play and recovering the fumble. It took a village to force that turnover.
6. Jordan Clark took to social media to defend his head butt of Chris Bell.
If you were brought up to let someone spit in your face, and not do anything I get it. Not me though, be easy😂😂 https://t.co/nap7moGM7Z
— Jordan Clark (@Jclark21_) September 29, 2024
As the saying goes, when you find yourself in a hole, the best thing to do is stop digging. It doesn’t matter whether Bell spit in Clark’s face. Want to take that up after the game? Great. Or better yet, meet Bell in a tackle pile during the game. But to send Notre Dame 15 yards backward because of ego is a freshman mistake made by a graduate student.
Posting about it, giving a playbook to every opponent for how to get under Clark’s skin, makes even less sense.
Clark has had a fantastic first five games at Notre Dame. There’s an argument he has been the most impactful incoming transfer on the roster. But this was a moment of madness. There’s no defense for it.
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7. All that said, I get the frustration from Clark. Louisville didn’t play to the echo of the whistle last weekend. It played beyond it. The Cardinals got what they deserved postgame and simply had to take it.
8. Boubacar Traore is likely done for the year after his knee seemed to buckle during the first half. This is a devastating blow for the defense that already lost Jordan Botelho. Traore had been so good that it was fair to wonder if he’d be next year’s Benjamin Morrison, a defender at a money position that Notre Dame would have to accommodate in college football’s free market. That’s a question for another time. For now, Notre Dame must replace a player it probably can’t with anyone on its roster.
You’re up, Bryce Young and Logan Thomas.
9. Notre Dame plays just three games — Stanford, Georgia Tech and Navy — between now and the first Playoff rankings. One home, two neutral sites. The Irish should be 7-1 by then, even if no result can be assumed after losing to Northern Illinois. But show up in the rankings that night, and losing at home to a MAC program can at least begin to be forgiven.
(Top photo of Rylie Mills (99): Matt Cashore / Imagn Images)
