SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Marcus Freeman heard the booing last weekend when Notre Dame started slowly against Miami (Ohio) before pulling away. Quarterback Riley Leonard feigned deafness when the home crowd saw one too many misfires against a MAC opponent. Maybe the head coach and quarterback picked up on fan sentiment as Notre Dame stumbled through another home game Saturday last week. Maybe they didn’t.
“I didn’t ask him about how he feels about people booing him (or) that people boo me,” Freeman said. “We can’t perform to make sure everybody cheers for us, all right? That’s a part of the game. If you don’t do your job, people are going to boo you.”
There will be no denying the reaction inside the stadium this weekend when No. 16 Notre Dame (3-1) hosts No. 15 Louisville (3-0) in a game that could eliminate Freeman and Leonard from College Football Playoff contention before October. Beat the Cardinals and the Irish would have a 50.8 percent chance of making the CFP, per The Athletic’s projection model. Lose and that likelihood drops to 15.6 percent.
It’s all been a strange five weeks for Notre Dame, a run that’s felt like it’s covered multiple seasons. From the opening high at Texas A&M to the cratering against Northern Illinois a week later, Freeman’s third season has been a study in whiplash. Now he gets a chance to prove it can be something more.
Just one ranked team remains on the schedule after this weekend, with No. 13 USC an unknown commodity and Thanksgiving weekend too far off in the distance. It makes the matchup with Louisville the last chance to make an impression until the end of November. At least a significant winning one.
It’s not clear what version of Freeman’s Notre Dame will show Saturday (3:30 p.m. ET, Peacock) while wearing green. Freeman let the captains pick the jersey color this weekend for the Irish Wear Green game. In terms of dress, the Notre Dame football team and Notre Dame’s crowd will be united.
Whether the fan base cheers the Irish on, that part might be up to Freeman and Leonard.
Here are three questions and a prediction for Notre Dame’s inflection point of a home date with Louisville.
Has Notre Dame’s depth been stretched too far?
Freeman wished reserve cornerback Jaden Mickey well this week when the junior opted out of the rest of this season after four games, planning to redshirt and enter the transfer portal. The high road was the right one considering Mickey’s family situation after his mother Nilka died last December after battling cancer. Mickey plans to graduate from Notre Dame before departing.
From purely a football point of view, Mickey’s departure may be more difficult for Notre Dame to process, even if he’d fallen behind sophomore Christian Gray, with freshman Leonard Moore moving up. Notre Dame is already down three starting offensive linemen and two defensive ends, plus a valuable tight end and reserve defensive tackle. With an idle week coming after Louisville, it’s fair to wonder if Notre Dame may be losing steam before getting a break.
“I think more than anything, the bye week, we got to make sure those guys that have nicks and bruises are able to heal and also get better at the same time,” Freeman said.
The Irish are optimistic they will get tight end Cooper Flanagan (ankle), defensive end Josh Burnham (ankle), guard Billy Schrauth (ankle) and defensive tackle Gabe Rubio (foot) back after the bye, with Burnham a potential returnee this weekend. Notre Dame has plenty of available players battling through pains, too, even if they’re not on the injury report.
For example, if Gray gets banged up at corner at the same time as Mickey departs, does Notre Dame have enough in reserve to hold up against a strong Louisville passing attack? Moore might be a high-upside cornerback, but matching up against the Cardinals pass game is a tough introduction.
It feels as though the Irish are one injury away from being stretched too far at multiple positions, which makes getting out of Saturday without any more injuries paramount for Notre Dame’s chances in the back half of the season. Yes, Notre Dame has already shown tremendous depth at a few positions this season, with defensive end Boubacar Traore dominant in Jordan Botelho’s absence. Junior Tuihalamaka was a capable replacement for Burnham last weekend. It’s just that the Irish won’t be able to tell those success stories forever.
Did Leonard really get better last week?
It felt like searching for silver linings in one of college football’s worst pass offenses.
Could the deep shots Leonard took against Miami be a sign of progress, even if they didn’t end in completions? Leonard worked the seam to tight end Mitchell Evans in the first half against the RedHawks and drew a pass interference. He got a flag with a deep shot to Kris Mitchell, too. There was the 38-yard touchdown to Beaux Collins, but those competitive throws maybe said more about Leonard trusting his receivers to make a play.
“A hundred percent, yes. I mean, he’s putting in some really good, substantial work on the practice field with those guys and trying to continue to build confidence, not only in what he’s doing, but what they’re doing,” offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock said. “And I think some of that resulted in him being willing to let go of it a little bit more. And I just hope that continues to build. Because, obviously, when we threw the ball vertically down the field, there were some good things that happened.”
This is what Riley Leonard’s dynamic 50 yard touchdown run sounded like 🔊#GoIrish☘️ | @Allstate pic.twitter.com/C4F71bWy5n
— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) September 24, 2024
Leonard is just 1-for-7 on passes beyond 20 air yards this season, with Collins’ touchdown last week the only completion. He went 4-for-21 for 120 yards on that depth of target last season.
Louisville has allowed just four completions of at least 20 yards this season, seventh nationally.
Notre Dame doesn’t need Leonard to become a gunslinger, but the Irish need their quarterback to at least try to chuck it deep. If not for the completion, then perhaps for the pass interference call. And if not for that, at least for moving a defender out of the box to make life easier for Jeremiyah Love and the running backs.
“Coming from a defensive side, you have to say, ‘OK, we gotta get an extra hat in the box. In case he runs the ball, we’re outnumbered,’” Freeman said. “If teams are going to do that, we have to have the ability to throw it over the top.
“I hope Riley feels that belief that we have in him to throw the ball down the field.”
Can the Irish line hold up again?
Notre Dame’s offensive line has been tested like this before. And while the Irish didn’t ace their intro exam at Texas A&M, they didn’t fail it as Notre Dame got out of College Station with a 23-13 win that included an eight-play 85-yard drive capped by Love’s 21-yard touchdown. That defensive line featured defensive end Nic Scourton and a deep front seven. This weekend’s test starts with defensive end Ashton Gillotte and linebackers who might be just as good.
“Their front seven, I think, is as good as we played against all season,” Denbrock said. “They get after it, and they’re very aggressive.”
Gillotte has just 1.5 tackles for loss and one sack through three games against modest competition. But USF transfer Tramel Logan has 5.0 TFLs and Jared Dawson has 3.0. The Cardinals rank No. 7 nationally in TFLs per game at 8.7, with only Duke and Ole Miss better among Power 4 programs. For the sake of comparison, Notre Dame is No. 119 nationally with 4.0 TFLs per game. Only Wisconsin and Mississippi State are worse among the Power 4.
Notre Dame’s offensive line will again go with Pat Coogan at center and Rocco Spindler at guard following the season-ending injury to center Ashton Craig (knee) and multiple-week injury to Schrauth (ankle) at right guard. Simply holding up at the point of attack might be enough if Leonard’s legs can keep the Cardinals backed off the line of scrimmage.
Audric Estime and Love combined for 15 carries for 57 yards last year at Louisville as Sam Hartman was sacked five times. Gillotte accounted for 1 1/2 of those sacks.
“You want to always keep (last year) in your mind, but it shouldn’t be the main focus,” Spindler said. “The focus is staying in the moment and winning this particular moment that we’re in. Some guys might want to use that as fuel.”
Prediction
Notre Dame has every reason to be locked in and buttoned up Saturday, ready to return last year’s favor to Louisville. The Cardinals are an unknown commodity with plenty of slack in their system, essentially playing with house money. The Irish are stretched to the limit, both in terms of the College Football Playoff chase and sentiment around the head coach. If one program needs this game more than another, it’s Notre Dame in a blowout. None of that means the Irish will extend their season’s relevance into October. But the Irish felt like they took a small step last week with Leonard. If he can take another modest stride this weekend, Notre Dame should survive with its championship-level defense at the ready.
(Photo of Riley Leonard and Aneyas Williams: James Black / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
