SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Eleven final thoughts on Notre Dame’s 52-3 blowout of Florida State, what it means for the rest of this month and potentially beyond it.
1. Should Notre Dame play more night games? Maybe. At least Marcus Freeman is for it.
The problem is the expectation that Notre Dame set its home kickoff times six months in advance. Because sometimes you get an opponent circling the drain for your big home night game instead of Ohio State. Sometimes you get a moribund Stanford instead of USC with the defending Heisman Trophy winner.
Not all big games need to be played at night. But if Notre Dame goes prime time, maybe more flexibility can be built into the schedule. Some prime-time kicks are obvious. Michigan and Ohio State. Both in September when the sport’s hype soars. Both Clemson games have been perfect in prime time. North Carolina? Not so much. And that’s Florida State twice as a prime-time non-factor. Stanford? Forget about it.
Yet, Notre Dame Stadium turned out nicely. It just felt a little empty because of the opponent. Freeman credited the crowd for making a difference against Florida State. The Irish would have won by five touchdowns with no one there.
2. Was Riley Leonard excellent against Florida State or just pretty good?
It felt like bits and pieces of both. Running the ball, Leonard remains among the best rushing quarterbacks in college football. Maybe the best. He left two defenders in his wake on the 34-yard touchdown run. One was a missed tackle. The other just grabbed at air. And that’s before he went airborne at the goal line. Leonard will smash Brandon Wimbush’s single-season rushing touchdown program record for quarterbacks (14) considering he’s just one away.
But is Leonard the passer good enough when the defensive talent upgrades (like in December) and when the opposition is actually engaged (also in December)? Harder to say. There were a couple of drops against Florida State. Some of the incompletions were throw-aways without being throw-aways. Basically, just don’t let the opposition pick it off. But completing barely half his passes doesn’t move the needle.
Yet, there’s no point in separating Leonard the runner and Leonard the passer anymore. He’s both. The former is better than the latter. That’s fine. Notre Dame has figured out how to win with this version of Leonard. And it will give the Irish a shot in December, too.
3. Bryce Young covering kickoffs isn’t fair. I’m not sure Bryce Young playing defensive end will be fair, either.
4. That’s the Rylie Mills Notre Dame has been waiting to see all season, which doesn’t mean the grad student hasn’t produced at defensive tackle. He just hasn’t had a three-sack game that makes him look as undeniable in the box score as he is in the game plan. Paired with Howard Cross (and now Gabe Rubio), Notre Dame has had one of the best defensive tackle pairings in the country all season. It’s just that we measure production on defense too much by stats and not enough on plays made, even if it’s setting up somebody else to make it.
What Mills delivered against Florida State was absolute domination. You didn’t need a nuanced view of football to understand that.
5. Jadarian Price’s 65-yard touchdown run was great, but I’m not sure his 17-yard run two snaps earlier wasn’t better. Just before the end of the first quarter, Price took an inside handoff from Leonard and instead of making a cut in the backfield, he burst to the second level and then made a move. Basically, Price snapped off the run that was called instead of trying to hit a home run. And when Price does that, he’s 1B to Jeremiyah Love’s 1A.
If Price can be that kind of running back the rest of the season, not only will he get more carries, he will help Notre Dame win more games.
6. As good as Kedren Young looked at the end of the Navy game two weeks ago, Aneyas Williams looked better at the beginning against Florida State. It might feel a little cheap to compare him to Kyren Williams because they’re both from Missouri … but it’s hard not to see the similarities as all-purpose backs, never mind their last names. Aneyas Williams feels like RB2, potentially as soon as next year. And he’s probably RB1 going into his junior year the way things are trending with Love.
7. Noah Eagle makes whatever he’s calling sound important. NBC has a true A-list play-by-play man there.
8. Not sure I’ll ever understand how Florida State got this bad, this quickly. It defies all logic and explanation. And now Mike Norvell has fired both coordinators and his receivers coach.
Norvell seems like a sharp head coach. But Florida State might be in worse shape than when he showed up after the Jimbo Fisher disaster. Inconceivable.
9. Freeman is a big believer that players who get reps in the fourth quarter of a blowout benefit from the work. It’s a reward for practice. It’s a lesson about staying ready. It’s also an incredible bit of information for the coaches themselves. In the portal world, where anyone can leave at any time for any reason, you’d better know what you’re keeping (or losing). And that means seeing it on Saturday first.
Yes, the backups benefit from all this work. The coaches benefit more.
10. Will pounding Florida State matter tonight in the second week of College Football Playoff rankings? My hunch is it won’t, even if the Seminoles hadn’t lost a game by more than 26 points all season. As much as losing to Northern Illinois still seems to be a drag on Notre Dame, the margin of victory over hapless competition doesn’t seem to matter. And it probably shouldn’t.
If Notre Dame remains No. 10 tonight, perhaps being passed by Alabama and Ole Miss but also passing Miami and Georgia … that will feel about right.
11. Which means the Irish remain in an excellent position to eventually move into a top-eight seed. Winter is still coming. Could be the perfect time for an SEC program to check out the Midwest.
(Photo of Jadarian Price: Michael Clubb / South Bend Tribune / USA Today via Imagn Images)
