IT'S NEARLY NOTRE GAME DAY! To celebrate, we're indulging in one of our favorite annual traditions: a Q&A with Notre Dame's SBNation affiliate, One Foot Down. Enjoy a torrent of thoughts from the brilliant mind of Fighting Irish fanatic Pat Rick. After reading his answers from our writing staff below, be sure to check out our answers to their questions in what can only be described as a football fever dream. Without further ado...
Notre Dame is an excellent team but has been noticeably upset by Marshall and Northern Illinois in the past two years? What were the keys to the upset? And could the upset minded Cardinal still capitalize on this to win?
I would say there were three key components to the Marshall loss in 2022 and the Northern Illinois loss just a month ago:
- Notre Dame coming off a premier, season opener road matchup and playing a small conference team who isn’t actually anything special and will go on to be decidedly mediocre after beating the Irish
- Notre Dame having a run-first QB as their starter who can’t hit the broad side of a barn passing the ball
- Notre Dame having a great defense that makes just enough small mistakes to allow a couple big plays and give up just enough points to lose a sad, low-scoring affair
So looking at the above, can Stanford capitalize on those things as well this Saturday? Unfortunately, they won’t really qualify for being an emotional-hangover trap game after the season opener, nor do they hail from a mid-major conference. However, with how bad Stanford has been the last few years and knowing how they came into South Bend as a bad team in 2022 and beat the Irish, I definitely still think they can quasi-qualify for this first key to pulling the upset.
The only solace I have with that scary thought of reliving the ‘22 game is that several key ND guys on this team played in that game and thus Stanford likely won’t catch the Irish by surprise after what happened last time (hopefully).
The other two components totally apply. Riley Leonard is still the starting QB and he is still not very impressive as a passer, relying mainly on his excellent running ability to justify his NIL investment and his starting job. And the ND defense is VERY good again this season, but they keep losing guys to injury and are fully capable, as we know from the NIU game, of allowing 1-2 fluke big plays that give a lesser opponent life.
So, at this point I won’t be taking any opponent lightly – this ND squad can compete with most teams but also can lose to almost anyone (except Purdue, LMAO).
Can Riley Leonard improve?
I sure hope so. I keep forgetting that the Irish are not even halfway through their regular season yet, and so there’s definitely a chance Leonard can keep making strides as a passer while still using his running abilities effectively and to keep defenses honest (but hopefully more sparingly so he can stay somewhat healthy).
Leonard has made a few really nice throws in the last couple games. He’s also missed on plenty, including some gimmes, but early in the season he wasn’t hitting his receivers consistently at all, and it took him until Game 4 to throw a touchdown pass. Irish fans were, naturally, calling for backup Steve Angeli to take over as QB1.
So, he’s at least finally shown he can occasionally throw an accurate pass longer than 7 yards, and with a slate of defenses that should be, on average, much worse than the likes of the Texas A&M and Louisville defensive units, I’m cautiously optimistic that Leonard’s level of performance will continue to improve as the season goes on.
Who are some play-makers that Stanford should watch out for? Is there someone that can contain Elic Ayomanor?
On offense, far and away the biggest name for Stanford fans to know is RB Jeremiyah Love. He’s taken over for Audric Estime, who’s probably still giving Cardinal fans nightmares from the 2023 game. Love is a more talented, faster running back with huge big play potential, but doesn’t quite get as big of a workload as Estime did. Still, he’s what makes the ND offense go and is absolutely lethal when he gets just a sliver of daylight (see proof here), so if Stanford can largely contain him, that will go a long way toward pulling the upset.
Other potential offensive playmakers include RB Jadarian Price (another home run threat – please see this touchdown vs. Texas A&M), WR Jaden Greathouse (probably the Irish’s best wideout, but it’s been hard to tell with Leonard throwing the ball), and potentially TE Mitchell Evans (he’d be a definite, but he’s been gradually working his way back from a season-ending injury in 2023 and so he’s yet to have his big “I’m back” performance).
Defensively, ND has lost their two best pass rushers to season ending injuries (Boubacar Traore and Jordan Botelho), and their super-senior DTs with all the preseason accolades have been fairly disappointing compared to their hype heading into the season (Howard Cross and Rylie Mills).
Instead, the playmakers to know mainly come from the back end of the defense – cornerbacks Benjamin Morrison and Christian Gray are arguably one of the best – if not the best – corner tandems in the country when they’re healthy (Morrison got banged up against Louisville and Gray did not play in the game due to injury, but both should be playing this weekend). Xavier Watts is an All-American safety who keeps getting better, and sophomore Adon Shuler has been a STUD next to him at the other safety spot. Add in Jordan Clark at nickelback (he’s been excellent) and some solid reserve guys like Rod Heard and Leonard Moore, and it’s really a helluva secondary that largely doesn’t allow much through the air.
Thus, I’d say ND definitely has the personnel to contain Ayomanor. That might be all they can do, because he is an exceptional receiver who will surely manage to get a few big receptions. But Morrison and Gray especially are long, technically sound, excellent cover corners with good ball skills – they’ll keep him in check as long as they’re out there and healthy.
Other names to watch out for: LBs Drayk Bowen, Jaiden Ausberry, and Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa, who are 3 exciting young guys in a 5-linebacker rotation; also, defensive end Bryce Young (son of Bryant Young, one massive true freshman).
We asked last year and we'll ask again: do you miss Brian Kelly?
Never.
The collective relief of the Irish faithful from not having to convince themselves to root for that man has been palpable the last few years. I have no idea if Marcus Freeman can be the guy who can make ND a true title contender again (Kelly clearly wasn’t), but he’s at least so likable and cool and handsome and seems to truly appreciate Notre Dame, whereas Kelly always seemed to be complaining about academic restrictions, facilities, etc.
I think Stanford can certainly relate to Freeman’s approach, considering the Cardinal have even tougher admission standards – he’s really been selling to kids the idea that they should “choose hard” in order to get a world-class education while also competing at the highest level on the field, really trying to use those kind of unique things to his advantage in recruiting instead of just complaining that he has to shop down a different aisle compared to other blue blood programs.
Good riddance, I wish him nothing but the worst as he drives the LSU program into sustained mediocrity.
Here’s some free space to make fun of Florida State:
I mean, what more can I say to make fun of them that they haven’t done to themselves over the last ~5+ weeks (or way longer if we want to go back to their bowl game performance against Georgia – starters sitting out or not)?
It’s so unbelievably funny that they didn’t want schools like Stanford/Cal/SMU in the ACC and are trying to sue their way out of the conference, but they’re by far the worst team in the ACC and got absolutely HANDLED by SMU a couple weeks back. I don’t even care that they managed to beat Cal, because we all can tell that Cal is a better team, and so much more fun at that. Other small tidbits I just want to mention to add to my making-fun-of-FSU statement...
Their Notable Alumni include:
- Cheryl Hines (married to the weirdest person in the world)
- Matt Gaetz (no explanation needed why I included him)
- Danny Kanell (LOL)
- Brian Kelley (not that one…this one is a country singer in the band Florida Georgia Line, which may be worse?)
- Scott Stapp (I love me some Creed, but Scott Stapp being a notable attendee of your university is objectively funny)
Teams Florida State Has Never Beaten in Football:
- SMU (0-1)
- Wyoming (0-1)
- San Diego State (0-2)
- Boise State (0-1)
- UTEP (0-1)
Teams Florida State Has Losing Records Against:
- Abilene Christian (1-2)
- Kentucky (1-4-1)
- Houston (2-13-2)
- Pitt (5-6)
Finally, they have a stupid, racist war chant so they deserve every bit of losing and embarrassment they’ve got coming to them this year and beyond.
Stanford took down Syracuse in the JMA Wireless Dome. Cal is hot enough to turn GameDay producers' heads and only lost to Miami because ACC refs don’t recognize targeting as a valid penalty. SMU is looking like a real Texas-sized problem. How do you feel about Notre Dame’s advocacy for Calford x SMU now that the season is in full swing?
For the most part, I love it – it’s really fun to see that Notre Dame had so much influence on a conference they’re not even a full member of, and it’s been excellent to see the Calgorithm dominate the Twittersphere, SMU looking like a legitimate ACC title contender, etc. And yes, it was even great to see Stanford take down Syracuse, because I truly believe that most of the ACC is somewhere between mediocre and garbage at football in any given season, and yet their conference is propped up and given auto-bid access to the playoff by way of Clemson and…occasionally Florida State and Louisville? Always nice to see some new blood come in and remind them of that.
I said “for the most part” above because I do really miss the PAC-12 and the ever-disappearing regionality of conferences and all the tradition and rivalries and whatnot that came with that. So considering Cal/Stanford played a part in bringing the PAC-12 crashing down (and I guess ND did too…woof), I can’t say I FULLY love it.
New Year, New Tree! You know the drill. What primal sensations does this bodacious babe awaken from your primordial endocrine system? Spin us a yarn!
I’ll tell ya what, she’s one TALL glass of water!
With lips that make up roughly 60% of the width of her torso, you can’t help but wonder how much lip balm she goes through in a month, amiright?!? I meant that’s a woman who can support me for life, if she has a lip balm budget like that.
Her angry red eyes indicate a certain fire and passion that excites me, to be completely frank with you. What kind of torrid love affair would I be getting myself wrapped up in with her??
Additionally, the way she wears that hat – hot damn. So stylish, so chic, and such good posture for it to not fall off as she scurries around with no arms for balance – what a nimble, coordinated little minx!
One slight “ick” I will call out, though: her shoes. To quote a meme from 10+ years ago, “WHAT ARE THOOOOOSE???!?” But we can fix that – she’s like the nerdy girl in any rom-com who takes off her glasses and lets her hair down and suddenly she’s gorgeous. We put some better shoes on those gams and we’re truly cooking with gas firewood. Ay carumba!
--Fear The Me.