Notre Dame Football: Midweek Musings

Midweek thoughts about the Notre Dame football program, its recruiting efforts and college football.

MIDSEASON THOUGHTS

Notre Dame is now halfway through the season, and the Irish enter their second and final bye week with a 5-1 record and a No. 8 national ranking in both polls. The Irish are poised to make a run at another College Football Playoff berth, but they will need help.

The team will spend this week doing a lot of self-scouting, with the hope of better understanding their strengths and finding areas where the most improvement is needed for a strong stretch run.

With that in mind, my Midweek Musings will focus on four observations of the team through six games.

1. The Offense Hasn’t Hit Its Stride Yet - Notre Dame ranks 14th in the country in scoring offense (39.2 points per game), 12th in yards per play (6.95) and 36th in total offense (454.0 yards per game). Notre Dame ties for the nation lead in red zone offense and tied for fourth in red zone touchdown rate.

Those are certainly impressive numbers, and the scoring average would be a school record if that’s where the unit is at the end of the season.

But the reality is Notre Dame has yet to hit its stride on offense. Quarterback Ian Book has been solid, but his game needs to grow, and over the last two games he’s been closer to the player he needs to be than he’s been all season.

Notre Dame has yet to play a single game with all of its weapons on offense, something it is expected to do for the first time against Michigan. Book finally having his full assortment of weapons is something that could help him gain the confidence he needs to go on the attack. If that happens this offense is going to be extremely difficult to contain.

2. The Defensive Ends And Safeties Haven’t Either - The strength of the defense was supposed to be the defensive ends and safeties, a pair of positions that were expected to be among the best in the country.

Both groups have played well, but neither has played at the level they should be. Julian Okwara and Khalid Kareem were up-and-down to start the season, and while they have played better in recent games, outside of the Virginia game the pair has yet to really take over games the way they are capable of.

Both Alohi Gilman and Jalen Elliott have been good this season, but like the ends they aren’t playing to the level they should. Gilman has been too aggressive at times, has made far too many mistakes and missed too many tackles. Elliott has gotten a bit grabby in coverage at times, and neither is playing the sound, disruptive football they did last season.

The bright spot for both groups has been the play of the non-starters, but if the Notre Dame defense is going to play championship caliber football down the stretch both units need to get to their potential.

3. The Linebackers Are Better Than Expected - There was no position on the roster that was more concerning coming into the season than the linebacker group. There was no way a unit led by Asmar Bilal would be able to play top-level football, or so I thought, and my opinion was solidified by their poor performance against Louisville.

The unit has gotten better and better each week, and at times they’ve been arguably the most impactful group on the defense.

Bilal has been outstanding for much of the season, using his athleticism to thrive in coverage and show needed range. The biggest surprise, however, has been how instinctive Bilal has been. He’s making good reads and is around the ball a lot.

Drew White and Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah haven’t been as consistent as Bilal, but both have shown flashes of being impact players. This is especially true of Owusu-Koramoah, who has arguably made more impact plays than anyone on the defense thus far, and his athleticism in special.

Sophomore Jack Lamb has been effective in the nickel defense, and both Shayne Simon and Bo Bauer have looked good coming off the bench.

4. The Offensive Line Is Starting To Come Into Its Own - Notre Dame’s line has been good in pass protection all season, but it’s run blocking wavered between average to bad through the first three games. Notre Dame got no push in the run game against Georgia, and the Irish couldn’t even run the ball effectively against New Mexico’s porous defense.

Against Virginia the unit started to show life, rushing for 178 yards and 5.1 yards per carry against a Cavalier defense that still has yet to give up more than 100 yards or 3.3 yards per carry than any team other than Notre Dame. The 233 yards against Bowling Green were expected, but Notre Dame beat up USC to the tune of 308 yards and 6.4 yards per rush.

I’d still like to see the interior blockers get off the ball better, but the unit has been battling in recent weeks, showing more power and opening up run lanes for Tony Jones Jr., and the senior running back has been playing at an exceptionally high level in recent games.

If the unit can build on its recent performance it will provide the offense with a foundation it can build a 6-0 finish around.

OFFENSIVE RECRUITING IS ON A DIFFERENT LEVEL RIGHT NOW

Since Chip Long and the rest of the offensive staff arrived the recruiting on that side of the ball has exploded. The arrival and recruiting success of Lance Taylor has finally got the running back position recruiting like the rest of the position groups.

From 2018 to 2021, Notre Dame has landed 18 players to rank in the Top 150 nationally by at least one service. That includes three quarterbacks, a running back, a tight end, seven offensive linemen and six wide receivers.

That list doesn’t include 2020 commit Xavier Watts, who is a Top 100 talent in my view, sophomore tight end Tommy Tremble or sophomore center Jarrett Patterson.

Notre Dame’s skill recruiting has been especially impactful in recent classes. The 2020 skill class is as good as we’ve seen in a decade at Notre Dame. Running back Chris Tyree is an elite prospect with rare speed. Wide receiver Jordan Johnson is a five-star recruit according to Rivals, and I’d argue that Watts has even more potential and upside. The combination of Michael Mayer and Kevin Bauman is a duo at tight end no other team can match, and quarterback Drew Pyne is the No. 100 player in the country according to Rivals.

Notre Dame’s 2021 class is off to a hot start as well, with Notre Dame landing Top 100 quarterback Tyler Buchner to kick things off and then adding elite offensive tackle Blake Fisher and talented tight end Cane Berrong over the summer. The recent additions of Top 100 athletes Lorenzo Styles Jr. and Deion Colzie was huge for the Irish offense.

The future for the Notre Dame offense is incredibly bright due to the talent currently on the roster and the group currently committed.

GAMES TO WATCH

It’s going to be an interesting weekend of college football, and this is when Notre Dame’s playoff changes are either helped or hindered.

Here are the games I’ll be watching this week (All times Eastern):

UCLA (1-5) at Stanford (3-3) - Thursday - 9:00 PM - ESPN

Stanford has won two games in a row to get back to .500, and that includes a win over #25 Washington. Stanford has a stretch of games where it can turn the ship around, and it begins with UCLA. If the Cardinal can beat UCLA on Thursday night and Arizona at home next week they will start to gain more attention. After that they have road games against Colorado, Washington State and a home game against California. Those are all winnable games, and if Stanford can get hot that will give the Irish a chance to beat a ranked opponent on the road to end the regular season.

#3 Clemson (6-0) at Louisville (4-2) - Saturday - 12:00 PM - ABC

Louisville upsetting Clemson would obviously be huge for Notre Dame. Despite being defending national champs, the Tigers are getting hammered for a soft schedule that is not their fault. I give Clemson a lot of credit for how they schedule, but the fact is neither Texas A&M nor South Carolina are going to end up being sexy non-conference wins. A loss to Louisville would do major damage to their resume and could help Notre Dame end up being the de facto ACC rep in the Playoff. The fact it’s a team that Notre Dame beat by 18 would certainly help.

A Louisville upset is unlikely, so what I’m really hoping for here is at least a highly competitive game that boosts Louisville’s standing, which then makes Notre Dame’s 35-17 road win over the Cardinals look much better.

North Carolina (3-3) at Virginia Tech (4-2) - Saturday - 3:30 PM - ACC Network+

There is only one “big game” left on the schedule, at least how things stand right now. Virginia Tech has had some rough moments this year, but a win over North Carolina will make them 5-2 before their bye and before they head to Notre Dame. If enough chaos happens there’s a chance the Hokies could be ranked by the time they make it to South Bend. At the very least a Hokie win improves the overall strength of schedule of Notre Dame’s final six opponents.

Duke (4-2) at Virginia (4-2) - Saturday - 3:30 PM - ACC Network

This game is a win-win for Notre Dame. A Duke win against Virginia this week and North Carolina next week will have the Blue Devils knocking on the door of the Top 25 before Notre Dame comes to town. A Cavalier win this week would boost their resume.

As much as I love Bronco Mendenhall and my home state program, a Duke win is what I’m pulling for here. Virginia has to travel to Louisville the following weekend and still has a road contest left with North Carolina and a season-ending game against Virginia Tech. Notre Dame getting impressive wins in November over Virginia Tech and Duke will make more of an impact than a September win over Virginia.

My fear is Virginia beats Duke and then loses to Louisville the following weekend, which then drags down all three opponents. If Duke wins this week and Louisville wins next week it hurts Virginia’s resume, but it boosts the others.

#16 Michigan (5-1) at #7 Penn State (6-0) - 7:30 PM - ABC

Okay, hear me out for a second. Yes, I know you hate Michigan. Yes, I know their fans are insufferable. Yes, a win at Penn State will make them even more annoying the next week. But a Michigan win this weekend would be HUGE for Notre Dame.

There are two reasons for this. One, it means Michigan will be a borderline Top 10 team when Notre Dame heads to Ann Arbor the following weekend. That will give Notre Dame a chance to dramatically boost its resume. The second thing it does is knock Penn State out of the mix, at least if it comes down to Notre Dame against the Big Ten. An ideal scenario for the Irish is that Penn State, Wisconsin and Ohio State all beat each other up, but that doesn’t work as well unless Michigan can beat at least one of those teams.

I’d rather Michigan beat one of those teams before they play Notre Dame as opposed to later.

Arizona (4-2) at USC (3-3) - 9:30 PM - Pac 12 Network

If USC plays each game the way it did against Notre Dame it will run the table and finish in the Top 25 and will give the Trojans a Pac 12 South title. It will also ensure that Clay Helton remains as head coach. Both of those things are very, very good for Notre Dame.

TWEET OF THE WEEK

Revisiting a Notre Dame win over USC is always fun.

FILM TO WATCH

Here are junior and senior seasons highlights of 2020 wide receiver commit Xavier Watts of Omaha (Neb.) Burke. I think these clips will give you a glimpse of why I believe he's a Top 100 caliber player.

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