Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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36 SEPT. 7, 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED GAME PREVIEW: NORTHERN ILLINOIS BY TYLER HORKA NORTHERN ILLINOIS RUNNING GAME VS. NOTRE DAME RUN DEFENSE Normally these breakdowns begin with the skill players who will most influence the outcome of the respective head-to-head matchups. But in the spirit of the Notre Dame offensive line (which we will get to later in this On Paper section) being all anyone could talk about for the better part of fall camp and into the week of the season opener at Texas A&M, let's start with that of Northern Illinois. The Huskies have two sixth-year players up front in left guard J.J. Lippe and center Logan Zscher- nitz, and two seniors in right guard Evan Buss and right tackle John Champe. That quartet plus redshirt sophomore Evan Malcore boast totals of 172 games played with 114 starts for NIU. They're blocking for a player who was sneakily one of the best tailbacks in college football in 2023. Senior Antario Brown ran 212 times for 1,296 yards and 10 touchdowns last season. His backup, redshirt senior Gavin Williams, stuck around for another season in DeKalb County, too. Williams put together a nice first season there after trans- ferring in from Iowa, with 95 carries for 488 yards and 3 touchdowns. Northern Illinois' experience along the offensive line and the bumps and bruises that have made Brown and Williams better over the years likely still will not be enough to overpower Notre Dame and its four graduate student starters along the defen- sive line. Nobody in their right mind wants to run into Howard Cross III or Rylie Mills all afternoon or get caught trying to get to the edge against Jordan Botelho and RJ Oben. Of course, stopping the run comes down to line- backer play as well. Graduate student linebacker Jack Kiser was Notre Dame's No. 1 run stopper in 2023, according to Pro Football Focus, with his season-long grade of 87.3. He's the man in charge of the middle of Notre Dame's defense after the Irish lost Marist Liufau and JD Bertrand to the NFL. The sample size was small, but as a true freshman line- backer Drayk Bowen garnered the sixth-best PFF run defense grade of any Notre Dame defensive player. He's in an expanded role this season, like Kiser. So for as much as Northern Illinois has going for it in its ground game, Notre Dame has even more to stymie the Huskies. Advantage: Notre Dame NORTHERN ILLINOIS PASSING GAME VS. NOTRE DAME PASS DEFENSE Northern Illinois head coach Thomas Hammock went ultimate Mr. Coy and never revealed publicly who he was starting at quarterback in Week 1. "There's no advantage for us to announce who On PaPer Redshirt senior Trayvon Rudolph, who caught 51 passes for 531 yards and 2 touchdowns in 2023, is the unquestioned leader of the Huskies' receiving corps. PHOTO COURTESY NORTHERN ILLINOIS ATHLETICS