Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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38 SEPT. 21, 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED GAME PREVIEW: MIAMI (OHIO) BY TYLER HORKA MIAMI (OHIO) RUNNING GAME VS. NOTRE DAME RUN DEFENSE Shield your eyes if you're a box score purist. Mi- ami's rushing statistics in its season-opening 13-6 loss to Northwestern were something straight out of a Halloween horror film two months in advance. The RedHawks rushed for 40 yards as a team on 24 carries for an average of 1.7 yards per rush. That includes 4 sacks for a loss of 25 yards, but even if you exclude those from the rushing output it would have been 20 carries for 65 yards for an average of 3.3 yards per rush. Still not very good. Miami (Ohio) was not very good rushing the football in 2023, either. The RedHawks ranked 65th nationally in rushing yards per game with 158.1. In two games against power conference opponents, Miami went for 51 yards on 25 attempts in a 38-3 loss to the Miami Hurricanes and 121 yards on 29 attempts in a 31-24 win over Cincinnati. That's 3.2 yards per carry, right around where the RedHawks were against Northwestern if you take out the sacks. Virginia Tech transfer Jordan Brunson led Miami with 8 carries for 33 yards in the opener. He's in his third season with the RedHawks, but had only amassed 27 carries for 185 yards and a touchdown through Week 2 of 2024. Kansas State transfer Keyon Mozee has accumulated many more sta- tistics in his five-year career, including a 556-yard season at Miami in 2021, but it's been downhill for him after that. He hasn't reached 500 yards in a season since and only went for 11 yards on 6 car- ries against the Wildcats. Notre Dame's veteran defensive front and tal- ented young linebackers should be able to handle Miami's rushing attack, but that's what everyone said for the Irish against NIU. The Huskies' Antario Brown tore the Irish up. An experienced offensive line also got the best of Notre Dame that day, and Miami has one that returned four starters from 2023. Miami doesn't have a player like Brown mak- ing the trip, though, and that O-line didn't do its job in Evanston, so the Irish should be in bet- ter shape against this Mid-American Conference ground game. Advantage: Notre Dame MIAMI (OHIO) PASSING GAME VS. NOTRE DAME PASSING DEFENSE The Brett Gabbert comeback season got off to a rocky start in Week 1. Gabbert, Miami's veteran sixth-year signal-caller on the verge of setting program records, missed much of the 2023 season after suffering a leg in- jury that required a rod insertion. In his first game since Oct. 21, 2023, Gabbert completed 22 of 37 attempts for 227 yards with 0 touchdowns and 2 interceptions against Northwestern. Gabbert hasn't played in at least 10 games in a single season since 2021, which was the best year of his career. He threw for 2,648 yards with 26 touchdown passes and 6 interceptions. For his career through Week 2 of 2024, Gabbert has thrown for 8,120 yards with 59 touchdowns and 21 interceptions. It was a lot of veteran wide receiver Cade Mc- Donald and not a whole lot else for Gabbert against the Wildcats. The 5-11, 200-pound Mc- Donald caught 8 passes for 105 yards. McDonald spent the first four years of his career at Michigan State, where he only caught 5 passes for 46 yards. In his first season with the RedHawks last fall, McDonald caught 28 passes for 355 yards and 3 touchdowns. Both the reception total and the re- ceiving yardage ranked second on the team behind Gage Larvadain, who transferred to South Carolina in the offseason. The RedHawks also lost former Notre Dame wide receiver Joe Wilkins Jr. to gradu- ation. Wilkins had 25 receptions for 343 yards and 1 score as a sixth-year player in 2023. The Gabbert to McDonald connection wasn't enough against Northwestern. It shouldn't be enough against Notre Dame, either. The Irish's sec- ondary is too stout with lockdown corners in junior Benjamin Morrison and sophomore Christian Gray and playmaking safeties in graduate student Xavier Watts and sophomore Adon Shuler. The real test is going to be whether a Notre Dame defensive line that only had 1 sack in its first two games can get to a Miami offensive line that allowed 4 sacks against Northwestern. If the Irish don't get multiple sacks in this game it would be a On PaPer After four years at Michigan State, where he only caught 5 passes for 46 yards, wide receiver Cade McDonald totaled 28 receptions for 355 yards and 3 touchdowns in his first season with the RedHawks last fall. PHOTO COURTESY MIAMI (OHIO) ATHLETICS