Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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4 OCT. 19, 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED W e've reached the half- way point of the Notre Dame football season, and what a wild ride it has been. The biggest victory in the three years Marcus Freeman has been Irish head coach came against Texas A&M in the season opener Aug. 31. That signature road win was followed a week later by the worst upset of the Freeman era at home to North- ern Illinois. The preseason anticipation and excitement of hotshot Duke transfer quarterback Riley Leon- ard and esteemed offensive co- ordinator Mike Denbrock joining the program was followed by a disjointed and disappointing of- fensive start to the season, espe- cially in the passing game. And it would be remiss not to mention the multiple season- ending injuries that plagued the Irish through their first five games, followed by the great work the young reserves did to fill those produc- tion voids. With so much to cover in such little space, let's look at The Good, The Bad and The Murky from the first half of the Fighting Irish season. THE GOOD As mentioned above, these first six games — and even prior to that in the preseason — were a cruel stretch for Notre Dame on the injury front. The Irish entered the Stanford game with 12 players already lost for the entire season because of injuries, including at least seven who either started or had significant rotational roles. The Notre Dame offensive and defensive lines were especially hard-hit. But if there is a silver lining, it's that through solid recruiting and terrific player development, the Irish coaches have been able to call on some younger and inexperienced players to fill the lineup voids with minimal production drop-off. Some out of necessity, others out of proven performance, seven true Irish freshman logged snaps in a competitive game against Louisville. To name a few, Anthonie Knapp started at left tackle on offense. De- fensive lineman Bryce Young and line- backer Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa each recorded 3 tackles, and cornerback Leonard Moore came off the bench and logged team-highs with 76 snaps and 7 tackles, and added a forced fumble. "They're freshmen, and they've earned that," Freeman said of his ca- pable rookies. "It's a really productive wave of young players. Those guys love the game, they talk the game, they're competitors." THE BAD With a sketchy passing game, too many pre-snap and ill-timed penalties and head-scratching play calls in criti- cal situations, there was plenty of bad to choose from during the first half of the season, but nothing was more glaring than the loss to Northern Illinois. Coming off of the win against Texas A&M, the Irish entered this game against NIU from the Mid- American Conference as the No. 5 team in the country and as a four-touchdown favorite. Notre Dame left the game with a 16-14 upset loss that is still considered one of the worst defeats in program history. Buying into all the post-game playoff hype and a failure to keep the troops focused after the A&M love fest definitely still ranks at the top of the bad list this season, and might re- main the lowest moment of Freeman's Notre Dame career if it keeps the Irish out of the playoffs. "There's only one option for me, and that's to get back to work and get it fixed," Free- man said in the upset aftermath. "That's who I am, and that's who this team will be. I'm not going into hiding. I'm going to get it fixed." THE MURKY For the murky, we need to go back to the Notre Dame passing game and the fact that without a conference champi- onship opportunity and vast improve- ment in the aerial attack, there is a zero to minuscule chance for the Irish to claim a playoff spot with more than one loss. Freeman's support of Leonard hasn't wavered, even while his signal-caller's passing statistics showed negligible im- provement. Through five games, Leon- ard was near the bottom of the NCAA quarterback pack in passing efficiency, yards per completion and touchdown passes. Given the effort and resources that the Irish coaching staff put in this offsea- son to fortify their wide receiver corps through transfer portal and NIL efforts, this remains a murky problem that needs to be cleared up if Notre Dame wants to reach its full potential and pre- season goals the rest of the way. ✦ Among the good for the Irish so far this season is the play of true fresh- man Anthonie Knapp at left tackle. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER The Good, The Bad And The Murky, A Halfway View Todd D. Burlage has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2005. He can be reached at tburlage@blueandgold.com. UPON FURTHER REVIEW TODD D. BURLAGE