Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM NOV. 16, 2024 21 NOTRE DAME PASSING OFFENSE: B+ Senior quarterback Riley Leonard completed just 51.9 percent (14 of 27) of his pass attempts, but the best part about his performance was the way he brushed off some early misfires and finished strong. He was 6 of 16 at one point but went 8 of 11 from there, including his only touchdown pass of the game to senior tight end Mitchell Evans. Evans was one of 10 Notre Dame players with at least one reception. Double digits, again. Leonard spreads the ball around, and he is improving as games go on. He hasn't been throwing intercep- tions either. He has still yet to be truly prolific as a passer at Notre Dame, but he averaged 8.0 yards per pass. That'd be top 40 nationally as a season- long average. Not bad. NOTRE DAME RUSHING OFFENSE: A- Sophomore tailback Jeremiyah Love only had 19 yards on 9 carries, and Notre Dame still rushed for 201 yards on 32 rushing attempts as a team. That's a healthy average of 6.3 yards per rush. A large chunk of the total yardage came on one carry from junior running back Jadarian Price. His 65-yard touchdown might not have even been the best tote of the night by a player in a gold helmet; Riley Leonard's 34-yard touchdown that opened the scoring in the game was truly something spe- cial. He made Florida State defensive players miss at multiple levels before leaping over the pylon for his 12th rushing score of the season. He later added his 13th. Price and Leonard had 165 of Notre Dame's rush- ing yards. Usually it's Love and Leonard setting the pace. Price chipping in this time is just fine. NOTRE DAME PASSING DEFENSE: A+ Can we add a couple more pluses to this one? It really doesn't get any better than holding a team employing a two-quarterback system to 88 yards on 26 combined attempts with 2 intercep- tions, including one returned for a touchdown by sophomore safety Luke Talich, and no touchdown passes. Even better, Notre Dame sacked the FSU signal-callers 8 times. Eight! The Irish's defensive front was dominate and the secondary stuck to the Seminoles' wide receivers like glue. Didn't give them an inch. The result was the best performance of the season for a Notre Dame pass defense that always seems to stymie opponents through the air. NOTRE DAME RUSHING DEFENSE: B Adjusting for sacks, Florida State actually ran for 171 yards on 4.9 yards per carry. But the NCAA leaves lost sack yardage on a team's rushing sta- tistics ledger, so the final line says the Seminoles only rushed for 120 yards on 2.8 yards per carry. The Seminoles actually gashed Notre Dame on the ground to put three points on the board in the first quarter. That was concerning considering they went into the game with the nation's second worst rush- ing offense at 76.1 yards per game. This was just the fourth time in 10 games FSU went over 100 yards. Simply, there was a little more that could have been done on this front. But how can you really be that mad when you don't give up a touchdown and win by 49? SPECIAL TEAMS: B+ Mitch Jeter returned as Notre Dame's place- kicker and promptly … missed his first attempt wide left — way left. That miss was from 42 yards. He made one from 28 yards. James Rendell only punted three times. Those boots only went for an average of 40 yards. Florida State only averaged 40.9 yards on 7 punts. Notre Dame safety Adon Shuler had a literal hand in that; he got his fingertips on a punt to set the Irish offense up near midfield for a possession. That was the most consequential special teams play of the game. It wasn't a matchup heavy on third phase happenings. COACHING: A+ Notre Dame is 5-0 coming out of bye weeks in the Marcus Freeman era. Al Golden dialed up a defense that force Florida State to go three-and- out six times. Mike Denbrock engineered a scoring drive on the Irish's first possession of the game. Then the Irish scored points on their final five pos- sessions. There's nothing not to like. Freeman oversaw a clean operation. The state of his program compared to that of Mike Norvell is night and day. Freeman's counterparts outcoached the adversaries on the other sideline by incredible margins, too. The Noles didn't belong on the same field as Notre Dame, and coaching had so much to do with that. REPORT CARD BY TYLER HORKA Junior running back Jadarian Price led the Fighting Irish with 95 yards rushing, 65 of which came on his second-quarter touchdown run that made the score 14-3. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER