Tag: 2024 Notre Dame football

Notre Dame defensive lineman Boubacar Traore now shares key feat with Stephon Tuitt

The young defensive line did something no Irish defensive lineman has done since Tuitt’s time in South Bend.

Whenever your name is mentioned in the same breath as Stephon Tuitt, that’s probably a good thing. Especially if you play defensive line for the Fighting Irish.

That’s the case for Boubacar Traore. His pick-six against Purdue was the first one for an Irish D-lineman since Tuitt did it against Michigan in 2013.

It’s the first interception for any Fighting Irish defensive lineman since Daelin Hayes in 2020, as well.

Only one time in the past 30 years has an Irish defensive lineman returned one longer for a touchdown — nose tackle Alton Maiden took one 44 yards to the house against Navy in 1994.

“I didn’t even think it was going to come to me,” Traore told the South Bend Tribune when asked about his 34-yard touchdown return of the errant Hudson Card pass. “When I saw the ball, I just had to make the best out of the situation. I got the ball and just ran.”

With fellow lineman Jordan Botelho out for the season with a knee injury, and defensive end Josh Burnham question for this week’s home game against Miami of Ohio, the redshirt freshman Traore might be on the move against the Redhawks.

If so, he told the Tribune, he’s ready.

“I already knew what to do at end because the Vyper and end position aren’t too different,” Traore said. “The preparation was still the same. I was in the playbook a little more this week. It was fun playing in the end position.”

Boubacar Traore would take this Hudson Card pass the other way to the end zone.
Purdue Boilermakers quarterback Hudson Card (1) is hit as his pass is intercepted by Notre Dame Fighting Irish defensive lineman Boubacar Traore (5) Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, during the NCAA football game at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Ind.

Vyper, for those who don’t know, is a hybrid position that is essentially a rushing end.

Traore is young, but he might be able to shore up a stout but injury-plagued defensive line.

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Despite big win at Purdue, Notre Dame doesn’t move much in AP Top 25 poll

Notre Dame’s big win doesn’t do much for the AP voters.

Notre Dame gained just one spot, moving from No. 18 to No. 17, in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, despite blowing out the Purdue Boilermakers 66-7 on the road.

There appear to be a few reasons for this. There is the ongoing fallout from the Week 2 loss to Northern Illinois — despite being idle Saturday, the Huskies gained two spots to No. 23 — as well as the perception that the Fighting Irish were supposed to take care of business against a down-and-out Purdue squad that isn’t expected to contend for much.

It’s also a week in which there just wasn’t much movement in general. There weren’t really any upsets involving Top 25 teams, though there were scares. LSU stays one spot ahead of the Irish at No. 16 after nearly losing to South Carolina, and Georgia drops out of the top spot and falls to No. 2 after hanging on against Kentucky in a low-scoring nail-biter.

Missouri dropped a spot to No. 7 with a one-score win over Boston College. We should note that the Irish did pass Michigan, which is now No. 18.

Back to the Irish — the poll continues to reflect that Notre Dame shouldn’t have lost to Northern Illinois, although the longer NIU stays ranked the less bad that loss looks. Voters are likely expecting the Irish to take care of business right now. Things will get a bit more interesting two weeks from now when Notre Dame hosts No. 19 Louisville in South Bend — a bad loss to the Cardinals last season derailed the Irish’s playoff bid.

Should Notre Dame win that game, the polls will get quite interesting. Until then, it appears the voters aren’t going to reward Notre Dame for doing what was expected against Purdue, and that will probably hold true next week against Miami of Ohio, too.

 

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Notre Dame Week 3 highlight: Kenny Minchey gets first career TD

Notre Dame is winning by so much that a third-string QB can get his first career TD.

Notre Dame is dominating the Purdue Boilermakers so thoroughly that third-string quarterback Kenny Minchey is in the game.

He promptly finished off a 3-play, 31-yard touchdown drive with a 5-yard run. That put the Fighting Irish up 66-7 with 5:44 to play.

Talk about a response to the letdown against Northern Illinois.

The Fighting Irish still have a long road ahead if they want to make the College Football Playoff, but this game is a strong start. Notre Dame will still have little room for error going forward, but perhaps a rattled Irish team will get its confidence back following this blowout of the Boilermakers.

 

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Notre Dame Week 3 highlight: Fighting Irish continue to pour it on to start second half

Will one easy touchdown toss from the backup start a QB controversy?

Notre Dame took starting quarterback Riley Leonard out to rest and avoid potential injury as the second half started against the Purdue Boilermakers with the Fighting Irish leading comfortably, 42-0.

Two plays later, backup Steve Angeli may have inadvertently started a quarterback controversy when he hid a wide-open Cooper Flanagan for a 28-yard touchdown. The tight end was so open because Purdue was too aggressive on defense.

This means Angeli has one passing touchdown on the season, while Leonard, who struggled against Texas A&M and Northern Illinois, has none. Leonard did run for three touchdowns in the first half, and while his passing numbers were pedestrian, he did look more comfortable throwing the football.

One easy touchdown is unlikely to cause a quarterback change, but some frustrated fans will likely advocate for it anyway. At least until Leonard looks as consistently comfortable passing as he does running.

 

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Notre Dame Week 3 highlight: Jadarian Price caps off huge first half

Jadarian Price wanted in on the fun.

With a 35-0 lead against the Purdue Boilermakers after a Boubacar Traore pick-six, and with just 37 seconds remaining in the first half, it looked like Notre Dame would simply be conservative with the football.

The Fighting Irish were, choosing to give the ball to running back Jadarian Price for a carry. But Price wasn’t willing to settle. He evaded a tackler in the backfield, turned the corner, made a cut and was gone. Price took it 70 yards to the house to give the Irish a 42-0 lead over Purdue, following the Mitch Jeter extra point.

The huge halftime lead has been built entirely on running touchdowns, plus the pick-six.

 

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Notre Dame Week 3 highlight: Riley Leonard does it again

Riley Leonard is using his legs effectively against Purdue.

We’re approaching halftime in the third game of the season, and Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard still doesn’t have a touchdown pass through the air.

He may not need one if he keeps running the ball into the end zone.

He ran for his second touchdown of the game on a 34-yard keeper on second and 10 with 8:24 to play in the second quarter. That capped off a 7-play, 68-yard drive that took 3:16 off the clock.

It appeared, briefly, that Leonard may have stepped out of bounds after getting the first down, but replay review upheld the call on the field. Watching on the broadcast, it appears the review made the correct call.

 

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How to watch Notre Dame at Purdue on Saturday, September 14th

Here’s how to tune in for Notre Dame at Purdue

Notre Dame is looking to show that what happened against Northern Illinois was only a matter of overlooking an underdog and that it belongs in the College Football Playoff.

The way the Fighting Irish can accomplish that is by beating Purdue on the road. Especially if a win is decisive. If you want to tune in to see how the Irish respond to one of the program’s worst losses in modern, if not all-time, history, scroll down.

Here are the viewing notes:

  • Game Day: Saturday, September 14, 2024
  • Kickoff: 3:30 p.m. ET
  • TV: CBS
  • Streaming: Fubo, Paramount+
  • Radio: Check local info here
  • Venue: Ross-Ade Stadium, West Lafayette, Indiana

The battle for the Shillelagh is on.

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Is Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman mulling a quarterback change?

Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard appears to be on notice that his play must improve.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish fans have not been happy with the offense, particularly the pass game, during the first two weeks of the season.

The offense struggled in both the 23-13 victory over Texas A&M and the 16-14 upset loss to the Northern Illinois Huskies.

Quarterback Riley Leonard has run the ball well but looked tentative in the passing game, seemingly afraid to step up in the pocket. He’s struggled to connect with his wide receivers.

This prompted some fans to call for a change at the position.

Beat writer Tyler Horka asked Freeman what might force a change, perhaps elevating Steve Angeli, and Freeman said he wasn’t sure what the exact parameter would be, but there would be change if the passing game didn’t improve.

https://twitter.com/tbhorka/status/1834264568417132947

Our take is that Leonard is still the guy for now, but he’s been put on notice. That’s not something we thought we’d say about the highly touted transfer, especially at this point of the season.

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Marcus Freeman said Notre Dame believed the hype

Can’t let a good win get to your head

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman told ESPN earlier this week that the Fighting Irish fell to Northern Illinois in a massive upset because his team believed the hype it generated after a tough win at Texas A&M.

This author had that same thought the instant NIU blocked a second Mitch Jeter field-goal attempt to seal the Huskies’ win.

After beating the Aggies in a hostile environment on the road in the season opener, Notre Dame was being penciled in for a home game in the first round of the College Football Playoff. College players are human and can’t fully isolate themselves from media, whether it’s the news media or social media.

Not only that, but this Notre Dame squad has some relatively inexperienced players at key positions. That’s a recipe for players to start believing that they’ll roll out of bed and win, especially against an unheralded team like NIU.

It’s also a recipe for the Irish to underestimate an opponent. The Huskies might be a contender for the MAC championship — they are now ranked in the AP Top 25 after beating Notre Dame.

Marcus Freeman knows Notre Dame believed the hype.
Sep 7, 2024; South Bend, Indiana, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman walks to the sideline in the second quarter against the Northern Illinois Huskies at Notre Dame Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-Imagn Images

“This is the first time in my three years as a head coach that we have won the big game early in the season,” Freeman said. “Two losses to Ohio State and then all of a sudden, we win and everybody says, ‘Hey, you’re going to the playoff. You’ve got an easy schedule.’ We all hear it, and I think we started to believe that.”

“There is a physical approach to preparing for a game, and I think physically we prepared the right way,” he said, “but there’s also a mental approach and a mindset that you have to have every single week, and I think that’s where we failed.”

It’s good that Freeman is aware of the problem and the part it played in one of the worst losses in program history. Now it has to get fixed — or Notre Dame will find itself outside the playoff looking in. And Freeman might find himself unemployed.

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Notre Dame leads list of crushed College Football Playoff dreams

Another influential writer is suggesting Notre Dame needs to win out.

One of the leading voices in college football is piling on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish after the team’s poor showing against Northern Illinois.

The fallout from the 16-14 loss to a then-unranked MAC team continues.

Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde has a weekly series with the 12 teams that had their playoff dreams crushed, and Notre Dame leads his series this week.

“Following up a hard-nosed victory at the Texas A&M Aggies with this dud of a home opener immediately increases the heat on Freeman for the rest of this season,” Forde writes.

Notre Dame's loss to NIU may have crushed their playoff dreams.
Northern Illinois celebrates scoring a touchdown during a NCAA college football game between Notre Dame and Northern Illinois at Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024, in South Bend.

It’s been a theme in the days following the stunning loss — can Notre Dame, the same team that seemed guaranteed a playoff spot just days before playing NIU, qualify?

What happens against Purdue will start to determine the answer. Until then, the analysts and pundits can merely speculate.

It’s tricky, since both sides can be argued, and since Notre Dame doesn’t have a chance for an automatic bid via a conference championship.

The Irish can start providing answers on Saturday.

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