Tag: NCAA football

Notre Dame starts slow, but is able to stave off upset minded Miami (OH)

The Irish come out victorious against Miami (OH)

It wasn’t as easy as many thought it would be for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team on Saturday afternoon against Miami (OH), but they still managed to come out victorious 28-3.

The Irish were very sloppy on offense, as their first three drives were all five plays or less, as they saw the Redhawks take a 3-0 lead. Notre Dame would answer as they found the end zone on their four series as quarterback Riley Leonard ran it in from 8-yards out.

Their fifth also resulted in a touchdown, Leonard finding wide receiver Beaux Collins for a 38-yard scoring strike as the two teams went into the half with the Irish up 14-3.

A fumble by quarterback Riley Leonard gave Notre Dame a sloppy start to the second half, but they would recover quickly, find the end zone once again on a Jeremiyah Love 15-yard touchdown run. Leonard again found pay dirt as he exploded for a 50–yard rushing score to stretch the lead to 28-3 mid-way through the fourth quarter.

Sep 21, 2024; South Bend, Indiana, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish wide receiver Beaux Collins (5) catches a pass for a touchdown in the second quarter against the Miami Redhawks at Notre Dame Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-Imagn Images

At that point the game was in hand, and Notre Dame’s victory would improve its record to 3-1 on the season. The Irish will get back on the field next weekend as they host a ranked Louisville Cardinals team.

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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: Riley Leonard runs it in yet again

And another one for Notre Dame’s running threat at quarterback.

Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard came to the Fighting Irish as a dual-threat transfer from Duke. He struggled to pass the ball in the first two weeks and while he’s passed it better in week 3 against the Purdue Boilermakers, he’s doing all the scoring damage with his legs.

He has run for three of the Irish’s four touchdowns in the first half. This one was a 13-yard run that ended a 10-play, 77-yard drive that took 4:54 off the clock. There was 2:10 left in the first half, and Mitch Jeter nailed another extra point to make it 28-0.

Notre Dame looks different, at least through one half, than the team that faceplanted against Northern Illinois just a week ago.

 

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Notre Dame Week 3 highlight: Jeremiyah Love gets it going

There were some sighs of relief after this run.

If there were fears about a post-NIU hangover, Notre Dame’s first drive against Purdue may help put them to bed.

Yes, it’s true that the Fighting Irish were also good on their first drive against the Huskies, but context matters — the Irish weren’t going into that game after one of the worst losses in program history. With expectations of a bounce-back game and the pressure of staying alive in the playoff hunt at play, the Irish used two easy short passes from quarterback Riley Leonard to Jayden Harrison and Beaux Collins to get things rolling.

Leonard then ran for 13 yards and the first down. Jeremiyah Love followed an unremarkable 3-yard run with a 48-yard scamper to the end zone to cap off the 5-play, 75-yard touchdown drive. A Mitch Jeter extra-point kick has given the Irish a 7-0 lead in a key game against their in-state rival.

 

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Here’s what the experts are saying about Notre Dame at Purdue

Here’s what the experts say as Notre Dame looks to win a bounce-back game.

Last week, the experts (and your author) all expected Notre Dame to cruise over Northern Illinois. Well, we all have some egg on our faces after the 16-14 upset by the Huskies.

So what are the experts saying about the Fighting Irish as they prepare to play Purdue in a game that could determine their College Football Playoff fate?

CBS Sports’ Shehan Jeyarajah has the Irish winning a close game in which Purdue will cover the spread. Why? In part because Boilermakers quarterback Hudson Card could play well if the Irish can’t get pressure, and in part because the Irish might be rattled by the loss to NIU.

“Many successful coaching tenures at Purdue were highlighted with historic wins over Notre Dame, and this certainly appears to be a fallible version. If the Boilermakers can protect quarterback Hudson Card, he represents one of the best quarterbacks the Fighting Irish will defend this season. Notre Dame will pull away for a victory, but Purdue will give the Irish their best shot,” he writes.

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This stat should give Notre Dame hope that Marcus Freeman can still succeed

Patience is key with coaches

While it is justified to be calling for Notre Dame football’s head coach [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag]’s job, it may not be the best direction for the program.

First off, firing your coach this early into the season came do plenty of harm to any team, especially in the recruiting department. Secondly, a coach may not want to come to South Bend when they know the leash is so short. It does take time to build any coaches vision.

While the jury is still out on Freeman, on X, the website formerly known as Twitter, user Jack Sacco pointed out that many legendary coaches haven’t won as quickly as in their third season. In fact, it’s taken many of them over five years to raise a championship trophy.

Jan 1, 1990; Miami, FL, USA; FILE PHOTO; Notre Dame Irish head coach Lou Holtz is carried off the field following their victory over Colorado winning the 1989 National Championship at the Orange Bowl. Mandatory Credit: Photo By USA TODAY Sports © Copyright USA TODAY Sports

It is true that many former Irish head coaches have had massively successful year three’s, that isn’t always the case as they try and figure out how to navigate the college football landscape.

There is still hope that Freeman can turn around the program who is dying for a championship. Unfortunately, it’s looking like the wait will be at least until next season.

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Bowl Projection Has Notre Dame Out of Playoff

Few are predicting the playoff for Notre Dame after Saturday.

The fallout continues for Notre Dame after the ugly loss to Northern Illinois in Week 2.

The Fighting Irish have their work cut out for them if they want to be in the newly expanded College Football Playoff. At least one outlet has them missing the playoff, instead qualifying for the Gator Bowl, where they’d play Oklahoma.

This comes from 247Sports’ weekly bowl game projection/prediction series. Here’s what they have to say.

“The Fighting Irish fall out of this week’s playoff projection after a lackluster showing during a home loss to NIU. Notre Dame would have to win out from here to grab one of the seven at-large spots based on our projections — and that’s not happening if Marcus Freeman’s team struggled to handle business as a three-touchdown favorite in Week 2.”

Notre Dame may be settling for a bowl after its failure against NIU.
Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love (4) hurdles over Northern Illinois safety Nate Valcarcel on his way to score a touchdown during a NCAA college football game at Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024, in South Bend.

It’s worth noting here that things can easily change, especially if other CFP contenders falter the way the Irish did — or if NIU shows that it’s a legit contender and its win wasn’t just because the Irish played an awful game. Other upsets could clear a path for the Irish, and if NIU is really a playoff contender, maybe the loss doesn’t look as bad a few weeks from now.

It’s also not clear that the Irish need to win out — many predictions made in the preseason or after the Notre Dame win over Texas A&M suggested the Irish could get in at 10-2. Of course, the two losses were predicted to be against top 25 teams — not a then-unranked team out of the MAC.

It’s a long season, and the same Notre Dame that experts said would get a home game in the first round is now being projected at out. Projections and predictions are just that, though — we’ll see what 247Sports says if the Irish are able to rebound. If they do, it starts next week at Purdue.

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Northern Illinois’ local radio call of their Notre Dame upset win was absolutely thrilling

“THE HUSKIES HAVE DONE IT!”

It’s safe to say Northern Illinois’ local radio team stepped up to the moment — and then some — during the team’s upset win over Notre Dame.

Northern Illinois put together the biggest upset of the young season on Saturday, besting Notre Dame 16-14 in an incredible effort to knock off the No. 5 team in the country. It was a stunning moment, capped off by the Huskies blocking a 62-yard field goal attempt in the final moments to ice the win.

And no one captured the pure excitement of the moment better than Northern Illinois’ local radio team, who gave fans the most thrilling call of the game’s historic denouement.

Notre Dame drops in ESPN’s Football Power Index, but not as far as you’d think

It could have been worse for the Irish

It was not a Saturday for remember for Notre Dame football, as they once again fell at home to an unranked opponent, losing to Northern Illinois 16-14.

The loss was one of the more stunning results of Week 2, and while we expect the Irish to make a fall in the polls when they come out, ESPN’s Football Power Rankings still think highly of Marcus Freeman’s team after the loss.

Notre Dame was previously ranked as their No. 6, and moved down just four spots to No. 10 after the upset. Looking ahead at the Irish’s remaining schedule, they have two teams that are going to be difficult according to their rankings, USC and Louisville.

https://twitter.com/BlakeMunroeOTF/status/1832783753845891136

While many believe that the Irish may be out of the College Football Playoff race, the FPI still gives them a 22.6% chance to make the field of 12. The win-loss projection took a hit, as they now have Notre Dame closer to 9-3 than last week.

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