NEW ORLEANS – Notre Dame arrived at the Sugar Bowl on Sunday afternoon, leaving the blue-gray December skies of the Midwest for something a bit more upbeat. If the Irish maintain that vibe through the week, it would mark Notre Dame’s first major bowl win in 31 years and announce Marcus Freeman’s program as a national player.
Plenty to discuss, right?
That’s what the Notre Dame mailbag is here for, from understanding the phrase “all-in” around the program to handicapping the defense without Rylie Mills. Let’s get to the questions.
Note: Submitted questions have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
I keep hearing from the media that this is the most committed they’ve seen Notre Dame be toward football in a long time. What role does Freeman play in this new commitment level? It seems his 100 percent buy-in to the Notre Dame way has made a huge impact. Thoughts? – Matt K.
It doesn’t hurt.
When Freeman meets with donors, he’s an easy pitchman for Notre Dame in a way Brian Kelly was not. But Notre Dame didn’t need an easy pitchman when it hired Kelly 14 years ago, it needed somebody to drag the football program from the lost decade of Bob Davie, Tyrone Willingham and Charlie Weis. Say what you will about Kelly as a personality, but he was the perfect hire for a program that needed a shake-up. And Kelly was successful in that, including his push for the Irish Athletics Center that was written into one of his contract extensions. Kelly’s name is on the facility as a major donor.
Some of the “all-in” from Notre Dame included a realization it needed to back Freeman for a first-time head coach to have any chance of success. That meant big contracts for coordinators and staff. It meant fundraising for Shields Hall. It even meant working with Notre Dame’s administration to make the program competitive in the transfer portal. Notre Dame’s ability to support NIL – “FUND” raised a reported $20 million last calendar year – may happen regardless of the head coach. But maybe Freeman made getting to yes easier for a few donors.
A better way to understand Notre Dame’s commitment to winning is Freeman’s contract extension, which puts him on a six-year deal believed to push $10 million annually. When that kind of contract comes down at other schools, how often do you see it happen with strings about assistant salary pool and facility upgrades? Well, Notre Dame did those financial commitments before extending Freeman, not after. The “100 percent buy-in” came from Notre Dame in Freeman as much as it came from Freeman to Notre Dame.
Notre Dame – the administration, the president, the athletic director, the trustees – is as committed as I’ve seen in 24 years on the beat. It was just nine years ago in the New York Times that former president Rev. John Jenkins was quoted that Notre Dame wouldn’t participate in the semi-pro future of college athletics. Just two weeks ago, athletic director Pete Bevacqua promised Notre Dame would share more than $20 million with athletes when the House Settlement passes. That’s a sea change with more power than the personality of the head coach.
GO DEEPER
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The Irish were able to recover after the Benjamin Morrison loss. Losing Rylie Mills is devastating. Any chance you see Al Golden finding a way to mask this loss similar to Morrison? – Ryan S.
It feels like a stretch, right?
It’s not that Notre Dame doesn’t have a capable backup to Rylie Mills in Gabe Rubio, who should inspire more confidence than Leonard Moore when the Irish had to substitute cornerbacks. Moore has blown away expectations since, but it’s a different world on the perimeter of the defense than it is on the line of scrimmage. There’s nowhere to hide in the A-gap. There are plenty of places to hide outside the hashmarks, especially when Xavier Watts is backing you up.
In Georgia, Rubio will face a different kind of challenge than Moore did against Louisville, USC or Indiana. The Bulldogs might not be a great rushing offense, but they have a monstrous offensive line that will wear on Notre Dame. As much as losing Mills hurts, the Irish also lose Rubio as their No. 2 nose tackle, forcing them to play Armel Mukam or Sean Sevillano in game action against the SEC champions. Against Texas A&M, Louisville and USC, Mukam and Sevillano didn’t play on defense.
Notre Dame can say it’s confident about its defensive tackle rotation going into Georgia. Its rotation over the past 13 games tells a different story.
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Did preparation for Georgia start before the Indiana game? Who on the staff is responsible for breaking down the opponent’s tape? How do the coaches like to have it broken down: run defense, pass defense, run offense, pass offense, special teams? How long does the process take? – Mark A.
Marcus Freeman said Notre Dame began looking at potential opponents before the brackets were revealed, although the focus was more on first-round matchups. In terms of Georgia, it’s less clear how much Notre Dame got into the Bulldogs before that opening-round win. However, two sources with connections to Georgia indicated the Bulldogs were all-in on Notre Dame days before the Irish knocked out the Hoosiers. The Georgia staff was confident it would face Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl. When Kirby Smart confused Indiana and Purdue on “College GameDay” it felt like a Freudian slip.
In terms of how game tape is broken down, that depends on the staff as they all have access to All-22 style film, which is a wider angle than a television copy. Notre Dame’s advanced scout, per se, is Matt Jansen, who likely got a first look at Georgia before the coaches jumped into the film.
I got an up-close view of how Miami (Ohio) tackled Notre Dame by spending three days with the RedHawks staff at the beginning of that game week. That staff watched film on each side of the ball, starting broadly before getting more focused on down and distance. The cornerbacks and safeties coaches broke down Notre Dame’s pass game tendencies. The defensive line coach broke down the run game. On Sunday night, the offensive staff watched how Notre Dame played regular downs like first-and-10. On Monday and Tuesday nights, it was more about red zone and third downs. The entire film process takes about four days to complete, although Notre Dame had more prep time for Georgia with 12 days before games.
This might not be a massive advantage, but Mike Denbrock has called plays against Smart’s defense before at Cincinnati (Sugar Bowl) and LSU (SEC Championship Game). Notre Dame knows what it’s getting schematically from Georgia.
Fast forward to the morning of Jan 2. Notre Dame just beat Georgia, 24-23. To get to that result, I think there needs to be a serious “Freeman out-coaching Kirby” narrative. If that’s the case, what phase of the game is this most evident where Freeman and Co. shine? – Jordan L.
If Notre Dame wins on Wednesday night, three things need to happen.
1. Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden soundly beats Georgia offensive coordinator Mike Bobo on the headsets. Considering one starts a defense that ranks No. 1 nationally in pass efficiency defense, No. 3 in scoring defense, No. 5 in yards per play allowed and No. 1 in turnovers forced while the other will start a quarterback with 80 snaps this season and zero starts, this matchup should be there for Golden’s taking. Georgia spent the entire year as a pass-first offense with Carson Beck. Now it’s got to pivot to a run-first approach with Gunner Stockton. If losing Mills changes Notre Dame’s defensive line rotation, losing Beck changes Georgia’s entire offense.
GO DEEPER
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2. Don’t lose the turnover battle. Notre Dame lost it just once all season, a minus-two performance against Northern Illinois when Riley Leonard threw two interceptions. The game feels a lot more like Texas A&M when Notre Dame picked off Conner Weigman twice while not turning it over at all. That’s the kind of stuff you need to do to win a rock fight.
3. Create an extra possession on special teams. What blocked punts were to Brian Mason, fake punts and kicks have been to Marty Biagi. None was bigger than the fake punt pass from Tyler Buchner to Mitchell Evans against USC this season, although the Jeremiyah Love fake punt run against Duke last season was close. Notre Dame doesn’t need to do anything heroic on special teams, but if the Irish win, stealing a possession feels essential.
ESPN’s sound blending of the crowd noise put NBC to shame and made for a much more fun viewing experience. How difficult is this to do well (doesn’t seem like it should be that hard), or is it that NBC purposefully almost entirely tones down the crowd noise for their broadcasts? – Maximilian C.
You’re right the crowd noise popped on the ESPN broadcast on Friday night. But you know what else popped? The crowd itself. Ultimately, you can’t manufacture atmosphere, even if you can help it along with the video board, music, towels, etc. And Notre Dame does a good job of pushing those limits. But this is a you-can-bring-a-horse-to-water situation. Either the crowd picks up those cues or it doesn’t. Last week’s crowd delivered an atmosphere ESPN couldn’t help broadcast. NBC would have done the same. And of course, it sounded louder and more energetic than Northern Illinois or Miami (Ohio) or Florida State. The sound blending for those games would have been silence or in the case of Northern Illinois, booing.
Every time Notre Dame plays a big road game, there’s a split second where I wonder why Notre Dame Stadium doesn’t sound like this every weekend. It’s because Notre Dame doesn’t host a team like Notre Dame more than once a year. The Ohio State atmosphere last season was comparable to the Indiana game in terms of built-up emotion that spilled out from the crowd. Expect Notre Dame blew out Indiana for most of the game as opposed to playing to a 0-0 tie at halftime, taking a late lead, and then ultimately falling at the end. Not only did the crowd deliver the energy going into the College Football Playoff, the team created a multiplier effect with how it played.
All that said, yes, give me Sean McDonough and Greg McElroy in the booth. Some announcing pairs make it feel like a big game. That crew delivers. McDonough’s calls of “holy crap” movements are some of my favorites, including Love’s 98-yard touchdown run.
Good news, that tandem will call the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1.
(Photo: Michael Clubb / South Bend Tribune / USA Today via Imagn Images)
