Inside the visiting locker room of Notre Dame Stadium, Chuck Martin searches for a central location to make sense of a game that went to plan until it didn’t. No such space exists in this narrow gray corridor. Lockers flank the walls and run down the middle. There are no clear sight lines.
If the Miami (Ohio) players want to see their head coach, they have to strain for a view. They can hear Martin just the same: three minutes of brimstone and accountability after Notre Dame’s 28-3 win that reminded Miami of the fine margins needed to win a game like this. Or to win any game at all.
Martin bemoans Miami’s barely functional offense, taking blame instead of putting it on quarterback Brett Gabbert. Martin is less magnanimous about the defense playing a third down with 10 men on the field in the second quarter, leaving a hole Riley Leonard ran through for 21 yards. There is no accommodating Miami’s failure to play press coverage on Beaux Collins, which turned into a 38-yard touchdown pass.
Miami did plenty of good on Saturday afternoon. It probably needed to be perfect. Now the RedHawks, the only team to open with three consecutive Power 4 opponents, enter the final weekend of September at 0-3.
“There’s so much left out there,” Martin tells his team. “This was a hell of a challenge today, but we could have beat them. We’re gonna keep working. We’re gonna find a way to get our first victory and we’re gonna sing our goddamn fight song next Saturday.
“All right, we’re gonna pray and we’re gonna get out of here.”
The RedHawks drop to a knee for the Lord’s prayer, just like they did before taking the field three and a half hours earlier. Back then, Miami believed it had a plan to do what felt unthinkable until Northern Illinois actually did it two weeks earlier: a MAC team beating Notre Dame as a four-touchdown underdog with Touchdown Jesus as witness.
The RedHawks took the field with faith because they’d earned it, processing frustrating losses to Northwestern and Cincinnati while getting a grip on their own expectations after last season’s MAC championship. They held convictions because of the hours logged, from film corrections to game planning to practice to meetings and everything in between.
What does it take to beat Notre Dame?
This is how Miami tried to answer that question.
Miami went 11-3 last year but has started this season 0-3. (Pete Sampson / The Athletic)
Chuck Martin is doing the dishes.
It’s Monday night and Miami’s head coach is cleaning up the break room after an informal staff meal on the second floor of the Gunlock Family Athletic Performance Center. His wife, Dulcie, made meatball subs, an assist for coaches working another long night. Martin cleans the silverware and puts it back in the drawers. He wipes down the Crockpot to bring home when the staff leaves before midnight.
His football house in order, Martin gets back to the offensive meeting room down the hall, which he runs with a neurotic devotion to the tape. He started seriously watching Notre Dame not long after Miami’s Sept. 14 loss to Cincinnati, finding dark comedy in Jadarian Price’s 70-yard touchdown in a 66-7 win against Purdue that was supposed to run out the first-half clock.
But there’s nothing funny about Notre Dame’s defense on tape.
“Their inside pass rush is the best I’ve ever seen by far,” Martin said. “I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. The pocket just f—ing collapses. The quarterbacks are always doing some panic throw. You try to run a 14-yard dig route and the play’s over before you’re out of your break. The movie’s done and you’re still looking for a parking spot.”
Miami’s staff spends Sunday and Monday breaking down Notre Dame tape, looking for tendencies and tells by formation and alignment. They find a few, giving a sense of how to build a game plan and what to avoid. Miami knows it can’t run horizontally, but it likes how Northern Illinois gashed the Irish with some interior runs. It seems like the Irish lose tight ends in coverage. Notre Dame’s younger linebackers can be had in the pass game, assuming the play doesn’t blow it up in your face first.
Martin clicks through film of Drayk Bowen getting beat on a wheel route against NIU, watching it back six or seven times. He sees Jaylen Sneed make a havoc play at Texas A&M — “He shoots his gun,” Martin says — but the junior misses tackles against Northern Illinois. They’re wowed by defensive end Boubacar Traore. Martin stops a Texas A&M clip where Traore does a long-arm pass rush on the right tackle, who’s put on skates.
“Long, long, long, long, long. Nice play, 5.” Martin says. “The tackle is like, ‘I can’t reach him!’”
These nights are about making choices. Among the first? Miami wants no part of Benjamin Morrison, Notre Dame’s All-American cornerback. Coaches barely need to watch that tape because Morrison blankets receivers so hard they disappear. Miami asked a staffer at another school how they threw at Morrison. The feedback is to try to run short slant routes against the corner, which is like saying the best plan to block defensive tackle Howard Cross III is to not let him rush the quarterback.
Martin spills a story about a loss at Iowa eight years ago when he walked by All-American corner Desmond King in warmups and told the future All-Pro he was in for a short day. King was confused. Miami barely threw this way. Morrison will get the same treatment.
That means Christian Gray will be tested on Saturday. Miami flips on Gray’s pass breakup to end Texas A&M’s final drive. Martin says it reminds him of Malcolm Butler picking off Russell Wilson to win Super Bowl XLIX.
Miami is trying to find holes in a defense that’s allowed three touchdowns in three games, but even that feels like it’s underselling Al Golden’s group. When Antario Brown’s 83-yard touchdown reception for NIU pops up, Martin calls it a “Christmas miracle.” Quarterbacks coach Gus Ragland calls it “the luckiest play ever.” It’s something NIU needed to have a chance. Miami knows it will need good fortune too.
“Can’t run anything east-west. We do east-west, we’re gonna get eaten up,” Martin said. “They give you no good run looks and dare you to throw the ball 50 times a game.”
Chuck Martin is in his 11th season as head coach. (Courtesy of Miami Athletics)
Ragland arrives at the quarterback room 15 minutes before a scheduled 2 p.m. meeting. By Tuesday afternoon, the game plan is on paper. Now comes the harder part: Putting it into a practice plan. Ragland opens the door and all five quarterbacks are waiting, notebooks open. Gabbert, a younger brother of former first-round pick Blaine Gabbert, is finishing a late lunch, seated in the front row next to backup Henry Hesson.
For the next hour, Ragland runs through 50 plays of Notre Dame’s defense to help his quarterbacks digest how the Irish react to certain looks. At practice later that afternoon, Miami will run these plays against the scout team. Most of the calls are familiar, with about 75 percent of the game plan built from stock material. The other quarter is new stuff, specific to Notre Dame.
One of those calls is “Royce,” a jet motion by a receiver behind the line of scrimmage. Ragland reminds the quarterbacks to let wideouts Cade McDonald and Javon Tracy build speed and to snap the ball as they clear the offensive tackle. The route needs to break right up the hash.
The call is designed to isolate a receiver against a safety, a matchup Miami thinks it might win. If the safety is late, the receiver takes the route deep. If the safety gets there in time, the receiver stops the route at 10 yards for a pitch and catch.
“We know there’s gonna be a lot of 1-on-1 opportunities,” Ragland says. “You look across the board, you know who you want it to be with. You can’t just line up and beat these guys by running routes. You have to create stacks and bunches and create rub routes. You’re not going to win 30 one-on-one matchups — not against that caliber of athlete in that secondary.”
Ragland started at quarterback for Miami the last time it traveled to Notre Dame, a 52-17 blowout in 2017 that was over by the end of the first quarter. Ragland remembers the noise. How Notre Dame ran its program made an impression, too, which is part of the reason Ragland joined the Irish for four seasons as an analyst and graduate assistant before returning to his alma mater two years ago as quarterbacks coach.
“I remember how much class and respect the players had,” he said. “Having worked there, it all makes sense. The kind of kids they recruit, the kind of people they let in that building, it all makes sense.”
Ragland whips through the film with a dizzying cascade of jargon that would leave a freshman quarterback glazed over and challenges the fluency of a sixth-year senior like Gabbert. Cowboy T-Red 7 Bob Now Z Bubble is followed by Fib Top T Wide 53 Lock Under Swap to go with 48 other plays.
It all makes sense to Ragland, whose job is to make sure it makes sense to the quarterbacks. If it doesn’t translate on film here, it won’t function during practice an hour later — and it will have no shot to work Saturday as Gabbert is chased by grizzly bears with 77,622 watching.
“You can put a lot on their plate. There’s a lot of checking in our offense, protections, routes, runs,” Ragland said. “These guys spend a ton of time on it. Last Thursday night I came in and they were up here working on their own. That’s how it was at Notre Dame, too. The quarterbacks lived in the building. That’s how it has to be.”
Ragland has one more issue to settle before practice. Every Friday on the bus ride to the team hotel, Miami position coaches serve homemade snacks for their players. Ragland is not much of a cook. Toll House cookie dough has been hard to screw up, although Ragland says his cookies get too crispy coming out of the oven. Before Cincinnati a week earlier, Ragland’s girlfriend came to town and made pumpkin bread for the quarterbacks.
“Everyone was immediately like, ‘We know you didn’t make this,’” Ragland laughs. “I’m gonna have to mix it up for Notre Dame.”
Ultimately, Ragland plays the hits: Toll House cookies for the scheduled four-bus ride from Oxford.
Miami was supposed to arrive at its team hotel at 4:55 p.m. on Friday afternoon but got delayed a half-hour by an accident on I-70 near the state line. A four-bus motorcade doesn’t maneuver well on country roads in rural Indiana. The RedHawks arrived at the Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City for their team meal just a little behind schedule.
Miami finished No. 7 in scoring defense under Bill Brechin last year. (Courtesy of Miami Athletics)
Friday night is Bill Brechin’s last chance to deliver a message before the fog of war descends. So while Martin goes through final notes with the offense in a ballroom next door at the Blue Chip, Miami’s defensive coordinator buttons up the defense.
The game plan has evolved from film study to practice script to install and now to final review. Brechin and defensive line coach Corey Brown have chopped up every Notre Dame run call and plenty from LSU to better understand offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock. Considering Brechin was once Denbrock’s assistant at Notre Dame, he’s familiar with his old boss. Cornerbacks coach Mitchell White and safety coach Robert Blanton, a former Notre Dame defensive back, have broken down all the Irish pass plays.
This final review is a distillation. Hundreds of hours of work reduced to barely 60 minutes.
Brechin tells the defense that Denbrock will show every formation in the first series to see how Miami reacts, then double back to those calls later. He preaches “shuffle squeeze,” which is how edge defenders have to build a perimeter wall to the defense, basically stopping Jeremiyah Love or Price from getting outside.
Price is a concern, but Miami sees a back who wants to bounce everything outside and won’t run between the tackles. Love is an abject terror.
“He’s a first-round pick,” Brechin says. “He’ll run at your f—ing face mask and then cut back.”
Miami thinks it has a chance if it can stop Love and Price. The staff respects Collins outside but believes the Irish receivers aren’t that much better than Cincinnati’s. The RedHawks would rather roll the dice with Collins than take an extra defender out of the box.
The biggest question mark is Leonard, a dominant running quarterback who’s yet to throw a touchdown pass this season. The Duke transfer ran for 100 yards and three touchdowns at Purdue in one half of work. A week earlier, he had just 11 carries for 16 yards in the loss to Northern Illinois.
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Brechin asks the defense, “How do they win with 13?” The defense responds in unison: “Use him.”
Miami is fine with that, as long as Leonard tries to win with his right arm. The RedHawks will play a mix of man and zone, more man than Leonard expected because it exposes the secondary to quarterback runs. Miami plays a lot of single high safety looks to cloud the box, betting Leonard can’t make the defense pay for it. Brechin wants pressure but doesn’t fixate on sacks. Get in Leonard’s face, and there’s a good chance he won’t be accurate.
The RedHawks have also picked up a few tendencies in the Irish offense. They notice running back alignments and postures tip run or pass. If the running back is slightly in front of Leonard, it’s probably quarterback run. If the running back’s hands are on his thigh pads, there’s a good chance he’s getting the ball. If the back is more hunched over, he’s blocking. And Notre Dame loves to run on third down in plus territory.
Against the pass, there’s an alert called “Flip Duo,” which Miami calls out whenever Notre Dame aligns a certain way with its slot and field receivers. If the slot sets up on the line of scrimmage and the field receiver is off the ball, Notre Dame almost always passes. Brechin diagrams the look on a notepad when asked to explain it. Maybe the alert comes up once or twice in the game. Every little bit helps.
“When the quarterback is confused, not good. When he feels pressure, not good,” Brechin says. “Against A&M, they used him enough. Against NIU, maybe they thought they didn’t have to run him. Then you watch Purdue and he’s running all over the damn place. We’re gonna err on the side of Riley beating us with his arm, not his legs.”
If Notre Dame wants to see Leonard the passer, Miami can live with that.
Martin coached enough at Notre Dame to know how the crowd can impact the home team — not always in a good way. An assistant for four years under Brian Kelly (2010-13), Martin coached through the BCS National Championship Game season. He also coached in losses to Tulsa and USF. He’s heard quarterbacks booed off the field. He’s seen quarterbacks crumble under the weight of the place.
Now he’s banking on it.
Notre Dame QB Riley Leonard rushed for 143 yards and two TDs. (James Black / Getty Images)
Martin’s final pregame message is more succinct than the postgame speech. Play to the whistle with high energy. The coaches will call the game to win it.
“Do not dip your toe in the water,” Martin booms. “If you’re afraid to be in the arena, stay the f— out of the arena. If you’re not afraid to be in the arena, go in the arena and knock somebody on their f—ing ass and win a goddamn football game.”
Martin’s got 90 seconds of material. Then it’s out of the tunnel as the crowd chants “Let’s go Irish!” The noise echoes through the Miami locker room.
For most of the first half, Miami chooses the right adventure. The RedHawks throw at Gray on the first snap of their first three drives. When Miami can put Notre Dame’s young linebackers in pass conflicts, Gabbert finds passing lanes. The vertical run game works so well it surprises Martin.
When Notre Dame snaps the ball with two receivers to the field side, the slot on the line of scrimmage and the field receiver off, the Irish pass all three times, although one ends with a pass interference drawn by Mitchell Evans and the other two go for completions.
And Miami makes Leonard try to win with his arm, which isn’t working for Notre Dame, enough that the crowd boos the offense off the field. Through four series, Leonard is 5-of-8 passing for 27 yards with four carries for 17 yards and a touchdown.
Miami can live with this. But to win, Martin knows the RedHawks needed a touchdown after Jordan Faison’s muffed punt. Instead, Gray jumps a route like he did at Texas A&M, which turned into a Junior Tuihalamaka interception. Miami’s only other scoring drive stalls after two incompletions thrown at Morrison. Neither pass had a chance. The RedHawks settle for a field goal.
“I’m so frustrated because I felt great about how we played. But we needed to get the lead,” Martin said. “We needed Notre Dame to play from behind. We needed to get that lead and turn up that pressure.”
Notre Dame gets the ball back at its 19-yard line with 2:01 left in the first half. An 8-yard Love run is followed by a Leonard incompletion. Get a stop on third-and-2 and Miami will force a punt. Instead, Miami gets caught with 10 men on the field, down a defensive lineman. Leonard barrels for 21 yards through the empty space.
Two plays later, Leonard hits Collins for the 38-yard score. Notre Dame leads 14-3.
Miami never threatens again. Its only serious drive of the second half ends in a blocked field goal.
Gray grabs his own interception in the second half. Traore posts two sacks. Leonard finishes with 143 yards rushing and three total touchdowns. The RedHawks took the field knowing what it would take to knock off a College Football Playoff contender in its own house. And that proved too big an ask, no matter the planning and preparation in Oxford.
After all, it’s not like Notre Dame wasn’t doing the same all week in South Bend.
“First half, I wasn’t delusional, but I felt we were in control of the game. This couldn’t have gone better to script,” Martin said. “God, our opportunity was right there. We just didn’t take it.”
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(Top photo: Courtesy of Miami Athletics)
