Game Thread | Virginia Tech at No. 16 Notre Dame

Virginia Tech at No. 16 Notre Dame

Notre Dame Stadium |2:30 p.m. ET | NBC

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Response

It hasn’t been a positive week around South Bend as the Irish are coming off an embarrassing loss to Michigan, but Notre Dame will have a chance to turn it around on Saturday afternoon. 

Notre Dame should come out with the win against Hokies, but Virginia Tech does a few things that will put pressure on the Irish on both sides of the ball. Can Notre Dame handle Bud Foster’s defense? Can Notre Dame slow down Hendon Hooker? 

However, the biggest question for me will be how Chip Long’s offense responds. Long needs to be better to make Ian Book better. Book needs to be better for the offense to be better. Can Long help his quarterback out? We’ll see. 

Five Players To Watch

Notre Dame DE Khalid Kareem
Notre Dame needs a big response from their captains and Kareem had a dominant game against the Hokies last season. They could use a similar performance this year to help spark the defense.

Virginia Tech nickel Chamarri Conner
Conner has been highly productive as Virginia Tech's version of a Rover. He leads their team in havoc plays. He also has been targeted in coverage and has struggled running with smaller, quicker players deep down the field. 

Notre Dame RG Trevor Ruhland
Ruhland is replacing an injured Tommy Kraemer who was having a very good season. The line needs to be much better than they were against Michigan and that only happens if Ruhland doesn't miss a beat filling in for Kraemer.

QB Hendon Hooker
The former Notre Dame recruiting target has helped the Hokies to a 3-0 record since he took over as the starter. Expect to see him run a lot, but he's not going to enjoy getting hit very much. He complained about the cold on his visit to South Bend and the forecast says it will be 39 degrees at kickoff.

Notre Dame CB Shaun Crawford
Virginia Tech spreads teams out on offense and runs plenty of jet sweeps. Notre Dame will need to play a third corner quite a bit, which means Crawford should play more than he did last weekend. They need him to play well and add some stability to a secondary that has been up and down in recent weeks.

Quotes of the Week

TE Cole Kmet:
"For Ian to play well, we have to play well. A lot of people look at Ian and go 'Why isn't he playing well?' 

"You have to look at the other 10 guys surrounding him. I'm part of that. All 10 guys surrounding Ian looked at ourselves and we have to do better for him. That's what we're going to do this week." 

OL Robert Hainsey:
"The biggest thing is we always talk about seeing it on the offensive line through one set of eyes. Not getting too far out of our zones in terms of who needs to be where. 

"If we see something, communicate it and once we have it communicated and get it drawn up, say, ‘Hey, if we see this again, we need to do this.’ It’s just big for all of us to be on the same page." 

S Alohi Gilman: 
"We talk about the narrative, the only narrative I'm worried about is my team. I honestly don't know what people are saying. I only care about my guys and how they're feeling or what I can do to be the best teammate and the best leader. 

"As long as I'm doing that, things will be alright. That's who we really care about. Week-to-week, it's not about the outside noise. It's about our team and what happens inside this building." 

For Your Nerves