Game Thread | Toledo (1-0) at No. 8 Notre Dame (1-0)

Toledo (1-0) at No. 8 Notre Dame (1-0) 

Notre Dame Stadium | 2:30 p.m. ET | Peacock | Notre Dame -17.0 | O/U: 55.5

Game Week Articles | Roster| Depth Chart | Schedule 

Fans Are Back

Notre Dame Stadium will be full for the first time since 2019 and it should be a great environment as Toledo comes to South Bend. Will it be Doak Campbell Stadium? Probably not, but fans likely won’t be able to hear the zip from Jack Coan’s ball as you could in 2018 against Ball State. 

Oh, Notre Dame is 1-0. The Fighting Irish aren’t 0-1 despite what some may think and Saturday is a chance to fix the mistakes that allowed Florida State to make a late run last weekend. 

This week Notre Dame simply needs to tackle better on defense to show last week was game one rust and not a bigger issue. It will be interesting to see where Marcus Freeman brings pressure as Toledo has a formidable offensive line, but the Irish defense will be the fastest defense the Rockets have seen in quite some time. 

Offensively, Notre Dame needs to take a step forward in the run game. Toledo isn't nearly as big up the middle, so the Irish offensive line should be able to get a push. Toledo defensive line coach Larry Black will have his guys ready as he returns to Notre Dame. It Toledo defensive coordinator Vince Kehres’ first big collegiate game, but he's coached in big games as 95-6 at Mount Union with two National Titles.

Five Players To Watch

Notre Dame OT Michael Carmody
With Blake Fisher out for most of the season, it's now Carmody's job protecting Jack Coan's blindside. He showed promise when he had to step into action last week, but he'll need to show more than that this week and in the weeks to come.

Toledo WR Bryce Mitchell
He averaged 23.5 yards per reception last season and was a consistent deep target for the Rockets. Over 40% of his targets were longer than 20 yards down the field so we can expect Cam Hart and Clarence Lewis to be tested more in this game than they were against Florida State.

Notre Dame DT Jayson Ademilola
Ademilola was credited with only half of a sack against Florida State, but he had six total pressures and was a constant in the backfield. Don't expect that to change this week. 

Toledo S Tycen Anderson
Featured on Bruce Feldman's annual "Freaks List", Anderson is a big time athlete and someone who will be playing on Sundays. He was banged up last season and he missed the first game this year. His availability for this game is unknown right now, but Toledo needs him in this type of matchup.

Notre Dame LB Jack Kiser
With some injuries at linebacker, Kiser could see time at Rover and at Will. He had a quiet, but solid first game. Now would be the perfect time to have a loud home opener.

Quotes of the Week

TE Michael Mayer:
"I knew what I did wrong. I hope it's never going to happen. I've been working on it. First game of the season, I was pretty eager. I was turning my head and running upfield before I actually caught the ball.

“Learn from it, get better from it.”

Vyper Isaiah Foskey: 
“I feel like Florida State, we just knocked off the rust and we're just coming back, better than we did at Florida State,” he said. “We're coming back in Toledo, and we're going to be home. Everyone's happy, everyone's excited about the game, just to move forward and go against Toledo.”

LB JD Bertrand:
"I think there's just an execution piece [for the next step], and so going from there, I love what Coach Freeman is doing. He does a great job emphasizing fundamentals like not going 1-for-1, being able to get off a block and make a play. Just getting to the ball.

“At the end of the day, effort and attitude is going to overcome everything, any kind of mistakes. I think just sticking to those things.”

Head coach Brian Kelly:
"Anytime you lose guys this early in the season, it's a concern. We have more surgeries in the first week than you would want to have. That's a concern. We cannot continue on this trend of having guys out for the entire season because of year-ending surgery. We hope that we've gone through that and we're going to trend on the right end of injuries.

"I think the health of our team relative to the bounce-back of getting in at 4:30 in the morning on Monday, our guys have done a great job. They got the rest necessary and their mindset was great. They needed to take care of themselves. This was about rest, nutrition and I thought they did a great job. We're in a really good place going into Thursday relative to their recovery. We had to be smart with the way we practiced this week."

For Your Nerves