Game Thread | North Carolina at No. 11 Notre Dame

North Carolina (4-3) at No. 11 Notre Dame (6-1)

Notre Dame Stadium | 7:30 p.m. ET | NBC | Notre Dame -3.5 | O/U: 62.5

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Spooky Saturday

Many across the country had this game circled on the calendar in August, but in Mack Brown fashion, the Tar Heels have underachieved, yet Notre Dame fans aren’t waking up with overwhelming confidence. 

Sam Howell could very well be the first quarterback taken in the 2022 NFL Draft and his ability to use his legs has likely kept Marcus Freeman up a little late this week. The junior signal-caller was known for his deep ball over the last two season, but Howell hasn’t been shy to run this fall as he's rushed for 494 yards and five touchdowns. 

On the outside, North Carolina has one of the most explosive receivers in the country in Josh Downs as he’s reeled in 60 receptions for 837 yards and eight touchdowns. For perspective, Michael Mayer leads Notre Dame with 37 receptions for 414 yards and three scores. 

That said, North Carolina’s weakness is a defense that's giving up almost 30 points per game and they’ll face a Notre Dame offense that has come alive the last two weeks. 

What can you expect? My guess is much of the same as you saw against USC. Notre Dame will want to run the ball and eat up the clock, while taking shots, so it’ll be interesting how they balance playing with tempo. On defense, Notre Dame is in a pickle as All-American safety Kyle Hamilton is out, which poses a host of issues, so the Irish front seven will need to have a huge game.

Five Players To Watch

Notre Dame S DJ Brown
Brown isn't going to provide the playmaking that Kyle Hamilton brings every week, but it's likely we'll see another solid game from him. He has really bounced back strong after a rough start at Florida State. 

UNC QB Sam Howell
Howell has been sacked 27 times this season. 14 of those came in two road games. He's going to be utilized as a runner a lot and he'll need to protect the football after fumbling seven times this fall.

Notre Dame DE Isaiah Foskey
Foskey has been red hot as a pass rusher and he's going up against an offense that is 123rd in the country in sack rate. It might be time for other teams to start paying more attention to him with double teams and that could start this game.

UNC WR Josh Downs
One of the most productive receivers in college football, he's a danger to break a big play on every touch. He's dangerous after the catch and can turn short receptions into long gains.

Notre Dame WR Lorenzo Styles Jr.
His play against USC should only earn him more playing time and with a UNC secondary that has struggled to tackle, it wouldn't be surprising to see him have a breakout game if he gets enough targets.

Quotes of the Week

Notre Dame TE Michael Mayer:
"This tight end group has had a good amount of adversity, I'm not going to lie. We've had some injuries here and there, but we're brothers and we're all best friends in that room. We stuck with each other and we're going to do that for the rest of the season." 

Notre Dame OL Andrew Kristofic:
"It's awesome to block for Kyren. He's someone you get excited to block for because you know how hard he's going to run and he has your back in pass pro. He's an easy guy to go out there and play as hard as you can for." 

Notre Dame Vyper Isaiah Foskey:
"The quarterback run, I feel that's the biggest challenge that I've seen on film. I feel him being a running quarterback and being accurate when he throws the ball is something we have to take into consideration when we're going against him." 

Notre Dame S DJ Brown:
"As a safety, it's about being attentive to the RPO. You don't know if they're going to run or throw it. For safety, our main responsibility is stopping the pass and not getting sucked up by the run and being locked in on what we have to do. If we do that, we'll be fine." 

Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly:
"I think that pace of play didn't really allow us to do much more other than the execution. I think our execution was much better. We'll continue to fall on execution over just playing fast. You can play fast and sloppy and it's 3-and-out. You're punting the football. 

"For me more than anything else, we got our quarterback to operate a little quicker, which allowed him to play free. I think that's not necessarily a surprise element as much as it was we were executing better because our quarterback was feeling much more comfortable in being allowed to move the offense a little bit faster."

For Your Nerves