6 Thoughts on a Thursday

It was just Navy. It wasn’t even week one.

That didn’t stop the hype train starting for the 2023 Fighting Irish. One of Notre Dame’s greatest quarterbacks said this is the best Notre Dame team he has ever seen.

That’s not exactly what he said, but the headline gets those clicks.

Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde said that Sam Hartman is maybe the best Notre Dame quarterback since Joe Montana.

Scott Strasemeier is the SID for Navy and he’s been at the Naval Academy for 33 years. He said it’s the best Notre Dame team they’ve played since 2012.

I mean, you might as well get on board. This hype train just went from 0 to 60 in less time than it took to finish that first game.

I think it’s easy to dismiss all of that as hyperbole and Quinn even mentioned that specifically in that radio hit. This is the full quote of what he said for more context and for Notre Dame fans, I think it might be more encouraging than that headline.

“That’s the difference when we travel around the country for Big Noon Kickoff and we see the Michigans, the Ohio States, Bama, Texas…like all of these different schools. Oklahoma. You get a sense because you see the “big boys”. And that’s to me what makes the biggest difference, it’s two things: when you have the big boys up front on both sides of the ball and then you have depth.

“Like, you’re looking at dudes who aren’t starting and you’re going, “Oh, that guy’s going to be good. He’s going to have a shot at the NFL.” It’s those two sides of the ball up front and then it’s the speed and the size and length on the perimeter at wide receiver and DB.”

“And this isn’t hyperbole. This isn’t me blowing one game out of proportion because I have a measured approach to Navy.”

He went on to say:

“This is the best in terms of team speed, size, athleticism, that Notre Dame has had since I can remember. And it’s a credit to Marcus Freeman and it’s a credit to the boys there (with) the development in the weight room and all of that, but recruiting specifically, the young dudes coming up, they’ve got some studs. They really do.”

I can’t disagree with him. I guess you could say he agreed with what I’ve been saying for the past few weeks.

Anyone who has read 6 Thoughts over the past month has seen me rave about the talented underclassmen on the roster, the fact that I thought the ceiling for the 2022 team has changed because of the talent on defense, and that seeing Notre Dame in person in August convinced me that they simply have more “dudes” that look like they will be playing in the NFL one day.

The roster is set up a lot better than the last two who had back to back NFL Drafts where only five players were selected.

The Irish are significantly better at quarterback, but it is a lot more than that. 247Sports released their team talent composite for this season and Notre Dame has their highest average recruit ranking (91.16) on their roster than any other season since 247 started tracking this in 2015. That’s the sixth highest average in the country and it’s only hundredths of a point behind Clemson (91.17) and Texas A&M (91.20).

It’s not just some of these guys are better than the recruiting services thought they were. Notre Dame has recruited and retained talent under Freeman to get them to this point. It all matches up with the talent we saw in camp and the talent everyone saw in their opening game.

When it comes to what Quinn said about all of the physical traits that he saw from Notre Dame, I’m not jumping on that hype train. I think I might have been one of the people throwing coal into the fire first to get things rolling. (That’s how trains work, right?)

None of this means Notre Dame is going to win a championship this year or that everyone should start booking tickets for the College Football Playoff now. It means that this team has a lot more raw talent than many thought they had and people who didn’t know are starting to figure it out.

2. No one is going to find out this week if the hype is warranted or not. This is a “four game rule” game and not a measuring stick game. Notre Dame has to take every opponent seriously, but this is not Marshall and a defense that ended up ranked 10th in DF+ (combined FEI and SP+ ranking).

This is a team that’s offense was bad in FCS play last season and there isn’t much reason to expect to have improved to the point where they could put a scare into Notre Dame. They are 213th in Bill Connelly’s combined FBS/FCS SP+ rankings.

If the Irish do what they should, then the players who are going to redshirt this year will have a chance to play in the fourth quarter. I’m specifically thinking of those freshmen on defense like what we saw with a handful of snaps for Josh Burnham, Aiden Gobaira, Donovan Hinish, Jaylen Sneed and others at the end of the Boston College game last season.

The good news is that this is still early enough in the season that these players could possibly play their way out of redshirting, so it is a bit of an audition. Turn some heads here and maybe that gets someone moved up from the scout team if an opportunity opens up.

3. An opportunity already has opened up on the interior defensive line with Gabriel Rubio’s knee injury that Marcus Freeman said will keep him out for a couple of weeks. It likely means that Donovan Hinish, who played five snaps against Navy, gets a real chance to play his way into the rotation on a permanent basis.

Others are likely to get an opportunity this week, but I’m not sure anyone should expect more than just Hinish joining Howard Cross, Rylie Mills, and Jason Onye against NC State with the expectation that Rubio won’t be cleared for that game.

Rubio being out opened up the question of whether or not Tyson Ford can get into the mix. In his second season at Notre Dame, Ford was listed at a surprising 274 heading into fall camp, which was down from 292 in the spring. He ended up taking reps at strongside end as well as inside at 3-technique in fall camp.

He didn’t carry that 292 as well as Onye carried his 290+, but there were some flashes from him in the spring working inside as a pass rusher. I thought he just had to cut out some bad weight and counter it with some good and he’d be ready to take another step at defensive tackle this summer. It sounded like defensive line coach Al Washington was happy with Ford reshaping his body as well. This was something Washington said when asked about Ford early in camp.

“You know what man, his arrow is going up. He’s improving every day. He’s dropped some weight which I think has been good. But he’s improving.”

He didn’t show enough improvement to be listed on the depth chart to start the season, but this is the best opportunity he’ll have to change that. The staff seems happy with NaNa Osafo-Mensah, Javontae Jean-Baptiste, and Josh Burnham (who is playing Vyper and end) outside so Ford’s best shot to get into the mix is to show something at 3-tech.

Hinish and Aidan Keanaaina are better suited to play nose and the only other 3-tech outside of the rotation is true freshman Armel Mukam. Ford has these next couple of weeks to show out and make a move.

It’s not now or never for him, but this isn’t the same as Jacob Lacey transferring and opening up snaps for Rubio last season or Daelin Hayes being out for the season in 2019 and Jamir Jones being able to step up. This is a short window and if Ford wants to make a move into the rotation, the best time is now.

4. I’m genuinely excited to watch the Notre Dame defense this weekend.

We got to see the regular offense from the Irish last week, but we didn’t get to see anything resembling Notre Dame’s normal defense against Navy. This will be everyone’s first official look at it during a game.

Yes, I’m aware that this is not going to be their toughest test. TSU’s starting quarterback Draylen Ellis had very poor numbers when blitzed, averaging only 4.9 yards per attempt and completing 47.9% of his passes. This isn’t Caleb Williams or Drake Maye they are facing and the supporting cast isn’t close to that.

If Notre Dame gets them into obvious passing situations, they are going to let the dogs off the leash and attack. That doesn’t necessarily have to be the blitz, but they do have to work on it a bit on game day to get ready for when they do need it.

With extra rushers or not, I expect the pass rush to get after it and the way they did on that Tuesday night scrimmage we saw in camp.

TSU gave up 38 sacks in 11 games last season and are replacing four starting O-linemen. I’d set the over/under at 5.5 sacks.

5. If there was one complaint I saw from ISD subscribers after the Navy game, it was that backup quarterback Steve Angeli didn’t get enough snaps. He only ended up playing six and that was because Navy’s last drive ended up chewing up over eight minutes of clock.

I don’t believe Notre Dame’s staff should take blame for not getting him in earlier. The previous three drives for Navy averaged negative yards per play and averaged less than three minutes of possession. I’m sure they weren’t anticipating Navy having a longer drive than their total time of possession on the previous three drives.

I also think that Notre Dame’s coaches are very aware of the schedule they have this month prior to Ohio State. If they are taking care of business this week and against Central Michigan, the starters will not play four quarters. Those players have to get snaps as well so they can’t just take these guys out early and treat it like preseason games.

I went and looked at the backup quarterbacks for Ohio State, Alabama, and Georgia last season.

Ohio State’s Kyle McCord’s average snaps per game was 9.6 in blowout wins. He was named the starter for the Buckeyes opener against Indiana. Jalen Milroe averaged 13.1 snaps per game in blowout wins for Alabama last season. He’s the projected starter for them this fall. Carson Beck averaged 12.7 snaps per game in blowout wins for Georgia in 2022. He was named the starter for Georgia this year.

Angeli might be the starter for Notre Dame next fall. That’s why people want to see him and true freshman Kenny Minchey get as many snaps as possible this season.

The Irish could run away early from Tennessee State and Angeli might get 12 snaps. I’m sure some might complain about that number, but it’s pretty normal. There should be more of a focus on Notre Dame beating more teams decisively than how many snaps the backup gets when he is in there.

Outside of the games when Bryce Young was injured, Milroe had 79 snaps last season that all came in games where Alabama won big. Beck had 89 and 17 came in the national championship game when they were beating the breaks off of TCU. McCord had 67 snaps in those same types of games.

That all matches up with what Phil Jurkovec got for Notre Dame in 2019 (79), which was one of the only seasons in recent years where Notre Dame had several blowout victories (New Mexico, Bowling Green, Duke, Navy, Boston College, and Iowa State).

When programs are rolling, they can find more snaps for their backup quarterback, then fans don’t have to worry about the only two or three times a year that a potential quarterback of the future might be able to play.

6. Marist Liufau had the best game of his career in week zero. It was a long time coming for the player who everyone thought could be Notre Dame’s next great linebacker heading into the 2021 season.

A horrible leg injury took away that season from him and even though he was back playing in every game in 2022, he did not look like the same player he was prior to the injury.

Al Golden was asked about Liufau’s performance against Navy and I think this sums up the type of impact he had and how much healthier he is now than he was last season.

”I just think like there were times last year during the season that we would be trying to protect him because he was not fully healed, like he was not himself. I saw the young man the other night that everybody told me about when I got here. That's how I felt. I saw a knee-bender. I saw somebody with suddenness and lateral quickness. I saw ruggedness to take on blocks or knock ball carriers back. I saw him attack the ball. I'm excited about him. He's worked really, really hard from the injury to get to this point. So just blessings to him and excited about his future.”

It’s one game and it’s a long season. The hype with him doesn’t need to go overboard just like it doesn’t have to be with the team as a whole. I think that’s the reasonable way to approach him having a great start to the season.

However, Liufau now being the type of player that everyone was telling Golden about when he arrived at Notre Dame would be a very big deal for the defense. If something like that happens with a player, that’s when expectations can start to change.

If it was just a nice game, then that’s still pretty great for someone who had to come back from a serious injury. If it’s the start of big season for him, then the excitement about the linebacker position won’t just be about the underclassmen on the roster.

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