6 Thoughts on a Thursday

When the Purdue players looked at their scouting reports before last week, there probably wasn’t a ton of detail on Kennedy Urlacher. Heck, their coaching staff probably knew very little about him.

The game was already out of hand, but everyone on that Purdue sideline was likely thinking the same thing at some point in the third quarter: who the heck is 23?

Purdue kept their starters in during the second half and Notre Dame was playing second and third team players. Most of those starters knew about the key players, but they were introduced to several others who made their presence known.

Urlacher was one of them. Cornerback Leonard Moore was another. They saw a tiny bit of Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa on film, but I bet running back Reggie Love didn’t expect a true freshman to run through him in pass protection for a sack.

They would have seen a little bit of Jason Onye on film, but who they saw wasn’t the same guy who played against Purdue. Onye had dominant pass rush reps where he had multiple Purdue offensive linemen on skates. He racked up four pressures, 1.5 tackles for loss and that deflection that led to KVA’s interception.

It didn’t just happen in the second half either. He was doing this earlier in the game as well. On a T-E stunt, he blew up the right tackle and then the back who tried to pick him up after like Onye was the Juggernaut bursting through a concrete wall.

That kind of play and then similar ones after that will make him more than a name on the depth chart of future scouting reports.

Onye isn’t a freshman getting his first taste of action like some of these other players. He’s in his fourth year at Notre Dame. He didn’t have a senior season in high school and arrived in South Bend as raw as can be with a long road of development ahead of him. He’s had a slow and steady rise as a player and transformed his body into one that checks the boxes of what a future NFL defensive lineman is supposed to look like.

He’s had flashes of brilliance in practice and has earned his way into the defensive tackle rotation, but he’s never racked up dominant plays like he had against Purdue.

A lot of guys are having great days when Notre Dame wins 66-7, so I’m not trying to get carried away and pretend like Onye is now going to be doing this on a regular basis. He’ll have to keep stacking games like this together before anyone should be convinced of that. What he did show is that he is capable of doing this kind of thing, which is not something we’ve seen from him on Saturdays.

Before anyone becomes a game wrecker, they have to graduate from player to playmaker. If Onye is explosive off the ball like this more often and displaying this kind of power, then he might finally be on his way to playmaker status.

2. Notre Dame is about to play their fourth game and has already had their depth tested. It might be close to the breaking point on the offensive line with three starters going down and two of them already done for the season.

They’ve also had receiver Jordan Faison out for most of the first three weeks and are just finally getting tight end Mitchell Evans back to being fully available at tight end.

They’ve now lost Vyper Jordan Botelho for the season and haven’t had defensive tackle Gabriel Rubio available at all yet. End Josh Burnham had moved into a starting role and then injured his ankle. He missed the Purdue game and we don’t know when he’ll be back at full speed.

That’s three of the top eight defensive lineman for the Irish. It hasn’t been talked about as much as the offensive line because the depth is better, but it’s still a situation where players who are being elevated because of it.

This is exactly why having a game like Purdue matters. Having defensive end Bryce Young play over 20 reps is invaluable. He needed those reps in a game where he still got a chance to play against Purdue’s starters, but had the freedom to make mistakes and not get pulled off the field.

Even defensive tackle Armel Mukam and Vyper Loghan Thomas playing 11 and seven snaps respectively is a big deal because there may be a point where they are needed to play this season or it could be the first steps for them in potentially earning opportunities later.

I don’t think Urlacher, Moore, Luke Talich, and Karson Hobbs will have to play many snaps any time soon, but think about the Pitt game last season when Notre Dame was missing Ben Morrison and Cam Hart. If a similar situation pops up, none of these players will be thrown onto the field for the first time.

Everyone hopes that Notre Dame doesn’t have to play more offensive lineman than they have already this season, but at least players like Sullivan Absher, Chris Terek, Joe Otting, and Guerby Lambert have 23 snaps each under their belt.

The depth is going to continue to be tested throughout the season. This game should make the coaching staff feel better about some of that depth when they are forced to step up.

3. I’m really excited about Boubacar Traore’s potential and he’s already showing exactly why he’s been hyped up since the spring. As good as I expect him to be this season, it’s still going to be very difficult for him to replace Jordan Botelho at Vyper. He was on his way to a special season and had been playing at an elite level.

Botelho and Traore were working together on 3rd downs with them often lined up on the same side of the formation. They ran stunts with them and they were effective when they did. Notre Dame now won’t have that same option, which means they’ll have to get someone to step up in their sub-packages.

There should be a chance for RJ Oben to take a hold of it and Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa is also someone who could take on a bigger role rushing the passer. I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility that Loghan Thomas could eventually be involved here too. He hit the Hudson Card as he was releasing the football on the tipped interception by KVA and looked super twitchy in his limited snaps.

I think that things will work itself out well eventually finding a replacement for him on 3rd down, but the most difficult thing will be matching how well he was playing the run.

It’s not just Traore I’m talking about trying to match what Botelho was doing. It’s Notre Dame’s edges in general, which is why they could really use Burnham back sooner rather than later. It may not matter all that much this week because Miami (OH) has been averaging 1.42 yards per carry (dead last in the country) and they’re 116th in EPA per rush. Louisville and Georgia Tech are a lot better at running the football and will present a much tougher challenge.

4. I originally planned to write more about Riley Leonard here, but I realized that it would mostly be rehashing things that people already know. Leonard was much better throwing intermediate routes and the deep ball at Duke. None of that really matters now because he needs to start doing that at Notre Dame.

After this week it will be ⅓ of the way through the regular season. I wouldn’t call it now or never for him (more on that later), but the critics will only get louder unless there is some progress.

I know some have suggested mixing in Steve Angeli throughout the game and maybe that’s because they have fond memories of the Music City Bowl in 2014. I don’t think that’s a good idea and don’t see it happening. If they are going to make a change within a game or look for a spark, that’s a different conversation. Subbing someone in on a 3rd down and asking them to come in cold isn’t something that’s done for a reason.

Angeli has become the favorite of many who want to see Notre Dame’s passing game improve and I don’t want to throw cold water on him stepping in and doing well if called upon. I do feel that most are casually ignoring the fact that he worked exclusively with the ones all spring and wasn’t doing well against Notre Dame’s defense and that he hasn’t exactly had to deal with real situations against a good defense in a game yet.

Against Oregon State, they were a shell of the defense they were that season and he was only pressured on four dropbacks the entire game. In this little bit of mop up duty, he was only pressured three times on a dozen dropbacks. It’s not what he’d face going against Louisville.

And there’s this possibly big thing.

Maybe it's harsh to call this a red flag, but let me just say that I’m monitoring that Angeli was pressured three times and sacked on all three. Combine that with the Oregon State game and he’s been pressured seven times and was sacked on five of them.

The highest percentage of pressures that turned into sacks for a quarterback last season was 36.8%, so being sacked five out of seven is not great, Bob.

Let’s just call it something worth monitoring for Angeli. Only 10% of the pressures Leonard has faced have turned into sacks this season.

There’s that and the fact that he hasn’t exactly had to make every throw when he’s been on the field for Notre Dame. He’s looked good throwing the deep ball and that slot fade to Jayden Harrison was *chef’s kiss*.

However, over 70% of his attempts have been less than 10 yards down the field. He’s also only attempted four intermediate passes total (between 10-19 yards). He was 1 for 3 on them last season and his one attempt this season was the touchdown to Cooper Flanagan, the easiest throw he had to make all game against Purdue.

Angeli could be great and he might have to be if he has to play when it matters this season. Him throwing a better ball than Leonard isn’t enough evidence to do what some people have suggested, though.

5. If you’re looking for a deep ball breakout from the Notre Dame offense this week, I have some bad news for you. Miami (OH) has a defense that typically plays to take that away from opposing offenses.

Northwestern and Cincinnati were 1 of 8 on deep attempts in the first couple of games. In their final 10 games of the 2023 season, teams were six of 34 (17.6%) on attempts of 20+ yards against them.

There will be opportunities for explosive plays. They will mostly have to come from yards after the catch or in the run game. Their defense was credited with 24 missed tackles against Cincinnati last week and gave up runs of 40 and 60-yards.

Every Notre Dame fan looking for more deep attempts should probably expect to see more big plays from Jadarian Price and Jeremiyah Love instead. I don’t think they’ll complain if they get a lot of touches on Saturday.

6. Three games isn’t a lot. It just feels like it because Notre Dame has already experienced the highest of highs then the lowest of lows and back to the arrow pointing up again.

Because scheduling is all over the map in college football, there are other programs who have hardly experienced anything yet. Ohio State beat up on Akron and Western Michigan then had a bye. Missouri beat up on Murray State and Buffalo, which probably didn’t prepare them very well for a better than expected Boston College team.

Louisville ran all over FCS Austin Peay and Jacksonville State. They get their first test this weekend against Georgia Tech, who people thought they knew after they beat Florida State…except it turns out FSU is bad.

There’s still so much to learn about every program and Notre Dame is included in that. We know they can respond to adversity after last week, but they’re going to have to handle a lot more of it throughout the season whether it’s injuries or something else.

I think there’s still players on offense who will finish the season as huge pieces who haven’t done all that much through the first three games. I think some of these young players on defense who are flashing now could end up being studs by November.

In the next couple of weeks we’re going to know a lot more about how good Notre Dame can be this season, but it starts this week against Miami (OH). They are a well-coached program with a veteran quarterback and a good defense. They also don’t match up well with the Irish and a very good Notre Dame should beat them comfortably.

We’ll find out if this team is very good or still working to get there.

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