SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Nine thoughts on Notre Dame’s 7-1 start that has the Irish in prime position for the College Football Playoff after last weekend’s 51-14 blowout of Navy:
1. The more I watch Riley Leonard, the more I think about Jack Coan. I get it. This makes no sense. One is Notre Dame’s most efficient rushing threat. The other considered a quarterback sneak to be a trick play. One showed up from Duke and won the job without practicing. The other showed up from Wisconsin and won the job during a training camp competition with Drew Pyne.
But their season arcs at Notre Dame feel closer by the week. The dramatic Week 1 win on the road. Both playing behind revolving offensive lines. The crash to earth against a MAC team a week later. The notion Notre Dame would be better off making a switch. Notre Dame even did bench Coan at Virginia Tech, only to be forced into playing him again after Tyler Buchner’s pick six and injury. Then Coan led a fourth-quarter comeback that saved the season.
Coan never looked back. Did Leonard have his own Virginia Tech moment against Louisville? Because it feels like he’s not looking back either after Stanford, Georgia Tech and Navy. Both grad transfers figured out Notre Dame at about midseason. And Notre Dame figured out both grad transfers at the same time. For Coan, that meant more quick game, less full-on dropback. For Leonard, it’s meant RPOs mixed with moving the pocket.
Both quarterbacks benefited from weak schedules in the season’s second half, but what if Leonard’s story is less about following Sam Hartman and more about following Coan?
GO DEEPER
Notre Dame’s Riley Leonard, the small-town QB with championship ambitions
2. Good Notre Dame teams beat Navy on offense, not by stonewalling the option. Doing both matters, which is how the final score balloons to 51-14. But it was Mike Denbrock’s call sheet that put the Midshipmen away more than Al Golden. Put the pressure on Navy’s offense with your own and watch the Mids sweat. And yeah, five fumble recoveries helped, too.
3. Whenever the epilogue for this season is written, save a few pages for Pat Coogan. When the Catholic kid from Chicago moved into the starting lineup after Ashton Craig’s knee got rolled at Purdue, it was a good story because Coogan stayed after being beat out. Now it’s a good story because the senior is turning into a better and better center every week.
On Jeremiyah Love’s 64-yard touchdown run, Rocco Spindler and Coogan set Love free. Blocking in concert has rarely sounded better. Coogan might have been a good story when he returned to the starting lineup last month. But he’s a better offensive lineman now. Can Notre Dame convince Coogan to come back in 2025?
4. The first College Football Playoff rankings come out in one week. Maybe you’ll panic about them. Probably you shouldn’t. If Notre Dame wins out — this feels more likely today than it did last week — the Irish will be in. They might even host a first-round game. Our projection model at The Athletic has Notre Dame at 85 percent to make the field and 68 percent to host (the highest of any team on the board, only because the Irish can’t get a first-round bye).
But if Notre Dame isn’t in the first field on Nov. 5, sit tight. Even in the super-conference era in which too many teams don’t face each other in league play, there are still enough good vs. good games among CFP contenders that will knock at least one down in front of Notre Dame.
5. It’s more fun to think about who the Irish could play (and host) in the first round, anyway. Clemson or Tennessee could be great football. Indiana would be a great story. Or maybe LSU upsets Alabama in two weeks, then takes down Florida, Vanderbilt and Oklahoma to finish 10-2. Wouldn’t a trip to South Bend in late December be the perfect reward for Brian Kelly?
Although LSU could face Texas A&M first in the SEC Championship Game if both programs win out. So Kelly back to Notre Dame might have to wait another season.
GO DEEPER
Are Notre Dame and Texas A&M both heading to the College Football Playoff?
6. Through eight games, these are the top five Notre Dame defenders per Pro Football Focus, among regulars in the lineup:
- Xavier Watts
- Jordan Clark
- Drayk Bowen
- Leonard Moore
- Adon Shuler
It’s shocking that four defensive backs are in the top five, only because one of them isn’t Benjamin Morrison, who PFF ranks ninth or 10th among Notre Dame’s first-team defenders, depending on how you view the starting lineup. The common denominator is Mike Mickens, who helped develop Morrison into a future first-round pick after playing him in game one at Ohio State in 2022.
How Mickens has rebuilt the defensive back room can’t be overstated in terms of the quality of work. There was a time when the Irish could barely sign a top cornerback, never mind develop one into an NFL talent. Now Cam Hart is playing for the Chargers, Morrison will be playing somewhere next season and Christian Gray and Leonard Moore feel like next-big-things at corner.
7. Should running back Kedren Young get more carries now or later? Because he’s going to get more carries at some point. There’s too much potential in the freshman for it not to click eventually, even if it’s not this season.
8. On the list of what-if injuries Notre Dame suffered this season, Jordan Faison’s sprained ankle at Texas A&M barely registered at the time. It felt more like a nagging pain than a season-altering incident, but seven games (and at least one re-sprain) later, Faison is only beginning to hit the levels Notre Dame believed were there all along. Faison led Notre Dame in targets (five) and receptions (four) last week, basically matching his season totals (six targets, four receptions) going into the game. He’s still yet to score. His stat line was more impressive in the Sun Bowl than it’s been all season. But Notre Dame wants to keep pushing it with Faison, who has the speed to go deep and the intuition to get open on intermediate routes.
This is what the broadcast doesn’t show you. 11 guys each winning their one on one battles. That’s how a TEAM goes from being good to great! #dontletthesmoothtastefoolyou pic.twitter.com/GR1wkVfG0S
— Quincy Sherard Faison (@qfaison1) October 27, 2024
Maybe there’s not a classically great offense at Notre Dame this season. But Faison getting back in the mix can improve what and who the Irish are.
9. According to PFF, Jaylen Sneed just played the best game of his Notre Dame career, tying for the team-high with nine tackles and scoring a defensive touchdown.
The junior has been a hard player to define. Is he a dynamic playmaker at linebacker? Or is he a wild card who struggles to fit into the defense? Sneed might be both, but it’s important Notre Dame sticks with the junior because it’s the only way to get the junior to stick with Notre Dame. Sneed played just 25 snaps against Navy, more than he’s played since Purdue (25 snaps), but also well off Northern Illinois (41) and Texas A&M (31). Maybe this is the new normal for Sneed, rotating in at linebacker every few series. Or maybe there are more peaks and valleys to come.
What happened against Navy doesn’t need to be a breakthrough for Sneed for it to be significant. It just needs to be enough to keep the staff going back to the uber-athletic linebacker when the moment fits, then banking on Sneed to pay back that faith. He held up his end of the bargain against Navy.
(Photo of Riley Leonard: Edward Diller / Getty Images)
