Irish Seek Revenge vs. Cards

Notre Dame (3-1) hosts unbeaten Louisville (3-0) of the Atlantic Coast Conference on Saturday. The Cardinals are coming off a home victory against Georgia Tech after two wins against lower division teams. Louisville rode big plays in all three phases in taming the Yellowjackets. The Fighting Irish are keeping their playoff hopes alive but have no margin for error. Coach Marcus Freeman’s squad is still smarting from an upset loss on September 7 to Northern Illinois. Also, last week’s mistake-filled takedown of Miami (Ohio) was anything but satisfying. Saturday’s game is available for streaming on Peacock beginning at 3:30 PM Eastern time.

Head Coach Jeff Brohm is in his second season at his alma mater after resurrecting Purdue to Big-10 respectability from 2017-2022. His Cardinals were 10-4 last season after a 10-1 start that included a 33-20 drubbing of Notre Dame. Brohm used transfer quarterback Jack Plummer last season to lead his team. This year, he brought in Tyler Shough from Texas Tech for that purpose. Shough is in his seventh college season and has performed well at Louisville to date.

QB Tyler Shough has been a good fit thus far in Louisville

Shough’s Irish counterpart, Riley Leonard, remains a work in progress as a passer. Leonard has made incremental improvement over the past month but still routinely misfires on easy throws. Freeman responded to a question regarding his quarterback earlier this week.

“As we meet and we talk he understands what the position that he holds entails, the expectations, and he’s doing a great job of handling those things. Continue to have joy with the people that sacrifice in that building with you. That’s what I told him. Don’t lose the joy [because of] the noise or outside things that could affect some other people.”

Brohm reported a few injuries for Louisville this week. Starting wideout Jadon Thompson suffered a season-ending knee injury against Georgia Tech. Rotational tailback Marcus Turner and starting cornerback Quincy Riley were also dinged up and are questionable for the Irish.

Notre Dame also has its own outsized share of attrition, aside from the three starters lost against Purdue. Defensively, end Josh Burnham and tackle Gabe Rubio remain out. Cornerback Christian Gray has a shoulder injury and his status is currently unknown. Another corner, Jaden Mickey, announced that he will sit out the rest of the season. He intends to transfer in the spring with two years of eligibility after earning his degree.

NOTRE DAME’S OFFENSE vs. LOUISVILLE’S DEFENSE

Louisville’s defensive line is led by end Ashton Gillotte, who was a force last year against Notre Dame. Gillotte is relieved by Ramon Puryear, who is a quality player in his own right.  The interior consists of nose tackle Dezmond Tell and Jared Dawson, who already has three sacks. Brohm dipped into the portal to stock the other end position with Tramel Logan from Baylor and Myles Jernigan from Cal. The Cardinal front held the Irish to 44 yards rushing last season, and this year’s group is every bit as talented. Georgia Tech, a run-oriented team, managed only 98 yards rushing against them.

DE Ashton Gillotte wreaks havoc for the Cardinal defense

Sophomore guard Sam Pendleton and freshman tackle Anthonie Knapp struggled against Miami  and will face a more formidable challenge on Saturday. If the Irish cannot run the ball effectively it may be a long afternoon. Jeremiah Love and Jadarian Price were almost forgotten last week in favor of keepers by Leonard. Brohm is aware of Leonard’s running ability and pledged to have a plan in place to contain it.

Louisville’s linebackers in its 4-3 alignment are Stanquan Clark in the middle, the versatile TJ Quinn, and Antonio Watts. Clark and Quinn are tied for the team lead in tackles. In the secondary, Riley’s absence at cornerback would be costly if he cannot answer the bell this week. The other side is manned by Corey Thornton and Tahveon Nicholson, who share time. The safeties are quality veterans in Tamarion McDonald, an import from the Tennessee Vols, and M.J. Griffin. The overall defensive unit is sound but not impenetrable.

Left guard Sam Pendleton needs to raise his game this week

Brohm will try to force the Irish to throw and attempt plays outside of Leonard’s comfort zone. There will be considerable pressure on Coordinator Mike Denbrock to break tendencies that early opponents have noted. The Irish have been telegraphing plays with formations, personnel groupings, and other tells. Leonard must also throw the ball more accurately so as not to waste plays and go three and out. Finally, the line must execute in the run game and hold up in pass protection.

LOUISVILLE’S OFFENSE vs. NOTRE DAME’S DEFENSE

Louisville has averaged 47 points and just over 500 yards per game. They have not committed a single turnover in their three games. Their offensive performance against Georgia Tech was statistically far less impressive, though. They managed just 57 yards on the ground and 17 points by the offense. The Cards’ 31-point total resulted from a defensive score when Tech fumbled in its own end zone and a blocked field goal attempt returned for a touchdown. Louisville’s two offensive scores were the result of long pass plays.

Shough has been a 68% passer this year under Brohm’s tutelage. He has completed passes of greater than 20 yards to seven different receivers. The best of the group is Ja’Corey Brooks, who leads the team with 17 catches and averages 99 yards per game. Thompson’s loss is a blow but the Cardinals have plenty of depth. Chris Bell is a deep threat that the Irish secondary must watch closely. Brohm is known for bringing new wrinkles and trick plays to big games.

Junior Donald Chaney leads a young group of tailbacks. He has been slowed by an ankle injury but should start this week. Two freshmen, Keyjuan Brown and Isaac Brown, will rotate in. Guard Renato Brown anchors a revamped offensive line. Left tackle Monroe Mills (6’7” 315) transferred in with Shough from Texas Tech. Right tackle Jon Mendoza (6’9” 310) was previously at Yale.

The Irish hope CB Christian Gray is able to play on Saturday

The Cardinals will attempt to establish the run in order to create opportunities for big plays in the passing game. Notre Dame has given up the majority of opponents’ rushing yards early in games and tightened up in the second half. They will require a better start this week. The matchup between the Louisville receivers and the Irish secondary is compelling. With Mickey gone and Gray nursing a shoulder injury, the visitors may have an advantage. Success for either side also depends on how much time Shough has in the pocket. If his play-action fakes are credible and his protection holds up, he will put points on the board.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Notre Dame has already made an alarming number of mistakes in this phase of the game. Blocked field goals, bad snaps, and muffed punts are often errors that lead directly to a loss. Freeman promises to analyze and fix these mistakes, yet they persist. Kicker Mitch Jeter is accurate when the rest of his teammates do their jobs properly. Punter James Rendell is rounding into form and could become a difference maker in the field position battle.

Veteran Louisville kicker Brock Travelstead is 3/6 on field goals. Thus far in 2024 he has missed a short one and both attempts from over 50 yards, including one from 60. He has converted four of five field goal attempts in last year’s contest. Punter Brady Hodges has a 43-yard average this season but was five yards better last week.

Riley is the Cards’ primary punt return man and has a 29-yarder to his credit. If he is slowed by an injury, he may not field punts against the Irish even if he is available at his cornerback spot. Isaac Brown is the kick returner but has not been very busy as yet.

SUMMARY

Three elements stand out. First, Louisville is a team that does not make mistakes but rather capitalizes on those of its opponent. Notre Dame has made a slew of errors, including head-scratching turnovers. Second, the Cardinal passing game versus the Irish secondary is strength against strength. Winning this matchup is crucial. Third, both teams want to run the ball but have struggled at times to do so. Leonard is a wild card in the running game and Louisville is well aware of it. Brohm responded to a question earlier this week regarding his plan to contain him.

“I just think it will be another good test for our defense,” he said. “We’ll have to be really sharp. Not giving up big plays will be big, not giving up big quarterback runs. It’s one thing if you get two, three, four sometimes five yards but big runs will be a big play. Then trying to stop the run, making them throw the ball vertically will be something we have to really concentrate on. But they’re well coached and they’ve utilized his talents very well to this point this year.”

Speedy TB Jeremiah Love needs more touches on Saturday

On offense, Notre Dame must make better use of Jeremiah Love and Jordan Faison. Leonard must be sharper on his short throws in order to avoid being forced to make long ones. Even more critical than Leonard’s performance is that of the offensive line. The youngsters on the left side have regressed after a surprisingly good outing in the season opener. Penalties and whiffed blocks have been far too plentiful of late. A repeat of these failures will doom the hosts on Saturday.

Here are a few questions that will shed light on the outcome:

  • Which defensive line will be able to stuff the run?
  • Can Notre Dame’s secondary prevent big plays by the Cardinal passing game?
  • Will Brohm catch Notre Dame off balance with a trick play?
  • Can Leonard improve his accuracy and minimize three and out series?
  • Will the Irish offensive line rise above its recent mediocrity?
  • Can Notre Dame’s special teams contribute in a positive way?
  • Which team will commit key mistakes and turnovers?
  • Will Denbrock be predictable or can he keep the Louisville defense off balance?

PREDICTION

Notre Dame is a slightly better team on paper but they have not impressed at home this season. Louisville’s front four will control the Irish attack if the left side of the offensive line continues to struggle. In order to win, the Irish quarterback, linemen, and the offensive coordinator must raise their game to a higher level. Is it possible? Sure. Is it likely? Not very, although this team has defied logic all season. Fans should be able to tell where the day is headed before the first quarter is over. It is imperative that the Irish get off to a strong start and play with the lead. If they continue to stumble out of the gate, they are unlikely to recover.

The Cardinals are not a great team but they are well-coached and disciplined. Football games do not always go according to plan, however, especially on the road. Conversely, Notre Dame is overdue for an inspired performance in front of the home crowd. The green jerseys are a nice touch but it is not 1977 anymore. This game will not be nearly as impressive as last year’s win over USC but I believe the Irish have it in them to pull off a victory.

NOTRE DAME 24  LOUISVILLE 20

Tell John what you think in the Comments section below.

33 thoughts on “Irish Seek Revenge vs. Cards

  1. JVAN,

    Last year, the Louisville D bullied the Irish OL – an OL that included a first and second round draft choice.. I just don’t see how it will be any better this weekend with an Irish OL that is just not good..

    Jeff Brohm will make Marcus Freeman look like he doesn’t have an answer and will out coach him on every level.

    Until the Irish prove me wrong, I’m going with Louisville to shut us down and control both lines of scrimmage!

    Louisville 35
    Irish 20

  2. I’m going to play an intuitive hunch and predict a decisive ND victory. I’m basing this totally on Freeman’s changed demeanor at press conferences. He seems more serious about his job and more realistic about his team. Let’s just say he’s got his game face on. ND 31 Louisville 10.

    • This is close to my prediction, ND 34 Louisville 13. I just do not see Louisville as anything more than an annoyance. Last season, Hartman was just not up to the task. He had no mobility and his performance in the game was dismal in that game last season. If Denbrock utilizes Leonard as intended, then ND should be able to overcome the two monsters on the UL D line.

  3. An offense dependent on a quarterback running the ball is an offense that is doomed to struggle. Jeff Brohm is a very good coach and I am sure his defensive coaches have figured out the tendencies that Denbrock’s offense betrays. UL may employ a spy for Leonard, jam the line of scrimmage and dare him to throw. They know how inaccurate Leonard is on the deep ball. I have a bad feeling about this game.

  4. You are underestimating the ND defense, they will get two turnovers. Plus Love, Price, and Leonard will break long touchdown runs and another from passing plus two field goals. Revenge will be complete.

    ND 34 L 12.

  5. This is the kind of game that the Irish in their current state are not going to win. Mercifully it’s not being broadcast so I will not get to watch. Freeman’s losing strategy to stick with Leonard will leave us all gasping for air. I think, Mr. Vannie, that you sense this to be true but are being a polite optimist, not quite willing to face the reality just yet. There was so much promise, how did it all go so wrong? Say it ain’t so, John!
    It pains me to do this, but I’ll say what John is too nice to say: right there in front of the home folks on Holy Ground the Irish get manhandled by another suck team because the coaches refuse to properly apply the talent they have, or tailor the game plan to leverage their best player’s strengths. damn!

    Louisville 31
    Notre Dame 13

  6. Hi John, thank you once again for your preview.

    In your ‘questions that shed light on the outcome’ (which are always spot on) you pose ‘will improve his accuracy?’ If, by now, he cannot hit 5-7 yard throws, he will not be able to yet again.

    As far as revenge goes, I’m not sure ND has enough players that think like that. Usually we are flat in revenge games- as well as Marcus/staff usually don’t see that the other team is coming for a fight.

    Last year, Louisville held Leonard to no scores (maybe he was hurt late in the game- but he was 9-23 for 121 yards. We’ve been to this movie before- ACC coaches that beat ACC QB’s we bring in.

    The only daylight I see here is Angeli or Minchey getting a shot- and perhaps bringing a spark with them. But can Marcus sub for Leonard, making the choice to even bring him to ND look worse than it already does.

    I regret to predict- Cards 24 ND 13

  7. Could easily be seen to go either way. Most likely this is low-scoring defensive battle, based on ND’s very strong defense and its poor QB play accompanied by its OC’s refusal to call plays consistent with the team’s strengths offensively. So, Leonard will throw ineffectively due to UL’s strong front seven/pass rush, he will be sacked
    /hurried MULTIPLE times due to that rush against ND’s weak O-line, and the RBs will get < 20 carries total. Looks like a 15-12 UL victory, and afterwards Freeman's seat gets HOT among the fans, but there will be no comments from ND about this. CFBP will be out of reach, and Deuce Knight announces re-opening of his commitment process, with lots of praise for everyone at ND (of course). Meanwhile "that school up north" continues to show the way by playing to its actual roster strengths and wins out, except for a close loss to tOSU in Columbus, and we wonder why ND refuses to do the same.

      • we wouldn’t know if we have a Joe Montana on the bench since we keep playing Riley Leonard – the worst ND passer I can ever recall. I don’t expect ND to run the table without a passing game but obviously Coach Freeman in unconcerned.

        • Michael Hollerich says:

          You’re apparently too young to remember Bill Zloch. Nice guy, but…alas, freshmen weren’t eligible in 1965, or my classmates Hanratty and Seymour could have had their coming out party a year earlier.

  8. My Prediction:

    Louisville will load the box, forcing ND to beat them with our, ahem, passing game.

    RL will predictably struggle.

    Defense will keep us in the game until they start getting gassed due to all the 3 & outs courtesy of our offense.

    We’ll go down 10 to 0 & the offense will turn the ball over via a pick-6 or a scoop & score or giving UL the ball w/in our 10-yard line via some other idiotic turnover.

    17-0 Louisville

    With 7 minutes remaining in the game, Freeman will FINALLY bench RL in favor of Angeli.

    Angeli immediately throws a bomb TD pass to Collins or Mitchell.

    17-7

    D gets a 3 & out.

    Angeli leads another TD drive cutting the score to 17-14

    Only 1:30 remaining in the 4Q & we have 0 timeouts due to pissing one or 2 away early in the 3Q

    UL escapes by the skin of their 3 teeth by picking up a 1st down on 3rd & 7 due to the fact our D is completely exhausted due to spending almost the entire 1st half on the field

    Game over.

    Season over.

    Rinse, repeat.

    PS: Don’t forget to stop by the bookstore on your way out & drop $300-$400 on overpriced Under Armor garbage merchandise just so you can “Be Irish!”

  9. It is telling that the comments to date reflect predictions that are all over the place. ND wins big. ND loses big. A close game down to the wire.

    The message is that none of us (including me) have any idea what to expect from this team after the first month of the season. They have so much talent yet so much dysfunction. The outcome on Saturday may surprise some folks but nothing in the entire spectrum of big win to big loss would surprise me at all.

    • Sad to say that the “Season of Fun” has already turned to something less. But … that’s New Notre Dame football – for years now.

    • Michael Hollerich says:

      Your score prediction wasn’t far off. Biggest question you asked pregame was about turnovers. No one expected L-ville to do us so many favors. Not that we didn’t try to repay.

  10. I agree with Vannie’s take I cannot seem to predict what will happen.. Freeman seems to get his teams up for these types of games although last year this same team dog whipped us..I think that we will suffer from being one dimensional again and that they will stuff our running game with an 8 man in the box approach while squatting on all of 2 of our passing plays that we have..we are abysmally bad offensively speaking, with little to no imagination in our passing attack and a quarterback who seems better suited to be a running back/ tight end. The thing about being a long time ND observer let’s us know pretty quickly if we have a great coach or a pretender.. seems to be the latter in this case..

  11. I agree with V above. We don’t know what to expect. I expect a close game with the Irish scoring 23 . I think Louisville will score at least that ! We may have to score over 30 to win this. I see one touchdown each half for the Irish with 3 field goals max . The defense must keep Louisville bellow 23 to come out on top . Go Irish!

  12. The only thing I feel very confident about is that Notre Dame will play well and win the game. My instincts tell me that the score will not be as close as some expect, but who cares about that. A win is a win.

  13. John: Could you please provide some color around your statement that “Christian Gray has a shoulder injury and his status is currently unknown.” I follow a number of Notre Dame Football websites, and have found nothing regarding an injury to Gray. Thanks.

    • Under Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame has been unwilling to provide reports and updates regarding player injuries. Gray hurt his shoulder last week when he made an interception. He was obviously hurting and his snaps were limited after that play.

      Since Mickey is no longer an option, the Irish would have to rely on a couple of true freshmen if Gray can’t play. Obviously, Freeman does not want Jeff Brohm to know this before kickoff.

      Gray may play but we’ll see how he does.

  14. I think Louisville is overrated. This is same coach who got drubbed by USC in a bowl game last year sans Caleb Williams. I also think they are due for a few turnovers and RL will have a slightly better game passing. If ND loses, MF should send a text to realtors.com

  15. I have not seen Louisville play, but I have seen the Irish play all their games and they have not impressed. So the question for me is how good are the Cardinals. If they are as good as ND then I think they will win because of a better coaching staff.

  16. My take on tomorrow’s game is that our QB will perform the same as last year’s QB. The teams that beat Hartman before he came to ND continued to beat him. Similarly, the teams that beat Leonard while at Duke will continue to beat him no matter what jersey he is wearing. My heart wants to say this game will be like last year’s USC game. My eyes tell me that our QB is unlikely to magically develop into an NFL passer (or even a mediocre passer at a middling college program). If we lose, I see 2 more Faust-like years where I check the score after each game with no expectation of ND truly competing for a championship. I’d like to be wrong.

  17. Under Freeman, the team has a tendency to play to the level of competition. Also, after dramatic wins, they seem lethargic the following week. This happened last year after defeating Duke, and it happened this year after the win over Texas A&M. While the Irish sure look inept in the passing game and the interior of the defense resembles a creme puff, I am hopeful the coaching staff is aware of that and makes the necessary adjustments. If the passing games proves to be weak, I sure hope Freeman is willing to use his other QBs if Leonard cannot get going there. I am cautiously optimistic. I predict ND wins 24-14. We certainly get a better sense of how good this team is and its potential after this game.

  18. I think an ugly win by ND is possible but like some of us have said you never know which ND team will show up from week to week. So ND could win ugly or pretty then lay an egg in two weeks against Stanford.

  19. Why am I losing more and more confidence in our HC? Talent (ND) vs. Talent (Louisville) isn’t close. But the game will be. ND 21 Louisville 17.

  20. William F. Murphy says:

    Your analysis of “Coordinator Mike Denbrock to break tendencies that early opponents have noted. The Irish have been telegraphing plays with formations, personnel groupings, and other tells” is the key. I have been waiting for our OC to expand the playbook, and this is the game to show forth. M-OH often had ‘the box’ stacked with eight players and we still ran the same predictable schemes. This won’t work with Louisville. And if Riley’s short passing game is more accurate, he’ll get more than a few good chances to throw long. It’s now or never this year for ND.

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