In describing what makes playing an independent schedule in college football more difficult in constructing an elite defense, Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden indirectly helped explain why All-America safety Xavier Watts is such an invaluable part of that process.
“It's harder, I think, when you're an independent,” Golden said Tuesday, “because there's not six or seven or eight teams that kind of play the same style of football. So, we played Army and Navy — that required a completely different defense. We played USC, played [Texas] A&M and we played Georgia.
“We played a lot of different systems, if you will, and that's our challenge. So, A) we have bright kids, we have football kids. We have kids that want to learn, that want to be the best that they can be. But we've developed a system that it's got to be pliable. It's got to be able to move from week to week. The challenges that we have this week are different than the challenges we had last week.”
And one of Watts’ challenges this week figures to be defending the best tight end in college football, Penn State All-American Tyler Warren, when 7 seed Notre Dame (13-1) meets 6 seed PSU (13-2) in a Thursday night College Football Semifinal at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Gardens, Fla.
TV Start time on ESPN at Hard Rock Stadium is 7:30 p.m. EST. It’s the 20th-ever meeting between the two schools in a series deadlocked at 9-9-1.
Ahead of the game on Thursday, the WSBT Gameday SportsBeat pregame radio show will run from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. (wsbtradio.com/96.1 FM), with Inside ND Sports' Eric Hansen part of that broadcast team.
Inside ND Sports has you covered after the game on our YouTube channel with two postgame shows. First up and live, roughly five minutes after the game's final whistle, it's former Irish offensive lineman Bob Morton and Hansen breaking down the ND-Penn State game and taking questions from viewers on Into The eNDzone.
Later, our Postgame Takeaways show with Tyler James and Hansen, drops late Thursday night for your Friday morning viewing.
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The 6-foot-6, 251-pound Warren, who plays the same position as Golden did for Penn State in the late ’80s/early ’90s, is a former three-star prospect that was in the same recruiting cycle (2020) as former Irish All-American Michael Mayer and current ND grad senior and comeback specialist Kevin Bauman.
Notre Dame may bracket Warren, rotate on him and play zone. And Penn State will try to find ways to thwart the best-laid plans, by moving Warren around the offensive formation and throwing him into different roles.
In addition to catching 98 passes for 1,158 yards and 8 TDs, Warren has rushed for four TDs and thrown a TD pass. With backup QB Beau Pribula skipping Penn State’s postseason run to transfer to Missouri, freshman Ethan Grunkemeyr is the only other player besides starting QB Drew Allar and Warren who has even attempted a pass in a game this season.
He’s thrown two. One to his team for nine yards and one to the opposition.
Watts (66 tackles, 2.5 TFL, 6 ints., 9 PBUs, 1 FF, 1 FR, 4 QB hurries) will figure into Allar’s day passing and in trying to limit Penn State’s two 1,000-yard rushers at running back Kaytron Allen and Nicholas Singleton), which puts him squarely in the players to watch category.
It’s Inside ND Sports’ custom to select four — two from each team. Here are the others:
Penn State quarterback Drew Allar
The Irish tried to keep him warm on the back burner in recruiting during the same cycle (2022) they eventually got Steve Angeli, but Allar didn’t rise as a prospect until late in his high school career, at which time Notre Dame had no chance to pull him away from Penn State.
Now they get to face him and see in person what they might have missed out on.
Allar comes into the game 10th nationally in pass efficiency (157.2), and Penn State is eighth as a team. The Irish already faced the No. 1 player in that category coming into the CFP, Indiana’s Kurtis Rourke, who will finish No. 2 behind Ole Miss’ Jaxson Dart after heaving to deal with ND and the nation’s No. 1 pass-efficiency defense in a 27-17 Irish win on Dec. 20.
Allar has thrown for 3,192 yards and 24 TDs with seven interceptions. He also has some ability to contribute in the run game, mostly through scrambling. But he has carried the bell intentionally or not 90 times this season and averaged 3.2 yards per carry with six touchdowns.
Penn State’s two losses this season, to CFP semifinalist Ohio State and Big Ten champ Oregon, were his two worst games statistically.
Getting a relative handle on Tyler Warren would certainly affect those numbers. Getting the kind of pressure the Irish got on Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton is another big key.
Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard
Yes, Notre Dame will likely need more than the 90 yards it got against Georgia in the passing game to take down the Nittany Lions. But the Irish need the same poise and toughness and, yes, presence in the running game as well.
The two teams that beat Penn State this season, Ohio State and Oregon, are two of the four teams that rushed for more than 120 yards against the Nittany Lions (176 and 183, respectively). The other two — Bowling Green (121) took Penn State into the fourth quarter with a chance to win before falling at Happy Valley, 34-27, the same weekend ND lost to NIU (Sept. 7). The other, USC (189 rushing yards) took the Nittany Lions to overtime before falling 33-30.
Penn State has faced some QBs with mobility, like Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel and SMU’s Kevin Jennings, but Leonard’s running is in a different stratosphere (5.6 per carry, 15 rushing TDs). The Nittany Lions come in as the nation’s No. 8 in rushing defense.
“I think running the ball at Notre Dame is just kind of like what we do,” Leonard said Tuesday. “We take a lot of pride in moving the offensive line. That's always our No. 1 key to victory is to win the line of scrimmage.
“And if we can establish ourselves in the run game early, it kind of gets our offense going. They start loading the box and stuff, that's when we're able to take our shots.”
Penn State defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton
Whether game-time decision/unanimous All-America defensive end Abdul Carter (arm/shoulder injury) plays at all, Dennis-Sutton poses problems for Notre Dame’s offensive line.
He’s second on Penn State’s team to Carter in tackles for loss (11) and sacks (6.5), and actually leads in QB hurries (9).
The 6-5, 256-pound junior also has broken up three passes, forced a fumble and recovered one to go along with 36 total tackles.
It’s another big test for Irish offensive tackles, junior Aamil Wagner and freshman Anthonie Knapp.
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