SOUTH BEND, Ind. — There was nothing magical about the ricocheted pass that found its way into center Pat Coogan’s arms Saturday and coaxed the 6-foot-5, 310-pound senior to run toward the end zone with the first reception, unintentional or otherwise, since he started playing organized football.
But maybe there was some when it comes to how Coogan and the man who threw that pass — quarterback Riley Leonard — arrived at that moment. And perhaps where it will eventually lead 11th-ranked Notre Dame this season as well.
In the box score, it will go down as an 11-yard gain and one of 24 first downs the Irish piled up in a 49-7 pummeling of old rival and ACC newbie Stanford, Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium. The statistical context framed the happy carom and Leonard’s breakthrough passing day in an Irish uniform as coming against the worst pass-efficiency defense on ND’s entire 2024 schedule and the 19th-worst among 133 FBS teams.
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And yet the more you listened to Leonard talk about the play, talk about his own bye week reboot, talk about the way a demoted offensive line starter with a second chance continues to transform everyone around him, the more it felt like fate is winking at the Irish (5-1).
And maybe Saturday was really a well-camouflaged turning point, including an annoying 60-minute lightning delay — with no actual visible lightning — after Leonard and Coogan had given way to backups to finish out.
“I remember looking over to the sideline and somebody just mouthed, ‘Like, that’s God, bro.’” Leonard said of the least premeditated of his 16 Saturday completions on the way to the highest pass-efficiency rating (205.2) against FBS competition of his college career.
“He was on my side. Great job by Pat. Really cool to see. Really happy for him. This is a guy who, obviously, didn’t start at the beginning of the year, had to come in. And this is the loudest guy at practice.
“Like, getting on to the guys who [were] starting in front of him every single day. Like yelling at them — because he cared about them so much and put the team above himself. To see him, see his leadership come to everything that’s happened to him so far, that’s really cool. He’s the man, and he deserves everything, man.”
And perhaps playing the best football of his life, three starts and a relief appearance into replacing No. 1 center Ashton Craig, out with a torn ACL since early in the Sept. 14 Purdue game. And now playing next to the sophomore, Sam Pendleton, who sent the 13-game starter at left guard in 2023 to the bench with a training camp flourish.
“Personally for me, it’s just been taking advantage of an opportunity,” Coogan said of his resurgence. “When things didn’t go my way early in the season, I still knew I was gonna be a huge part of this team. I never let that flutter my confidence or anything, because I knew deep in my heart this team needs me, and I need this team.
“As a team-wise, I think any guy can step in there. That’s how confident I am in our offensive line unit. Just anyone in that locker room, in that offensive unit in general. Everyone brings the energy, so it’s been great. It’s really just taking advantage of the opportunity and running with it.”
This is the soul of what this Notre Dame team has become since the 16-14 home ambush by Northern Illinois set the stage for a lost season.
But what the Irish needed to build on that foundation was an offensive evolution. And until Saturday it came too incrementally for some on the outside looking in to believe it was real.
“What I challenged them to be,” Irish head coach Marcus Freeman, how 4-0 post-bye week as a head coach, said of his offense. “I wanted it to be unrecognizable. I wanted you all to watch and say, ‘Man, that's an offense that we haven't seen.’
“Our players have seen it. It's just them at their best on every play. That was a reflection of what you guys saw. That's what you saw today. I thought it was really good, man. They did a really good job — run game, pass game, making good decisions and taking care of the football.”
And it started with Leonard finally seeing the game through the same lens as first-year Irish offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock, who presided over the highest-scoring, most-yards-amassing offense in college football last year at LSU.
“You kind of have to learn the hard way,” Leonard said, “but I think we really understand each other now. There were plenty of early mornings before everybody gets in the facility, where me and him are sitting down with coffee and bagels, eating and talking about life, and then talking about the game plan — things like that.
“We really got to know each other really well. And every play — when you talk about knowing the ‘why’ of every play. I understand the ‘why’ now of the plays that he’s called.”
And how that showed up in the stat book on Saturday was breaking the 200-yard passing benchmark for the first time since transferring from Duke (229 to be exact, and in less than three quarters of play), a 73% completion rate (16-of-22), three TDs passes, and between him and backup Steve Angeli completions to 11 different receivers, including Coogan.
“You always hear the coaches say, ‘Practice like you play. Practice is a direct representation of the game.’” Leonard said. “And sometimes you shrug that off, like, ‘All right, I’ll be able to show up at game time.’ But these last couple of weeks at practice we’ve had an emphasis on just knowing who we want to be and then striving to be that every day at practice.
“So, those same plays we made out there we probably made three times each in practice this week. It was like deja vu for us. It was really cool to see.”
And Leonard still contributed to the running game, with six rushes for 31 yards and his eighth rushing TD of the season. In total, the Irish gashed the nation’s No. 12 rushing defense for 229 yards, four rushing TDs and 5.9 yards a carry.
“I told the team before the game, I know we're getting closer,” Freeman said of the team’s big-picture potential, “because, you know, little things, man, are becoming big things.”
And one of those little-to-big things was Leonard refreshing his state of mind during the bye week after the 31-24 takedown of Louisville on Sept. 28.
“There were some mechanical issues that I’ve gotten better at,” Leonard offered of his process. “And a lot of it’s just confidence. Just letting ’er rip and trusting your guys. My body, obviously after the bye week, felt really good. And mentally I did as well. I was able to take a trip back to [Fairhope] Alabama and relax a little bit, see the family.
“It kind of just gave me perspective on maybe don’t put the weight of the world on your shoulders whenever you’re out there playing. And just enjoy it. It’s definitely helped me a lot.”
The Irish defense helped a lot too, after getting pushed down the field on Stanford’s first offensive possession of the game. After an Irish punt, the Cardinal eased their way 63 yards on nine plays for a 7-0 lead with 6:49 left in the first quarter.
Stanford (2-4) had just 65 yards the rest of the half and just 72 in total in the second half, with two drives that went backward.
Irish junior Josh Burnham returned for a long-term ankle injury, that has limited him to four snaps since Sept. 7, and he returned to his old position of vyper end as well. Burnham finished with a career-high five tackles, with a tackle for loss, and an intercepted option pitch that was recorded as a fumble recovery and 15-yard return.
Key interior defensive line reserve Gabe Rubio, meanwhile, saw his first game action of the season after suffering a foot injury on the very first day of training camp, back on July 31. That helped soften the absence of backup Jason Onye, who missed the game for personal reasons
Meanwhile, starters and preseason All-Americans, nose guard Howard Cross III and defensive tackle Rylie Mills, looked every bit the part on Saturday. The two combined for three sacks and eight tackles.
“Every week we try to get better in everything we do,” Cross said of the Irish defense. “And no matter what the situation we’re in ... we go in and we stop them. Three and out. That’s the mindset from start to finish.
“It doesn’t matter where we are, what the score is or what time of day it is. It's time to go.”
Where the Irish go from here is to Atlanta this coming Saturday to play a Georgia Tech team that nudged its record to 5-2 by trampling all over North Carolina’s defense with 371 rushing yards, Saturday in Chapel Hill, N.C.
That included a tie-breaking 68-yard run by Jamal Haynes with 16 seconds left in the 41-34 road win.
Then it’s unbeaten Navy (5-0) in East Rutherford, N.J., on Oct. 26 before the Irish get another open date/bye week.
The only turbulence for Freeman Saturday, once the opening drives for each team were out of the way, was the early exit of kicker Mitch Jeter due to a groin injury. Walk-ons Zac Yoakam and Marcello Diomede filled in on place kicks, while 30-year-old Citadel transfer and seven-year Army veteran Eric Goins handled kickoffs.
And Freeman handled shrinking the big picture in the locker room after the game and in his postgame press conference.
“Winning it all is a reflection of winning the interval,” he said. “It's a reflection of staying in the moment. You don't control the journey. You've got to trust the journey. That's what I tell these guys.
“There's one guarantee. That's that the future is uncertain. Why spend time daydreaming about it? Why sit here and think about what's going to happen in the future when it's uncertain? Why don't you spend time focusing on the things that you have to do that gives you a chance to get that desired result?
“We'll worry about what the result is at the end of the season. We just have to continue to stay in the moment and focus on getting better.”
And let the magic come when it comes.
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