SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Now we know what Marcus Freeman specially concocted during his fourth bye week as Notre Dame head football coach.
The center pass.
Senior Pat Coogan — that’s center Pat Coogan — hauled in his first career pass reception off a deflection late in the first half Saturday against Stanford for an 11-yard gain and a first down. Five plays later Kris Mitchell, the intended receiver on the Coogan catch, caught a five-yard TD strike from Riley Leonard in an eventual 49-7, weather-interrupted victory for the 11th-ranked Irish at Notre Dame Stadium.
The stands were vacated and the game suspended at the end of three quarters with lightning in the area and ND in command, 42-7. Play resumed 60 minutes later, at 7:10 p.m, EDT.
There’s no delay in our tradition of awarding two game balls, though, for Freeman’s fourth post-bye week victory in four tries. In fact, we’ll add a bonus game ball for Coogan as Notre Dame hits the halfway point of its season with a 5-1 record.
Here are the other two game ball recipients:
OFFENSE: Riley Leonard, quarterback
Admittedly, Stanford’s pass-efficiency defense hadn’t held up well through its first five games, ranking 115th out of 133 FBS teams that the NCAA charts. But Leonard still made significant strides in his passing, even grading on a curve.
With his day done after three quarters, the senior and Duke transfer produced his highest career pass-efficiency rating (205.2) at either school against FBS competition. The previous high was 193.8 against Temple in the 2022 season opener. His best last season and this combined was 167.0 against UConn.
Against Stanford, Leonard completed 16 of 22 passes for a Notre Dame-high 229 yards and three TDs, with no interceptions. He also ran the ball for 31 yards and a TD on six carries.
Backup Steve Angeli took the reins of the offense, surrounded by second- and third-teamers, with 14:42 left in the game and promptly led the Irish on an 60-yard, 11-play scoring drive against the Cardinal (2-4).
DEFENSE: Josh Burnham, defensive end
After playing just four snaps since suffering an ankle injury late in ND’s 16-14 loss to Northern Illinois on Sept. 7, the junior accrued a career-high five tackles and stole an option pitch to set up a Notre Dame touchdown. He also had a tackle for loss.
The option pitch steal, on Stanford’s first possession of the second half, actually went down as a fumble recovery and return. But what happened was Stanford quarterback Ashton Daniels began running and went to pitch it to a running back. Burnham anticipated it and tipped the ball in the air. He then ran under it and returned it 15 yards to the Cardinal 17-yard line, where Daniels tripped him up.
Two plays later, a Jadarian Price 16-yard TD run gave the Irish a 28-7 lead.
With Notre Dame’s top two vyper ends lost for the season with knee injuries, Burnham becomes an important depth piece at both the vyper and field end spots, though he saw most action Saturday at vyper. And be might be the best option at both positions.
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