Irish show what's possible in putting the squeeze on 16th-ranked Orange
In what probably would have been a private moment 10 years ago, before college athletic programs became serial eavesdroppers and content farms, Marcus Freeman sounded like a first-year head coach who just earned the right to shed his training wheels.
Maybe not permanently yet. But Saturday’s 41-24 capsizing of No. 16 Syracuse before a sell-out/oranged-out crowd at the pulsating JMA Dome looked and felt like the most significant coaching flex Freeman had made since commandeering Jerome Bettis into a confidante and recruiting asset when the 50-year-old former Irish All-American was back on campus last spring semester finishing up his degree work.
"As I said to us at halftime,” Freeman began in the visitors’ locker room after Notre Dame (5-3) extended its regular-season ACC win streak to 26 games, “nobody really knows how good this football team is except for the guys in this locker room. But today was a step toward showing the country how good this team can be.”
A profound step indeed, but one that leaves room for plenty of unfinished business and growth, still part of the preseason top five-ranked team’s present.
The sweetest part for Freeman Saturday was how much of the eighth game of his first season and ninth of his regime aligned with the team identity he’d been trying to speak into reality for months.
Offensive line-dominant/defensive-line dominant football.
Almost from start to finish. And providing enough of a cushion that freshman backup QB Steve Angeli got to run a fourth-quarter series — albeit handoffs only — that led to a field goal.
Numbers help tell the story of both lines’ bullying: A 246-61 command in rushing yards for the Irish. Four sacks to a one-yard sack Irish QB Drew Pyne kind of ran himself into. A 37:40 to 22:20 edge in possession time. A 75-61 advantage in offensive plays.
“That's why you love coaching these guys,” Freeman said. “They're unselfish and they're willing to do whatever it takes.”
Apparently, even those not on the roster. Nose guard Jacob Lacey, who entered the transfer portal a month ago, was credited in the official stats with a batted pass (it was actually Howard Cross III) that led to linebacker Marist Liufau’s fourth-quarter interception with the Irish up 24-17 and Syracuse with the ball and a chance to tie.
The Orange (6-2) came into the game sixth nationally in scoring defense (15.1 ppg) and on a trajectory that would be the program’s best showing in that category in 25 years. The last time a team scored more than the 41 points that the Irish piled up Saturday, Syracuse surrendered 45 to a College Football Playoff qualifier on the last day of a 1-10 season in 2020.
To the Irish, no less, at Notre Dame Stadium.
The most convincing strides Saturday, though, at least when it comes to sustainability, was provided by the Notre Dame defense and special teams.
Special teams coordinator Brian Mason’s unit blocked its modern school-record-breaking fifth punt of the season (Clarence Lewis) to set up a TD. And a punt they hurried into a 28-yard shank set up an Irish field goal.
Meanwhile, Northwestern transfer safety Brandon Joseph picked off Garrett Shrader on the first play from scrimmage in the game, and ran it back 29 yards for a TD. He had a second pick later in the game erased by an offsides penalty.
"I think it's a big confidence-booster for our defense, because it's something that we've expected since game one of the season is to get turnovers,” said Joseph, who handed the ball to his dad in the stands. “We're a defense that puts an emphasis on turnovers, and it's what we expect. So, with that happening today, we're real satisfied."
It was Joseph’s 10th career interception but first in an Irish uniform. Notre Dame came into the game with the fewest interceptions (1) among the nation’s 131 FBS teams, and now has three.
Shrader, a former Mississippi State transfer and on a trajectory to set the single-season school record in passing efficiency until Saturday (164.9), produced one of roughly 100 points lower (66.0) against the Irish before being pulled at halftime, with Notre Dame up 21-7.
Shrader was 5-of-14 passing for 35 yards with a TD and the Joseph interception. Syracuse coach Dino Babers said he plugged backup Carlos Del Rio-Wilson into the offense to start the third quarter because of non-specified injuries to Shrader.
“This has nothing to do with a head injury, before you guys say this, but I'm going to give you an example,” Babers said. “I've watched things that happened to the Michigan quarterback years back (Shane Morris in 2014). I was watching him and you could see that from the sideline.
“I watched the things that have happened with Tua (Tagovailoa) and the Miami Dolphins, and I'm like 'whoa.' But I just didn't feel like he could protect himself. He's a fighter. He wanted to be out there. He did not want to come out of the game.
“But watching the first half, he just didn't have all the tools in the toolbox. I didn't think it was fair to have him out there with all those athletes, that were archers trying to get him in their sights. That was the only reason we made the move. There isn't a quarterback controversy. When Shrader is healthy, Shrader will go."
The Irish don’t have a QB controversy, either, but that’s most likely because of their limited options.
For the third straight game since posting a career-high 189.39 pass-efficiency rating against BYU on Oct. 8, Pyne didn’t break the 50% completion mark (9-of-19 with a TD to Jayden Thomas and an interception).
His 116 yards was the new low in his six starts since replacing injured QB1 Tyler Buchner as was his 105.5 pass-efficiency mark.
“I’ll have to go back and watch it,” Freeman said when pressed about his level of concern with Pyne’s stagnation. “If we can score 41 points the way we just did it, then we’re going to continue to do that. I'm not looking to have a certain amount of passes or a certain amount of runs. I want to score points, and right now that’s what we’re doing.”
Sophomore running back Audric Estimé, coming off of three lost fumbles in four games, carried the ball on Notre Dame’s first two offensive plays and a career-high 20 times overall. He rushed for a game-high 123 yards and scored two TDs 84 seconds apart midway through the fourth quarter to turn a precarious 24-17 lead into a 38-17 command.
"Honestly, just my teammates,” Estimé said of the reason for his bounce-back. “Them just never giving up on me. Giving me fuel. Telling me to keep my head up and just them being there for me during a hard time.
“I just wouldn't be able to do any of this. I wouldn't be able to bounce back, honestly, without them.”
Fifth-ranked Clemson (8-0) comes to town for a Saturday night clash (7:30 EDT; NBC) as the team best constructed on the remaining Irish schedule to force Notre Dame out of its feel-good running game resurgence and put the game in Pyne’s hands.
The Tigers have the nation’s No. 7 run defense (87.4 yards per game allowed).
A 16-game November win streak is on the line for the Irish, who last lost in that month on Thanksgiving weekend of 2017 to Stanford on the road.
Perhaps some new contributors will pop up against Clemson as they did Saturday against Syracuse. Junior vyper end Jordan Botelho, who’s barely played this season outside of special teams (19 snaps coming into Syracuse) had two sacks Saturday and recovered the blocked punt.
On offense, sophomore wide receiver Deion Colzie collected his first three receptions of the season — for 44 yards, including a huge 11-yard reception in the fourth quarter on third-and-6 from the Syracuse 37-yard line and ND up seven points.
A pass-interference penalty on Cuse and an Estimé 11-yard scoring run later, ND pushed the lead to 31-17.
"I'm proud of him, because it's a reflection of practice,” Freeman said of Colzie. “And that's everything I keep saying — you build confidence in practice. He had a great week of practice.
“And for him to go out and have a couple of catches and make some plays and get a little bit more playing time, it re-enforces the things I say in that practice is so important. And what we do in practice will get you those opportunities.”
Collectively, the opportunity ahead of Notre Dame now is to find its ceiling and never let go. To make the recruiting pitch of what the Irish could become in the years ahead seem that more authentic. And maybe even to shock the college football world?
Progress isn’t always linear, but Saturday felt like the start of something.
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