SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Five days removed from a still-reverberating upset loss to Northern Illinois, Notre Dame head football coach Marcus Freeman declared it business as usual Thursday, when it comes to No. 1 quarterback Riley Leonard in practice this week and his three backups.
Except that Leonard reportedly is practicing this week heading into Saturday’s road test for the 18th-ranked Irish (1-1) at Purdue (1-0) this Saturday at a higher level than what he played at last Saturday.
“Riley's had a really good week of practice,” Freeman said in his weekly Thursday Zoom with the media, “has made some really good throws and done a really good job in decision-making, taking care of the football.
“And everybody else has done a great job too in terms of what they've been asked to do, but nobody's been asked to do anything differently this week than previously.”
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In other words, per Freeman, Irish junior backup QB Steve Angeli is getting the normal amount of practice reps with the No. 1 and 2 offenses, and sophomore Kenny Minchey and freshman CJ Carr alternate between scout-team reps and some reps running ND’s scheme.
“Nobody's roles have changed,” Freeman insisted.
Which would be in alignment with Notre Dame’s new weekly availability reports issued every Monday around noon to be updated Saturday one hour before kickoff. The TV start time for the 88th meeting between former annual rivals in West Lafayette, Ind., is 3:30 p.m. EDT. CBS has the telecast.
A Notre Dame source continues to confirm to Inside ND Sports that Leonard is expected to play Saturday, despite the 6-4, 216-pound senior suffering an injury in the 16-14 home loss to Northern Illinois to his left (non-throwing) shoulder. At least one media outlet, citing sources, reported the opposite to be true in terms of Leonard’s availability.
Leonard completed 20-of-32 passes on Saturday for 163 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions against the Huskies (2-0). In the running game, he netted 16 yards on 11 rushes with a TD.
Leonard did not have a single carry in the second half after being thrown to the turf, with his left arm pinned under him, by Northern Illinois defensive tackle Devonte O’Malley. Still, he played all 62 offensive snaps for the Irish as well as all 67 the week before in a 23-13 road win at Texas A&M.
Freeman on Monday expressed confidence in Leonard being his choice at QB for the Purdue game during the coach’s in-person weekly press conference. Then on Tuesday, Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock was asked regarding Leonard: If he can't be the runner that we all know that he is, what are some of the things that you do to compensate?
To which Denbrock responded: “I guess my answer to that question would be, ‘I have no indication right now that he can't be the runner we need him to be.’”
A rebound for Oben?
In the aforementioned Monday availability reports, junior defensive end Josh Burnham was listed as questionable for the Purdue game after suffering an ankle injury on Northern Illinois’ final offensive possession late in the fourth quarter.
Burnham played a career-high 53 snaps in the game and collected four tackles, including one for a loss, and a QB hurry. Duke grad transfer RJ Oben started ahead of Burnham and was benched after 11 plays. Freshman prodigy Bryce Young, the third option at field end, only played on special teams against the Huskies.
“We expect Bryce to be able to have some opportunities to help us,” Freeman said. “RJ has had a really good week of practice, and that's what we’ve needed him to do, is to really be healthy and have a great week of practice.
“And I'm confident he'll have a good game on Saturday, but Bryce is a guy that has continuously gotten better over the course of his time here, and he could be ready to go at any moment. But I would expect him at some point to probably be in the game on Saturday.”
Many happy returns?
The last time Notre Dame played Purdue at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette was 2013, with the Irish ranked No. 21 nationally and coming off a season in which they played in the BCS National Championship game. Purdue was in its first season under head coach Darrell Hazell, and on Hazell’s staff was a 27-year-old linebackers coach he had brought with him from his team leading Kent’s program, Marcus Freeman.
Notre Dame’s current head coach spent four seasons with the Boilermakers, the final one in 2016 as the co-defensive coordinator. Hazell was fired during that 2016 season, and Freeman moved on to Cincinnati after that season to be the Bearcats’ defensive coordinator and linebackers coach.
The Irish also met Purdue in game 3 of that 2013 season, and labored in that one under head coach Brian Kelly, for a 31-24 Irish win. Notre Dame finished that season 9-4 and No. 20 in the final AP poll. Purdue went 1-11 overall and 0-8 in the Big Ten.
“Learned a lot of things about probably how to have success from there, even though we didn't have a whole bunch of wins in terms of our overall win-loss record,” Freeman reflected on Thursday. “Did learn some things, valuable lessons in terms of what I believe maybe it took to win.
“Sometimes you have to go through those defeats and those tough times to figure out what it takes to have success. And I think I learned a lot about that. I thought coach Hazell, our head coach, was a great leader. I thought we had a good culture there. It just didn't amount to the wins for multiple different reasons.
“But I enjoyed my time there. My family — we had a couple kids there. And we actually went back. Our son was wrestling there, so we had to go back, I think, last year sometime to West Lafayette. And so, it hasn't been eight years since I've been there.”
Freeman’s oldest son, Vinny, is a junior at Penn High School and one of the top wrestlers in the state of Indiana. He has a 34-3 record going into this season and is a two-time state qualifier.
Purdue and Notre Dame stopped playing each other in football on an annual basis after the 2014 season, another game in which Freeman coached against the Irish. That one was a 30-14 ND victory played at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis in a Shamrock Series matchup.
The two teams first met during the 1896 season and had played every year since the season after World War II (1946). But ND’s new scheduling obligations with the ACC meant the end of regular meetings and more intermittent series with Purdue as well as Michigan State and Michigan.
A new attitude?
Freeman had cited on Monday that the team’s shortcoming from a mental preparation standout was the main reason for last Saturday’s upset loss by the Irish.
So, how have this week’s preparations looked?
“Our guys have been great this week,” Freeman said. “Hungry, extremely driven, competitive, want to improve, embarrassed, but they're ready to roll. I think the biggest challenge, again, that we have to learn from week 1 to week 2 is how to handle success. And … we’ve got to make sure that we're ready for it, no matter what the previous game’s outcome was.
“We have to make sure that we are mentally approaching each game with the right mindset. They've been great this week.”
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