SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The great coaches tend to have the ability to see around the corner before a player turns it, to process potential without being blinded with what’s immediately in front of them, in the moment.
And what’s in front of the largely angry fanbase, who’d apparently like a voice in those kinds of decisions following Notre Dame’s 16-14 meltdown loss to four-TD underdog Northern Illinois on Saturday.
Which brings us to where third-year Irish head coach Marcus Freeman stands with Duke transfer quarterback Riley Leonard, at No. 118 nationally out of 125 statistical qualifiers in passing efficiency two weeks into the ND phase of his college football career.
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With a Purdue team (1-0), coming off a blowout and a bye, awaiting Leonard and the 18th-ranked Irish (1-1) for a Saturday resumption of their formerly annual rivalry at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Ind.
“We have a lot of belief in Riley and him running our offense,” Freeman said at his weekly Monday press conference when asked if the coaching staff considered swapping in backup junior Steve Angeli for Leonard late in Saturday’s loss and perhaps implying the same about the Purdue game without saying it.
“We’ve got a lot of belief in Steve, too. That’s not a shot at Steve. We have a lot of faith in Steve, too. There was no consideration of that.”
Leonard has played every one of Notre Dame's 129 offensive snaps so far this season. He's 38-for-62 passing for 321 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions, both against Northern Illinois. He has rushed for 79 yards on 23 carries with a TD, also against NIU.
The question also prodded at whether there might be something physically wrong limiting Leonard that could have played a part in his two interceptions and regressive passing stats across the board.
Freeman dismissed those concerns and others.
“The quarterback is just like the head coach, right?” he said. “Rightfully so, he is going to get the blame and he’s going to get the praise. There are times that he has to throw the ball better. He knows that, and his fundamentals have to be better. His decision-making has to be better. But we also have to be better around him.
“That’s coaches — in what we’re asking him to do and what we’re asking him to read, and that’s players-wise too. We’ve got to catch the ball when he throws it. We’ve got to be better on contested balls. They made some contested catches, and we didn’t when we needed to make as many contested catches as we’re supposed to.”
But what is it that Freeman saw around the corner in Leonard that wanted to pull him out of the transfer portal and eventually install him at the top of the depth chart in an unusually deep quarterback room?
And what is he still seeing now that keeps him steadfastly believing in him? And how soon will that version of Leonard appear?
“I'm trying not to look so far around the corner,” Freeman said Monday. “I know what I can expect of Riley Leonard this week, and that's a quarterback that's going to be prepared, that is going to look to enhance the way he prepares, is going to look to be a great leader and challenge teammates in the right way, and that will be ready to go on Saturday.
“That's what I know in terms of him, and that's what I'm focusing on. It’s like let's get the mistakes corrected from Saturday. Let's come up with the right plan and go and attack that plan and let the performance take care of itself on this upcoming Saturday. But I know that's who our quarterback is, and now it's time to go do it.”
Depth chart shuffle at DE?
The ankle injury sustained by Irish junior Josh Burnham in Northern Illinois’ final offensive drive on Saturday complicates what might have been a clean flip-flop on the depth chart this week at the field defensive end spot.
Duke grad transfer RJ Oben made his second straight start for the Irish, but was pulled for the day after 11 snaps with Burnham playing a career-high 53. That’s more than double his previous high of 26 set in the Aug. 31 opener at Texas A&M.
Burnham is listed as questionable for the Purdue game, but Freeman qualified that Burnham has made good progress in the 48 hours that followed the injury.
And of Oben?
”For him, it was more physically we didn’t think during the game that he was able to perform at the level we need him to,” Freeman said. “He’s fine physically. We’ve just got to get him to play better, and he will. We've got a lot of confidence in RJ. He’ll have a good week of practice, and he has to step up this week.”
Burnham had four tackles and a quarterback hurry against the Huskies. Oben collected one tackle in his cameo.
Behind both Burnham Oben is freshman prodigy Bryce Young, who played on special teams in both of ND’s games. His only two snaps at end, though, came against Texas A&M.
Fumbling success
Whether Notre Dame nation likes the list of reasons head coach Marcus Freeman offered Monday for why the Irish fell to Northern Illinois on Saturday a week after rocking the college football world with a 23-13 takedown on the road of Texas A&M in the opener, at least he had a list.
Which was an improvement over the postgame explanation on Saturday.
And at the top of that list?
“To me,” he said, “the biggest thing I’ve been reflecting on in the past 48 hours is we have to learn how to handle success. And that is really what spoke to me watching the film, but really thinking about it.
“This is the first time in my three years as a head coach that we have won the big game early in the season. Two losses to Ohio State, and then all of a sudden, we win and everybody says, ‘Hey, you’re going to the playoffs. You got an easy schedule.’ We all hear it, and I think we started to believe that.”
And then Northern Illinois impaled it all.
“There is a physical approach to preparing for a game, and I think physically we prepared the right way,” Freeman contended. “But there’s also a mental approach, a mindset that you have to have every single week. And I think that’s where we failed.
“And so, we’ve got to challenge ourselves to make sure no matter who our opponent is, that physically and mentally, our approach to the game is the same way. That, to me, is really what we have to learn from this.
“We have to be able to handle success, and how you do that is you don’t change the way you approach your mindset each week. No matter what people say, no matter what you hear, as much as you can, you’ve got to try to tune out the noise.”
Squibs
• Freeman on the play of the offensive line, which once again will be without backup left tackle Tosh Baker (shoulder injury): “I thought they did a good job,” he said. “It might not look like it sometimes when you're watching film, but they did a good job protecting the quarterback.
“We’ve got to trust that. We’ve got to trust that they’re going to protect you around the edges. We’ve got to step up and make those throws. I thought they did a good job in the run game, too.
“There were a couple times we might have miss-ID’d somebody or they rocked back and made a play in the run game. Overall, I thought our five offensive linemen, they played better week two than they did week one.”
The Pro Football Focus preliminary film grades agree, with the pass blocking improving 13 points over the Texas A&M game and the running blocking improving seven points.
• Former Notre Dame offensive guard Joey Tanona made his college debut as a reserve offensive tackle for Purdue in its 49-0 season-opening rout of Indiana State on Aug. 31. Tanona, who medically retired before his freshman season in 2022 started due to a head injury in the winter of 2022, came out of retirement and transferred to Purdue in December
He played 27 snaps against the Sycamores.
• Notre Dame and Purdue played each season from 1946-2014, with the annual nature of the series altered by ND’s then-new commitment to play an average of five ACC schools each season. … The teams last met in 2021 at Notre Dame Stadium, with the Irish prevailing, 27-13. It was the eighth straight victory in the series for the Irish.
• Brad Nessler, Gary Danielson and Jenny Dell will be the broadcast team for CBS on Saturday.
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