Notre Dame-Michigan Notebook: Top Five Topics

For the first time ever in the program’s storied history, Notre Dame will face Michigan after having played USC in the previous game. All told it is the 34th time the Fighting Irish have played the Trojans and Wolverines during the same season.

After taking care of the Trojans with a 30-27 win Oct. 12, The Irish will go for their eighth season sweep of their two rivals. They previously achieved the feat 1987-90, 1993, 2012 and 2018. Not coincidentally, in six of those seven years Notre Dame was legitimately vying for the national title right until its final game.

Here are the top five topics heading into Notre Dame’s game at Michigan:

Not only is No. 8 Notre Dame coming off a bye week, which provided an opportunity for the student-athletes to take time off and even go back home for the weekend, but this week is fall semester break, meaning no classes from Monday through Friday.

Some of the Irish assistants began to hit the recruiting trail last Tuesday, others joined them on Wednesday and head coach Brian Kelly on Thursday. Plus, Kelly had the 10-year reunion at Cincinnati last Saturday that commemorated the 12-0 regular season of the Bearcats prior to him taking the Notre Dame post shortly thereafter.

The team collectively began preparations for the Wolverines last Sunday through Wednesday, with mainly weight training on Thursday before beginning a brief respite away from football.

Watching Michigan’s 28-21 loss at No. 7 Penn State last Saturday night, Kelly believes head coach Jim Harbaugh’s team might be finding itself. It trailed 21-0 before rallying and then dropping a potential touchdown pass on a fourth-and-goal play in the closing minutes that might have sent the game into overtime.

“An offensive line that is obviously playing much better as a unit than they did earlier in the season,” Kelly said of the 5-2 and No. 19-ranked Wolverines.

A torn abdominal muscle that required surgery following the season opener at Louisville Sept. 2 pretty much erased the first half of the season for Armstrong, who played only four snaps in the 30-27 victory versus USC Oct. 12.

Having had another week to recover, he is projected to provide a complement to senior Tony Jones Jr., who has had three straight 100-yard rushing outputs, highlighted by his career-high 176 versus the Trojans.

“This week will be him being factored into our game plan, playing a prominent role, and I think [making] an impact,” Kelly said of Armstrong.

However, the situation with fifth-year senior cornerback Shaun Crawford is sketchier. He suffered a dislocated elbow and four torn ligaments in it during the 35-20 win versus Virginia Sept. 28. Prior to the USC game, Kelly indicated a return for the Michigan contest might be possible for Crawford. The question is whether he will be limited the way Armstrong was versus USC.

“We’ll see at what level he can play at,” Kelly said, “but he’s a guy I wouldn't count out of being a contributor in some fashion being around the ball Saturday night.”

If Crawford is unable to contribute much, then sophomore cornerback TaRiq Bracy (34 snaps versus USC, but a starter in place of Crawford) and senior Donte Vaughn (36 snaps versus USC) will play opposite Troy Pride Jr. The 6-3, 212-pound Vaughn could prove to be a vital figure because …

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Despite dropping the aforementioned pass in the end zone near the end of the Penn State game, the playmaker of the group is 6-0, 184-pound Ronnie Bell, whose team-high 25 catches average 17.7 yards.

He is complemented by 6-4, 222-pound Nico Collins (19 receptions, 18.8 yards per catch), 6-3, 215-pound Tarik Black (18 catches, 13.4 yards per grab) and 6-2, 208-pound Donovan Peoples-Jones (17 receptions, 10.3 yards per catch).

USC's wide receivers were swifter and highly explosive, but Michigan's group is more physical.

“What they do really well is use their strengths,” Kelly said. “They body up defensive backs very well, and they use their length and strength to their advantage.”

Injured in the preseason, Vaughn has appeared in three games this season. He is allowed four (including the bowl), but cannot redshirt to return in 2020 if he plays in any more than that.

“Donte Vaughn will be playing against Michigan, guaranteed,” Kelly asserted.

After that, Vaughn might be shut down for the year, but that is still to be determined based on contingency options.

Vaughn’s size will be needed to help combat the 50/50 balls Michigan and senior quarterback Shea Patterson like to use. To play strictly man coverage and not mix up looks would not be wise, per Kelly, especially versus a veteran quarterback.

“You have to play some zone coverage,” he said. “You've got to take away the high-percentage 50/50 balls because of their size. So you're double-zoning, playing some bail, doing some things where you're keeping the corners over the top with some help underneath.

“You can't just line up in one coverage there because they're going to win some of those matchups.”

Coverage is just one aspect of the equation. A strong pass rush also will be vital. In last year’s 24-17 Notre Dame victory, the Irish sacked Patterson three times, were credited with six other pressures and baited him into an interception by senior drop end Julian Okwara.

“What we did really well last year was put some pressure on the quarterback,” Kelly said. “We need to do that again.”

The silent count at Georgia went awry when senior quarterback Ian Book went back to “muscle memory” of doing hand claps for snaps, which helped result in six false starts by Notre Dame and other snafus.

Kelly blamed himself afterwards for not doing enough repetition with the silent count during the week. At Michigan, there might be 20,000 more people in attendance than at Georgia to help pump up the volume.

“We started our cadence — non-verbal cadence — last week,” Kelly said. “I learned that that’s something that requires much more repetition. We’re not going to make that same mistake twice. Our guys are really tuned into understanding that the atmosphere will be loud and that you cannot be distracted if you are interested in executing at a high level.

“If you’re distracted, then you’re not in the right place emotionally, and our guys are pretty locked in on that.”

This also will be Notre Dame’s first road trip in five weeks, since that 23-17 defeat at Georgia Sept. 21.

“Our guys are pretty mature to handle the situation, whether we're home or away,” Kelly said. “I like the way they go to work every day in terms of their preparation. … They’ll handle themselves very well.”

Michigan puts its cornerbacks on an island in man coverage because the foremost priority is to stop the run, so it’s going to be awfully tempting to go deep on them or burn them via the aerial route.

Ohio State crushed the Wolverines last year while putting up 62 points versus the man coverage, and Penn State speedster KJ Hamler also tallied a couple of touchdowns on them while the Nittany Lions were limited to 101 rushing yards (Michigan is 30th nationally in run defense at 119.7 yards allowed per game).

“We’re committed to finding ways to win first, but we also know that we have been most effective in winning games over the last few years finding a running game at some part of the game,” Kelly said. “Maybe it's not the first quarter. Maybe it's the second or the fourth — but we’re going to have to carve out a run game at some time during the game.

“That’s just being persistent. That’s being patient. It’s probably a little bit of those both.”

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