Players to Watch: No. 16 Notre Dame vs. No. 15 Louisville

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Just on sheer math alone, wearing green jerseys on game day for the Notre Dame football team over the past four decades has been a bit of a self-imposed whammy.

Not even counting the anecdotal evidence.

The 10-7 record with something green on the uniform since the middle of the Gerry Faust Era (1983) computes to a meh .588 win percentage. And the Irish were actually under water until a five-game win streak in green preceded last year’s 17-14 loss to Ohio State.

Perhaps 15th-ranked Louisville (3-0) having to take buses Friday instead of a plane to South Bend, due to the remnants of Hurricane Helene, evens up the iffy intangibles for Saturday’s clash with the No. 16 Irish (3-1) at Notre Dame Stadium.

Start time Saturday for the Peacock-only live stream and the fifth-ever football meeting between the two schools is 3:30 p.m. EDT. This one, like last year’s October matchup in Louisville, carries all kinds of big-picture implications and consequences for Notre Dame.

The WSBT Gameday SportsBeat pregame radio show precedes the game from noon to 2:30 (wsbtradio.com/96.1 FM). Inside ND Sports has you covered after the game with our Postgame Takeaways show on our YouTube channel, dropping late Saturday night with Eric Hansen and Tyler James.

A few of the green-clad clunkers include the 2002 loss by an 8-0, fourth-ranked Tyrone Willingham-coached Irish team to unranked Boston College, 14-7. There was the 38-0 spanking from USC in 2007 against an Irish team that would set a school-record for losses (9).

There was a last-second, come-from-ahead loss at Michigan in 2011, and the 17-14 heartbreak last Sept. 23 at home against the Buckeyes.

Until the Marcus Freeman Era, the wearing of the green was more of a surprise — some may say gimmick. But in Freeman’s three seasons, there have been “Irish Wear Green” games each season designated before the season even started.

It has led to more successful attempts at getting the fanbase to be color-coordinated, and it was presumed the green jerseys were an automatic feature. But Freeman put it to a vote of his captains Monday before giving the green light, so to speak.

Magic, tragic or something in between when it comes to dressing for success, there are plenty of individual players worth highlighting in this matchup. Our practice at Inside ND Sports is to funnel those down to four, two for each team. Here they are:

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It’s a bit mind-boggling that ND’s best player through four games and the one with the highest ceiling perhaps has only averaged 13 touches a game a third of the way through the regular season.

That should change Saturday, and not just running the ball.

Louisville’s commitment to how it plays run defense and how well it does could open up opportunities for sophomore running back Jeremiyah Love to line up as a wide receiver and create some mismatches in the passing game.

And when the Irish do run, Love — as a freshman — had some success (5 carries for 37 yards) in last year’s 33-20 Cardinals win and on a night where they held the ND run game to 44 yards and a 1.6 per-carry average.

This season Love ranks12th nationally in yards per carry (7.4). Tag teammate Jadarian Price (7.4) would be tied with him, but fell four carries short of qualifying for this week’s national stats. QB Riley Leonard, meanwhile, is 17th (7.0 per carry) and third among QBs.

“I hope that we can keep the ball in all three of those guys' hands as much as we possibly can,” ND offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock said this week, “because every time time they touch it, something good seems to happen.”

Even All-America tackle Joe Alt has his hands full with Ashton Gillotte in last year’s matchup, as the former lightly two-star recruit evolved into an All-American himself in 2023.

So far in ‘24, it’s been teammate Tramel Logan — a USF transfer — putting up the big sack numbers early in the season, but 6-3, 275-pound Gillotte (9 tackles, 1 sack, 4 QB hurries) will match up with a first-year starter at tackle whichever side he lines up at, though likely freshman left tackle Anthonie Knapp.

Gillotte is a big part of Louisville’s run defense, too, with the Cardinals standing at 18th nationally in that category after finishing ninth last season.

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Easily the second-most talked about Rylie/Riley on the Irish roster coming into this game, but grad senior defensive tackle Rylie Mills is overdue to impact a game this season, especially when it comes to run defense.

And the biggest area of needed improvement with an Irish defense that’s 10th in the nation in scoring D and 16th in total defense is its rush defense (51st nationally).

“It’s really important that we take away running opportunities, yards after contact, make sure we're fitting the gaps correctly and then being able to defeat blocks,” Freeman said. “But that's been an area that we've really challenged our defense on. We want to continue to find ways to — we're greedy people — not give up many yards running the ball, especially against Louisville.

“We know they're a team that likes to run the ball. And that's something that we worked all week. We’ve got to continue to tackle at a high level. I thought we tackled well last week, but we’ve got to continue to do that.”

Through four games, Mills’ film grades from Pro Football Focus rank 23rd among 29 players who have logged at least one defensive snap for the Irish this season. And his run defense grades are what’s pulling the 6-foot-5, 295-pounder down.

Last year Mills ranked eighth overall among ND defenders with a cumulative season film grade of roughly 20 points higher than his current ranking.

The 6-foot-3, 195-pound redshirt senior transferred in from Alabama, and in three games has 17 receptions —11 more than the next-closest Cardinal — for 297 yards and two TDs.

That’s helped former Oregon and Texas Tech quarterback, seventh-year grad Tyler Shough, get off to such a strong start. Shough is currently sixth nationally in pass-efficiency (197.1).

Whether Ja’Corey Brooks matches up with junior cornerback Benjamin Morrison or sophomore Christian Gray, it’ll be a big step up from anything he or the Cardinals have faced in the passing game this season.

Louisville, though, is hoping to add vaunted South Alabama transfer Caullin Lacy to the receiving corps. Lacy collected 91 receptions for 1,316 yards and seven TDs in his final season with the Jaguars, but has yet to play this season for Louisville due to injury and reportedly will be a gametime decision for the ND matchup.

On Saturday morning, ESPN's Pete Thamel reported that Lacy is expected to play vs. the Irish.

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