The mythology that a college football team improves the most between its first and second games of a season has been thwarted, at the very least, several times in recent years by Notre Dame.
Like in 2022, when the Irish followed a convincing upset bid of No. 2 Ohio State on the road in their season opener for three quarters, only to fade in the fourth quarter then get upset at home by heavy underdog Marshall (26-21) the next weekend.
Or in 2021, when the Irish encored a gutsy overtime road win at Florida State with a 32-29 survival at home over a Toledo team that barely broke .500. And in 2018, an eventual playoff-bound Notre Dame team white-knuckled its way to a shaky 24-16 win in game 2 of that season over a Ball State team that would finish 4-8.
History aside, at least third-year Irish head coach Marcus Freeman preached a focus on improvement heading into Saturday’s home opener for the fifth-ranked Irish (1-0) with Northern Illinois (1-0). And he backed it with longer, intensity-filled practices this week.
“They [the Irish players] probably were wondering, ‘Hey, are we going to pull back, because we had a big win?’” Freeman said Thursday, referring to ND’s epic 23-13 road takedown of Texas A&M last Saturday. “They knew right away that we doubled down.”
TV start time for the first-ever football meeting between the Irish and the Huskies is 3:30 p.m. EDT (NBC/Peacock). The Gameday SportsBeat pregame radio show precedes the game from noon to 2:30 (wsbtradio.com/96.1 FM), and the Inside ND Sports’ Postgame Takeaways show on YouTube will drop late Saturday night.
Last Saturday, Northern Illinois rolled to a 54-15 victory over an FCS Western Illinois team that hasn’t won a game since Brian Kelly was ND’s head coach (2021) and got mashed by Indiana Friday night, 77-3, to fall to 0-2. The Huskies amassed 706 total yards on offense against Western Illinois, third-most in school history.
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:
Notre Dame wide receiver Beaux Collins
The 6-foot-3, 206-pound Clemson transfer was Notre Dame’s leading receiver in his Irish debut last Saturday (5 catches for 62 yards). And as offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock starts to evolve the Irish passing game incrementally each week, look for Collins to be a key figure in that development.
Collins wasn’t able to officially work with his new teammates in spring practice, while he was finishing up his degree work remotely in South Bend. But on the weekends, he’d grab one or more of the quarterbacks and play catch-up at a park.
He finally was able to enroll in June, and by then quarterback Riley Leonard was completely recovered from his two spring-semester ankle surgeries. And Collins was part of the group who went to Leonard’s hometown — Fairhope, Ala. — in May to work out with Leonard, freshman CJ Carr and former NFL QB Philip Rivers.
And that’s where the trust-building and chemistry started.
“We did a lot of film study,” Collins said of himself and Leonard. “I took it upon myself to watch a few of his highlights from when he was at Duke to just see the throws that he made. Where was the wide receiver? What type of routes were being run? And just see where I can try to fit that into our game here at Notre Dame.
“And you know, the trip we went on down in Alabama, it was myself, Riley, our quarterbacks, a few receivers down there. It was just an experience for us to go down to where he’s from, get to know each other a little bit more and put some work in with Philip Rivers.
“He was able to coach us up a little bit and see things that he looks for, whether it’s watching film, certain route concepts. Things like that all just tied together all the way up until this point. We put in a lot of work.”
Northern Illinois RB Antario Brown
The 5-foot-10, 219-pound senior from Savannah, Ga., originally picked South Carolina over Virginia Tech in his recruitment coming out of high school, but ended up flipping into Northern Illinois' 2021 class.
From there he’s been a great fit, rushing for 2,592 yards and 22 TDs with a 6.3 career average per carry in 33 career games. Seventeen of those were starts. Brown is also a preseason watch darling, landing on the Walter Camp, Maxwell and Doak Walker lists.
Only four of his career games, though, have come against Power 4/5 competition. And his high-water mark in those four games is 60 yards against Vanderbilt in 2022. His best game against anyone has been 280 yards and four TDs last season against Akron.
The area of Notre Dame’s defense that had the most room for improvement coming into the season was its run defense, and Brown, behind a very experienced offensive line, is good enough to put that to the test.
Notre Dame defensive end Jordan Botelho
The 6-foot-3 former linebacker from Honolulu had the best two games of his college career at the end of last season, playing the vyper end. He then got leaner and stronger in the offseason, now at 250 pounds, and debuted in 2024 with an even better game against Texas A&M last Saturday night.
Botelho was credited with a career-high six tackles and added four QB hurries per Pro Football Focus’ film review, two more than the stat crew at Texas A&M had acknowledged. He was a force against the run and the pass in his 49 snaps, showing consistency and big-play potential at both.
“Jordan has really good God-given ability,” Irish head coach Marcus Freeman said this week.” He has a lot of natural talent. What I've seen him be able to do in my four years here is turn talent into actual skill set, and that is because of preparation and the work he's put into it.
“And I think, obviously, being in year 3 of [defensive coordinator Al] Golden’s system and understanding exactly what is expected out of him and what's expected out of him in each defense that we call, really it shows into the game.
“He is a talented football player, but talent and skill are two different things. And that's what you've seen Jordan be able to do, is develop his talent into true skill that is now becoming production for this defense.”
Northern Illinois DT Devonte O'Malley
The 6-foot-2, 293-pound grad senior was a high school wide receiver who played some linebacker at Bremen High in Midlothian, Ill., and was a zero-star prospect who walked on at Northern Illinois and quickly earned a scholarship.
In his final season of college eligibility, O'Malley is a preseason All-MAC defensive tackle and the Northern Illinois player most likely to test Notre Dame’s still fledgling offensive line.
He’s the player on the Huskies roster with the most career sacks (14.5). He also has 91 career tackles, 18.5 of them for losses, with three forced fumbles. O'Malley also showed he’s still retained some of his receiving skills, snagging an interception against Eastern Michigan last season.
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