Saturday should present an opportunity for Notre Dame (3-3) to calm a turbulent season with its easiest opponent to date.

The Irish host a 4-3 UNLV team that has been outscored 82-14 over its last two games. Despite the Irish losing to unranked opponents Marshall and Stanford at home, ND is still heavily favored in this week’s game at Notre Dame Stadium. According to Vegas Insider, the Irish are 24.5-point favorites.

Here are the four players to watch (2:30 p.m. EDT on Peacock) as the Irish look to live up to expectations in this week’s game.

If there is a game this season that Merriweather should see an increased opportunity, it’s this one.

The 6-foot-4, 198-pound freshman is fresh off his first touchdown, which came on the longest pass of Drew Pyne’s career. If it weren’t for a previous Pyne overthrow to Merriweather, the first-year wide receiver would likely have two touchdowns … on two career targets.

After he saw Merriweather live up to the moment last week, offensive coordinator Tommy Rees mentioned he could be more involved in the offense moving forward.

“He has the length, speed, and ability to make those rangy catches,” Rees said. “We’ve been working on some things. There were a couple of specific looks that we got to that we had what we wanted. He made a heck of a catch. Drew made a heck of a throw. …

“It was an outstanding moment for him. Continue to find ways to get our guys in the right spots.”

Although the Rebels list three sophomores as starters in their secondary, they pose a tough test for Pyne and Notre Dame’s wide receivers. UNLV has intercepted 11 passes, which ranks third in the country among 131 teams. One of those interceptions came against UNLV’s only Power Five opponent (California).

Ideally, Notre Dame gets off to a comfortable early lead, which allows Merriweather to gain more game experience. But even if ND does not, the Irish should play Merriweather early and take advantage of his length and speed to help Pyne stretch the field in the passing game.

During Thursday’s media session, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman singled out the 6-2, 290-pound Ehimare as one of the toughest matchups on the UNLV defense.

“Their defensive tackle, (he) is a very disruptive football player,” Freeman said. “He will be one of the best D-linemen we see all year.”

Through seven games this season, the fifth-year defensive lineman has recorded 15 tackles (six solo), 1.0 tackle for loss, 1.0 sack and one quarterback hit. He has also been a big piece in an underrated Rebels run defense.

Before last week’s game against Air Force, in which the Falcons — the No. 1 rushing offense in the country — rushed for 406 yards, UNLV’s run defense ranked No. 41 and held teams to 124.2 yards per game. This week, Ehimare and the Rebels should see a healthy dose of Logan Diggs, Audric Estimé and Chris Tyree.

Coming into the 2022 season, Ehimare earned preseason Third Team All-Mountain West honors from Athlon Sports. Saturday is expected to be the 2017 high school graduate’s 21st start at UNLV. Ehimare spent two years in junior college before transferring to the Rebels in 2019.

With arguably the Rebels’ best two offensive players — quarterback Doug Brumfield and running back Aidan Robbins — questionable entering Saturday, they’ll likely rely on the former No. 227 player in the 2021 class to take another step forward in his role.

After he played two seasons at Michigan State, White transferred to UNLV and has blossomed into the team’s No. 1 wide receiver. The 6-1, 195-pound, redshirt sophomore has posted team bests in receptions (33), receiving yards (444) and (four, tied) touchdowns.

Although the UNLV passing game has struggled without Doug Brumfield, White has a great rapport with both potential starting quarterbacks — as listed on the UNLV depth chart. White has been targeted by Cameron Friel nine times for seven catches — more than any other wide receiver.

The Friel-to-White connection has also been crucial on the team’s only scoring drives in the last two games. Against San Jose State, White hauled in four of Friel’s passes for 26 yards. He also scored on a 31-yard catch against Air Force.

UNLV’s other potential starting quarterback, Harrison Bailey, was White’s senior year quarterback at Marietta (Ga.) High.

The Rebels are matched against an Irish defense ranked 90th in team passing efficiency (137.90) and last in interceptions (1). White is in the top half among NCAA wide receivers in receiving touchdowns (60 of 191), receiving yards (76 of 200) and receptions per game (90 of 197).

The 6-4, 250-pound senior is coming off the best game of his Notre Dame career. And at an opportune time.

Since senior defensive tackle Jacob Lacey entered the transfer portal Oct. 4, Osafo-Mensah has seen his participation increase. Then, defensive tackle Jayson Ademilola was sidelined with a rib injury for the second half of last week’s game, which also thrust Osafo-Mensah into more action.

Osafo-Mensah, a defensive end who has added snaps at defensive tackle, finished the game with three tackles (two solo), 1.0 tackle for loss and a forced fumble.

"Nana has really showed up,” Freeman said Monday. “I think that's the most amount of plays he's ever played. It's the most production he's had, too. He's done a really good job developing in practice. That's the one thing I said to (defensive line) coach (Al) Washington Sunday when we were watching film. I said, ‘How many plays did Nana play? He needs to play more.’

“He's doing a heck of a job when he's in there and continuously finding ways to improve. It's been really good to see."

Saturday should present another opportunity for improvement.

The Rebels’ offensive line has allowed an average of 2.86 sacks per game, which ranks 109th in the nation. Osafo-Mensah could also see more snaps again this week, with Ademilola questionable heading into the game.

As a unit, the Irish pose the 28th-best pass rush unit, averaging 2.67 sacks each game.

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