Progress over perfection enough for now to keep Notre Dame dreaming big
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — With a long list of new injuries that a new self-imposed protocol prevents Marcus Freeman from getting specific and expansive about, the Notre Dame head football coach at least doesn’t have to worry about his starting quarterback.
Even if a significant portion of the fanbase continues to.
Riley Leonard, too, was a casualty in 16th-ranked Notre Dame’s 31-24 squelching of No. 15 Louisville, Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium, albeit it a temporary one. Junior backup Steve Angeli’s first high-leverage relief appearance of the season lasted all of one snap and consisted of handing the ball off to running back Jeremiyah Love early in the second quarter with the Irish ahead 21-14.
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“The play I went out, I got the wind knocked out of me,” Leonard explained, dispelling guesses about a shoulder injury or a blow to the head jarring enough to cause the training staff to take off his helmet and walk him off the field, but not enough to cause a concussion.
“It’s kind of soft,” Leonard continued of his injury. “It’s weird saying that now. You’ve got to go out for a play, because you got the wind knocked out of you. But that was terrible. I couldn’t breathe. It was really no problem after a couple minutes. It’s a bad feeling getting that wind knocked out of you. It really didn’t play an impact at all.”
What impacted the game more than anything was the Irish (4-1) finding an identity, and it had nothing to do with wearing white pants in Notre Dame Stadium for the first time or wearing green jerseys anywhere for the 18th time since 1983.
“I think we’re a really tough group,” offered Jaden Greathouse, whose 34-yard, first-quarter TD strike from Leonard was part of a breakout day for the sophomore slot receiver. “I think we’re a really resilient group.
“There’s been a lot of adversity that’s come our way throughout this season so far, but we remain strong. We remain confident, and we trust each other. I think that’s what this team is built around and is going to continue to lead us moving forward.”
Saturday they did it with losing arguably the team’s best pass rusher, Boubacar Traore, for most of the game due to injury, and its most experienced linebacker, Jack Kiser in the second half. And maybe the best cornerback in the nation, Ben Morrison, for a stretch of 12 snaps, and Morrison’s sidekick, Christian Gray, for the entire game when his sore shoulder wouldn’t loosen up sufficiently in pregame warmups.
And wide receiver Jordan Faison. And left offensive guard Sam Pendleton late for a series.
“You have to have Plan B, C, D ready to roll,” Freeman said.
What might that look like?
On the Louisville drive right after the one in which Leonard was injured and ended in a punt, the Cardinals took the ball at their own 5 and quickly pushed the ball up the field into Notre Dame territory.
On a critical 3-and-7 from the Irish 47-yard line, the Irish had four freshmen on the field playing defense — Loghan Thomas and Bryce Young at the end spots, Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa at linebacker and Leonard Moore at one of the cornerback spots.
All-America safety Xavier Watts, four seasons removed from being a freshman, picked off a Tyler Shough pass and returned it 34 yards to set up an Irish field goal before half.
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Moore made his first career start, led the team with seven tackles and played every one of a possible 76 defensive snaps. He also forced a first-quarter fumble on a long run by Shough— Louisville’s first turnover of the season and one of three on the day — that sophomore linebacker Jaiden Ausberry recovered and the Irish offense turned into points.
Later when Morrison had to leave the game, nickel Jordan Clark moved to Morrison’s spot and safety Rod Heard II was manning Clark’s nickel spot. Junior cornerback Jaden Mickey’s announcement Monday that he was redshirting with the intent to transfer was part of that chain of events.
“We didn't have a lot of practice reps, I'll tell you that,” Freeman said of the emergency configuration, “with expecting Christian to try to give it a go.”
And yet on an inflection point — perhaps the inflection point — in Freeman’s third and historically defining season — Notre Dame knocked off a ranked team for the ninth time since the 38-year-old Ohio State grad with no previous coaching experience succeeded Brian Kelly. Only legendary Frank Leahy (10), among Irish head coaches, amassed more in his first three seasons.
“Obviously, wasn't perfect as everybody saw, we saw, our players saw,” Freeman said of the win in which Louisville ran 22 more offensive plays, gained 105 more yards and eight more first downs. “You find a way to get it done when it matters most.”
Like thwarting four of five Cardinal fourth-down conversion tries, for instance. That included a deep shot toward the Irish red zone with 47 seconds left, with Clark and Watts defending well and causing an incomplete pass.
Which doesn’t mean he thinks an Irish team that perpetuated its realistic playoff aspirations into October is a finished product or anywhere close to it. But on Saturday Freeman was more concerned with what his team is and what it can turn into than a loud slice of the fan base that is fixated on what this team is not.
Particularly where it applies to Leonard.
For the record, TD passes (2), completion rate (74%, 17-of-23) and pass-efficiency rating (164.2) were all his best in a Notre Dame uniform and in his past nine games going back to his Duke days. His 163 passing yards matched a season high.
He also became the first QB in the past 22 Louisville games, dating back to 2022, to lead a scoring drive against the Cardinals defense on the first offensive drive of the day. The Irish covered 75 yards on 12 plays, capped by a Love six-yard TD run, in answering Louisville’s score following an Irish fumble on the opening kickoff.
And on a day when Louisville largely bottled up Notre Dame’s traditional running game, Leonard ran for a team-high 52 yards on 13 carries with a TD.
“There was no consideration of changing quarterbacks going into the second half,” Freeman said when pressed with that question in the postgame. “We didn't have a lot of success in the second half, and I always say you are going to blame the quarterback.
“That's what you do. You're supposed to do. You're going to blame the head coach. That's what you're supposed to do. We will go back and see what decisions Riley made in the second half that weren't good.
“Damn it, he played really well in the first half. Our whole entire offense didn't play great in the second half. It's easy to point the finger at Riley, but I'm proud of the way he performed today and led our offense to victory.”
The upcoming bye week, though, before the Irish resume with an Oct. 12 home matchup with Stanford, is the perfect opportunity for Freeman to look at his team from both perspectives — the promise that he so much believes in, and how to coax it into reality, as well as the flaws that hint that another Northern Illinois episode is possible and how to mitigate, if not eliminate, those shortcomings.
And when you look at the roster, there isn’t an apparent dead end anywhere, five games deep into the season. And there are some apparent solutions.
The eventual return of nose guard Gabe Rubio and field end Josh Burnham in October should help an Irish run defense that’s gotten pushed around too frequently and convincingly. Perhaps tweaking the five-man linebacker rotation will help that too.
The October return of ND’s best offensive lineman Billy Schrauth gives Freeman another option with that developing group. Colgate walk-on transfer Max Hurleman may be the punt returner the Irish have been searching for.
The wide receiver corps has numbers and talent, and perhaps is on the cusp of more consistency. Greathouse’s four catches for 61 yards Saturday was an encouraging sign.
As for Leonard? It’s about incremental progress. It’s not going to be like turning on a switch. His evolution has been and will be a process, not an event. And if it goes sideways at some point, it’s hard to believe Angeli wouldn’t be ready to give his best shot.
After the game, Leonard confessed his Sunday plans are to play golf, catch a bass or two in a lake somewhere, and let his body heal. Then back to work. With a smile, and probably a golly too.
As much friendly fire as Leonard has had to endure in his first month as Notre Dame’s quarterback, he still looks like it as a dream come true and is more convinced than ever that his team’s big dreams are close enough to touch.
Not that he’ll push a brash agenda.
“Shoot, it’s kind of hard for me to look at the bigger picture sometimes,” he said. “I feel like I’m very narrow in my vision. I see right now that the team’s better than we were last week. The offense is better than it was last week. The defense is better than it was last week. We’re starting to roll, starting to get our confidence back.
“Bigger picture, who knows? We’ve got a lot of potential. But right now, I think we’re doing all right.”
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