For the second straight home game, Notre Dame looked like a tire fire for much of the first half against a MAC opponent Saturday, but this time, at least, the Irish managed to pull itself together and post a workmanlike 28-3 victory over Miami (OH). That should at least calm the frustrated masses who, in the first half, booed ND off the field a time or two.

Next week, the Irish will face possibly their best opponent yet in Louisville, for which ND will be its best opponent too. But for now, let’s go over some of the key storylines from today’s win.

Signs of life from Riley Leonard

After a half of yips-level throwing from Leonard ended with him dropping a deep-ball TD dime to Beaux Collins, Leonard looked (closer to) in rhythm the rest of the game as a thrower. At least, he no longer looked like Drew Pyne in the first half against Cal and was able to make competent throws beyond 10 yards, which he wasn’t really asked to do against Purdue.

Now I’m starting to wonder if we could have avoided an awful lot of stupidity had Jaden Greathouse caught Leonard’s very good throw two weeks ago. Maybe all Leonard needed was to see a completion on one of those throws to look like he had thrown a football before? Who knows. The point is, from there Leonard looked pretty good. He put up another 100-plus yard rushing performance, capping it with a long scoring run on 4th and 1 when I was calling for a punt. Shows what I know, I guess.

I’m still not sure if the Irish can play more or less in a phone booth on offense and beat anybody good, but for today it (eventually) worked.

An improved effort on defense

It wasn’t quite the dominant performance it had against Purdue, but the Notre Dame defense at least looked like it was interested in playing football today, an improvement from the previous home game. There were solid contributions from many, but none more impressive than Boubacar Traore, the hidden gem recruit this staff uncovered in Massachusetts who looks like he will be a cornerstone of the line going forward. Traore didn’t make any highlight reel plays by himself, but he was around the ball an awful lot.

Christian Gray made a pick, Jaylen Sneed had a nice stuff on a 3rd and short, Jaiden Ausberry forced an incompletion, Karson Hobbs nearly had a pick, Leonard Moore got a ton of snaps, and even Howard Cross made his presence felt with a nice tackle of Brett Gabbert. Miami had much more success than you’d like in the running game for a team that entered with 64 yards in that department in two games, but there’s no such thing as giving up 3 points and not playing well defensively.

It seems pretty obvious by now that the D will have to carry these Irish sometimes, and this time it did its job. Junior Tuihalamaka’s diving interception off a tipped ball in the red zone after the ND muffed punt was a huge dodged bullet that kept a bad situation from getting worse. Gray’s pick helped keep the Irish semi-comfortable in the 3rd quarter.

Still want Jeremiyah Love to touch the ball more

Jeremiyah Love literally cannot touch the football enough for me. Today he had 12 touches and got 69 yards out of them, so not exactly lighting it up, but it was the first game this season where he didn’t look like the best player on the field. On his one reception for nine yards, it looked like he had about three yards and somehow slithered through about 5 defenders at once for six more.

Every year I seem to pick a pet cause that I never let go of (last year it was Marist Liufau, sorry, buddy), and this year it’s pretty clear the all-Love offense is going to be mine.

The running game actually did not do a whole lot outside of Leonard, though I suppose that’s the beauty of a running QB; sometimes it doesn’t have to. Still, with the new starting offensive line configuration, you would have liked to see a little bit more success in that department.

James Rendell finally lives up to his billing

It took till game 4, but the Aussie import at punter finally looked like the guy Notre Dame fans were sold in the offseason. He unleashed a couple of bombs – and timely ones too, considering they came from deep in ND territory – and averaged 47.3 yards on his four attempts. Coach Marcus Freeman talked about simplifying things for Rendell this week after spending the early season trying to, in so many words, get too cute.

The coaches were consistent about Rendell being a potential weapon in special teams, and we saw the first glimpses of that today. Especially if the offense isn’t going to be a well-oiled machine – and the coaches are not, at this point, trying to obfuscate the fact that it isn’t and may not be for some time – every little bit helps, and an extra few yards on punts are worth having.

Next week is the season

Not to put too fine a point on it, but next week we’ll really find out what this team is and what hope, if any, it has. Louisville in 2024 is a mostly unknown quantity at this point, but they more or less kicked ND’s butt all over the field a year ago, so we know what they are capable of. If the Irish can win, they’ll go into an off week and then face a run of opponents they should, in theory, not have too much trouble with. If not…well, let’s hope they win.