Sometimes a spread from Vegas can’t be large enough. If you watched the first half only between Notre Dame and Florida State you might have left believing it was a bit of a lackluster performance from the Irish nursing a 21-3 lead. Yet, doubling up that score would’ve been right near my game prediction and easily covered the 26-points from Vegas. Instead, Notre Dame shutout the Seminoles in the 2nd half and won by 49 points. It’s the 6th win of the Marcus Freeman era of at least 40 points, trailing only this year’s Purdue game and last year’s Pitt game as the largest margin of victory over a Power conference team.
Here’s the 18 Stripes review of Notre Dame’s 52-3 win.
QUARTERBACK: B
I won’t call this a sloppy performance from Riley Leonard, although things in the passing game were just a little off on Saturday night. With such a big win having 14 completions to 13 incompletions isn’t the type of efficiency we were hoping for in this game. It wasn’t bad and things were close to being much better–it was just a handful of inaccurate throws prevented more domination, especially in the 1st half where Notre Dame punted 3 times.
On the ground, of course Leonard continued his fantastic season scoring his 12th and 13th rushing touchdowns of 2024. His opening touchdown run on Saturday will be among his key highlights from his Irish career, what an incredible run. By the way, Leonard now leads the team in rushing this season.
We got a brief look at Steve Angeli again and he went 3 of 3 with a nice goal line fade touchdown throw to Deion Colzie.
RUNNING BACK: B
Jeremiyah Love had a big game against Navy prior to the bye week but he’s been held at bay for the large part since the Louisville game. That includes on Saturday against Florida State with only 19 rushing yards and a long of 5 yards. That explains why Leonard has now moved ahead as the leading rusher for the Irish.
Jadarian Price felt like he was big part of the gameplan and yet only 7 carries! Thanks to his impressive 65-yard touchdown run he finished with a healthy 13.6 yards per carry average.
This looked like a Kedren Young 4th quarter type of game but Notre Dame went to walk-ons Justin Fisher and Jake Tafelski instead. Maybe a bit curious but Young has played in 3 games so far and they might be trying to keep his redshirt. Not burning both his year and Aneyas Williams’ (8 games played already) in the same class seems like the smart decision.
WIDE RECEIVER: B+
According to the official scorebook there were only 2 drops in this game, although it seemed more like 4 or 5 depending on your definition of inaccurate throws and/or catchable passes. I continue to belief the smoothness of the passing game starts with how much they get Beaux Collins going as the preferred Leonard target. Against Saturday, he had 1 catch on 4 targets, so not great.
Similarly, Faison had one really bad drop and 2 catches on 5 targets. However, I would argue Faison’s 4th down catch for 22 yards late in the 1st half was the most important moment of the game. The Irish scored on the next play to go into halftime with a healthier 21-3 lead.
This was the type of game we’d hope to see often from Jaden Greathouse. He tied his season-high for catches in a game and his 66 receiving yards was the most in 2024 so far. All while wearing some sort of large white turtleneck!
TIGHT END: A
In spirit, I’m going to count the acrobatic effort from Mitchell Evans that would’ve been included on Sunday’s “Moss’d” section from ESPN NFL Countdown. It would’ve been the cherry on top of a really strong game from Evans and the tight ends. We might take it for granted sometimes, but the touchdown catch from Evans is a play not many tight ends throughout the country can make.
OFFENSIVE LINE: B+
Florida State was pretty spunky on defense, early on at least. They did a good job stressing the pocket and slowing down the run game a little bit in the 1st half. Anthonie Knapp briefly left the game after getting bundled into and I thought this could be a game where the offensive line ended up playing really poorly.
That didn’t happen. Notre Dame finished the game completely dominating.
DEFENSIVE LINE: A
Florida State’s poor offensive line was definitely confirmed on Saturday night! The Seminoles looked to empty the playbook on their first drive amounting to 75 total yards before settling for a field goal. They were actually really effective on the ground with all but 14 yards coming from the running game, too. They’d need the rest of the game to match that rushing production from the first drive.
Yes, it got pretty ugly up front for the visitors. Notre Dame’s 8 sacks were the most on the season and tied for the most in a game since the 2019 win over Virginia. Notably, huge games from veteran Rylie Mills (3 sacks) and the younger Donovan Hinish (2 sacks).
The only downside was an ankle injury to Howard Cross which didn’t look great. He’s been so banged up this season I wonder if we’ll see him extremely limited or maybe even out the rest of the regular season?
LINEBACKER: B+
This was a game for the speed linebackers. With the defensive line eating up front, Jaylen Sneed and Jaden Ausberry could utilize their quickness to make some plays. They’d combine for 2.5 tackles for loss. Sneed also picked up a sack and actually forced a fumble, although the ball bounced right back into the quarterback’s body as he fell to the ground.
SECONDARY: A
Jordan Clark’s offsides and holding penalties on the same play were a lowlight of the evening. He’d make up for it later with a nice diving interception. Florida State couldn’t afford any turnovers but made sure to add a pick six late as an added bonus to Notre Dame. How about Luke Talich making a read on that play!?
Things were pretty dark for Florida State’s passing game. Brock Glenn started the game going 1 of 11 for just the 14 yard completion mentioned above. True freshman Luke Kromenhoek looked a little more effective overall, but the Noles bounced back and forth between the quarterbacks a couple times throughout the game.
A check down to running back Lawrance Toafili for 15 yards from Kromenhoek was the longest pass play of the game for the visitors.
NOTES:
This was a game for YPP. The 453-208 total yards advantage doesn’t tell the story as much as Notre Dame’s +4.3 yards per play advantage. That’s a paddling.
I will note that Notre Dame is currently +2.15 in YPP this season which would slot in just ahead of the 1996 and and 1974 seasons for the 3rd best mark in school history since 1964.
If there’s a wet blanket for any notions of a deep playoff run it’s probably because deep down we know this offense isn’t consistently good enough when it matters, the injuries on defense will probably catch up to us, but also the situation with Mitch Jeter not being healthy is now a big problem when games start to get tighter.
Charleston Southern is currently 1-9 and Florida State gets them next after a bye week. It’s likely a 2-10 season for the Noles and to make matters worse they open up hosting Alabama in 2025. They also have Florida, Clemson, and Miami on next year’s schedule too. That includes road trips to the Swamp and the eastern Death Valley. This program looks to be in big, big trouble.
FSU starting with Bama in 25′ may be the funniest thing I’ve heard today.
Curious why nd seems to be more inclined to this BLOWOUT victories in the past 2 seasons. Kelly started racking up a decent amount of 20+ point victories starting in 2017.
I guess one reason is nd seems to just be better, 2023 and 2024 teams both top 10 teams by advanced stats. The depth is better, backups are better, get more playing time there making them better in blowouts, and freeman just seems more aggressive and foot on the gas than kelly.
Agree. Plus, this season, style points appear to be critical, with the stink of NIU very tough to leave behind.
Add to it, Freeman wants the backups (Angeli) to run the offense, not just run it up the middle and burn clock.
Great point. Plus honestly, the backups like it. Well, duh, but their joy at Doing Good Things really seems to jump off the screen. Which to his credit, the coach seems to get and work hard at it — again, your point, that’s a key part of building depth, is keeping them invested.
True, playing more players has many advantages besides just resting your starters.
The one I enjoyed the most was that catch by “good soldier” Deion Colzie, and the huge reaction by a dozen of his teammates.
I’m so curious about what will happen with Angeli next year. It seems pretty obvious that he would be the #1 QB on a bad P4 team like FSU immediately, but he could also be the unquestioned #1 QB on a middle-tier team too; would an NIL deal plus guaranteed starting job be enticing to him at a program closer to home like Rutgers?
The fact that he’s been the first backup into the game all season this year makes me a bit more comfortable that he’ll stick around at ND, but even he has to know that there will be a fierce competition to start next season. Hopefully he’s the type of guy who wants to take on that challenge after having to sit for a couple years already.
Hafta think watching the game from the sidelines on Saturday, PBJ knows he’s got it good where he’s at. Would you rather start at FSU and get sacked all night or get your degree from ND, play in some games and have a significantly lower chance of bodily injury? At this point, he knows he’s not playing on Sundays, so make the most of your college career.
Yes, not sure if it got through to the broadcast, but the crowd loves PB. The “Steve Angeli” chants started up before he even got a snap and well before the PA announcer said he was in the game.
A. He seems like a great kid.
B. He throws a very nice ball (when he doesn’t take the sack).
So I’m glad the crowd loves him. Maybe that will play a small role to help convince him to stick around.
Also, to switch to my hobby horse of the Stadium dynamic, multiple folks (including HCMF at his presser today) have commented on the spirit in the Stadium. It being a night game is cited as helping, which I think we’ve all seen. In general, what was your impression?
(And specifically, was the crowd asked at some point to sing along with one of the ND fight songs?)
My seats are right by the band and the student section, so hard for me to tell if it’s just the students singing along or everyone, but I did hear plenty of singing.
Additionally, the night atmosphere was still good despite the quality of opponent. From my perspective there wasn’t a butt in a seat anywhere until the first commercial break due to a video review. Massive difference from the Miami (OH) and NIU games for example.
Roger, and thanks. We’ve made a lot of progress in the last 5 years.
I was in Section 6 Row 14, and my daughter confirms that I was obnoxiously loud. No one else complained to me, so I’m hoping I set a good example for those around us. Needless to say, I’m still hoarse today, so I think I did my part.
Might have been that I just had too much to drink during the tailgate, but I don’t remember any calls for us to sing along to anything. We definitely participated in some FSU War Chanting near the end, but that just happened organically (as far as I can recall).
We also did air pushups with a younger kid behind us for the first 2 to 4 TDs, but then the ushers shut us down, sadly.
Most guys graduate by the end of their JR year. So there’s a good chance Angeli will be graduating this spring, especially if he was an EE. He could go play somewhere else for 2 years with an ND degree.
This is what Jaden Mickey is doing, the difference being he hadn’t red shirted, yet.
Ok – then get a “free” graduate degree from ND and play another year
I am totally with you. Would kill for 2 more years, free years, at ND. Especially over some mediocre football team in some blah location.
Favorite moment of the game was before the pick six. Looks like Kennedy Urlacher and Talich are double high safeties. One of the slot guys on Urlacher’s side goes in motion into a stack on that side, and Urlacher rotates to single high.
As he does that, he’s waving Talich down closer to the LOS, but Talich is already reading it and headed that way. So at the snap Talich is in perfect position to make read on the RB and jump the route. If he’s one step further from the LOS at the snap it’s only a PBU. Two steps and it’s a stop for a short gain. If he doesn’t rotate down at all the two WR on that side were running verts and clearing out for the RB and it could be a first down.
The fact that both safeties on our three deep can make the right read based on motion out of 10 personnel gets the football nerd in me very excited about this defense for years to come.
The DB coaching the past few years has been absolutely unbelievable. Would be great to be the school pulling in 5 star after 5 star at safety, but I would much rather have these coaches with the 3 and 4 star recruits they’ve been able to coach up.
5 stars can bust and 2 stars can be drafted, the determination of the player and the quality of the coaching can make all the difference in the world. Talich is a great example of that. It will be sad when some of these coaches move on to their next opportunities.
Can be, but it’s a cope to pretend like a more viable strategy for any team is to continue to try to find diamond in the rough 3*s than 5*s or high 4*s. That said, we’ve done a really good job at finding some gems and for whatever reason it seems like we have a pretty abysmal track record with our highest recruits.
Certainly not saying we shouldn’t go after the 4 and 5 stars, just that it is good we have the coaches that can work with the players they have to maximize the defense.