Notre Dame trailed 7-0 after the 1st quarter and was on the back foot early against Georgia Tech. A strong 2nd quarter tilted the advantage towards the Irish and from there the game was largely in cruise control for the white-panted Notre Dame team at a neutral site home game for the Yellow Jackets. Now sitting at 6-1, a big game next weekend against undefeated Navy awaits.
Here’s our review of the win over Tech first.
QUARTERBACK: B
Leonard had a solid game overall, led by his rushing ability where he scored twice and was the second-leading rusher in the game for both teams. His first half interception was a really poor decision and was a big part of lowering his grade. However, he did sandwich that turnover with a run of 14 straight completions and some really nice throws.
Despite a bunch of completions strung together, the passing downfield really never got going (Leonard was officially 1 of 4 for 28 yards with a nice back shoulder throw to Greathouse being the lone completion) and the offense got really bogged down in the 2nd half where the Irish opened up with a touchdown and then scored only 3 more points on offense.
RUNNING BACK: B+
What a weird game for the running backs, but mostly Jeremiyah Love. He felt like a huge part to Notre Dame’s success but Georgia Tech really limited him on the ground. Yet, he made some big plays in the passing game and those count, too! Jadarian Price was super effective on his 8 carries and was the perfect change of pace on the ground for Notre Dame. A little curious to see Ford and Williams combine for 4 carries when Price was playing so well, right?
WIDE RECEIVER: B-
The receivers at least made some tough catches over the middle against Georgia Tech, something we haven’t seen a ton of this season. It seemed like the Irish were really trying to exploit some quick-passes on slants or screens to move the ball. In that respect, it was job well done.
Beaux Collins continues to be frustratingly inconsistent, and I’m not talking about anything with his effort on the interception (I don’t think it mattered). The offense really tries to get him the ball so much (9 targets!) but only came away with 51 receiving yards. So yes, he caught the most passes in the game but there’s some inefficiency to clean up there.
TIGHT END: B
Mitchell Evans lives! Like the receivers, he was a big part of the short passing game, and while he didn’t come down with a ton of yardage, it was nice to see him be such a big part of the gameplan. His 4 catches were the most since his final game of 2023 when he hurt his knee. Eli Raridon also made a nice play picking up 9 yards on his catch.
OFFENSIVE LINE: B-
I was impressed with Georgia Tech’s defense up front. Notre Dame did a pretty good job pass blocking (0 sacks allowed, which remains only 9 sacks in 7 games) although Leonard was on the move quite a bit and didn’t hold on to the ball that long often. Run blocking struggled at times and the Yellow Jackets won a lot of snaps up front to keep the Irish off schedule. Maybe a bit harsh with the grade here? A little better up front maybe goes a long way in this game.
DEFENSIVE LINE: A
Watching live I didn’t think Georgia Tech got much out of the running backs but even 35 total yards is a bit shocking. Their running backs got completely shut down which led their offense to being extremely sandlot-y with the quarterback having to scramble for a lot of yards on the ground. Hat tip to backup quarterback Zach Pyron for playing his heart out as he ran for 59 yards with sacks removed.
What would this game have looked like if the defensive line was healthy? Yes, Tech could say the same about having quarterback Haynes King, to be fair.
LINEBACKER: A
The linebackers were in a bad mood on Saturday!
This may have been the most complete game from this unit in 2024. I wanted to single out Drayk Bowen who seems to be developing really nicely and not content to take a backseat to the younger KVA. Bowen led the team in tackles and I’m pretty sure a couple of his bone-crushing hits ended up injuring Yellow Jacket players. Not that you want to see anyone get hurt, but the physicality is nice to see.
SECONDARY: B+
Pyron starting the game 9 for 9 and 11 of his first 12 wasn’t something I would’ve ever imagined could happen in this game. Tech did a good job scheming up some easy throws for him and I thought the Irish secondary looked really rusty early on. However, things got turned around quickly and Pyron had a stretch (leading up to garbage time in the 4th quarter) where he went 5 of 19 for 91 yards, with 60 yards coming on one play. As the game worn on, Georgia Tech started to get incredibly inefficient.
Throwing a couple of interceptions, including a pick six, helped the Irish cause.
NOTES:
A pair of special team fakes for Notre Dame was a diabolical move. I didn’t notice until after the game that the fake field goal conversion was carried by Tyler Buchner (I don’t recommend watching games with 3 little kids in your face).
Going with white pants paired with the blue jerseys didn’t seem very popular. Why would they do this in a game against a team wearing all-white, I wonder? Is it just “we’re playing in the Mercedes-Benz Stadium and it’s a big game visually” decision? How long until we see blue pants with the white jerseys?
Notre Dame was “only” +0.6 in YPP in this game. A sluggish 4th quarter and Georgia Tech’s 80-yard garbage time touchdown to close out the game on their final drive skewed things.
Price had one of his best games on Saturday.Â
Zak Yoakam went 1 of 2 on field goals, do you think we’ll need Jeter healthy next week for Navy? In other special teams news, the Irish blocked a field goal, yay. James Rendell had one good punt and one bad punt.
This felt like a really viciously physical performance from Notre Dame’s defense. There must have been nearly 10 players from the Yellow Jackets who were taken off the field with a variety of injuries. Which is why it was insane for head coach Brent Key to keep his 1st-team offense pushing late in the game. ESPN highlighted Pyron’s broke collarbone from a couple years ago and I was hoping he wouldn’t break it again.
A dump-off throw to freshman running back Aneyas Williams was the only passing 3rd down conversion for Notre Dame. If the Irish don’t want to lose to the likes of Navy or Army they’ll have to run the ball so well this won’t matter. Even against service academies I’m not sure this offense has it in them to convert 3 to 5 times on 3rd and long to keep the ball and score points.
Honestly having a not healthy Jeter next week might be for the best. You have to be extra aggressive on 4th down. If I recall, in 2016 kelly was too content with kicks and it cost me the game.
Linebackers rounding into form at the right time. Their play will dictate the academies offense. I do wonder if it helps having played so many eye candy offenses so far: NIU, stanford and georgia tech all felt gimmicky and were testing the linebackers
Good points.
“Honestly having a not healthy Jeter next week might be for the best.”
Plus, everyone knows Jeter is Mr. November. As long as he’s back for FSU, that’s ok.
What’s the deal with Faison? I have to think he can make a difference, but would need to rebuild some chemistry with RL. Maybe after the bye?
He had a high ankle sprain which are notoriously nagging injuries, especially for his style of play that relies on sudden hard cuts.
I’m sure with enough cortisone shots, he could be serviceable, but maybe the coaches are making a business decision to really rehab him for down the stretch, I would say he hasn’t been particularly needed the last 2 games
I don’t have snap counts, but he definitely played yesterday, he had a couple really good downfield blocks, just no receptions.
WR snap counts from ISD:
Collins – 42
Mitchell – 35
Thomas – 32
Greathouse – 25
Faison – 25
Harrison – 19
In his presser just now, HCMF waxed quite eloquent about what a great job Faison did vs GT even though he himself was not targeted (his blocking, his routes, etc.).
FWIW.
My favorite moment of the game was Love’s broken tackle on the fake punt. The GT player had the perfect angle and a 30 yard headstart. Love didn’t even let him touch him much less tackle.
Yes, in the moment I was like “Just lower your head and get the first down” and Love was like “Bro ain’t even gonna lay a finger on me.”
The act in 3 parts:
I don’t doubt that Aneyas Williams has massive long-term upside. That’s great. But Love is without a doubt ND’s best offensive player. Taking him off the field on 3rd downs all season for a freshman is a situation where it feels like the staff is getting way too cute. I really hope it’s corrected sooner rather than later.
I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t loved Riley Leonard’s season, but man that kid is unbelievable at avoiding sacks. In a year where ND has had so many injuries to the O Line, it’s been really fortunate that the staff brought in a mobile QB, rather than the pocket passers of the past few transfer cycles. IF he can re-discover a feel for the deep ball (maybe during the bye?), I think this team could surprise some people in the Playoff. That’s a big IF, but it’s certainly not an impossible development.
Right now, Love is a little banged up. It’s probably best to limit him some. More concerning to me is, is Price that bad at blocking ?
Good question! Does anybody track that stuff?
I’m not opposed to limiting him, but I don’t think they’re doing it because he’s banged up. It’s been happening since the beginning of the year.
(And if they’re trying to limit him some, which again, I don’t think is a terrible idea, I would prefer to give him the ball on 3rd downs when the game is still in doubt, and then not give him the ball with under 4 minutes left, up by 17, on GT’s 23 yard line)
Makes sense. Freeman I hear says he’s not limited even though there was talk of him not warming up much Saturday. True too, the use of the RBs has been a bit perplexing most of the year. So much of the play calling seems to be based on getting Leonard comfortable and expanding that comfort zone.
I think it’s part of their “transfer-prevention” policy — give all of the guys some plays and some touches so that they are less likely to want to leave when transfer portal opens up