Notre Dame hosted Virginia on Saturday afternoon for the final home game of the 2024 regular season and after a sleepy start put away the Cavaliers in another blowout win for the Irish. This is now 8 straight wins since the unfathomable NIU loss with Notre Dame outscoring opponents 343-85 over that timespan. Not bad!

Let’s review the Senior Day win over UVA.

QUARTERBACK: B-

The ingredients were there for a strong game for Riley Leonard although it wasn’t all put together. The good news is that it’s not really apparent in the box score (67% completions and 3 touchdowns, hey that’s fine!). The bad news is that it’s another subpar opponent where the Irish passing game isn’t able to click and get things going. I suppose this is what they are at this point 10 games into the season, right?

Only 1 for 12 on 3rd conversions is really bad. To be fair to the passing game, the offense got behind schedule with penalties, especially in the 1st half. Leonard was 5 of 11 on 3rd down throws for 84 yards which actually doesn’t seem that bad–almost 17 yards per completion. However, only the 25-yard dart to Jayden Harrison (also the longest completion of the day) moved the sticks.

It was also an unusually below average running day from Leonard with no touchdowns and just one carry over 10 yards.

RUNNING BACK: A

We got a little bit of everything from this group. Jeremiyah Love returned to “got that dawg in him” status and ripped off the game’s longest play on an electrifying 76-yard touchdown. Jadarian Price came in for some potent relief, averaging over 7 yards per carry, plus true freshman Anyeas Williams got in several tough short yardage runs and caught all 3 targets for an impressive 35 yards.

This is turning into one heck of a trio.

WIDE RECEIVER: C+

This is a tough group to talk about when they total 141 receiving yards on 33 passing attempts. With 19 targets to the receivers I guess it’s not a surprise they aren’t turning heads with well over 200 yards. The best case moving forward is that the Irish can get momentum from this unit by a committee approach because there continues to be no alpha dog in the group.

Jayden Harrison did play well, catching all 3 of his targets for 41 yards and he had an explosive touchdown catch called back on a Pat Coogan penalty. The Irish more than doubled up Virginia in penalties on the afternoon, not helping the cause.

Officially, there were no drops on the day which continues to be one of the worst kept stats in college football. For a minute it looked like Jaden Greathouse might have suffered a serious shoulder or collarbone injury but reports seem to indicate he’s okay and would’ve returned to action if the game wasn’t well in hand.

TIGHT END: B

Operation “Get Mitchell Evans going” continued against Virginia with the big tight end receiving a healthy 7 targets. He was this close to picking up a second touchdown if not for a tipped pass.

A weird stat, which doesn’t speak too well to the receivers: After Evans moved into the team lead with 3 receiving touchdowns this season, backup tight end Cooper Flanagan is now tied for 2nd with Kris Mitchell after catching a touchdown against Virginia. No one else on the team has scored more than 1 receiving touchdown!

OFFENSIVE LINE: C+

I feel like this is harsh but wasn’t this a really sloppy game from the offensive line? According to the rushing stats, absolutely not! For the 5th game this season (and 3rd straight game) the offense rumbled for at least 200 rushing yards and at least 6 yards per carry. There have been offense’s from years gone by where this would’ve felt like an explosion on the ground but for 2024 it’s a lot more ho-hum.

We’re getting a lot of mileage out of Leonard being able to move in and out of the pocket. He was pressured a decent amount and spent too many snaps running around trying to make a play. Still, there was only 1 sack of the game. That makes it 13 sacks allowed in 10 games, that’s absolutely bonkers.

DEFENSIVE LINE: A

I know they trailed early but the score really wasn’t out of hand until mid 2nd quarter (it was 7-0 with the Irish driving with under 7 minutes remaining in the 1st half!) and I thought Virginia gave up on running the ball far too early. They found some success running the ball, but most of that came really late in garbage time. Backup quarterback Tony Muskett had a little more feistiness as a runner and opened things up for the Cavaliers, including scoring both touchdowns on the day from rushing attempts.

Even without Howard Cross, the defensive line was stout and got after it. Virginia didn’t score and only gained 138 total yards on their first 11 drives in this game. We even got to see RJ Oben with 0.5 tackle for loss–his first of the season!

Also, Donovan Hinish is now 3rd on the team with 3.5 sacks on the season.

LINEBACKER: B+

This was a special moment for Jack Kiser playing in his final regular season game inside Notre Dame Stadium. He even picked up a sack and had a nice diving pass break-up, too.

Besides the occasional broken play, the linebackers had the Virginia offense under control. I shouldn’t be surprised but this group is hitting super hard and continues to tackle extremely well. I’m really fascinated to see this unit come up against a much more effective offense with several playmakers to see how they respond. For the most part, Virginia could barely get out of their own way on Saturday.

SECONDARY: A+

It’s been a dark season for Notre Dame opponents trying to throw the ball against this defense. Virginia was no exception. They were the 7th opponent to not crack 50% completion this season against the Irish. They managed a pitiful 4.7 yards per attempt (only 4th worst among Notre Dame opponents to be fair!) and of course threw 3 interceptions to zero touchdown passes.

I didn’t do this week’s preview so I wasn’t as clued in on the Cavaliers this year (are they the most boring ACC team?) but I was surprised at the passing ineptness from both Virginia quarterbacks. They really don’t seem to have much of a future on offense.

NOTES:

Chris Tyree had a few bright moments while playing at Notre Dame but was always a frustrating player. I feel bad for his performance on Saturday fumbling the opening kickoff (I mean good lord how do you let that happen?) and then proceeding to catch 1 pass for 3 yards on 6(!!) targets. Virginia fans must be livid.

In the writer’s Slack room Mike Bryan brought up something that I think is really frustrating and spot on about the 2024 offense. Leonard is an excellent runner and he’s extremely good at escaping pressure but his improvisational skills outside the pocket making plays with his arm are a major missing piece. We’re not getting the smooth rhythm passing game which definitely doesn’t seem to be part of Leonard’s arsenal whatsoever but when he escapes the pocket we’re not seeing much of the magic making plays downfield that has defined a lot of other dual-threat quarterbacks. I think he’s a little too happy to run the ball and has trouble keeping his eyes downfield.

I was halfway through the game when I noticed Virginia was wearing matte white helmets with matte blue/orange stripes. Somehow I also made it that far without noticing their helmets didn’t have a logo, either. Apparently, this is the helmet design they wore from 1984-93. As someone who pays attention to these things I have no idea! Like I said, Virginia is pretty boring so that’s my excuse.

Quite a different approach to a modern helmet. 

Marcello Diomede and Zak Yoakam each missed a field goal against Virginia as Mitch Jeter continues to heal up (although he did kick PAT’s on Saturday). Notre Dame is downright bad this season missing 7 out of their 15 field goal attempts in 2024.

Everyone has been talking about the flag on the fake punt touchdown that took Jordan Faison’s 6 points off the board, and rightfully so. Lost in the discussion, why put that on tape against this hapless Virginia team though?

This was a funny game that was pretty listless until a wild 2nd quarter flipped the script. Some highlights from the madness:

  • Love ran for -10 yards trying to escape the entire Virginia defense.
  • Hoos punt returner Ethan Davies fumbled the ball right back into himself.
  • Irish punt returner Max Hurleman doinks the ball off his facemask and loses a fumble on the next series.
  • Virginia fumbles on the ensuing drive.
  • Notre Dame scores from 78 yards out but it’s called back on a personal foul call.
  • The illegal formation fake punt happens on the same series.
  • Adon Shuler intercepts Virginia 3 plays later, Notre Dame scores on the next snap.
  • Virginia is intercepted again on their next series, Notre Dame scores 3 plays later.
  • Colandrea is picked off for the 3rd straight series, the Irish miss a 54-yard field goal as time expires for the half.

Notre Dame leads all power teams with a +15 turnover margin in 2024. Only James Madison (+19) is better among all FBS teams.

Virginia head coach Tony Elliott doesn’t seem to inspire much confidence. He has an offensive background and whenever the camera showed him on NBC he was seemingly staring ahead blankly, not talking in his headset, and not doing much overall. He makes over $4.2 million this year with 3 more full seasons through 2027 remaining on his contract. At 11-21 through nearly 3 full years in Charlottesville, he may not see the last couple seasons of that contract. According to reports, his buyout was originally just $8 million and drops by $2 million to each season. In modern college football, they’d pay peanuts to buy him out.