Notre Dame came into this Saturday’s game against Wake Forest as heavy favorites on Senior Day and after a brief struggle to find momentum eventually put things in cruise control for an easy victory. Back-to-back seasons of at least 8 wins: clinched for Marcus Freeman. The Irish put together a very solid day on offense and the defense absolutely locked down a Demon Deacons offense unable to establish anything through the air.
Here’s our 18S review of the last home game of 2023:
Stats Package
| STAT | IRISH | WAKE |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 45 | 7 |
| Plays | 64 | 57 |
| Total Yards | 450 | 232 |
| Yards Per Play | 7.0 | 4.1 |
| Conversions | 6/11 | 5/15 |
| Completions | 24 | 12 |
| Yards/Attempt | 9.2 | 4.6 |
| Rushes | 30 | 36 |
| Rushing Success | 63.3% | 36.3% |
| 10+ Yds Rushes | 3 | 4 |
| 20+ Yds Passes | 3 | 0 |
| Defense Stuff Rate | 35.0% | 12.5% |
Offense
QB: B+
RB: B+
TE: B
OL: A-
WR: A
A quick 3 & out followed by a horribly missed field goal wasn’t the type of start to install much confidence in this performance, right? Things ended up completely fine as the offense scored on 6 out of their final 8 drives, which includes the fumble by Rico Flores on a targeting review that went against the Irish. I’m pretty sure the offense was going to get points on that drive, too.
Sam Hartman looked off to begin the game then put together his best game in a good long while.
We actually got things going with wide receivers! Guys were making plays! A functional passing offense spreading the ball throughout the roster–what is this witchcraft? Funny enough, the most consistent of the bunch this year, Chris Tyree, struggled the most with only 1 catch for 0 yards on 3 targets, despite nearly making an elbow pit-to-helmet circus catch that was sadly overturned.
Despite the fumble, Rico Flores totaled 102 yards to become the first Irish receiver to break the century mark since approximately 2014, or so it feels. Tobias Merriweather made a nice touchdown catch, Jaden Greathouse showed some speed scoring, and Jordan Faison continues to develop into a nice weapon while scoring, as well.
Rushing Success
Estime – 16 of 22
Price – 1 of 2
Payne – 0 of 2
Love – 2 of 4
It was nice to see tight end Eli Raridon have a breakout game in his young career after fighting through so many injuries. He caught all 3 targets and brought in an excellent throw from Hartman on a play that you wouldn’t have faulted him for dropping in that type of spotlight. I like the way he moves as a pass catcher.
Given the 2 new starters on the offensive line I rated this a really good job for that unit. Hartman was pressured a few times but this solid Wake Forest defense really struggled to make plays at the line of scrimmage (under 13% stuffs is really bad for a P5 defense) and finished with a paltry 3 tackles for loss after being so productive at this in 2023.
The run game was fine. Estime had his moments and looked close to breaking a couple long ones but they never came. Explosive plays of 15, 19, and 21 yards on the ground from Estime wasn’t amazing yet the overall success rate was stellar. I don’t love 5 unsuccessful carries from the other running backs–I’d like to see them get going a little more. Hopefully, they’re saving it all for Stanford.
Defense
DL: A
LB: B
DB: A
For a while, with Wake Forest gaining negative yardage (ungaining?) through the 1st quarter it looked like it could’ve been an extremely dark afternoon for the Demon Deacons. It wasn’t quite that, although not much better really.
They did manage some decent explosiveness on the ground finishing with 75 yards on their best 5 carries. However, if you saw the box score above just over a third successful carries is not a recipe to move the ball. Wake’s other 52 plays netted just 157 yards, or 3.0 yards per play. They resorted to some trickery to move the ball but just didn’t have the horses to move it effectively for more than very small spurts.
As suspected, first-time starter Michael Kern wasn’t able to help jump-start the Deacons’ offense. He threw the ball 20 times for a paltry 81 yards and the longest play through the air came from wideout Jahmal Banks’ trick play.
Briefly, it appeared Wake Forest found something on their 3rd and 4th series of the game. The first brought a touchdown (Notre Dame really looked to have switched off on this series) and followed that up with a missed field goal thanks to a block from Javontae Jean-Baptiste who continues to move up the rankings as one of the best transfers in Notre Dame history.
The Deacons totaled a hefty 135 yards (58.1% of their game total) on those 2 drives and otherwise stunk up the joint.
Stuffs
Cross – 3
JJB – 3
Bertrand – 3
Kiser – 2.5
Harper – 1
Junior – 1
Onye – 1
Mills – 1
Henderson – 1
Gray – 1
Houstan – 1
Shuler – 1
Keanaaina – 0.5
Notre Dame has been neck and neck with Michigan and Ohio State for the best passer rating defense in the country and this game against Wake Forest was another defensive secondary masterclass. Although, no interceptions. Minnesota was similarly atrocious today against Ohio State while Maryland put up decent yards but no touchdowns with 2 interceptions against Michigan.
Will Al Golden be sticking around for 2024?
Final Thoughts
Unless something goes terribly wrong next weekend in Palo Alto this should be the first season since 2012 in which the Irish have not allowed an opponent to average 6 yards or more in a single game. Stanford hasn’t averaged 6 YPP in a regular season game since week 3 of 2022.
I continue to be impressed by Steve Angeli’s smoothness and poise in the backup role. It’s all we can really judge him by right now but he throws a really pretty ball and his mechanics seem really sound. There’s a chance he’s actually pretty good starting next year. I think some believe Minchey is going to pass Angeli this off-season and I frankly would be quite surprised to see that.
Christian Gray had the Fundamentals™ tackle of the season for a beautiful 3rd down stop.
Looking things over, Hartman only started this game 2 of 7 which tracks with the poor start. Finishing 19 of 22 for 259 yards and 4 touchdowns is a nice turnaround.
With those touchdown passes, Hartman passed Baker Mayfield, Rakeem Cato, and Colt Brennan to now sit 4th all-time. Three more touchdowns through the air and Hartman can finish in sole possession of 3rd all-time ahead of Graham Harrell.
Did you notice NaNa Osafo-Mensah extremely emotional with tears in his eyes at the end of the NBC broadcast? Would that mean he’s not coming back next year? I’m super interested to see what happens on the strong-side next year.
If you missed it, Notre Dame re-upped with NBC through 2029, a nice little news dump shortly before kickoff because why not then? Here’s a little snippet from an article I wrote in August 2022:
It’s interesting that the $75 million figure has been reported and is already being floated by Notre Dame–presumably there’s an intent there. Is Notre Dame actually okay with $60 million and aiming high? How will people feel if the new deal is lower than $75 million after these reports about such a high figure?
We’ll never see an “official” number but the reporting up through recent months was that Notre Dame was still seeking to triple the current deal. I’ve seen the $50 million per year number floated out there for the new deal which is probably close to accurate. The Irish currently get $10-12 million per year from the ACC deal for additional funds.
We knew this would be the outcome. Notre Dame is taking far less money to stay independent for good and for bad. To put this into perspective, assuming the $50 million figure is accurate, the Irish (through 2029) will make the same amount of money as Big Ten teams…who just finished their old contract in 2022. With their new TV deal, the Big Ten is looking to pay out at least $80 million and upwards of $100 million per team in the coming years. I should point out, both this NBC deal and the current Big Ten deal end at the same time.
Who won’t be watching next weekend’s game against Stanford live on the Pac-12 Network?
In the preview Drick said most notre dame wins are unsatisfying. Ironically this year 6-7 of the wins have actually been very satisfying. It seems when they play well they play really well.
With clemson winning today i’ve noticed all the teams that beat nd have used that game to propel their season forward and pretty much everyone who lost to nd had that game sink their season (usc, duke). Just kind of weird
Agree on Angeli, no idea what happens with him or if he’s really actually good but man every time he plays he looks very good.
Agreeance on all. I had a really fun time in my Paris living room myself — yes, when this bunch is playing well, they are fun to watch. Which is not always the case in CFB.
Yeah we’ve only played in 3 one score games (OSU Duke Clemson)
it almost makes you miss the crazy hair on fire seasons lol
almost
First 100 yard receiver in a game since the Fiesta Bowl, which is a great commentary on how Brian Kelly 2.0 left the program.
Don’t want to minimize the shortcomings and disappointments this season, but the way ND has absolutely crushed inferior teams has been nice to see, and a good improvement from last year.
Someone needs to give Freeman a course on clock management, although in his defense I saw multiple teams make his mistakes today so it’s not just him. Didn’t matter in this game, but it will in closer ones!
Not disagreeing with you on clock management, but could you spell that out a little? I thought the Hartmann TO was the problem more than MF, but I’m happy to be elucidated!
Don’t take the timeout! Just take the delay of game penalty, saving your TO matters way more than 5 yards. Hartman deserves his share of the blame for mismanaging it as well.
Got it. Thanks.
Hartman also threw a 3 yard pass and the receiver actually caught it. If Hartman executes by throwing it into the ground, or the receiver just lets it drop, then there is one free play to take an end zone shot.
Not only was the ball caught, but it was kind of a tough, diving catch.
Could have been our tight end was worried it was a fumble coming out…
This was my first ND game. I did my best to lose my voice and talking is difficult today. I was in the SE corner. On the blocked FG I got our whole section yelling to block it just before. And then got the section up and screaming just before WF was going for it on 4th and false started. Small victories!
The atmosphere seemed down at first but around the second quarter it seemed like the crowd starting getting into it. Overall it was a really fun game to be at.
Rudy — fantastic!!! With various amounts of gloom after the Clemson debacle, there was a lot of worry about how the crowd would react. I’m super glad that it sorted out so well, and (if you’ll forgive me for a tone which could be seen as patronizing), I’m delighted that you played a key role (the SE corner is not easy to fire up).
I’m glad for the seniors as well as all of us ND fans. Way to go!
Congrats on the 1st game!
Unusually good weather for Senior Day too, glad you had fun!
Especially compared to last year’s Senior Snow Day.
Eric,
I’ve never been happier when our 18S preview was misleading, in this case about this game gonna be frustrating. OK, the first drive or two, and then their damn TD drive, were, but basically it was just darn fun, as noted by others here.
Now, hey, how do we watch our final game vs The Tree? First, MF needs to kill a demon, that horribly stinky loss last year. Second, my in-laws had a fabulous 1896 house in Stanford’s “Professorville” about a mile from their stadium, and over the years I’ve attended maybe a dozen games there. But I gotta organize a Sunday Thanksgiving dinner for some homesick American grad students so I can’t go. Is there any way we can subscribe to the last game of the Pac 12 network, of which I have never heard?
So the streaming app fubo carrie’s the pac 12 network. you could sign up for a free trial then cancel after the game. I’m still torn on what i’m gonna do. our local high school team plays in state semifinals so i’ll leave it up to my son to pick
Merci!! I’ll see if my son can help me get this done from a French IP address!!
1st couple drives had me thinking about Parker….. 2nd and a foot or two on the 50, perfect time for a deep shot, nope, run up the middle. 3rd and 6 on about the 30, someone get open for 7-8 yds, nope, everyone go deep, 4th down, miss a FG….. They weren’t good thoughts.
This sounds interesting.
NBC Sports RSNs moving to Ross Video’s XPression platform
Ross CG and Video Graphics’ Piero
Always great to see the Seniors especially enjoying themselves and what they have accomplished in their sendoff.
The whole first half Hartman was giving some Drew Pyne vibes. Just underthrowing everything. The even the touchdowns to Ford and Tobias were underthrown. He could have had two more touchdowns to Faison and Tyree too, and they almost both bailed him out with circus catches.
Second half he started by needlessly throwing off his back foot again to Raridon but still put it right on the money for the TD. Then he seemed to start stepping into his throws. Like the crosser to Greathouse, that’s not a TD unless he hits him right in stride.
Parker may be making some progress? Nobody was expecting Ford on the wheel route out of heavy. On the Raridon touchdown (heavy again) EVERYONE was open, all three crossers, and Hartman went high risk high reward for the TD.
Interesting that on the Alabama board they were talking about how Tommy was getting over his habit of turtling up on second and long by running up the middle for a “manageable” third down, and is now starting to take shots on second and long. Maybe Parker can learn too?
Also the play action worked beautifully. Nice to see Parker and Hartman get that going.
Last bit of the ramble here, I third the motion that Minchey must be special if he looks better than Angeli. Angeli just looks confident out there, which is probably to be expected given his age and time in the QB room. With the skill we may have at RB, TE, WR next year, we may just need a competent distributor who can sometimes scramble, and I’m optimistic that’s his floor.
Wait who has said that Minchey looks better than Angeli?
I thought it was people who just think at recruiting rankings and sort of expect that Minchey will pass Angeli up. Has their been actual reporting that Minchey actually looks better than Angeli (and looks better where?)?
The Irish Breakdown guys are very high on Kenny Minchey based on (they say) reports from practice. Minchey looked good the few snaps he played including the TD throw mentioned above.
I do believe Angeli is probably high floor/low ceiling and Minchey probably has a higher ceiling, just not sure he’ll get ahead of Angeli by next fall.
I feel like his pass to Raridon was likely the best throw of the season.
Vs. Pitt, his pass running to his left for a TD to Flanagan was pretty good too.
Have we even seen Minchey play a snap?
A snap sure, several. But his stat line is just 2-2 for 12 yds.
Fun Senior Day.
Let us all take a moment to laugh heartily at Southern Cal. No. 6 to 7-5. Not quite the Full Kiffin, but close.
They had as many turnovers as rushing yards yesterday (3)
They say teams take on traits of their head coach…
I am actually ecstatic that we exposed them and launched their downfall skid to zilchness
I could not have been more wrong about Lincoln Riley at USC, and I could not be happier about that
Also, Jac happily announcing the NBC extension was darkly funny.
hooray i don’t have to get a job like a normal person
The incredible thing is that it’s within the realm of possibility that the ND Athletic Department made the extension contingent on Jac staying as play-by-play, instead of being contingent on getting better announcers.
I would be very surprised if Jac’s status was even part of the discussions. Even if ND weren’t on NBC, Jac would likely at least be part of the B1G/Peacock bench.
Jac, no, Bevacqua, yes.
Flores feels very TJ Jones-y, no?
Yeah I agree but he feels a lot farther along so early on
Going to be an interesting depth chart next year…
Field: Flores/Meriweather/James?
Boundary: Thomas/Colzie?
Slot: Faison/Greathouse?
And is Cam Williams projected to be a field/slot tweener like Flores?
Good news is we can handle some bad injury luck and still have a decent rotation.
Tyree could be back too; I don’t think anything has been announced with him yet.
Looking at all our bowl projections I think the most interesting has to be Ole Miss in the Outback Bowl.
It would probably end up being our highest ranked opponent that we can conceivably face (although I think far from the best) and it’s an opponent Notre Dame hasn’t played much (1-1 all time) or recently (1985 last meeting)
But maybe I’m just saying this because the idea of waterboarding Lane Kiffin on New Year’s Day is very appealing
And ND has played LSU plenty in bowls – no other media attention would surround that bowl game. I’ve also seen both Oklahoma St & Oregon St as potential matchups. Has Notre Dame ever beaten an OSU team in a bowl game?
Sadly, ND is 0-5 in bowl games vs all flavors of OSU.
I just dug deeper, they’ve only played Oklahoma & Oregon states in bowls and are 2-5 total against Ohio State, so they’re 2-8 combined all-time against OSUs
Yup, and sadly those two wins are nearly 100 years ago