Notre Dame offensively will be the most physical football team we've faced since our short handed debacle trying to tackle Lynn Bowden behind a very good offensive line back in 2019. In fact I was really probing my memory banks to recall a program that is as physical as the ND squad we'll face Saturday and stopped trying to compare them to Clemson in 2016 because Clemson's O line was fairly average and defensively they had that little butt picker Broussard. Their defensive attack and scheme with how aggressive their corner are in bump-and-run coverage and their length in the tackle box reminds me of the really good Pitt defenses we've seen that we sometimes overlook preseason. They beat you up.
The first thing you notice when you watch ND on television is offensively, they are big. They are big on the O line, they are big at TE, and Estime at 6"0, 230 is a big RB. And if that weren't enough they are big at two of the three WR positions at 6"4, 205 and 6"2, 220. They have a RG named Rocco who is just a garden variety 6"5, 315 which is dwarfed by Alt's 6"8, 325. And did I mention--his name is Rocco. Their Center's name is Zeke. Rocco, Zeke, Alt, Coogan...sounds like a Bar Fight possibility in some Southy Bar in Boston. Notre Dame's offensive line fits every stereotype of the Classic Notre Dame offensive linemen of being Teutonic from the Midwest and Great Lakes states. If Jeff Brohm wants a street fight between the whistles, he damned sure has one when we are on defense and might want to slip some brass knuckles in as an equalizer.
So the defensive staff is going to have to break a number of schematic trends and get exotic on a down-to-down basis so we're not spending the night defensively in 3rd and 2. From the series of downs I have rewatched with Duke, Duke gave us a clear look because they physically are similar to Louisville (we're probably a little more athletic at LB than Duke and deeper at DT). Notre Dame on their first scoring drive took that physical disparity and ran bunch of formations where they had everybody tight in the formation, and went toe-to-toe across the formation with multiple big bodies. I had said coming out of the GA Tech game I wasn't comfortable with our combination of LBs in concert with our Safeties because they were good at covering ground tackle to tackle, but deficient when they had to attack the LOS of scrimmage right at the A or B gap. I have warmed to them but there's no question that perceived deficiency will be challenged significantly more against ND because they prefer the sledgehammer over a bunch of window dressing. IU and Ga Tech were all about window dressing to setup RPOs. Normally when you say a player "draws a tough assignment" you are talking about a corner on a WR (and by the way, ND's corners are outstanding)...but our toughest assignment is going to be Gillotte trying to anchor the edge when he's heads up with ND's AA OT Joe Alt. If I'm ND my first priority is taking starch out of Gillotte's pass rush, and I'm doing it running right at him with a big back off of the blocks of my big OTs. Herron will have the same war waged on the opposite edge. We are better connoitered than we were against Kentucky back then because we have as deep a corps of DTs as we've seen since Strong was at Louisville, but much will be asked of Gillotte and Herron Saturday night. For my money, that's where the football game will be won or lost for Louisville. Notre Dame can kill two birds with one stone bludgeoning our edge, and Job One for Ron English's defense is to make 2nd and 8 or 9 the norm for Notre Dame. If it's 2nd and 5 or 3rd and 2 at midfield commonly our strategy changes from attack to survive and then finally to hope. And as a wise man once said, Hope isn't a strategy. Another wise man once said Hope is a good thing Red, but for some reason I don't think he was either a Cincinnati Red or wearing Red like we will Saturday night (I guess).
In the Ying and Yang of a college football game our chore gets greater if we don't turn Notre Dame over; as I implied earlier hoping Hartman turns the ball over isn't a strategy and it's tough to turnover big people with smaller people. The best way to do it is on long yardage downs and in those downs you simply have to get into Hartman's throwing lanes and by extension in his face. He might not throw INTs at all this season, but flush him out of the pocket and pursue him from behind? That becomes our strength on his weakness, and we've seen what can happen. I like what we have overall defensively, or as I stated earlier, I have warmed to it (especially Cam'Ron Kelly and TJ Quinn; I'd still prefer a Stanquan Clark sort over Alderman in a game like this). I'm not wild about this matchup as it applies to Notre Dame, but am a little encouraged that they struggled to move the ball themselves against OSU and Duke, and those are two good defensive attacks and schemes right now that we have to compare ourselves against. We have to remember and play to our strengths--really good cover corners, very high end sideline-to-sideline LBs, very good--and varied skill set DTs, an outstanding edge pass rusher and a safety group that appears to be starting to gel.
The first thing you notice when you watch ND on television is offensively, they are big. They are big on the O line, they are big at TE, and Estime at 6"0, 230 is a big RB. And if that weren't enough they are big at two of the three WR positions at 6"4, 205 and 6"2, 220. They have a RG named Rocco who is just a garden variety 6"5, 315 which is dwarfed by Alt's 6"8, 325. And did I mention--his name is Rocco. Their Center's name is Zeke. Rocco, Zeke, Alt, Coogan...sounds like a Bar Fight possibility in some Southy Bar in Boston. Notre Dame's offensive line fits every stereotype of the Classic Notre Dame offensive linemen of being Teutonic from the Midwest and Great Lakes states. If Jeff Brohm wants a street fight between the whistles, he damned sure has one when we are on defense and might want to slip some brass knuckles in as an equalizer.
So the defensive staff is going to have to break a number of schematic trends and get exotic on a down-to-down basis so we're not spending the night defensively in 3rd and 2. From the series of downs I have rewatched with Duke, Duke gave us a clear look because they physically are similar to Louisville (we're probably a little more athletic at LB than Duke and deeper at DT). Notre Dame on their first scoring drive took that physical disparity and ran bunch of formations where they had everybody tight in the formation, and went toe-to-toe across the formation with multiple big bodies. I had said coming out of the GA Tech game I wasn't comfortable with our combination of LBs in concert with our Safeties because they were good at covering ground tackle to tackle, but deficient when they had to attack the LOS of scrimmage right at the A or B gap. I have warmed to them but there's no question that perceived deficiency will be challenged significantly more against ND because they prefer the sledgehammer over a bunch of window dressing. IU and Ga Tech were all about window dressing to setup RPOs. Normally when you say a player "draws a tough assignment" you are talking about a corner on a WR (and by the way, ND's corners are outstanding)...but our toughest assignment is going to be Gillotte trying to anchor the edge when he's heads up with ND's AA OT Joe Alt. If I'm ND my first priority is taking starch out of Gillotte's pass rush, and I'm doing it running right at him with a big back off of the blocks of my big OTs. Herron will have the same war waged on the opposite edge. We are better connoitered than we were against Kentucky back then because we have as deep a corps of DTs as we've seen since Strong was at Louisville, but much will be asked of Gillotte and Herron Saturday night. For my money, that's where the football game will be won or lost for Louisville. Notre Dame can kill two birds with one stone bludgeoning our edge, and Job One for Ron English's defense is to make 2nd and 8 or 9 the norm for Notre Dame. If it's 2nd and 5 or 3rd and 2 at midfield commonly our strategy changes from attack to survive and then finally to hope. And as a wise man once said, Hope isn't a strategy. Another wise man once said Hope is a good thing Red, but for some reason I don't think he was either a Cincinnati Red or wearing Red like we will Saturday night (I guess).
In the Ying and Yang of a college football game our chore gets greater if we don't turn Notre Dame over; as I implied earlier hoping Hartman turns the ball over isn't a strategy and it's tough to turnover big people with smaller people. The best way to do it is on long yardage downs and in those downs you simply have to get into Hartman's throwing lanes and by extension in his face. He might not throw INTs at all this season, but flush him out of the pocket and pursue him from behind? That becomes our strength on his weakness, and we've seen what can happen. I like what we have overall defensively, or as I stated earlier, I have warmed to it (especially Cam'Ron Kelly and TJ Quinn; I'd still prefer a Stanquan Clark sort over Alderman in a game like this). I'm not wild about this matchup as it applies to Notre Dame, but am a little encouraged that they struggled to move the ball themselves against OSU and Duke, and those are two good defensive attacks and schemes right now that we have to compare ourselves against. We have to remember and play to our strengths--really good cover corners, very high end sideline-to-sideline LBs, very good--and varied skill set DTs, an outstanding edge pass rusher and a safety group that appears to be starting to gel.
Last edited:
