Typical of a program whose head coach is a former Power 5 defensive coordinator, Marcus Freeman's Notre Dame is built around their defense. It is lengthy, it is physical and their linebackers are very active. The first thing that jumped out to me while watching parts of Duke and Ohio State is they don't play bump-and-run with their corners, they attack the WR in their route and stay on them in a way very similar to how Clemson did when Venables was their DC. The 1st half of the game down in Clemson in 2016 was spent with their corners establishing and escalating a standard that we didn't adjust to until the 2nd half. File that away, because it will become important as it applies to Saturday night. There are ways to beat it and use that against any defense.
The goal for Louisville is the same as it would be for any opponent, get the ball into the hands of Jordan and Thrash into space. Get that into their hands in pockets of space where they are 1v1--optimally while they are on the move, and even better if that 1 in the 1v1 is an LB. You can add any number of our other receivers as Calloway and Coleman are good after the catch; Bell is a physical threat on seam routes and fades which are pressure beaters.
I will be shocked if we have Ga Tech, BC or IU level success on the ground. If we do Notre Dame will be in a track meet and that really isn't their game. The Classic mantra of passes to the RBs being extensions of the running game will be a reality and I'd add another...with the way ND hugs receivers with their corners you are going to see rub and shallow crossing routes at a volume we haven't seen yet this year. As I said the other night, I lost some faith in Plummer but as I said earlier after rewatching parts of last Friday night's game, Brohm owes a lot of Plummer's failures to his own play calling and scheme and that was the case with each of the three turnovers. Play action passing when you aren't running the football does absolutely nothing more than turn the QB's body, footwork and more importantly his eyes away from reading the defensive keys while the play evolves. It's like turning around in the grocery store aisle and seeing a semi bearing down on you and you have half a second to dive away from it. Would any of us be able to hold onto the loaf of bread under those circumstances?
The big winners Saturday night--provided we block ND--will be the slot people for Louisville. Down the road TEs would flourish in a game like this one. But this Saturday we need to see production from Huggins-Bruce, Coleman, Calloway, et al. and it will need to be in chunks. Louisville defensively is good at tackling quickly after a reception and it's a reflection of the scheme but also the closing speed of the back seven. Notre Dame is no different but lengthier, so it's incumbent on Brohm to construct a gameplan of getting that length and physicality to chase quick receivers. I'd say that by the end of the first quarter those of you in the Crunch Zone or the Adidas endzone will feel like you've watched a scene from Midway where there were midair collisions that looked like a swarm of bees everywhere because it's going to be our quickest skill players crossing en masse virtually anytime we pass the football. Play action will be left for deep shots...but that will have to be setup.
Think back to the really big games and the really big environments since 2000 where you know there was a symbiotic relationship between the energy in the Stadium and the play on the field. The Three home games in '06 that saw double digit plus wins over Kentucky, Miami and West Virginia...the UK game and West Virginia we got off to fairly fast starts; the Miami game sort of a slow start but an early forced fumble in the red zone stunted Miami and Louisville came out of the locker room in the 3rd quarter and the defense put a charge into the crowd with a big hit and turnover by Jon Russell and immediately had Cantwell hit Harry Douglass for a deep post to the 3 yard line. It was delirium from that point on. Ditto the Blackout where WVU was pinned in front of the Crunch Zone for the first half of the 3rd quarter and we had a combination of huge hits (Nate Harris' hit on an Owen Schmidt who was treated like Thor before that hit), a strip and return of Pat White, a forced three and out where Trent Guy housed a punt. The energy in the stadium and the play on the field built like a Tsunami. Florida State in 2016...really fast start with the offense getting big chunks and putting FSU immediately on their heels...and it kept building until Jaire Alexander's punt return for a TD blew the roof and signaled officially that FSU's day and Title hopes were dead early in the 3rd quarter...and they weren't going to overcome a big lead like they did two years before when we blew a 28-7 lead.
I use all of that as prologue because they all had Big Game, Big Performance and Big Wins as common denominators but there is one thing they don't have in common with Saturday Night...and that is that it will BE a Saturday Night. I think we can all agree that a Louisville fan base well lubricated at 7:30 on a Saturday night is a whole other level than at noon on a Saturday against FSU, 3:30 on a Saturday against Miami or 8:00 on the Sunday night Labor Day weekend like the UK game in '06. The Blackout was almost surreal as a Thursday night game with a #3 vs. #5 matchup and we were really consumed with revenge over the '05 game in a way we as a fanbase haven't been before or since. Besides, Fall Break is concluding for schools, people should be back from wherever they went and all of the teachers in JCPS and the Parochial Schools will have gotten the St. James Art Fair out of the way Friday into Saturday. Everything in this town is building towards 7:30 Saturday Night.
This one Saturday night feels like the culmination of years of frustration for fans over missed opportunities, lost 4th quarter leads and a former Coach who just choked on the bit so many times in the 4th quarter--and so often at home.
I think we are sitting on a big game Saturday night.
The goal for Louisville is the same as it would be for any opponent, get the ball into the hands of Jordan and Thrash into space. Get that into their hands in pockets of space where they are 1v1--optimally while they are on the move, and even better if that 1 in the 1v1 is an LB. You can add any number of our other receivers as Calloway and Coleman are good after the catch; Bell is a physical threat on seam routes and fades which are pressure beaters.
I will be shocked if we have Ga Tech, BC or IU level success on the ground. If we do Notre Dame will be in a track meet and that really isn't their game. The Classic mantra of passes to the RBs being extensions of the running game will be a reality and I'd add another...with the way ND hugs receivers with their corners you are going to see rub and shallow crossing routes at a volume we haven't seen yet this year. As I said the other night, I lost some faith in Plummer but as I said earlier after rewatching parts of last Friday night's game, Brohm owes a lot of Plummer's failures to his own play calling and scheme and that was the case with each of the three turnovers. Play action passing when you aren't running the football does absolutely nothing more than turn the QB's body, footwork and more importantly his eyes away from reading the defensive keys while the play evolves. It's like turning around in the grocery store aisle and seeing a semi bearing down on you and you have half a second to dive away from it. Would any of us be able to hold onto the loaf of bread under those circumstances?
The big winners Saturday night--provided we block ND--will be the slot people for Louisville. Down the road TEs would flourish in a game like this one. But this Saturday we need to see production from Huggins-Bruce, Coleman, Calloway, et al. and it will need to be in chunks. Louisville defensively is good at tackling quickly after a reception and it's a reflection of the scheme but also the closing speed of the back seven. Notre Dame is no different but lengthier, so it's incumbent on Brohm to construct a gameplan of getting that length and physicality to chase quick receivers. I'd say that by the end of the first quarter those of you in the Crunch Zone or the Adidas endzone will feel like you've watched a scene from Midway where there were midair collisions that looked like a swarm of bees everywhere because it's going to be our quickest skill players crossing en masse virtually anytime we pass the football. Play action will be left for deep shots...but that will have to be setup.
Think back to the really big games and the really big environments since 2000 where you know there was a symbiotic relationship between the energy in the Stadium and the play on the field. The Three home games in '06 that saw double digit plus wins over Kentucky, Miami and West Virginia...the UK game and West Virginia we got off to fairly fast starts; the Miami game sort of a slow start but an early forced fumble in the red zone stunted Miami and Louisville came out of the locker room in the 3rd quarter and the defense put a charge into the crowd with a big hit and turnover by Jon Russell and immediately had Cantwell hit Harry Douglass for a deep post to the 3 yard line. It was delirium from that point on. Ditto the Blackout where WVU was pinned in front of the Crunch Zone for the first half of the 3rd quarter and we had a combination of huge hits (Nate Harris' hit on an Owen Schmidt who was treated like Thor before that hit), a strip and return of Pat White, a forced three and out where Trent Guy housed a punt. The energy in the stadium and the play on the field built like a Tsunami. Florida State in 2016...really fast start with the offense getting big chunks and putting FSU immediately on their heels...and it kept building until Jaire Alexander's punt return for a TD blew the roof and signaled officially that FSU's day and Title hopes were dead early in the 3rd quarter...and they weren't going to overcome a big lead like they did two years before when we blew a 28-7 lead.
I use all of that as prologue because they all had Big Game, Big Performance and Big Wins as common denominators but there is one thing they don't have in common with Saturday Night...and that is that it will BE a Saturday Night. I think we can all agree that a Louisville fan base well lubricated at 7:30 on a Saturday night is a whole other level than at noon on a Saturday against FSU, 3:30 on a Saturday against Miami or 8:00 on the Sunday night Labor Day weekend like the UK game in '06. The Blackout was almost surreal as a Thursday night game with a #3 vs. #5 matchup and we were really consumed with revenge over the '05 game in a way we as a fanbase haven't been before or since. Besides, Fall Break is concluding for schools, people should be back from wherever they went and all of the teachers in JCPS and the Parochial Schools will have gotten the St. James Art Fair out of the way Friday into Saturday. Everything in this town is building towards 7:30 Saturday Night.
This one Saturday night feels like the culmination of years of frustration for fans over missed opportunities, lost 4th quarter leads and a former Coach who just choked on the bit so many times in the 4th quarter--and so often at home.
I think we are sitting on a big game Saturday night.
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