SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Jarrett Patterson didn’t make it to Kyle Field last weekend with teammate Kurt Hinish, two former Notre Dame players now with the Houston Texans. Hinish got to watch his brother, Donovan, help anchor an Irish defense that held the Aggies down. Patterson, a two-time captain, watched from back home in Houston, unable to get a second sideline pass to accommodate his fiancee.
But even if Patterson didn’t see Notre Dame’s 23-13 win in person, he still liked what he saw, from Marcus Freeman’s pregame explosion to how the offensive line grew into the game. Patterson, who repped at center, guard and tackle during his five seasons at Notre Dame, thought Freeman hit all the right notes, which ultimately turned into Jeremiyah Love’s 21-yard touched to win it.
“When the guys saw coach Freeman, how fired up he was going into a super hostile place, it let them play free,” Patterson said. “They made some mistakes, but the way they bounced back and didn’t let that affect them, that’s what you want to see. That’s the kind of game they needed at this point in his tenure at Notre Dame.”
What comes next — Notre Dame opens at home against Northern Illinois on Saturday (3:30 p.m. ET, NBC) — could be a cautionary tale or at least a riddle for the offensive line to solve. Patterson said the challenge for Notre Dame’s young line will be the fact it beat Texas A&M’s defensive front last weekend, meaning Northern Illinois won’t try to match up that way.
“A&M thought they could play our guys versus yours, they’re not gonna blitz a lot on first and second down. They thought their guys were better than ours. That didn’t work out,” Patterson said. “The challenge is every time we played a program not known for football, there’s always a ton of movement. The team I thought did a good job of that was Marshall — blitzes everywhere, movement every play.”
Notre Dame lost to Marshall in 2022 the week after burning fuel at Ohio State. A year earlier, the Irish outlasted Florida State in Tallahassee, then returned home to escape Toledo. When Notre Dame opened with a signature win over Michigan in 2018, a week later it was pushed into the fourth quarter by Ball State.
It could make Northern Illinois more interesting than Notre Dame might want it to be.
The starting offensive line still returns just 11 career starts, even if that’s up from six last week.
“Once you put on tape that you can run the ball against a good defensive line like A&M, teams don’t try to do what they did, they change it up,” Patterson said. “The best way to handle that is play fast. If you play slow, that’s when the movement comes, guys getting in the gaps. Then it’s second-and-12.”
Patterson believes Notre Dame’s offensive line will find its footing eventually. But what the Irish have at full throttle now is something Patterson has a better appreciation for after two seasons in the NFL.
“Al Golden is a cheat code,” Patterson said. “That NFL style of defense, well, in the NFL there are so many more pass protection rules. They can’t teach those in college and Al knows that, how to get certain looks. You see guys come unblocked, college teams don’t know how to to counter an NFL style defense.
“The defense is going to be elite this year. It’s going to be fun to watch.”
Here are three other questions Notre Dame can answer on Saturday, plus a prediction.
Is Riley Leonard the passer a concern … or not?
Freeman wasn’t exactly offended by the question, but he assumed a defensive position when an inquiry into Leonard’s game described his ability to take deep shots as not “necessarily on his list of strengths” after an 18-of-30 debut for just 158 yards.
“I think a strength of Riley Leonard is pushing the ball down the field. That’s just my opinion as his coach,” Freeman said. “I’m no quarterback guru, but I do feel strongly about being able to say, let’s take some shots and throw it down the field.”
We’ll see.
Notre Dame’s conservative game plan last weekend was built around the need to protect its quarterback with a starting offensive line that returned six career starts. Texas A&M’s defensive front made deep shots a risk not worth taking, as much as offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock wanted to.
Northern Illinois and every game afterward will be different. Notre Dame’s line should be better. Its opponent will be worse. So, can Leonard take advantage? Seven of his completions last week were behind the line of scrimmage. Another six were completed under five yards. Is that rule or exception?
“It’s frustrating for some maybe to have to see us flinging a screen pass on third-and-13, but in front of 107,000 fans with a lot of new faces up front, what gives our football team the best chance to win?” Denbrock said. “And we were doing such a good job and playing so well defensively, the flow of the game and all those things go into the way I call the game and the way I think about playing the game.”
This weekend won’t have the same level of pressure. Leonard needs to take advantage … with his arm.
Riley Leonard threw for 158 yards in his Notre Dame debut. (Maria Lysaker / USA Today)
Did the Irish find a breakout player last week?
It takes a unique set of circumstances to do what Jordan Botelho may do this season.
He’s a former national recruit who arrived at Notre Dame as the next big thing. And then he wasn’t, sent home by Brian Kelly as a freshman for disciplinary reasons before being made almost redundant as the Irish recruited over him. But Botelho stayed, even if most of the signals should have told him to leave.
Now Notre Dame’s defense is better for it. Botelho may be too, turning in the standout performance among all defensive linemen against Texas A&M. Botelho’s 49 snaps played were one off Howard Cross III for most at the position. Botelho has topped that number only twice before in his career, not that his performances against Ohio State or NC State was predictive of what happened last Saturday.
“Arguably the best performance the other night,” Golden said. “He played really well. He played with high energy. He’s playing fast. He’s not making errors. So he’s eliminated all the distractions from his game and he’s just playing really hard.”
If the Botelho that Notre Dame got at Texas A&M is the one it gets the rest of this season, the Irish defense could be the nation’s best, considering the other talent on hand. Pro Football Focus rated Botelho as the second-best defensive starter last week, after Xavier Watts. Botelho finished with six tackles and two quarterback hurries.
“What I’ve seen him be able to do in my four years here is turn talent into an actual skill set,” Freeman said. “He’s a very talented football player. But talent and skill are two different things, and that’s what you’ve seen Jordan be able to do, develop his talent into true skill that is now becoming production for this defense.”
Collins led Notre Dame’s receivers in targets, snaps and almost-penalties last week. And all three of those things matter moving forward as the Irish search for a lead receiver in a unit that appears improved from last season, even if it’s not clear how good the group can be.
Collins posted five catches for 62 yards on seven targets at Texas A&M, logging 59 snaps. His acrobatic 20-yard grab from Leonard on a back-shoulder throw helped Notre Dame build its game-winning drive late in the fourth quarter. It also almost cost the Irish 15 yards when Collins taunted a Texas A&M defensive back and shoved him in the back after the play, right in front of an official.
“The ref walked up to me and he was like, hey, man, you need to calm down, blah, blah, blah,” Collins said. “We watched the film. Actually, he put his hand on the flag, but took it off. That’s the luck of the Irish right there.
“It almost cost us big-time.”
Notre Dame can do without the extracurriculars, but the 6-foot-3, 206-pound receiver may be essential in making Notre Dame’s passing game go. The Irish don’t have another body type in the rotation like the Clemson transfer, part of the reason why Collins played so much at Texas A&M.
If Collins can make last Saturday night and every-week performance, short of the shove, he’s likely to lead Notre Dame in work rate among the wideouts. The Irish don’t need him to be Chase Claypool or Miles Boykin, but they need a physical presence on the perimeter.
“Beaux is a guy who, his body can handle a lot,” Freeman said. “He practices at a really high level and he played at a high level.”
Prediction
On paper, Northern Illinois returns 18 starters from last season. In reality, not all of them are expected to play against Notre Dame, including standout defensive end Raishein Thomas, who led the Huskies in tackles last season and all defensive linemen nationally. Thomas didn’t play last week against Western Illinois.
NIU also has a new quarterback in Ethan Hampton (18-of-20 for 328 yards and five TDs last week) and a strong run game. Point being, Northern Illinois is a solid MAC program, not one Notre Dame will automatically brush aside. That might be a good thing as the Irish offense continues to build under Denbrock. Look for Notre Dame’s defense to hold down Northern Illinois while Leonard stretches his arm in the pass game.
Notre Dame 37, Northern Illinois 10
(Top photo of Marcus Freeman: Jack Gorman / Getty Images)
