Notre Dame’s Gut-Check: Why the Irish Must Bounce Back After Miami

Liam Farrell
2 days ago
3 min read

While Notre Dame's loss to Miami was gut-wrenching, the Irish still have plenty of hope and time before fans can hit the panic button.

Football players in white jerseys and gold helmets walk in a dim hallway. Number "6" visible, mood is focused and intense.

Notre Dame's Sunday night loss to Miami was certainly a disappointing affair that raised both hope and concern for the upcoming season. The promise of a rising star quarterback and the lack of defensive physicality highlighted each end of the spectrum.

Many will over-exaggerate the loss, and yes, there is plenty to fix, but ultimately, it took a Top 10 team at home: +2 in the turnover battle, a miraculous one-handed TD catch, and a 47-yard game-winning field goal to sink the Irish.

Notre Dame will be fine.

However, this week's IDLE for Notre Dame will be an interesting one to maneuver. While other schools get the momentum of working forward after starting the season, the Irish have to go back to practice mode with an early week two bye. With tons of practice, mostly along the offensive and defensive line, this could ultimately benefit the Irish.

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As Texas A&M strolls into South Bend in a week, the Aggies will do so with a revamped offense from a year ago. Marcel Reed has continued to develop as a passer, which can be attributed to an increased wide receiving core that features two premier transfers, Mario Craver and KC Conception.

However, in the Aggies' week one victory against UTSA, the Texas A&M defense did struggle to defend the Roadrunners' rushing attack. UTSA's running back, Robert Henry Jr. rushed for 177 yards and two touchdowns.

After the Miami game plan that drew much heat, Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock will almost certainly feed the Irish backfield more. Redshirt Freshman CJ Carr is now acquainted in the offense, the Irish will be in a controlled setting at home, and Notre Dame, hopefully, won't be playing from behind the entire game. This recipe equals a heavy workload for Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price. While still playing into the run, the Irish also need to utilize play action passing into the offense. Carr has already shown his prowess in his intermediate to downfield passing, so if you feature Love and Price more in the offense, more holes will open on the backend.

While still focusing on the task at hand, Notre Dame and Marcus Freeman have already established their ability to bounce back from a disappointing loss. There is no question that Freeman has been all-in to figure out what went wrong in Miami, and his post-game speech last Sunday does nothing but confirm that thought.

For reference, in last year's CFP, there were seven two-loss teams that made the playoff. The Irish can certainly bounce back from a three-point week one loss on the road to the No. 10 team in the country. It is just a matter of playing into the team's strengths to maximize their true potential. As troubling as it may seem, this season's roster, that is arguably the most loaded in Freeman's tenure, enters a do-or-die game next week, because an 0-2 start, even with respectable losses, is one that will be difficult to overcome.

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