It’s not just a lot of college football fans who have warmed up to Notre Dame these days. Rival football coaches seem to love Marcus Freeman’s team too.
“I don’t think people realize how good of a team Notre Dame is,” said one defensive backs coach who faced the Irish in the Playoff. “I didn’t realize it till we played them. They’re f—— really good. Their DBs, man … their defense is aggressive. Al Golden does a great job, and their special teams is off the chain. That guy (special teams coordinator Marty Biagi) is great. He tries to block almost every single punt. He just does all the (stuff) that you hate. They are so well coached as a team, and they have good synergy going on. From the outside, I like how it looks.”
The Irish are eight-point underdogs in Monday’s CFP championship game against Ohio State. Notre Dame was a 1.5-point favorite against Georgia and handled the Bulldogs, 23-10. Notre Dame was a 1.5-underdog against Penn State and won 27-24. Ohio State, though, is a much more complete team. The Buckeyes receivers are more explosive than anything the Irish have seen in the postseason. The Athletic spoke to a half-dozen opposing coaches who have faced Notre Dame and most of them said they wouldn’t be surprised if the Irish pull off the upset. The coaches were granted anonymity for their unfiltered breakdowns.
“Right now, everyone knows Ohio State is playing their best,” said the DBs coach, “but Notre Dame is really good, I’m telling you, they’re really good.
“Here’s what they are: When you watch them warm up, they are not that impressive physically, but man, they’re tough and they’re gritty,” said a defensive coordinator who also faced ND in the Playoff. “They don’t beat themselves. They are great on special teams and really good on defense. Their offense gives you problems.”
Quarterback Riley Leonard is not a guy who draws raves from NFL scouts. He’s thrown for 2,606 yards and has a modest 19-to-9 TD-to-INT ratio. As one of the defensive coordinators who played the Irish this season said, “When you look at their drop-back pass game, he doesn’t make a lot of impressive NFL-type throws.” Leonard hasn’t thrown for 250 yards or more in a game this season, but he’s rushed for 16 touchdowns and 866 yards. More impressive, Leonard’s sparking the most efficient third-down offense in the Playoff with Notre Dame converting on 22 of 44 attempts.
“Their quarterback can beat you with his legs,” said the DC who played the Irish in the Playoff. “He can get first downs, which is big. He’s bigger than you think, and more athletic than you think.”
“He is super long and he’s faster than I thought,” said another defensive coordinator who faced the Irish late in the season. “He covers a lot of ground. We had a few opportunities with our DBs and linebackers with free shots and we either missed or bounced off of him. You really have to wrap that guy up. He’s big.”
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The book on the Irish passing game is it’s fairly limited.
“Leonard does a great job with slot fades, fades on the outside and sails,” said a DC who played the Irish late in the regular season. “Their explosive plays came from the same concept over and over again.”
Wideout Jaden Greathouse had a big game in the win over Penn State, catching seven passes for 105 yards and a touchdown. But in the previous five games, he never surpassed more than 17 yards receiving. If Ohio State isn’t careful, Notre Dame can catch it for a big pass play at a key moment.
“(Greathouse) tore it up,” said the DB coach. “He made three critical plays in the game. He’s their slot fade guy. We knew that going in. Slot fade is their No. 1 thing, and you cannot let them do that. And they hit it against Penn State in their most critical moment.”
Jaden Greathouse caught a season-high seven passes for 105 yards in the semifinal against Penn State. (Nathan Ray Seebeck / Imagn Images)
The coach said if the defensive back is disciplined and keeps leverage outside, that shuts down the play.
The DC who played Notre Dame in the Playoff said the receivers have a good knack for making contested catches. “We had several plays where we had guys draped all over them and they still caught the ball,” he said, adding that tight end Mitchell Evans is a stud. “He’s is better than people think. He doesn’t drop balls and they all block well.”
“All of (their receivers) are solid,” said the DB coach. “Nothing special in my eyes. It was their run game in totality, with their quarterback run game. You gotta do what you gotta do in the pass game (defensively) when the quarterback can run. Their plus-one run game was the best we saw. They’re really good schematically. There are no advantages you can create because they’ll run it any kind of way with that quarterback once they get in the right situations in third- or fourth-and-short, or anything near the goal line. It could be Quarterback Zone, Quarterback Power, Quarterback Read, Quarterback Duo — there are all these different runs, man, and you don’t know which one they’re gonna do. The other thing they do a really good job of, is they self-scout really well. They know their tendencies.
“There’s somebody in the offensive room that coaches defense, and it’s probably the head coach (Marcus Freeman). They are 50-50 in most everything. It’s the way they shift and motion, and where the motions are landing, and how they’ll tempo up the motions. They were all defensive headaches. It’s a big advantage.”
It’s worth noting Irish offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock has a background as a defensive coach and spent three years as a DC at Grand Valley State.
The DBs coach said Notre Dame’s use of jet motion is good for how it times up with the snap to keep defenses off-balance. Sometimes, the defense may end up making a check right as the ball is being snapped.
“They’ll jog the guy. They’ll speed him up. They’ll speed him up, slow him down. They’ll motion him past the center and bring him back,” he said. “A lot of teams when they motion a guy back-and-forth, they’ll bring him from outside to right inside the tackle or the guard on that same side, but then they’ll bring him back out, that doesn’t change defenses. That doesn’t affect defense, but when you bring him across the center and then bring him, that affects defenses. It’s all good stuff. It’s a beautiful thing. You have to build your defense for that type of thing.”
The defensive coordinator who played Notre Dame in the Playoff is confident Denbrock will have a good plan for Ohio State.
“He will give you some different looks. They move their guys around a lot but they are a big final picture team, so you gotta do a good job of teaching your guys about what they’re gonna end up in before they snap the ball,” he said. “They will only huddle four or five times in a game. You gotta figure out where their guys are gonna end up because they do move them around quite a bit. You have to be pretty sharp to get a beat on it throughout the game. He will know what you struggle with.”
Notre Dame’s most dangerous weapon is running back Jeremiyah Love. He torched Indiana with a 98-yard touchdown run in the first round of the CFP but his knee got banged up against Georgia. Love, a 206-pound sophomore, only had 46 yards on 11 carries against Penn State, but his two-yard touchdown run in the second half, during which he broke five tackles, showed how special he is.
“Oh God, that was one of the greatest short runs ever!” said the DB coach. “I’m on the phone with another coach and I’m screaming into the phone: ‘Did you f—— see that?’ He jumped over the guy in the short area, made two or three miss and then friggin’ lowers his pads and powers his way in there. That was beautiful. I don’t think people realize how put together that dude is.”
Jeremiyah Love has rushed for over 1,000 yards this season for Notre Dame. (Sam Navarro / Imagn Images)
The DC who played Notre Dame in the past month said Love is elite. “He’ll probably be a little more healthy this week,” the coach predicted. “He may be the best running back in the country. He is really special.”
The other defensive coordinator who faced several other top NFL running back prospects agreed Love was the best running back he saw this year. “I’m telling you, he runs hard,” said the coach. “He’s super fast. He’s the real deal.”
That coach said there’s one other thing that makes the Irish offense such a headache to go up against. “They had the best coached offensive line we played all year,” he said. “If you looked at them individually, they’re good players — they weren’t the best we played individually but as a group, they were the best as they played as a group. They were always on the same page in protection. They played with great technique. They’re in sync. They push people off the ball. I was impressed.”
The Irish defense has been fierce despite losing its best cover man in corner Benjamin Morrison and sack leader Rylie Mills. Golden’s defense is No. 6 in the nation in fewest yards per play allowed. It also leads the nation in lowest completion percentage allowed at 50.7 percent. Georgia’s Gunnar Stockton was the only QB to complete over 60 percent for a game (62.5 percent). Eight quarterbacks have been held to 50 percent or under against Golden’s defense.
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The Irish play a lot of man coverage.
“When we played them earlier this season, they were still trying to find their way,” said one Power 4 receivers coach. “I think they’ve really done an excellent job of developing during the season. A lot of coaches like to talk about improving in-season. A lot of them don’t though. They did.
“They do play plenty of man coverage, but it’s hard for them to play all out man. They do a good job of mixing it up. And you can’t just play man coverage the entire game because if the running back breaks through the line of scrimmage, all the DBs have their backs to them, and it’s a big problem.”
In TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins, the Buckeyes have one of the most explosive 1-2 running back punches in college football.
“I’m very interested in seeing how they try to defend Ohio State,” said a DC who faced Ohio State in the second half of the season.” (Wideout Jeremiah) Smith is such a problem. We kept him in check. We had a good plan to bracket him and leverage him and at least not letting him be the reason why you lose the game but (Notre Dame) plays a lot of man and a lot of robber concept. The other issue with playing Ohio State is the backs are the problem. The receivers are what they are but you focus too much time on the receivers and those backs will just gash you and their O-line is just good enough.”
The DB coach who faced Notre Dame in the Playoff has been impressed by what he’s seen from the Irish secondary.
“Notre Dame can cover across the board,” he said. “Their DBs are friggin’ fast. They’re good. It’s impressive.
“I know as a defensive guy, (Golden) is gonna double-team Smith, I’d imagine. I think they will but if they just try to play man against that guy, they’re gonna get killed. We didn’t play a ton of man (against OSU). They need you to play man or to beat you with play-action. If you’re gonna get a one-on-one, it’s only gonna be down the sideline on a fade ball, that’s it. We’re not gonna leave you one-on-one in the deep part of the field anywhere inside (like Oregon did in the Rose Bowl, where Smith had a long touchdown reception).”
The receivers coach said it’s critical the Notre Dame defense wins on first downs, getting Ohio State into second-and-long situations.
“Against a team as talented as Ohio State, if you can force a third-and-long or third-and-medium, then you can send multiple pressures to get to the QB. I think it’s gonna probably take two Ohio State turnovers for Notre Dame to win or at least one turnover and a big play in special teams.”
One of the DCs who played Notre Dame and Ohio State said there’s no question Ohio State is the more talented team, but said if Notre Dame “can keep it close and doesn’t turn the ball over, and find a way to contain Ohio State’s explosiveness,” the Fighting Irish will have a shot to win. “They’ve got a lot of confidence and a ton of belief right now. They are a really good football team.”
(Top photo: Rich Storry / Getty Images)