Notre Dame needs to be perfect the rest of the season for them to have a realistic shot at the College Football Playoff. Will Louisville ruin the Irish's hopes in back-to-back years?
Photo by The Irish Tribune
Last October, Notre Dame traveled to Louisville, Kentucky, to play a top-25 matchup against the Cardinals. In a sloppy and sluggish performance, Notre Dame picked up their second loss of the season, as the Irish's playoff dreams faded.
Enter this year, with Notre Dame using their one mulligan on Northern Illinois, the Fighting Irish must be perfect the rest of the way to enter the new playoff format.
Louisville will come into South Bend as the 15th-ranked team in the nation. Head coach Jeff Brohm is entering his second year at his alma mater, looking to take a giant leap forward from his promising 10-4 year last year that had his Cardinals play for an ACC championship game.
This is quite a different roster that Notre Dame will be seeing as Brohm utilized the transfer portal as well as any other head coach, bringing in 32 transfer portal players, according to 247Sports' recruiting tracker.
The Cardinals have gotten off to a hot start with their transfer quarterback, Tyler Shough. Shough started his career at Oregon before transferring to Texas Tech, where he accumulated 2,922 yards for the Red Raiders.
Shough has established great care with the football this year, having thrown eight touchdowns and no interceptions. Louisville is one of only three teams in college football without a turnover this year.
Shough's main targets through the air have been to Alabama transfer Ja'Cory Brooks and Cincinnati transfer Jadon Thompson. Both Brooks and Thompson have two touchdowns and provide a deep threat to opposing defenses. Their matchups against Notre Dame cornerbacks Benjamin Morrison and Christian Gray will be one of the deciding factors in this game.
On the ground, the Cardinals lost their 2023 running back tandem of Jawar Jordan and Isaac Guerendo. Jordan and Guerendo combined for 170 yards and two touchdowns last year against the Irish.
However, the key to this game is on the shoulders of Riley Leonard and the Notre Dame aerial attack. Louisville's defensive game plan will be: "Don't let the Irish beat you on the ground." The Cardinals will do all that they can to stack the box against Leonard and force him to throw. There will be one-on-one matchups downfield, so if the Irish can take advantage of these deep shots, they should be in good business.
The two wide receivers that must build off last week's performances against Miami Ohio are Beaux Collins and Kris Mitchell. If they can continue to get open and give Leonard a chance to make impactful plays, the Irish will be in a good spot.
If Leonard can continue to build momentum throwing the ball and force Louisville to get away from having seven men in the box, running lanes will open. If the Fighting Irish can find innovative ways to get Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price in space, this is another recipe for success.
In a big-time revenge game matchup, the Fighting Irish need to pull out their best performance. It is in games like this that Marcus Freeman has excelled as a head coach, firing up his team for the big game. While it’s still a 3:30 p.m. kickoff, Irish fans must show up in full force to rattle the Louisville Cardinals and fuel Notre Dame to victory.
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