Rakes Report #151: Sometimes I think it's a shame when I get feelin' better when I'm feelin' no pain (The Florida State Review)
~optional musical accompaniment~
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1) Notre Dame has now played Florida State four times during Brian Kelly’s tenure, and the shift tells the story of both programs. The first match up was the Champ Sports Bowl to close out the 2011 season, a blown lead after Michael Floyd was injured, ending a disappointing sophomore campaign with a peak Tommy No. (The bowl collapse sent the team spiraling to…okay 12-1, I guess it wasn’t that traumatic.) 2014 was a chance at a special moment — ending the winning streak of the defending champs and reigning Heisman winner on their home field — but that was stolen away, serving as the epitome of the frustrating “Close, but no cigar” problem the Irish have faced over the last decade. The last two games, though? Granted, this says as much about where the Noles are following the apparent collection on the crossroads deal which granted them 2013 and 2014, but in the last two contests against Florida State the Irish have rushed for a combined 718 yards, stream rolling to two relatively easy wins. One of the top programs in the sports has fallen on some hard times and the Irish have been merciless in pounding them, which you really do love to see.
2) Now, this one didn’t start so smoothly. If you had asked what it would look like if a talented team hadn’t played in three weeks I would say…pretty much Notre Dame on Saturday night. If you take away any of those three early drops (the Kyren Williams fumble, the Lawrence Keys muff, the Joe Wilkins third down) then the Irish are probably up double digits entering the second quarter, but in a way — with the benefit of knowing how things worked out — I’m happy they didn’t just get a walkover and were somewhat tested. They got down and there was no panic, just a comfortable bludgeoning of their guests, including a professional 58-second drill at the end of the half. Plenty of stuff that needs to improve if they want to get to Clemson undefeated and put up a fight against the Tigers, but the Irish did what they needed to do to win their eighth straight game by double digits and ninth overall.
3) We have to start with the offense. I am still formulating exactly how to describe the Kyren Williams/Chris Tyree combo but it’s just smooth, violent joy and we are so blessed to watch it. They have such incredible vision and balance, they’re damn tough and they accelerate so easily, as if they are skating with malicious intent. Credit to Williams for immediately bouncing back from the early fumble and credit to Tyree for going over 100 yards in his third career game and making me yelp when he broke through on his way to the endzone. Liam Eichenberg went down with a gnarly eye injury and the offensive line kept rolling, with NBC doing the thing they did in the glory days of Nelson/McGlinchey where they freeze replays to show the giant spaces through which the tailbacks were traversing. Braden Lenzy and Ian Book also kicked in a few carries, the receivers and tight ends blocked masterfully and overall just another good game from Tommy Rees. The passing game will have to be better to reach the upper echelons of college football but you can do quite a bit of damage just hitting lesser teams with a big hammer for 60 minutes.
(If you want to understand the finer points of this offense I cannot help you here, but I can direct you to this great breakdown by Burgs over at 18 Stripes.)
However, I do no want to downplay the success of the passing game on Saturday by comparing it to the exhilarating run game: Book was exceptional overall, finding a nice connection with Javon McKinley, who not only had great success catching the ball against a top corner in Asante Samuel, Jr. but erased a number of defensive backs from existence with his run blocking. Book also made use of Michael Mayer, who got his first career touchdown, and calmly led the aforementioned march at the end of the first half which ended in a Lenzy touchdown. He bungled a screen (how are screens such an issue?!) and miscalculated an end zone shot prior to the missed field goal, but a couple of the incompletions were on his receivers, with the Wilkins drop and Lenzy sort of pulling up short on a deep route. If Book plays like this the rest of the way — and he’ll need to, because teams are going to be stacking the box and bringing run blitzes in an attempt to allay the two-headed monster in the backfield — the Irish are going to be very difficult to beat for the non-Clemsons of the ACC. Would have been nice to see more of Kevin Austin but there is still time and we’re just nitpicking at this point.
As the conductor of the Tommy Rees For Offensive Coordinator Express and a top decile Jeff Quinn Hire Supporter*, I would love to take some victory laps but I still think it’s a little early. So far in his time calling plays Tommy and his run game have had a) Talent advantages over their opponents and b) No real concern that the other offense was going to go put up a big number and run away with it, limiting game pressure. This is not to say Rees and the offensive line will not rise to the challenge, because early returns are quite positive, but I want to see what happens if Louisville or North Carolina turn the game into a shootout or Pitt can gunk up the run game without committing too many extra guys. (And, of course, Trevor Lawrence and Brent Venables loom.) Still, with that said, we’re at, what, 11 straight quarters of the offense humming? So far, so very good.
* My position on the hire was “This might be okay?” which doesn’t seem that glowing until you consider the median take after Quinn signed on was “Chaining yourself to a bike rack in the town square to shout ‘Crony hire’ at passersby.” Between recruiting and on-field performance, it’s been a nice few months for the offensive line coach.
4) The defense was a nice reminder of how much context we’re missing in evaluating the team during this very weird season. We knew that MTA and Jack Kiser (a multi-year starter and the guy who most recently got the game ball) were going to be out but Kelly revealed after the game that Nick McCloud, Clarence Lewis and Cam Hart (aka most of the cornerback depth chart) weren’t available until late in the week. Considering the amount of uncertainty with the depth chart, trying to readjust to game speed and some bad field position, the Irish defense played okay. They got a couple of big three-and-outs in the third quarter, continuing Clark Lea’s stellar work after halftime (Notre Dame’s 2020 opponents are averaging 4.3 points after the break.). If you have any concerns about Lea, please remember the sign.
Shaun Crawford got beat on a double-move (maybe provide some safety help for the opponent’s one clear-cut NFL wideout?), but redeemed himself with a red zone interception to essentially end Florida State’s night. JOK did a Hitchcockian level of planning the perfect crime and did so in less than a second with one of the most brutal legal hits you will ever see — murdering someone on national television and getting away with it — capping off a stellar night where he blew up play after play. Bo Bauer did a lot of Bo Bauer things, which is always fun. Ade Ogundeji and Daelin Hayes had themselves a night off the edge, even with a couple of Jordan Travis escapes. It was great to see Kyle Hamilton and TaRiq Bracy back on the field, as they tied for the team lead in tackles. I feel like it’s a good sign for Notre Dame’s physicality that in its two conference games the fourth quarters have included multiple breaks for their opponents to be helped off the field.
I thought Travis played pretty well, considering he spent most of the evening running for his life. It speaks highly of a dual-threat quarterback if you’re recruited by Bobby Petrino — as Travis was before his transfer to Tallahassee —who for his myriad faults has an eye for that position. Travis did some nifty work in the run game and made a couple nice deep throws, throwing only one pick although boy did he tempt fate far more often that that. Florida State’s next two games are against North Carolina and Louisville and I’m interested in seeing how he looks after taking a pounding on Saturday night, particularly considering it’s unlikely his offensive line is going to get much better without at least one offseason.
5) Jonathan Doerer missed a kick for the second straight game - wasn’t needed, but something to keep an eye on. Keys got yanked off punt return after the muff and a collision with his blocker. Quiet night for Jay Bramblett, which is fine. Appreciated this game’s Random Jafar Armstrong Play with the 36-yard kick return and I feel like it’s a matter of if not when Tyree breaks one.
6) Winning Is Hard/Schadenfreude Round Up: Well, let’s shout out apparent Friend of the Report Brian Kelly who started his postgame remarks by saying, “I think first and foremost, winning is hard. Just to be here talking about a victory is really satisfying given the fact that just about 10 days ago we had 36 guys that were unavailable to us.” Brian? I couldn’t agree more.
Winning was extremely hard in the Red River Shootout, where Texas made their second miracle rally to force in overtime in the last three games, then survived a short shanked field goal, then saw Sam Ehlinger throw a pick to end a game in the fourth extra session. Both of these teams left a lot to be desired and I think it’s now quasi-realistic (in addition to being very fun) to imagine the Big 12 title game maybe being some combination of Oklahoma State, Iowa State and Kansas State. A ton of football to play and maybe Spencer Rattler will cut down on mistakes to get things back to normal for the Sooners, but dare to dream a little. Tom Herman? Good luck, man. (Also, TCU followed up their big win over Texas by losing at home to K State.)
There was a lot of Florida hype this week but things went awry in College Station, where they couldn’t pull away from the Aggies and suffered their first loss of the season. Dan Mullen is a good coach and the Gators will be fine but I do find myself mildly annoyed they’ve won two straight New Year’s Six games when the opponents were 2018 Michigan (who Notre Dame defeated earlier that year) and 2019 Virginia (ditto). Must be nice! A&M’s schedule opens up pretty nicely since they’ve already played Bama and rest of the SEC West is looking dicey. The Gators or Aggies could be a potential bowl opponent for the Irish, but that discussion is still a ways away.
Who does Florida play this weekend? The LSU Tigers, who dropped another game, this time giving up 45 points to Missouri and failing to score on them after attaining first-and-goal from the one. Sure, the game got shifted to Columbia from Baton Rouge due to weather but the Bayou Bengals were multi-touchdown favorites. Tennessee had a good showing for a bit against Georgia but then got walloped. Mississippi State scored two (2) points against Kentucky and Mike Leach is railing against his players so things are normal in Starkville. Auburn almost lost at home to Arkansas. Alabama gave up a boatload of yardage and points to Lane and the Rebels but survived.
The Miami hype took a bit of a hit against Clemson, but that’ll happen. Pitt’s poor kicker hit a 58-yarder to force overtime against Boston College but then shanked the extra point in the extra frame to end the game, allowing the Eagles to advance to a very sweaty 3-1. (A sweaty 3-1 being, of course, much better than any kind of 2-2 or 1-3.) (Also, Miami vs. Pitt this week! Hope nobody picked the Panthers to finish second in thee league.) Louisville lost to Georgia Tech and is now 0-3 in ACC play (more on them in but a moment). Duke finally won a game, knocking off Syracuse in the dome. In their four games since playing Notre Dame, the Blue Devils have turned it over 17 times. Not a typo – seventeen.
7) I am a little worried about the next three weeks. We’re going to have double-digit spreads, the potential for COVID-related absences at any time and a whole lot of looking ahead to November 7. I’m probably just being paranoid as Notre Dame has been stellar against unranked opponents since the start of 2017 but that streak isn’t going to last forever. The next step for the Irish is taking care of business against a desperate Louisville team that went from a dark horse to make the ACC title game to out of contention already. They really need this game to salvage their season, but that might not be enough as they have a rather large anchor on their performance at the moment.
The Cardinals have a few incredible offensive pieces that have propelled them to 12th in the SP+ in that category but they are absolutely woeful at defense, sitting all the way down at 96th. (For comparison’s sake, Duke is 38th at defense, Florida State is 46th and USF is 57th.) (Notre Dame is 8th in defense and 9th in offense.) (While we’re adrift in parenthetical land, Pitt is basically nega-Louisville, with the 87th ranked offense and 12th ranked defense, so the next two weeks will present diverse challenges.)
Scott Satterfield’s offense found some early success against Lea in his inaugural game as Cardinals head coach, but I suspect the Notre Dame defense will be well prepared for this contest, even if they looked leaky at times on Saturday evening. It might also help Lea out some if Louisville has to abandon the running game and play from behind because they can’t stop the Notre Dame offense from putting up points, so perhaps Rees can aid his counterpart a bit. In Louisville’s only previous trip to Notre Dame Stadium they ruined a senior day, so I’d like to see retribution for that as well, please.
Is Notre Dame the fourth best team in the country, as currently stated in the AP? Eh, I don’t know about that, but they’re a dang good football team with plenty of room to continue growing with the amount of youth bubbling its way up through the depth chart. The Irish have won 27 of their last 30 games, with 19 of those victories coming by double-digit margins - just a really impressive run of football we should at no point take for granted. Personally I would like to win these next three games to make the Clemson game as stressful as possible, and I imagine you might agree. Go Irish, Beat Cardinals, keep this train rolling.
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