Rakes Report #177: Maybe it's not too late to learn how to love and forget how to hate (The Southern Cal Review)
~optional musical accompaniment~
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1) I am under no illusions about the current quality of the Trojans football program and this year’s team, which was particularly sloppy and disorganized under an interim head coach who could not handle end-of-half clock management. But for anyone who came into their Irish fandom during the Pete Carroll Era, it’s hard to fully comprehend the fact that Notre Dame has now won four straight in the series and has not lost a home game to them in a decade. By the time USC has a chance to win back the Jeweled Shillelagh, more than 2,000 days will have elapsed since its emeralds and rubies were last in their possession. For a Notre Dame team that needed to figure things out as the season went on, this was a thoroughly competent handling of a rival, the kind of thing you should never ever take for granted.
2) If anyone points to a team or unit or player in September and says “This? This will not change all season, for better or worse,” they are forgetting how this sport often works. The Trojan front has been bad all year at both stopping the run and getting to the quarterback so there shouldn’t be any corks popped over that offensive line performance but that’s now two straight games of quality play. It’s almost like you could change personnel (as the staff did inserting Joe Alt and Andrew Kristofic), see players perform better individually and develop chemistry as a unit (which might take time when you’re replacing four of your five starters), and have both playcalling and quarterback play help (with Jack Coan getting rid of the ball quickly and Tyler Buchner providing a wrinkle of danger in the running game to give the opposition pause in their pursuits). Funny how that works.
Do you know who else made the offensive line look a lot better? Kyren Williams, who dropped 180 yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns on 31 touches. Williams was able to find some spots to shine over the first half of the season in spite of the shoddy infrastructure around him but I hope this second half is him firmly imprinting his stamp as one of the best to ever do it at the position for the Irish. A couple of favorites: Converting the third and long despite half the Trojan roster seemingly standing between him and the line-to-gain and joyfully lead blocking for Buchner on the evening’s final score. Williams doesn’t seem like a fun guy to try and tackle (but does seem like a fun guy generally who appreciates “All of the Lights”) and I’m hoping Tommy Rees spends much of the remaining games finding devious ways to get him the ball.
Biggest disappointments of the evening were the inability to cash in on Bo Bauer’s interception return to the doorstep and the sputtering of the opening drive but not many complaints about Rees’ charges otherwise. The offense will still have fits and starts the rest of as it goes against defenses that are better than the Trojans (and a few that are worse, blessings upon us) but there was a lot to like. Braden Lenzy in the run game and as a blocker, the quick hits to athletes in space (Lorenzo Styles, hello and thank you*) and continued good work from Kevin Austin (a bit of an up and down game but a net positive), Michael Mayer and Avery Davis. I like that the Irish found success when they needed to after the Trojans put a bit of pressure on in the fourth, moving the ball prior to the interception (which I don’t think was a pick?) then scoring on a tidy eight-play drive where they never even faced third down. Let’s get Chris Tyree healthy, keep sprinkling in some Logan Diggs and Deion Colzie and see where this can go.
* I know young Irish receivers have been a popular topic of conversation so a heads up that Central Florida had two different guys with the surname Johnson catch passes in their most recent game and neither spent time enrolled at Notre Dame.
3) It’s very frustrating to watch the proper defense be played against an air raid, but that was the best approach and the Irish did basically what they needed to despite losing the best safety in the country in the early going. (There seemed to be optimism about Kyle Hamilton’s ability to return to the fray soon, so fingers crossed.) Isaiah Foskey and Jayson Ademilola are such a disruptive combo, and they’re just the tip of the spear for a defensive line that comes in waves, the depth and talent still impressive despite losing a quartet of ends to the NFL Draft over the last two offseasons. Tackling could have definitely been tighter on Keontay Ingram but Drake London was mostly contained, and it’s a testament to London that you can look at that stat line and say “Hey, pretty good job.” The yards per play and success rate don’t jump out as banner days, but go look at the point totals put up by Graham Harrell’s Trojan offenses and compare them to Saturday’s. TaRiq Bracy received the game ball following a team-high lead in tackles and a great blitz to snuff out the final Trojan drive.
My one concern about the defense over the final six games of the season — officially bowl eligible, baby — is I’m not sure there is quite enough oomph in the back seven. At linebacker, there is plenty of competency to be sure and they’ve made some big plays, but not at the level of JOK nor what we saw from Marist Liafau as he ramped up last season. In the secondary, you have Hamilton obviously and Cam Hart has shown flashes, but for this program to take the next step there just needs to be a few more potential game changers. The nice thing is guys can develop into those roles and you can recruit more wreckers to fill them. I worry that if the North Carolina or Virginia offenses get hot there won’t be enough verve or violence to counter on the back end if the defensive line isn’t getting home. Thankfully, there’s a lot of reason to think the pass rush will continue to discombobulate opposing quarterbacks and make life much, much easier on everyone else, but simply sharing some lingering worries in the back corner of my mind.
4) Loved the light show during the pregame and then again before the fourth quarter (we learned it from you, Georgia!), and it seems particularly wise to crank up the energy considering the amount of recruits who were in the house. I could have used more “Crazy Train” considering this was the ten-year anniversary but since we all live with it in our hearts that’s okay. Despite concerns over the forecast it didn’t really feel too cold in the Stadium and didn’t feel like gloves were necessary until walking postgame. A beautiful day overall, with some early afternoon cloud cover that chilled things off giving way to postcard perfect sunshine the rest of the way. Also popped into Dillon Hall for the first since renovations and my freshman year room is now a sweet lounge so if you need me I will be solemnly contemplating the unrelenting passage of time.
5) Winning is Hard/Schadenfreude Round-Up: No offense to soccer (well, some offense to soccer), but I think we can all agree the new two-point conversion shootout rules for overtime are pretty silly, with the game turning into quasi-penalty kicks instead of doing the easy fix of just sliding the starting field position back further in each additional frame. Still, I don’t have much sympathy for teams who are three-touchdown favorites and end up even needing to play overtime, as Penn State did, coming off a bye, against a woeful Illinois team. All James Franklin had to do was not lose to Illinois and he would be getting a monster contract from somebody! Penn State goes from “Controlling their own destiny in the Big Ten East race” to “Needing to go 2-1 against Ohio State, Michigan and Sparty to finish 9-3.” Always happy when my tailgate hosts are rewarded karmically for their good deeds so congrats to Mr. Tres and the rest of the Illini faithful.
Clemson is bad, man, I don’t know what to tell you, as we all come to grips with Heisman Trophy Winner Kenny Pickett after a great performance from the Pitt Panthers. (Pitt’s only loss came to Western Michigan, who lost on Saturday to our beloved Toledo Rockets. Transitive Coastal Division title lives!) Oklahoma spent much of Saturday losing to the Kansas Jayhawks before surviving late which isn’t good when you’re a 38-point favorite. Cincinnati had all kinds of trouble with Navy but I don’t think that says much about them other than they had to play the Midshipmen as a heavy favorite with something to lose which is one of the worst positions in which to find yourself. Undefeated Oklahoma State lost to Iowa State. Undefeated Coastal Carolina lost to Appalachian State, giving the Mountaineers their first win over a ranked team since their sacred visit to Ann Arbor in 2007.
Alabama trailed Tennessee after the first quarter. Dave Doeren faced a tiny bit of spotlight as a potential ACC title contender and saw his NC State team immediately lose at Miami. Purdue got ranked for the first time in forever and immediately lost 30-13 to Wisconsin at home, and if you’re wondering, “Oh, so is Graham Mertz better?” again I cannot stress enough “No,” as the Badgers quarterback was five for eight for 52 yards. Utah was getting a lot of hype as perhaps the best team in the Pac-12 and then lost in Corvallis, which isn’t a big shame because Oregon State is solid but still not ideal. UCLA blew a lead to Oregon at home and all their early season goodwill has emptied. TCU lost at home to West Virginia and is Gary Patterson going to get fired? Virginia Tech lost at home to Syracuse and Justin Fuente is absolutely going to get fired. Jimmy Lake and Washington almost lost to an Arizona program that hasn’t won a game since 2019.
6) North Carolina has been up and down this season and the expected leaps that earned them preseason contender consideration — by their offensive line and defense, specifically — have not occurred. But much like Southern Cal, with dreams of the ACC title game and any higher goals already gone, about the best they can hope for is Ruin Notre Dame’s Season In The Biggest Game They’ll Play The Rest Of The Way. Mack Brown has his foibles as a coach but he will have his team far more prepared than what we saw with the Trojan interim, and Sam Howell has evolved by necessity into a nasty dual threat*, the kind of player that gave the Irish all kinds of trouble against Virginia Tech. The Irish did not seem particularly drained following their sixth win of the season, but the Heels will be coming off a bye and the oddsmakers have the line within a touchdown, so expectations are set for another close one. If the Irish can get to November at 7-1 we can start talking bigger picture, but for now let’s stay in grind-it-out, survive-and-advance mode because while this team is playing hard and improving they’re still more than capable of stumbling.
* 28 rushes for 216 yards in his last two games against the Noles and Canes, plus two additional 100-yard rushing games last month. Howell never had more than 41 yards rushing in a game last season.
There are a lot of reasons to be a college football fan but I think you could probably boil it down to two primary benefits: 1) Seeing your favorite team win as many games as possible over the course of the season, because winning is fun and when you team has more points than their opponent it triggers nice things in your brain. 2) Having an excuse to go drink in a parking lot with people you love, preferably on an idyllic autumn day before your favorite team wins its fourth straight over its rival because please see 1. A successful Saturday, to be sure, and I would very much enjoy if the good vibes continued on a night that I hope is full of long Mayer receptions accompanied by a John Carpenter soundtrack. This team is starting to play some good ball and it would be a shame to tarnish it with a home loss to a disappointing but still potentially dangerous North Carolina team.
Go Irish, Beat Tar Heels. Keep going.
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