Rakes Report #208: With a little love and some tenderness we'll walk upon the water, we'll rise above the mess (The South Carolina Review)

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~optional musical accompaniment~

1) If you want to seek it out, you can find a lot of doom and gloom in the current coverage of college football because the players who are at the core of a multi-billion-dollar industry are now receiving above-board compensation for their talents and sometimes making decisions based on that. Scary! It’s alluring to think you’ll be there to witness Armageddon and while that still might come down the road the thing this sport will always have in its back pocket is nothing truly compares to the game itself. NHL playoff overtimes probably provide the highest highs and a seven-game NBA playoff series best combines thrills and justice in finding a winner but few experiences usurp an unhinged college football game where you have big plays and terrible mistakes and a crowd losing its mind. For a bowl game that supposedly didn’t matter, it certainly seemed like a lot of people were invested in its result by the time the Irish prevailed in a classic, overcoming an early deficit and key players missing.

2) Let us commence by talking about Tyler Buchner, whose season we thought had ended back in September. In the Gator Bowl’s early going he certainly had some plays where he looked like a guy who hadn’t played a live snap in months, with a bonus of the offensive line playing like they did at the start of the year, allowing pressure against four rushers and not establishing much of a run game. But eventually Buchner and the run game found their groove and the Irish ended up averaging seven yards per play despite lacking the services of the best tight end in school history around whom the entire passing game and part of the running game had been built.

I thought it was a lovely touch by the writers to do the callback to a Buchner-Braden Lenzy deep shot, a missed connection that likely cost Notre Dame the Marshall game and indirectly led to Buchner’s injury. In his final game in blue and gold, Lenzy was masterful, pulling in that bomb and converting a crucial fourth quarter fake punt deep in Irish territory. Jayden Thomas continued a great sophomore run, making some circus catches to keep things afloat early. Mitchell Evans did his best in filling in for Michael Mayer and you cannot say enough about the running backs. Both Audric Estime and Logan Diggs averaged 6.8 yards a carry, with Diggs reaching the end zone from 39 yards out on a third-and-two in addition to the 75-yard reception when the Irish were down two scores.

Buchner made two critical mistakes on the pick sixes, but you could see why both recruiting services and the coaching staff thought so highly of him. Neither of his touchdown runs were easy, as he navigated traffic on both of them in addition to some clever work on his short-yardage conversions (a third-and-three on a sneak!). He also was making plays as a passer despite the consistent pressure. Here’s what the pocket situation was on the bomb to Lenzy:

And here’s the third-and-12 conversion to Thomas in the second quarter:

It was a dream scenario for the offense: Great yard-per-play average on good efficiency on the way to 45 points and a victory, but Tommy Rees made a play call* people hated so much that they can complain about it all offseason. Win-win! Regarding the second pick six, here’s a good breakdown from our friend Greg Flammang – could have worked, certainly did not. Also speaking of Rees, I regret to inform you ESPN’s Mina Kimes has joined the vast conspiracy that already includes Sean McVay, Nick Sirianni and Dan Orlovsky trying to convince you that Notre Dame’s offensive coordinator is good at his job. Fear not: Some of our bravest posters are in the replies of beat writers and on message boards everywhere spreading the truth.

* Probably should have just run it on that first and goal, but I haven’t seen much complaining about the game-winning touchdown you can rewatch at the top. It was third down, wouldn’t it have made sense to just run it there, maybe break one but at the very least force South Carolina to take another timeout while giving Blake Grupe an easier kick? What if Evans slipped, or got caught in the wash of the line of scrimmage? What if the South Carolina defensive end who beat Joe Alt off the snap was a half-second quicker and Buchner took a sack? Or Buchner panicked and threw another pick? I’d hate to think we’re judging all play calls based only on their results.

Who knows how the remainder of Buchner’s career will go, but he will always have this MVP performance and he’ll always have this excellent tweet celebrating, using the rare video version of one of my favorite memes. (While we’re talking great tweets, loved Thomas’ postgame chill with an inflatable gator.) Damn do I love me some bowl games.

3) Defense struggled mightily to start but eventually some consistent pressure and Spencer Rattler being Spencer Rattler caught up with the Gamecocks in the second half where they barely moved the ball at all. Rattler was transcendent against Rocky Top but he was also the guy who only had multiple touchdown throws in one other SEC game (Vanderbilt) and ran hot and cold in the upset of Clemson. The defense kept Rattler under six yards per attempt (and that’s with the 42-yard touchdown in the third quarter that I’m pretty sure was not a catch) and tightened on third down, holding the Gamecocks to just 5 of 15, as well as shutting them out in the fourth quarter despite Benjamin Morrison being knocked out of the game.

Defensive game ball has to go to Jordan Botelho, who terrorized Rattler all game long and looked cool doing it in his hoodie under the jersey. It will be tough to replace Isaiah Foskey but for at least one game Botelho seemed up to the task. Morrison got another interception despite not playing the whole game and TaRiq Bracy shined once again with eight tackles and a forced fumble (really felt like more of a straight drop but hey it counts in the record books). Underclassmen linebackers Junior Tuihalamaka, Jaylen Sneed and Prince Kollie all got more than a dozen snaps, including some reps at defensive end, which is promising. (A South Carolina native, Sneed also savored the win.)

South Carolina of course reached the end zone on their only red zone possession, knocking the Irish down to 131st out of 131 teams in opponent touchdown percentage. What do we attribute this to? A lack of playmaking at linebacker and safety? Poor gambles? It’s more than bad fortune and must be the primary fix for the defensive staff this offseason.

4) This was a matchup between two of the best special teams coordinators in the nation and Pete Lembo drew first blood, flabbergasting the Irish on the unconventional formation on the fake field goal. But Brian Mason got him back, and then some. There was of course the fourth quarter fake from Davis Sherwood to Lenzy but it was also not Mason’s unit that suffered a massive meltdown on punt return with silly illegal blocks that led to some truly classic nepo baby whining from Shane Beamer. (More of a defensive note but the Irish also did a good job of avoiding targeting all game.) I went into this game with not much of an opinion on Beamer but between the sideline meltdown, his incessant comments about opt outs in the walk-up and postgame referee bitching we will now be keeping close tabs on his work in Columbia. Blake Grupe and Jon Sot did not have busy days but let’s thank them for concluding their years of service, and also shout out Matt Salerno for slipping in a punt return when the Irish had things rolling.

Couple additional statistical notes: According to Game On Paper, Notre Dame’s explosive play rate on offense was in the 84th percentile and their havoc rate (cool stuff) on defense was 86th percentile. That felt so fun because Things Were Happening on both sides of the ball against an opponent that really wanted to win (only wish the announcers had kept track of how much they had left in the tank).

5) Winning Is Hard/Schadenfreude Round-Up: You know it’s the bowl season and this can be tricky to do but let’s see what we can pull together hmm okay Michigan had a really game effort against the Big 12 runner-up in the Fiesta Bowl. Sure, they were favored by over a touchdown and never led but considering they didn’t have a lot of experience playing a difficult non-conference opponent (no offense, UConn!) that was a good try. Next season they're stepping up with East Carolina, UNLV and Bowling Green so perhaps they’ll be better prepared to stop their bowl losing streak at six.

The Wolverines’ day could have been even worse but Ohio State did not hold onto a late lead, as after nearly redeeming himself with the Buckeye faithful Ryan Day got a little too conservative with a red-hot quarterback and let his season ride on a 50-yard field goal attempt. Did not work out! It’s very annoying for Notre Dame to finish so far outside the playoff conversation in a year with no absolute juggernaut but those are the breaks sometimes and a reminder of how important it is to be in the mix as many years as possible because you’ll never know when you might catch a break.

Texas trailed the entire game against Washington despite a) playing in San Antonio and b) being a slight favorite. At least Sark wasn't a total weirdo before kickoff! Hmm, what's that? Oh. Florida State barely escaped Oklahoma as a solid favorite and the Sooners finish 6-7. Tennessee’s defense wasn’t very good this season and then they had a bunch of opt outs making them a juicy target for Cade Klubnik’s first start….ah damn Clemson scored 14 and gave up 31 despite Rocky Top being without some of their best offensive players. Good thing Dabo didn’t run a failed fake field goal to his son.

I said one nice thing about Dave Doeren and things truly fell apart, this time with NC State losing a sad game to Maryland, kicking four field goals in a 16-12 defeat. Florida did not show up for their bowl game against Oregon State, getting housed by the Beavs to finish Billy Napier's inaugural season at 6-7. To move forward, the Gators acquired Graham Mertz in the transfer portal. Good luck! Baylor got service academied against Air Force, also finishing 6-7 a year after a conference title. North Carolina couldn't hold onto a fourth quarter lead against Oregon. Arkansas nearly blew a 38-13 lead against Kansas. (The new overtime rules stink but I enjoyed this moment very much.) Ole Miss got annihilated by Texas Tech. Pitt blew a late lead against UCLA only to see the Bruins blow it right back in a fun Sun Bowl we missed almost entirely due to it running concurrently with the Gator.

6) After the major disappointment of last year’s Fiesta Bowl slipping away, this is such a rosy platform to launch into the offseason. I understand there’s only a one-game difference between 8-5 and 9-4 but 9-4 looks so much better, doesn’t it? We do need to consider the possibility that in exchange for being the most handsome coach in the game and having a wonderful family and being head man at Notre Dame before age 40 that Marcus Freeman has been cursed with only competing in bonkers postseason games. Granted, it’s a small sample size, but it’s something to monitor in the years going forward. Not sure my heart will be able to take it but as long as they’re high-profile games following successful regular seasons so be it.

How do we look at Freeman’s first campaign as a whole? There were highs (breaking Clemson into dust) and lows (the Stanford loss one of the worst defeats in the post-Weis area) but the important thing is there isn’t anything from 2022 that should make you think Freeman isn’t up to this job. Notre Dame wasn’t a negative outlier in turnovers lost or penalties, which would have been ominous. (They actually finished 15th in penalties per game, really clean year.) They showed a ton of fight throughout the season when they could have let go of the rope, including rallying from 21-7 against South Carolina. Freeman was aggressive on fourth down, dispelling any concerns he’d take a cowardly defensive coordinator approach to game management. He put together a great first recruiting class and is on his way to another one. This doesn’t necessarily mean he’s a sure-thing to take Notre Dame to the highest pinnacles but if you were hopeful coming into this there’s no reason to change your mind. With that win, the Irish secured a Top 20 finish in the AP poll, which isn’t the goal but is pretty admirable considering how things felt after the second and third losses this autumn.

That’s it for the season! So sad to see it gone already but happy we got to experience it together - I know I’ll be returning to highlights of the two Palmetto State victories time and time again this offseason when I need a little boost. Wanted to conclude by again thanking everyone who participated in Christmas Giving, where we raised more than $10,000 for the Center for the Homeless in South Bend after some post-Gator Bowl donations. (I threw in a dollar for every point TCU scored – thank you so much Horned Frogs, love you forever.) Also pleased we got to begin and end the season with musical accompaniments featuring the same title.

We’ll gather back in this space after the transfer portal and coaching carousel settles. Until then, take care of yourselves and each other. Happy New Year and Go Irish.

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