Rakes Report #217: The water's getting warm so you might as well swim (The Tennessee State Review)

Notre Dame cruises to 2-0 in an easy home opener and it wouldn't make sense not to live for fun.

~optional musical accompaniment~

1) Two overmatched opponents, two hyper-efficient destructions are a nice way to start the season. Notre Dame has a total scoring margin of just under 100, two punts, five penalties and no turnovers that weren’t caused by an uncalled targeting. (Best wishes to Devyn Ford on his recovery, not even reviewing that was unconscionable officiating.) It’s been clean football and while the heat is going to be turned up the rest of the way, how you play is as important as who you play, and the Irish are executing very well. There were November stretches in 2019 and 2021 with consistent weekly immolations but when you start the year with them it is quite fun to project just how long they might continue.

2) If this season goes the way we want it to, there’s a chance we look at the final two minutes of the first half as a microcosm of how far Marcus Freeman has come as a coach and how deadly Sam Hartman is at quarterback. Freeman managed the clock wonderfully to save time for the offense, which proceeded to go six plays, six completions, six points in 38 seconds. Hartman was breezily comfortable on that drive, with Mitchell Evans looking like a legitimate threat and Holden Staes coming through with a nifty grab for the score.

The 38-second drive is notable because in his very first game as head coach, Freeman’s offense got the ball back with 37 seconds in the half, the full complement of timeouts and a quarterback who had already thrown four touchdowns at that point. He opted to take the ball out of Jack Coan’s hands and run out the clock in what ended up being a two-point Fiesta Bowl loss. This is wonderful progress and aggression!

I hope Hartman is successful for a number of reasons (primarily being it would be so fun for us to watch) but it could also serve as a lesson to the old-school, run-first head coach that throwing the ball is actually awesome and a great way to achieve success. It’s almost an indie movie set-up, with Hartman serving as the Manic Pixie Dream Quarterback¹ that helps a pass-averse young coach understand he shouldn’t be scared of airing it out for the rest of his long, successful tenure in South Bend.

Offensive miscellanea: If we want to nitpick, the opening drive had some fits and starts, but it was a smooth operation thereafter. Following the Colorado display earlier in the day, it was kind of Jeremiyah Love to score the opening touchdown in such badass fashion, and enjoyed seeing Jadarian Price get loose again for Steve Angeli as he did in last year’s Blue-Gold Game. There was a lot of talk during camp about how many balls Chris Tyree caught from the robot quarterback over the summer and it seems to have paid off as he appears comfortable in the slot. Granted, he hasn’t run across a nickel who isn’t going pro in something other than sports yet, but really looks the part thus far. Jayden Thomas and Audric Estime two-for-two on being the cornerstones we need. As noted above, Evans and Staes were ready when the ball came their way, which is a great tight end baseline with Eli Raridon’s return (hopefully) looming. Congrats to Davis Sherwood on his first career catch as well. In bad news, Matt Salerno will miss time with an injury he sustained late in the game.

This game conveniently served as a corrective for anyone who spent the aftermath of a 39-point opening win concerning themselves with the number of targets for the tight ends and/or snaps for the back-up quarterback, a perfectly normal way to approach success.

3) A very inauspicious start for the defense, which couldn’t get a splash snap and got gummed to death over the course of 15 plays on an opening Tigers drive that was very reminiscent of last year’s low points. After that, Al Golden’s charges locked in and suffocated their undermanned foe, allowing 55 yards on that first drive and 101 the rest of the way. Along the way they achieved something it took them until Game Four to notch last year (takeaways, a wonderful diving grab from Ramon Henderson and easy pick six for Clarence Lewis) and another accomplishment they didn’t tick off at any point last year (red zone stops).

With his depth chart partner Gabriel Rubio out, Jason Onye stepped up, with the blocked field goal and five tackles. Howard Cross was nasty, Marist Liufau was again dangerous and after the Navy game wasn’t conducive to his skillset this was the real debut for Thomas Harper, who looked like the exact type of disruptive nickel who had earned praise for his work in Stillwater. It was a shame (and maybe wrong call) that Antonio Carter got tossed for targeting, as it would have been great to see him get some more work. The quality of competition is going to pick up, but we’re now two-for-two on games where Joshua Burnham ends up around the ball doing destructive things.

4) Winning is Hard Round Up: Most ranked teams were not testing themselves to begin the season but there was a little blood in the Top 25, starting with LSU dropping the marquee matchup of the weekend in hilarious fashion. The Tigers should have been up multiple touchdowns early but squandered the opportunity when Jordan Travis was on tilt. Once he locked in LSU had no answer, giving up in the fourth quarter. Considering they have a trip to Tuscaloosa this season that’s a likely loss, the Bayou Bengals are now in a position where they have to avoid any SEC tossup defeats or else fall from preseason playoff favorite to 9-3. Doesn’t seem like a fun time but at least the facilities get built quickly.

(Monday evening addition: Sorry I'm not rewriting this whole section but here to note Clemson’s comical effort against Duke to close out the long weekend, combining horrific kicking, multiple goal line fumbles, Cade Klubnik sliding short of a critical first down and defensive busts. What will Dabo blame this on? Players being paid ruining the soul of the sport? The woke mob? Has his crossroads deal come due? At least D.J. Uiagalelei didn't complete 80% of his passes for nearly 10 yards an attempt with five total touchdowns in his Beavers debut. Congratulations, Mike Elko, please be nice on the 30th.)

The other ranked team to lose was TCU, who fell at home to Colorado as they adjust to life without so many important fixtures from last year’s national runner-up. Although the Horned Frogs were 21-point favorites, that was not even the biggest home upset of a Big 12 team on Saturday as down I-35 a little later in the afternoon Baylor lost at home to Texas State. Dave Aranda earned many justifiable plaudits for winning the league in 2021 but they went 6-7 last year (with a bowl loss to Air Force) and now start this season falling as four-touchdown favorite.

(It was a big win for Texas State under new coach G.J. Kinne. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because he was a quarterback who won C-USA Offensive Player of the Year. In 2010. For Tulsa.)

Boston College fell at home to Northern Illinois and the number of rosy Jeff Hafley profiles has really tapered off. They’re not going to lose at home to Holy Cross this week, right? Right? Purdue couldn’t hold on at home against Fresno State, and bowl prospects are looking for dicey for them as well. Texas Tech was a trendy pick in the Big 12 and had an early 17-0 lead against Wyoming but the magic of Laramie was simply too strong and they fell in double overtime in one of the best games of the weekend.

Despite the steadying presence of Shane Beamer, South Carolina got knocked off by Drake Maye and the Tar Heels, and while they still have a shot at a bowl it will require some upsets or a dominant record in toss-up games. One of those games will be against Florida, which looked sloppy in losing to Utah’s backup quarterbacks on Thursday. By the end of the game Kyle Whittingham was being so mean to Graham Mertz, just blitzing nonstop. Good luck to Billy Napier the rest of the way.

Nebraska had first down near midfield with five minutes left and a touchdown lead and managed to lose in regulation to Minnesota. Arizona State beat Southern Utah by three. Took Sparty a lot longer than their fans would have liked to pull away from Central Michigan. Illinois almost lost at home to Toledo. Some top teams who were heavily favored and had slow starts: Georgia led UT-Martin 17-0 at the half, Ohio State was only up 7-6 in Bloomington (and never truly pulled away) and Texas only led Rice 16-3 at the break. Michigan did fine against East Carolina but they acted like Jim Harbaugh died so negative points for that.

5) We’ll see where the Midshipmen end up falling in relation to the Chippewas and Cardinal but it’s possible Notre Dame has already played the worst two opponents they’ll see all season. Business is about to pick up with the trip to Raleigh, although I have mixed feelings about the degree of difficulty. The Wolfpack did not look overly impressive in their Thursday night opener at UConn, as questions about offensive weapons remain unanswered after they failed to notch a single play over 20 yards in the 24-14 win. On the other side of the ball, their defensive front was pushed around by the Huskies’ run game, and while Jim Mora has done a nice renovation job in Storrs, I suspect the Irish ground attack might be a little stronger.

And yet: Veteran quarterback Brennan Armstrong is a true dual threat, crafty and capable, and NC State does have a few all-conference level guys on defense with linebacker Payton Wilson and corners who will be the best we’ve seen by a very wide margin. We have fun at Dave Doeren’s expense but he’s a solid coach and has been at this for over a decade, occasionally pulling off tricks like last year’s win over a good Florida State team even though the Pack didn’t have a functional quarterback for most of the second half. And then there’s the fact Vegas opened this game with the Irish favored by roughly a touchdown, one line among many in Week Two that implies a good bit of chaos may await us.

Hartman threw three picks in a loss at NC State last year so this is ideally stop one on his ACC Revenge Tour while Vegas could easily just be slow to adjust to the quality of this Notre Dame team. It’s been fun to annihilate the first two opponents but I’m excited to feel the stress revolving around a noon kickoff on a sweltering early September day. While I’d prefer another comfortable blowout, all that matters is surviving this trip, even if it’s by a point. Must get to Sept. 23 without a blemish on the record, and this is the only real remaining roadblock to that goal. Go Irish, Beat Wolfpack.

1. The origin of MPDG described the trope as existing to “teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures.” That’s not one-to-one with this comparison but we’re in the general ballpark.