Rakes Report #236: Well, the devil can scrap but the Lord has won (The Texas A&M Review)

The Irish go into College Station and deliver a gritty performance to start the 2024 season with a bang.

~optional musical accompaniment~

1) Hypothetically, you could have gone into this game with the theory that while the Notre Dame offense wasn’t going to necessarily run smoothly for 60 minutes, odds were pretty good that with Riley Leonard, Mike Denbrock and a tandem of talented tailbacks the Irish would be able to scrape out enough points for a win because with an inexperienced quarterback and no firmly established playmakers the Aggie offense was going to be in absolute hell against one of the best secondaries in the country. It wasn’t pretty and there was tension both early and late but Marcus Freeman kicked off his third season with a monster road win, setting the tone for what is hopefully a special 2024. Anytime Irish fans can sing the alma mater and chant “SEC” in an opposing stadium because the home crowd has filed out in despair we are living in a wonderful timeline.

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Before we get into the meat of this, wanted to flag that Jess and I did an instant reaction podcast (Spotify) (Apple) (wherever you get your podcasts) right after the game ended. Also, Bridget was kind enough to design a celebratory shirt available for purchase here. I’m delighted with how it turned out. Okay, back to business.

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2) Few better feelings than when your faith is rewarded and that’s what happened with Al Golden and the Irish defense. There was the rockiness to start with the inability to handle Conner Weigman’s clapping on the snap count but that ended up being a benefit because the Aggie quarterback became way too confident in that power, including blowing their first drive of the second half with an airmailed fourth down throw because he thought it was a free play. Unfortunately for Weigman that unintentional gamesmanship was only a small part of his nightmare evening, ending up 12 for 30 for 100 yards with two interceptions, a few more throws that could have gone the other way and a slo-mo vomit replay. 

Adon Shuler and Christian Gray are only in their second years of college football! Elite performances from them, and of course it’s nice to have a couple All-Americans helping to educate the youth in the form of Xavier Watts and Benjamin Morrison, who are incredible. In front of them, Drayk Bowen’s first career start was a dandy, and Jack Kiser stepped into the void left by Marist Liafau and J.D. Bertrand with aplomb. Max Bullough said he was going to play five linebackers and held true to his word, with the non-Kiser options getting between 17 and 31 snaps and all contributing. True freshman Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa was out there on the final fourth down stop which is quite the affirmation of all the praise we heard about him during the offseason.

Defensive line kept the lid on everything and made Weigman uncomfortable but there wasn’t a ton of havoc (only three tackles for loss and Howard Cross coming through with a “Hey this guy is an All-American” sack) (for the concerns about his availability in the early going, Cross led the defensive line in snaps). I’m not sure if this was a plan from Golden to limit Weigman’s running lanes or an adjustment after the early offsides but I expect things to crank up moving forward. I know it felt at times like A&M had gained a foothold in the ground game but it was never sustained, their lead back Le’Veon Moss averaging 3.5 yards a carry and the team’s long run of the evening being all of 14 yards by E.J. Smith. Explosives were cut off completely, with the long catch being 18 yards and occurring on the very first drive. Jordan Botelho had a great game and it was fun to see a yinzer wearing No. 41 out there again as Donovan Hinish really contributed as well.

We needed a sterling defensive performance with the offense taking a while to find its footing and that’s exactly what was delivered. I’m curious to see how the Aggie offense looks in coming games (they have a trip to Gainesville in two weeks that will be telling because the Gators looked awful in their opener) but they certainly got whipped on Saturday evening. I have seen some “Weigman is awful” takes but if that’s the case it’s a failure by recruiting services (he was a five-star prospect) and the NFL Draft industrial complex (he was mocked in first rounds as recently as last week). I am choosing to believe he simply struggled in the same fashion as the guy who won the Heisman and went No. 1 overall until the rest of the season proves otherwise.

3) I loved Leonard’s game. 60% completion rate, no sacks*, no turnovers, 63 rushing yards and a lot of the incompletions came on clear miscommunications/questionable routes that will ideally be cleaned up with time. Perhaps the most heartening moment came on one of the first Irish snaps, which hit the ground and bounced to Leonard, who calmly retrieved it and got positive yardage. There were no deep routes or real attempts at a downfield passing attack but that makes sense when you consider the pressure screaming in all the time and the fact play-action was probably not going to buy you much time with the Aggie presence in the backfield. I am going to heap credit onto the tailbacks momentarily but it certainly helps them when the quarterback is an actual threat on the zone read. Imagine trying to win that game with a non-running threat at quarterback - we are living good.

* Fun analytics thing: Sack avoidance is far more of an individual stat controlled by the quarterback than you might suspect considering all the moving parts on a pass dropback. Leonard was elite at avoiding sacks while at Duke and sure enough that traveled real well to College Station. Weigman was also adept at it last year as well and he was only taken down a single time so that was a good night for nerds being correct. 

Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price were excellent, making Aggie defenders miss repeatedly and ripping off the big plays needed to win. Price had eight carries for 44 yards and a long of 47, which is a hilarious stat line. (He had another long one called back for a hold.) Despite how many times he was getting hit behind the line, Love averaged 6.5 yards per carry, and his game-winning score was mostly him, turning a small crack into a path to paydirt. Denbrock is occasionally going to deploy these two in tandem and that’s going to be a real bad time for the defense. 

Great debut from Beaux Collins, who battled all night and used up some of his luck of the Irish when he likely should have drawn a personal foul late. Jaden Greathouse looks really cool in No. 1 and had a couple big catches, including on third and five conversion on the go-ahead drive on a great pass from Leonard. Only a handful of snaps from Mitchell Evans is worrisome but as long as he’s able to ramp up eventually things should be okay. Freeman said Jordan Faison would be back in one or two weeks, which was pleasant news because that looked like a nasty injury. (I’m going to be mildly skeptical of that prognostication and write in Louisville for his return date.) Cooper Flanagan had a couple catches and a great block on the Love score in an otherwise mixed night for the tight ends. Hoping we get more from Kris Mitchell, Jayden Thomas and Jayden Harrison in the weeks to come.

Offensive line obviously wasn’t pretty a lot of the time but when you look up at the end of the game and you’re at nearly 200 yards rushing on 5.8 per attempt and have allowed zero sacks you get a pat on the back. Progress isn’t going to be a straight line from them but they won’t face a combination of that opposing defensive line talent and that frenetic of an environment the rest of the fall. Huge not just for this season but for seasons to come, tip of the cap to Joe Rudolph for where this group ended up after two early NFL entries and an injury.

Overall, I think Denbrock called a good game from the jump, but execution was a little lacking on some of the screens. At the moment when I was starting to think “This is getting a little pass-heavy, some balance would be nice but maybe an attempt to scrape anything out on the ground will be pointless” they started getting traction in the run game. Will need to develop Leonard’s rapport with his receivers and more of a downfield game as the season rolls on but perfectly cromulent for an opening victory.

4) I did not spend much offseason time thinking about Mitch Jeter because he was great at South Carolina and it seemed like he would be able to just keep doing that despite some rumblings he was struggling in camp. He came through in a monster way, calmly nailing the two first-half field goals when there was a desperation for points and then coming through with the dagger in the final moments. James Rendell was fine in his first American football game and I suspect he will get a better feel for things and more hangtime when he’s not in a madhouse.

Notre Dame’s first drive of the second half made me feel like I was disassociating. Officials maybe screwing up the play clock, burning a time out, going for it from their own 33, going for it again at midfield and getting screwed by the refs on an atrocious spot. Freeman said after the game they were planning on going for it* and I love the aggression. And hey, when the second attempt was negated by the refs, the defense stepped up and got the ball right back. The popular opinion pendulum is swinging enough on these decisions that the old canard of “Going for it means you don’t trust your defense” has been discarded and thank goodness for that because it was always stupid. 

* Full quote: “The fourth down calls, I want to be aggressive. I had a plan going into the game that in certain areas of the field, one's a go. We were going to go for it. And right around that 50-yard line, two was a go. I made the decision to go for it. And we were 50%. Would like to be 100%. I wanted to be aggressive in that game. I said, listen, we have to be aggressive. Me, as in some of those decisions, I wanted to be aggressive. I'm asking these guys to be aggressive and attack. I just didn't want to be cautious in that moment in the game. There was a comfort in knowing that our defense — I felt strongly about our defense too. All those things go into consideration before the game when you make these type of decisions. I had a plan going in to go for it in those situations. But the defense, knowing what your defense can do goes into consideration for sure.” Pretend I put a bunch of heart-eye emoji here.

Other game management stuff: I do not care about burning timeouts in the first half, regardless of how silly they might have seemed. Loved the attempt to get the ball back at the end of the half by calling a timeout with 1:17 left and the Aggies facing third and five. Didn't work out but it's the right idea. I don’t love taking any timeouts in the third quarter unless your defense is clearly compromised but at least the Irish followed up using one with actually going for it it — few more cardinal sins in football than calling a second half timeout before a punt.

For all of the talk going into the game about the heat, it was the Aggie players who needed to be peeled off the ground more often than not. It’s a long season — hopefully really, really long — but big A+ for new strength and conditioning coach Loren Landow after one game because the Irish were ready for what awaited deep in the heart of Texas. 

5) Minor complaints because even though we would have accepted a 2-0 win we can nitpick a little this far down. Devyn Ford was in on a number of third down conversions and while I appreciate his selflessness and veteran presence on this team I would much rather have one of the really cool running backs out there for critical plays. This has to be a Freeman/Deland McCullough thing because last year Audric Estime was on the bench for too many big plays so we’ve experienced it under both Gerad Parker and Denbrock. If there are concerns about pass protection or other minor details, perhaps spend most of Love and Price’s practice time on that because they’re already exceptional at the whole “running really well and looking cool while they do it” thing.

There were too many leaked yards on punt returns where the ball wasn’t caught in the air. If there were concerns about muffs I get it considering the environment but something to tighten up a bit going forward. 

6) Winning Is Hard Round-Up: Very few straight upsets but plenty of games that were closer than you might expect for a while.  Ohio State was only up 17-3 at the half on Akron. Texas only led Colorado State 10-0 deep into the second quarter before putting on the jets. Fresno State had it 16-10 late in Ann Arbor before a couple late scores by Michigan. Oregon never pulled away from Idaho, only winning 24-14.

In one of the few games between ranked teams, LSU lost to USC out in Vegas. Brian Kelly has now lost all three of his season openers since taking the job in Baton Rouge, not sure if maybe he did something to offend the football gods right before he got there? Long season and the Trojans don’t have much depth but on the schedule preview pod I laid out the case that “Defense that’s respectable under new leadership” plus “A Lincoln Riley offense won’t be bad” could mean a better USC team than expected and through one game that seems plausible.

Boy, the ACC, I dunno. Virginia Tech was a trendy dark horse for the league and technically still could win it but they fell as a two-touchdown favorite to Clark Lea and Vanderbilt despite Clark playing for a long field goal at the end of regulation. NC State had all kinds of trouble with FCS Western Carolina, trailing in the fourth quarter. There’s no shame in losing to Georgia but boy Clemson really lost to Georgia, huh? Hey at least North Carolina won, pulling out a victory in Minnesota because P.J. Fleck also decided to play for a long field goal (he’ll always have 2019!), and Miami destroyed Florida, where it feels like it’s getting late early for Billy Napier. Thankfully Florida State didn’t spend the whole offseason whining they were so much better than their conference and then lose in Dublin to Georgia Tech.

[[[ LATE EDIT: Thankfully Florida State didn’t spend the whole offseason whining they were so much better than their conference and then lose in Dublin to Georgia Tech and then also get embarrassed in their home opener by Boston College. They rushed for 21 yards?! Look at the Seminole schedule because missing a bowl is very possible. They could start 0-6 depending on how you feel about Memphis and the Golden Bears. What a world. ]]]

Sparty and Wisconsin had issues with Florida Atlantic and Western Michigan, respectively, but survived, as did UCLA in their trip to Hawaii after trailing 10-0 at the half. Texas Tech needed overtime to beat Abilene Christian. South Carolina needed a late touchdown and turnover to survive Old Dominion. Troy lost at home to Nevada as a touchdown favorite. Houston got blown out at home by UNLV. 

7) Shortly after Marcus Freeman was hired, Notre Dame professors Christine Becker and Katherine Walden came on the podcast to discuss how fascinating it was to watch modern Notre Dame myths being made in real time. I felt that acutely in the aftermath of the wonderful win in College Station, with so many videos of Freeman before*, during and after the game being posted with the general sentiment of “There was no way he was letting his team lose this one,” “this one” being a contest that was tied with two minutes to go that definitely felt like it could have gone either way in the fourth quarter.

* We’re doing more longer quotes than normal this edition but I thought Freeman’s explanation for why he was so amped in the tunnel was interesting and showed the emotional intelligence he brings to the role: “That was intentional. There’s a couple different reasons but I remember when we came out, I’m looking at Anthonie Knapp, I’m looking at Sam Pendleton. It’s their first time. They’re freshmen and they’re playing this big environment. It’s almost you go into parent-mode and you want to take that pressure off of them. Put it on me. Let’s go man, this is what we talked about. I remember right in that moment saying ‘We’re right here. This is what we showed you in the meetings. This is what we talked about.’ 

That’s what I told them, We’ve been here! We know exactly where we’re at. Because that’s what I want them to feel when we’re going through that week of preparation that this is what the crowd is going to be like. We’ve been here. I wanted to take a little of that pressure off of them and have that mentality of like, let’s go, man. Let’s go. We’re competitors. I didn’t want them to have any fear…My wife sent me that video and I was probably a little bit out of control. It was intentional."

All credit to Freeman and the team he’s built that after being tied it went decisively in one direction to close, as the Irish slammed the door to start 1-0. Those feelings toward the head coach are real and a sign of both how beloved Freeman is and how he has the buy-in to build something really special here. People want to believe and Saturday night was validation that they should. The opener was the hardest on-paper game of the schedule and now things are fully in place to make a run at the ultimate goal of hosting (and then winning) a playoff game. It would be nice to say “Well, the Irish will be favored in every game, so easy breezy” but we all know that’s absolutely not how this sport works. In his first two seasons, Freeman teams weren't overly adept at handling success so I’m very curious to see how these next few weeks go. In theory, Northern Illinois, Purdue and Miami (Ohio) should all be overwhelmed by this superior Irish roster but a dozen consecutive quarters of focus is a big ask for any team no matter the talent advantage. 

But one step at a time and we should not move on just yet from a great, great win. Bathe in it all week because a whole lot of people watched Notre Dame go into SEC Country and pull out a gutsy, physical and smart victory. What most excites me about this team is that it’s already really good but still has myriad ways to grow over the course of the season between youth on defense ascending and the offense finding its flow. I’m thrilled to go on that journey with you as we find out how great this squad can be.