I'll share my AP ballot when it comes out at 2. ND opponents that are ranked: 15. USC, 21. Texas A&M, 22. Louisville. Navy and Army, both undefeated, received votes.

Full poll HERE

The depth he has built…..easy to say others could do it but in 2024 at ND he is probably one of few that could assemble a roster with this quality of depth…. I’m not sure another coach - to this point- could do it (recognizing NIL will change things and it may be others could come closer)….. I know people have questions but I do think he is improving and I’m still strongly of the opinion that from an overall program standpoint he was the best choice in terms of getting talent to campus…..

Who wins???

..."One of the biggest things for me is I can underthrow a guy and have the confidence that he doesn’t always have to catch it, but the defender won’t. That gains a lot of trust in me."

It seems to me he has this backwards. Underthrows provide a greater probability for an interception...and it happened against NIU, which probably cost us the game. Am I missing something here? Is this being coached? Maybe Tyler clarify this.

Who would have thought that at the end of September, Army and Navy would be the only teams on the schedule who are undefeated? Could end up with one or two ranked matchups that we weren't expecting.

Also, a very weird quirk about Army and Navy: Army is in the AAC this year, so they could meet each other in the conference championship game, a week BEFORE their regular season matchup that is still considered a non-conference game since it's played after championship weekend.

@Eric Hansen and I discuss the biggest takeaways from No. 16 Notre Dame's 31-24 win over No. 15 Louisville.

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Thumbnail photo credit: Jeff Douglas, Inside ND Sports
Pictured: Jaden Greathouse

Notre Dame's offense went cold between a first quarter scoring spree and the fourth quarter. Then a couple of well-designed and well-executed plays gave the Irish the touchdown drive it needed to hold off Louisville.

Four Notre Dame players spoke to reporters in the postgame press conference after Notre Dame's 31-24 victory over Louisville. Here's everything they had to say.

Answers are largely verbatim. Questions may have been edited for brevity and clarity.

RILEY LEONARD

What’s the mentality for the offense after taking the field already trailing to start the game? How important was it to play the way you did in that first quarter?

“Obviously, it’s a 3-4 hour game, so to have that mishap that early, you worry about it, but you don’t really worry about it too much. Then we did a great job on offense of emphasizing and having the urgency to start really fast. Even though that mishap happened, we had all the confidence in the world that we were going to start fast on offense, because we did it every single day of the week in practice.”

Where do you feel like this team is at in the big picture?

“Shoot, it’s kind of hard for me to look at the bigger picture sometimes. I feel like I’m very narrow in my vision. I see right now that the team’s better than we were last week. The offense is better than it was last week. The defense is better than it was last week. We’re starting to roll, starting to get our confidence back.

“Bigger picture, who knows? We got a lot of potential. But right now, I think we’re doing all right.”

I’m sure you’re busy while they’re on the field, but what can you say about your defense playing without some injured players?

“Yeah, I am busy. I didn’t really see many of the injuries. I gotta pay more attention. But, shoot, we didn’t miss a beat. The guys came in and they balled out. We have a very mature, young group of guys on this team who are able to come in and fulfill roles. I saw a lot of young guys out there making plays. It’s really exciting to see that. Nobody hesitates whenever these guys have to go in. Everybody’s got all the confidence in the world in them. Proud of them.”

How soon did you feel back to yourself after you got banged up there in the second quarter? Did it limit you at all?

“The play I went out, I got the wind knocked out of me. It’s kind of soft. It’s weird saying that now. You gotta go out for a play, because you got the wind knocked out of you. But that was terrible. I couldn’t breathe. It was really no problem after a couple minutes. It’s a bad feeling getting that wind knocked out of you. It really didn’t play an impact at all.”

Was that first quarter as confident as you’ve felt this season. If so, what was the difference for you?

“That’s the most confident I’ve felt. I think it’s because of my preparation. It’s all due to the coaches. We’re really starting to understand each other and understand the plays that I really like. So they do a great job of calling that. Then my preparation — I feel like that is a very complex defense that we just went against. I felt like I knew exactly what I was going to get pre-snap the majority of the time. It’s just a testament to the hard work that we put in throughout the week and just paying attention to the little details. There’s a game within a game, and a lot of people don’t see that. But I think I was mentally prepared and knew what I was gonna get.”

Did your eyes light up when you saw Jaden Greathouse open on that touchdown?

“Yeah, there was him and then Jayden Harrison, who was also wide open on one of those. Those are the ones that freak me out, because I’m like, ‘Dude, don’t miss them.’ Because I missed a couple last week. It was good. Always a good feeling.”

When you’re struggling through the second half, how were you guys able to pull it together for the touchdown drive?

“The struggles in the third quarter, I don’t know if it was exactly their defense. It was awkward drives, some penalties here. It was just a weird thing that we gotta fit. We gotta start off fast. Everybody talks about the middle six — the last three minutes of the first half and the first three minutes of the second half. We gotta be better there. The fourth quarter, we pride ourselves on our endurance and being able to put games away. It was good to be able to do that.”

You were sacked once late despite facing pressure throughout. What goes through your mind when you’re trying to avoid those sacks?

“Everybody thinks it’s me who’s avoiding sacks and throwing the ball away and getting the ball out, but I had a lot of time today. That’s all credit due to my offensive line. I got some young guys in there, got some old guys in there. They jell really well together. I trust them with anything. They did an outstanding job. Louisville had more of a contain mindset for me, so I wasn’t able to escape the pocket maybe like I’m used to, but that’s fine. No problem with me. They did a good job up front.”

What’s it do for your confidence and the offense’s confidence when the coaches draw up plays that worked really well on the last touchdown drive?

“No better feeling as a quarterback when your coach just calls a play and you know it’s going to work. We called a couple there. They weren’t doing a great job in-and-outing the rub routes. So whenever J2, Jayden Harrison, popped open, that’s exactly what we expected and anticipated.

“For the throwback screen to work, we practiced it all week. And what a great time to call it. Just worked out perfectly. They were in the perfect defense against it. Shout out to the coaches there. Those are easy plays to execute, and we did it.”

What do you over the bye week and the week leading into the next game to ensure you guys build on this performance?

“Probably golf and hopefully catch a bass or two. But that’ll just be for like tomorrow. Then probably get back to work. I gotta get my body right. I’m definitely gonna be feeling today’s game tomorrow. We’ll enjoy it, but we have to learn how to handle success. We didn’t do a good job of that, obviously, after our week 1 win, which was a big win. Being able to handle success is a priority for us, and we gotta show maturity and focus on the next game.”

What do you take away from being the Notre Dame quarterback this first month of the season?

“This was an experience that every kid dreams of. It was really good to be able to put on a show for the fans and come out with a win like this. It’s something I waited all offseason for and haven’t done a great job doing so far this season. But, shoot, we got it done. Hopefully, we get a lot more done.”

How close are you to complete performance at home on offense?

“Whatever we’re called to do, we can do. Kinda proved that the last couple games. We’ve had success. It just comes down to hard work and preparation.”

Marcus Freeman said CB Jaden Mickey will sit out the rest of the season to redshirt and enter the transfer portal.

Story:


Here's Mickey's statement:

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I said in my intel piece the other night that there was a "good chance" Notre Dame would offer 2026 OL Sullivan Garvin on his visit this weekend. It happened today.

The Irish are just his second Power 4 offer following Indiana.

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Transcript provided by ASAPSports ...

MARCUS FREEMAN

Opening statement: “Yeah, man, great win. Obviously wasn't perfect as everybody saw, we saw, our players saw. When you find a way to get it done when it matters most. Defense had to go out there and prevent them from scoring that last drive.

“A lot of confidence. I know the game gets close, but we have a lot of confidence in our defense. It's why I'm so aggressive as a coach on fourth down. You got a lot of confidence in your defense.

“You know, I'm proud of them. Proud of the coaching staff. Proud of the players in terms of how we learned hopefully from the lessons this last year taught us, from the lessons of this year, and we were able to go out and perform and get the job done.

“At the end of the day, we are evaluated win or no. Did you get it done? We found a way. We'll go back. We'll clean it up as we go into the bye week, look at the areas of improvement, have a plan and attack them.

“We know we got to improve. Seven guaranteed games I told them. We're going to need everybody. Have to continue to get better, but it's a great feeling going into the bye week with a big win over a good Louisville team.”

Q. Pretty emotional day and right out of the gate first play they get a turnover that has a big momentum swing. A lot goes on in the first minutes. What's the message to the guys when there is such a big flip of momentum so early?

MARCUS FREEMAN: “You got to reload. You know, that's coaches and players and things happened within a game. You know, your frustration, you want to get mad and scream and the player feels like crap, but you got to reload and you got to refocus on the next play.

“That's why this game is so important. The ability to win the plays between plays is what's really I think makes great teams great. That's a message I've always said. No matter what happens the last play, take the emotion out. You don't control probably the first thought, but you control the second thought. You first thought is to be upset and feel sorry for yourself, and the second thought is the most important, and that's to reload and refocus.”

Q. Your defense forces three turnovers. Only gave up one score on a full field possession. How much does your confidence in them dictate the way you're able to call a game?

MARCUS FREEMAN: “It does. Again, when you feel like -- when you have confidence, I have confidence we were going to make the fourth and two. I think we had two fourth and ones that we were successful with.

“You know, we have a plan going into the game of, hey, what's the yardage that we want to be aggressive and go for it. At that moment it was two yards. I was really confident how the defense was playing, and they played well afterwards.

“A guy made a 56-yard field goal. That's a heck of a kick. So, again, hindsight you don't make it. I want to continue to be aggressive. I want our team to be aggressive. We have to be aggressive, an aggressive mentality. That was a reflection of that.”

Q. It's one thing to feel like you have a great call; still has to be executed. When your team goes out there and executes, especially in those clutch moments when you hadn't executed particularly well at other times, what did you take from that and what do you learn? How much confidence does it give you maybe moving forward?

MARCUS FREEMAN: “Yeah, we played lights out of the first half, especially offensively. I want to go back and -- again, it's hard when you're out there trying to stay focused on every single play. I want to go back and see. It was good. We were aggressive, threw some deep balls, had success in run game and passing game.

“Second half we weren't as successful. Punt, punt, turnover on downs, and then J-Love has a great play. That's something we worked on all week. That was a big screen. Then we knew after this first down after the time out we were going to call that.”

“Again, let's evaluate it, continue to be aggressive, both sides of the ball, but especially offensively. Riley, man, he had a great week and performed really well.”

Q. Then Leonard Moore leads with tackles in his first career start. When did you know you would have to go to him and what kind of example does that set for everybody.

MARCUS FREEMAN: “Yeah, Christian was going to try to go. He had a shoulder sprain and was going to try to go. Thought he was going to be able to go. After the pre-game warmup just wasn't ready. Wasn't going to be able to get the job done that we needed. We went to Leonard, and we have a lot of confidence in Leonard and he played really well.”

Q. Max Hureleman on punt return. How did that come about?

MARCUS FREEMAN: “The decision came about in practice this week when we were game planning against our punt unit. We wanted to be aggressive and we knew we could probably get the opt time to be affected by our aggressiveness, and we thought Faison would give us the best chance to maybe get back there and block a punt.”

“But Max has shown us that he's reliable, will catch the ball, and will be aggressive. He did a really good job stepping up today.”

Q. Boubacar's status?

MARCUS FREEMAN: “Lower leg, knee injury I think. Don't know. They just told me he was out for the game. Hopefully I'll have more information here soon.”

Q. Beyond Leonard Moore you had some shuffling to do back in the defensive backfield. Jordan Clark looked like he was playing a different role for a while. Rod Heard. Can you speak to their readiness to be able to do that and how much of this was just today and how much have they been working on emergency Plan B?

MARCUS FREEMAN: “You have to have a plan for Plan B, C, and D. We didn't have a lot of practice reps, I'll tell you that, with expecting Christian to try to give it a go. So we didn't have a whole bunch of practice reps.

“It happened. You know, B-Mo goes down in the second half. We knew if that happened we were going to put Jordan Clark at corner. He did a good job. You got to have a plan. Okay, hey, we're going to move this guy.

“Happens to have been at corner this year, but has previous to the corner position. So here is our game plan if he has to go to the corner position.

“So you have to have Plan B, C, D ready to roll. They did a good job.”

Q. And then from your players' standpoint, I would imagine it's going to be a pretty busy bye week for the trainers. As far as the coaching staff, where do you want your focus to be?

MARCUS FREEMAN: “Yeah, we have to get better. That's the most important thing. Part of this week will be out recruiting. You know, we have to continue to recruit and go see some guys. But the main emphasis of this week is how do we improve. Part of improving will be to get healthy. Got to get healthy in areas that we can.

“Got to look at schematically where can we continue to enhance. We have to get better. I'm confident we will.”

Q. When you guys get the ball back, I believe about five minutes to go. How much did Louisville stymieing the run game with Jeremiyah influence you guys to call the three runs from Leonard and what did you see from those three plays?

MARCUS FREEMAN: “I think five minutes left in the game and they had no timeouts. We said we have to be smart. If it gets to third down, let's be aggressive and try to throw it.

“If Mitch wasn't open, said, hey, let's keep ball in bounds. Do not throw it away. We have to utilize those 40 seconds. Every second matters. That's the thing you learn as a head coach, is that a play that happens with four minutes left in the game is going to affect the end of the game.

“Again, it wasn't beautiful because we didn't get a first down, but we ran 120 seconds off the clock, which was crucial. Then as you go to punt, you're able to take off another 40 seconds.

“We would've loved to have been able to finish the game with the ball in our offense's hands, but we were really looking at time management right there.

(more)

Shooter alert!

Ryder Frost is Irish and the third big commitment of the week for Notre Dame men's basketball.


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I've made my way to the Notre Dame Stadium press box, so let's get the game thread for Notre Dame-Louisville rolling.

We will use this game thread as the primary home for game commentary from now until after the game. We have some rules we'll ask you to follow, which will be included below.

If you're not following the rules and do not respond well to reminders, we'll remove you're posting privileges for the rest of the day. We have too much to do today to argue about it during the game. This doesn't happen often as we're pretty lenient in the game thread, but please keep that in mind.

@HotCarNut has disciplinary powers as a moderator. You can argue with him about the game, but do not argue with him about the rules.

Our game thread rules:

1. Use this thread until the end of the game for ongoing game commentary. We'd like to keep the conversation in one place. If something from the game merits a separate conversation of substance, go ahead and start another thread for that topic. When in doubt, post in the game thread.

2. Criticism of decision-making by coaches and players is allowed. But please avoid making it personal. Don't be malicious. Remember, that person's mother could be reading your post. If you cross the line, you'll lose posting privileges for the day.

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I'll share updates in this thread.

This was a good game that VT lost on terrible call. Again miami plays terrible teams, then steps up in competition and they a win /lose at home against an unranked team. I am not impressed with ward, not a Heisman winner. Their schedule is weak and after they play Louisville it’s nobody. Go Irish

DE Joshua Burnham is available. How much he's able to give remains to be seen.

S Brandon Logan with a pick-6 and a fumble recovery touchdown on a kickoff.

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As mentioned in my Opponent Outlook story with our Louisville site, WR Caullin Lacy and CB Quincy Riley are expected to be game-time decisions as they work back from injuries.

ESPN's Pete Thamel reported today that Lacy is expected "give it a shot" and play. He also called Riley doubtful. We'll monitor this in warmups.

You can listen to both the Gameday Show (10 a.m. ET-Noon) and Gameday SportsBeat (Noon-2:30 p.m.) on 96.1 FM, wsbtradio.com and on the free WSBT Radio app.

FIRST UP

Tim Grauel and Jim Irizarry on Gameday from 10am – 12noon. Broadcasting under the WSBT tent next to the Bru Burger in Eddy Street Commons.

THEN IT'S ...
Eric Hansen, Darin Pritchett and Tyler Horka on the Gameday SportsBeat show Noon-2:30 p.m. ET
Breaking down the matchup with 15th-ranked Louisville, reviewing the Miami (Ohio) win and analyzing the big picture of ND's season.

Two visits of importance for Notre Dame made this list from @Adam Gorney: LB Madden Faraimo to ND and QB Deuce Knight to Auburn.


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I'll have a full visitors preview on the site Friday, but I wanted to share the notable names of the expected visitors for Saturday's Notre Dame home game against Louisville. I'll update with more prospects later today.

Updated with visitors preview:


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Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman will be joining reporters on Zoom at 12 p.m. EDT for his weekly Thursday press conference. I'll share pertinent updates in this thread.