Behind Enemy Lines: Five Questions for Irish Breakdown's Bryan Driskell

Ahead of Louisville's matchup with Notre Dame, Louisville Cardinals On SI sat down with Bryan Driskell of Irish Breakdown to find out more about the Fighting Irish.

Louisville's Jawhar Jordan scores a touchdown against Notre Dame / Scott Utterback/Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Louisville football program is off to an undefeated start to their 2024 season, but that gets put on the line this weekend, as the Cardinals head up the South Bend for a ranked matchup at Notre Dame.

Ahead of the matchup, Louisville Cardinals On SI sat down with Bryan Driskell of Irish Breakdown to find out more about the Fighting Irish:

1. Riley Leonard is a fantastic running quarterback, but has struggling to stretch the field in the passing game. While he hasn’t been super known for his passing ability, why has he seemingly struggled in this regard?

There are a lot of different factors. You have a young left side of the line that has struggled to protect him, which makes it harder to get comfortable in the pocket. Missing spring cost him a lot of time learning the offense and getting on the same page with his receivers. Leonard has also struggled to work through is progressions the way he needs to, and he is going away from his deep reads too quickly.

Two positive signs for Notre Dame are he did hit a big late deep ball in the win vs. Texas A&M, so when he needs to do it he's done it. Also, against Miami (Ohio) he was a lot more aggressive throwing the ball down the field. He threw a deep ball touchdown to Beaux Collins and had three more deep ball result in defensive pass interference penalties. There was also a drop on a deep shot, so he was much more willing and a lot more accurate throwing downfield against Miami (Ohio).

Don't know if that will continue, but at least for one game it was there, which was a positive sign.

2. Have Notre Dame’s injuries in the trenches on both sides of the ball had a significant on what the Irish want to accomplish?

Absolutely. You went from having a sophomore starting left tackle that is 6-7, 330 pounds and is a former five star to starting a 290-pound true freshman. They are also down their starting center and starting right guard. The good news is the replacements at center and guard are guys with 13 and 10 career starts, respectively. But the loss of Charles Jagusah at left tackle is huge for Notre Dame.

Losing Jordan Botelho hurt as well, but his replacements were outstanding against Miami (Ohio). They combined for 7 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, 2 sacks, a forced fumble and an interception. Now we need to see if they can do it against a team the caliber of Louisville. Botelho was playing the best football of his career when he went down with an injury.

3. Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price have gotten off to a great start so far this season. What makes this running back duo so deadly?

They are elite talents. Both are legit home run threats every time they touched the ball, which Texas A&M and Purdue found out. Notre Dame has three ball carriers averaging over 7.0 YPC when you include Leonard into the mix. It hasn't been built on one big game either, as both Love and Price have gone for at least 5.5 YPC in each game.

Price has been a bit more of a boom-or-bust runner so far, but his. booms are outstanding. He had a 70-yard touchdown run against Purdue, had a 47-yard touchdown run against Texas A&M and had another 37-yard run against TAMU that was wiped out because of a penalty. Love has been explosive as well, with a 29-yard scoring run against TAMU, a 34-yard TD run against Northern Illinois and a 48-yard scoring run against Purdue.

Love has been the more efficient runner so far, showing the ability to grind out tough yards on top of being able to hit it big. Both have big time speed and both are around 210 pounds, so they aren't small backs. Having Leonard in the backfield helps them as well. Miami (Ohio) focused their attention on shutting down the backs, and they held Love/Price to just 99 combined rushing yards on 17 attempts. The problem for them is by overplaying the running backs they let Leonard go off, and he had 143 yards on 12 carries. The vast majority of that was on designed runs and not scrambles.

4. Notre Dame has a defense that is chock full of All-American talent, and has performed very well on that side of the ball to start this season. Is there any area of relative weakness on this unit?

Surprisingly, the area where I have been most concerned this season is up the middle. Notre Dame's veteran defensive tackles have not played well through the first four games. Howard Cross III hasn't been the player he was last season and Rylie Mills isn't making any plays. The linebackers are young and prone to mistakes, but they are also extremely talented and make a lot of plays as well.

Notre Dame has faced average offenses so far and they have shut them all down. Big plays did them in against Northern Illinois, but outside of two plays there wasn't much they could do either.

The test they will have this weekend against Louisville is a whole different animal. It will not only be a far better schemed offense and better coached offense, it will also be the most talented quarterback and most talented receiver room the defense has faced so far this season.

5. What is the one thing that Notre Dame has to do in order to avoid getting upset?

On defense, they have to limit the big plays. Be assignment sound, tackle well and win the battle in the trenches. Outside of the first drive of the game in 2023, Notre Dame shut Louisville down until it gave up some big plays late in the game.

Offensively, the offense got dominated up front by Louisville, and that has to change in this game if the Irish are going to earn a victory. Leonard won't be able to get the pass game going if he doesn't have time, and if the run game is getting shut down like it did last season.

(Photo of Jawhar Jordan: Scott Utterback - Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK)

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