Key Matchups For The Notre Dame Defense vs. The Florida State Offense

Breaking down the most important matchups for the Notre Dame defense against the Florida State offense

Notre Dame enters game one of the Marcus Freeman era and the first-year Irish coordinator will be tested right away. When breaking down the matchup of Notre Dame's defense and the Seminole offense there are three matchups I'm most interested in watching, and how they turn out will have a major impact on the outcome of the game.

#3 S Houston Griffith vs. #87 TE Camren McDonald

Griffith’s decision to return to Notre Dame for his senior season after an initial run at the transfer portal was in large part due to the hiring of Freeman. After bouncing around positions for the past three seasons, Griffith will be the starting safety for the Irish on Sunday alongside Kyle Hamilton. The former Florida State commit has solidified a starting role at the position he’s most comfortable in for the first time in his career, and it’ll be interesting to see what Griffith can bring to the table in his first year with a larger role.

The matchup between Griffith and Florida State redshirt junior tight end Camron McDonald is particularly intriguing. McDonald has great size and athleticism at 6-4, 242 pounds and is one of the Seminoles most reliable returning pass catchers. McDonald caught 23 passes for 263 yards and two touchdowns a season ago. Out of the returners, only WR Ontaria Wilson had more receptions and receiving yards than McDonald. Both Griffith and McDonald should be poised for breakout seasons, making this a matchup you’ll want to pay attention to.

#7 DE Isaiah Foskey vs. #52 LT Robert Scott Jr. / #76 RT Darius Washington

Outside of Hamilton, Foskey could very well be the most exciting player on the Notre Dame defense this season. As a backup in 2020, Foskey burst onto the scene with 20 tackles, 5 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks! The uber-athletic 6-5, 260 pounder has the talent to be the next great defensive end prospect to come out of Notre Dame. If Foskey can even double the production he had a season ago while playing significantly more time this season as the starting Vyper, the former De La Salle High School product will surely be a name the whole country knows by season’s end.

Being that Foskey will likely be lining up on both sides, he will likely be matched up against both Robert Scott Jr and Darius Washington. Scott has great size at 6-15 and 312 pounds, and he started the final seven games of the 2020 season at right tackle for the Seminoles. The redshirt freshman was named a 247Sports true freshman All-American as well as Florida State’s co-offensive freshman of the year for his efforts. Washington, another redshirt freshman, also has game experience for the Seminoles after starting five games and playing in seven at left tackle last season. A lot of the game’s momentum should hinge on how well Notre Dame is able to bring the pressure defensively, especially considering Florida State upgraded what was a below average offensive line last year, making this matchup all the more interesting. 

#27 LB JD Bertrand vs. #0 RB Jashaun Corbin / #9 RB Lawrance Toafili

There’s no question Notre Dame will miss would’ve-been starter Marist Liufau this season, but Bertrand should do more than hold his own at the starting Will linebacker position for the Irish. Though Bertrand has seen minimal action in his first two seasons, the junior had an outstanding fall camp and turned heads all of August, even before Liufau went down. To go from someone who played under 40 snaps last season to a week one starter and first on the depth chart is quite a jump to make in one offseason, so it’ll be interesting to see how Bertrand performs in a much larger role.

Bertrand’s strength is in defending the run game, and Florida State rushed for just under 200 yards per game a season ago in spite of a bad offensive line that gave up a lot of negative yards. In fact, the Seminoles 199.9 rushing yards per game and 5.11 yards per rush were Florida State’s highest season averages since 2015 and 2016, respectively. The Seminoles also return three out of their four leading rushers from a season ago in QB Jordan Travis and RBs Jashaun Corbin and Lawrance Toafili. In other words, Bertrand will have his hands full, especially in coverage since the Seminoles and head coach Norvell likes getting the backs involved in the passing game and pass coverage is the one area where Bertrand seems to be a downgrade from Liufau, though not by much.

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