Notre Dame Opponent Recap: Week Three

A look at how Notre Dame's 2020 opponents faired in week three of the college football season

Notre Dame improved to 2-0 with a 52-0 victory over South Florida, meaning the Irish have now won 20 straight home games and 24 of their last 26 regular season contests.

It was not as good of a weekend for Notre Dame’s opponents, who went just 3-5. Two of the games were matchups of future opponents, meaning there was only one win against an opponent that isn’t on Notre Dame’s future schedule.

Here’s a rundown:

DUKE BLUE DEVILS (0-2) vs. BOSTON COLLEGE EAGLES (1-0)

Result: Boston College won 26-6 on the road

This was a matchup of Notre Dame’s first opponent against a future opponent.

The Blue Devils returned home after dropping their opener to the Fighting Irish, and the result was even worse. Duke turned the ball over five times in the loss, including two in the red zone, one just outside the end zone and another drive ended with a missed field goal.

For Boston College, they had their sloppy moments as well, and their offensive line struggled in the victory. The bright side for the Eagles was the play of quarterback Phil Jurkovec and receiver Zay Flowers. Jurkovec went 17-23 for 300 yards and a pair of touchdowns in the win, showing the playmaking ability that made him one of the nation’s top quarterback prospects. Flowers hauled in five passes for 162 yards and a touchdown.

WAKE FOREST DEMON DEACONS (0-2)

Result: Lost 45-42 at NC State

Wake Forest fell behind two scores on two different occasions against NC State, but they battled back both times to tie the score. The Deacons took a 42-38 lead in the fourth quarter, but NC State answered with a 75-yard drive to go back ahead. Wake Forest picked up just 27 yards on its final two drives and turned the ball over on downs both times.

Wake Forest running back Kenneth Walker III had a quality performance, rushing for 131 yards and three touchdowns on 27 attempts.

#18 LOUISVILLE CARDINALS (1-1)

Result: Lost 47-34 at home to #17 Miami, Fla.

Expectations for high for Louisville coming into the season, and they hinged on the defense making improvements. It is going to be hard for the Cardinals to improve this season if their defense doesn’t play a lot better than it did against Miami. The Hurricanes played well, make no mistake, and they made a lot of plays. But that’s exactly why you cannot make the mistakes that Louisville made.

They completely blew a coverage that resulted in a 75-yard touchdown pass, which came one play after the edge of the defense lost contain and gave up a 75-yard touchdown run. 250 yards and two touchdowns on back-to-back plays that were due to blown coverages and execution mistakes isn’t going to win you many games against good opponents.

#25 PITTSBURGH PANTHERS (2-0) vs. SYRACUSE ORANGE (0-2)

Result: Pittsburgh won 21-10 at home

This was a matchup of future Irish opponents.

Pitt’s defense looks to be just as good as it was in 2019. They held Syracuse to just 10 points and 171 yards. The Panthers are giving up just 154 yards per game on defense, and they sacked the Orange quarterbacks seven times. Pitt already has 10 sacks in two games, and their best defensive lineman (Patrick Jones II) only has half a sack so far.

The problem for Pittsburgh is their offense also looks like its 2019 version. After racking up 55 points and 456 yards in the opener against Austin Peay, the Panther offense struggled to move the ball against a relatively average Syracuse defense. Pitt had just 342 yards and 4.3 yards per play against the Orange, and the run game averaged just 2.9 yards per game.

GEORGIA TECH YELLOW JACKETS (1-1)

Result: Lost 49-21 at home to #14 UCF

The scoreboard wasn’t kind to Georgia Tech, but they played harder and better than the final score showed. UCF just out-classed Georgia Tech from a talent standpoint, but I was impressed with how hard the Yellow Jackets competed. UCF scored 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter after the Jackets scored to make it a 28-21 game.

CLEMSON TIGERS (2-0)

Result: Won 49-0 vs. The Citadel

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney took mercy on The Citadel. Clemson won 49-0, which might not seem overly impressive, but he pulled his starters in the middle of the second quarter with the Tigers up 42-0. Their final score came with 5:31 left in the second quarter.

There’s not much we are going to learn about Clemson in a game like this.

OTHERS: Florida State had a bye week. North Carolina’s contest against Charlotte was canceled.

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