Stacking Up The Notre Dame Defense vs South Carolina Offense

Breaking down how the Notre Dame defense stacks up against the South Carolina offense

Notre Dame will look to finish the 2022 season off on a strong note, which means beating South Carolina in the Gator Bowl. The No. 21 Fighting Irish are two point favorites over the No. 19 Gamecocks. A win will require the Notre Dame defense to be on top of its games.

We continue our breakdown of this contest with a look at how the Notre Dame defense stacks up against the South Carolina offense.

Notre Dame Rush Defense vs South Carolina Offense

Advantage: Notre Dame

Notre Dame's rush defense has been a bit on the bi-polar side this season. At times it has been dominant, but at other times the Irish have struggled to stop the opponent ground game.

Five times Notre Dame held an opponent to less than 100 yards, and California only topped 100 yards because of a few quarterback scrambles. The problem, however, is that Notre Dame also allowed over 200 rushing yards on three different occasions, including two of the last three games. The Irish also gave up 172 yards to Ohio State and 164 yards to BYU.

Notre Dame will be without All-American defensive end Isaiah Foskey in this game, and defensive tackle Jayson Ademilola is questionable due to a late season injury. Notre Dame won't be full speed up front, which makes the linebacker play even more concerning. JD Bertrand has been solid this year, but Jack Kiser has been inconsistent and Marist Liufau has struggled almost the entire season.

The good news for Notre Dame is it faces a South Carolina offense that has been downright bad at running the football for much of the season. South Carolina's lone bright spot was the play of Marshawn Lloyd, who averaged 5.2 yards per carry when he was healthy. Lloyd entered the portal in the offseason and won't play, and South Carolina's second leading rusher - tight end Jaheim Bell - is also gone after transferring to Florida State.

This is an offense that rushed for under 100 yards six times this season and also had a game of just 118 yards. South Carolina averaged less than 2.0 yards per carry in four games. There will be a new playcaller, but the personnel won't be any better, which means the Irish need to thrive in this matchup.

South Carolina's inability to protect the pass game with its rush offense has been a big reason for the team's inconsistency on offense. The top two backs on the depth chart - Juju McDowell and Christian Beal-Smith - have combined for just 339 yards (3.7 YPC) this season.

Notre Dame Pass Defense vs South Carolina Offense

Advantage: Notre Dame

This is a very intriguing matchup, and a case could be made that it should be more of an even matchup instead of giving the Irish the edge. Noter Dame ranks higher in yards allowed, touchdowns, interceptions and it has been a very good pass rushing team, while South Carolina struggles to protect the quarterback. South Carolina holds the edge in yards per attempt and efficiency.

Notre Dame won't have Foskey or cornerback Cam Hart, who is out with an injury. That adds stress to a Notre Dame pass defense that has been a strength of the unit all season. Notre Dame ranks in the Top 50 in yards allowed per game, yards per attempt, yards per completion, touchdowns allowed and efficiency. South Carolina's offense ranks in the Top 50 in just three of those five categories.

Of course, the danger is that South Carolina was absolutely lights out with its pass game in three of the final four games. In wins over Vanderbilt, Tennessee and Clemson to end the season, South Carolina passed for 365.7 yards per game while its quarterbacks completed 72.4% of their passes.

South Carolina will be without its top two tight ends, but Josh Vann is questionable with an injury. Even with those losses, South Carolina has plenty of talented pass game weapons, including Antwane Wells Jr. (63 catches, 898 yards, 6 TD) and Jalen Brooks (33 catches, 504 yards, 1 TD).

Notre Dame will need to figure out ways to get pressure on the quarterback without Foskey, because of Spencer Rattler gets time to throw, Wells and Brooks could be a tough matchup for the young Irish cornerbacks.

Notre Dame Scoring Defense vs South Carolina Offense

Advantage: Notre Dame

Like the pass game advantage, I'm going with Notre Dame but it's far from a certainty. Notre Dame's red zone woes alone are enough to make a case to make this matchup even. I went with Notre Dame because the Irish have the edge in scoring, total yards, yards per play and third-down success.

Notre Dame's scoring defense will need to be on top of its game if the Irish are going to win this game. It holds a lot of important advantages, but the poor red zone touchdown rate for the Irish and the strong red zone touchdown rate by the Gamecock offense could prove to be an equalizer in this contest.

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