The Irish open out on the road as a 6.5 (some places it’s still 7-7.5) at Florida State.
The obvious question for Notre Dame is at quarterback. The Wisconsin transfer, Jack Coan takes over for Ian Book.
Keep an eye on how Tommy Rees handles Coan early on. Most anticipate that Florida State will stack the box, in an effort to contain Kyren Williams.
That could lead to a lot of opportunities for tight end Michael Mayers.
The wide receiver position is a question mark. Who can step up and make a play. Kevin Austin is 6’2” and could help the Irish offense in the red zone. For all to good things Book did at Notre Dame, the red zone offense wasn’t one of them.
The Irish will also need to get some plays out of Avery Davis or Brady Lenzy.
Coan isn’t the only one making his Notre Dame debut tonight. Defensive Coordinator, Marcus Freeman will be making his first appearance tonight. Freeman chose Notre Dame over LSU. Last season at Cincinnati, the Bearcat defense was pretty impressive.
Stats
3rd in interceptions (16),
8th in scoring defense (16.8 points allowed per game),
10th in total takeaways (21)
14th in rushing defense (111.1 rushing yards allowed per game).
Freeman’s defense will get an early challenge defense Florida State’s Jordan Travis and McKenzie Milton.
Outlook:
It starts with Tommy Rees and Jack Coan. The Irish can’t make the same mistake UNC made when they let Virginia Tech get out and front and get the crowd engaged.
That means Notre Dame can’t have a field flipping turnover early in the game.
Kyren Williams and Chris Tyree should get plenty of opportunities in both the running game and, possibly, as receivers.
On defense, Freeman will look to do what he did with Cincinnati last season… take away the opponent’s running game and then turn them over when they’re behind the chains.
This hasn’t been talked about enough over the summer.
Prediction: Notre Dame 31 Florida State 20
