As the Syracuse Orange prepare for tomorrow’s game with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, we sent some questions to Pat Sullivan from SB Nation’s One Foot Down to learn more about the Irish. You can check
out our responses over on One Foot Down
TNIAAM: How relieved are Notre Dame fans that they won’t have to see Steve Angeli and prepare for his revenge game
OFD: In a word: extremely.
The Irish fan base LOVE us some Steve “Peanut Butter” Angeli — the guy was constantly maligned as “not starter material” for his ND career, and yet whenever he was called upon he came in and played great, including an absolutely massive drive he led in the Orange Bowl against Penn State to get a field goal before the half as Riley Leonard was being assessed for a possible concussion. It was a bummer he was the odd man out in the QB battle for this year, but we were all pumped to see him go get the starting job he was capable of holding down when he announced his commitment to Syracuse.
It was a joy to see him really start cookin’ for you guys early in this season, and also definitely made some of us nervous about his poetic return trip to Notre Dame Stadium for Senior Day in November. A lot of us still remember in 2009, during Charlie Weis’s final season, when UConn came to town for Senior Day and former ND QB Zach Frazer helped lead the Huskies to an upset that ended up contributing to Weis being fired. We also know from 2008 that Syracuse is no stranger to playing spoiler on Notre Dame’s Senior Day with an ND-connected QB, as ya boy Cameron Dantley — son of ND basketball great Adrian Dantley — was playing QB the day the Orange beat the Irish in the snow with a head coach who’d already been fired.* With all that said, and even considering this Freeman program is in WAY better shape than that Weis program, we couldn’t help but be a bit nervous for this one.
Still, despite the relief of knowing Angeli and several other key Cuse players won’t be available to potentially lead an upset this weekend, it still made us sad to see such a beloved former player not get to have his full season in the spotlight. Hopefully he’s able to fully recover and have himself a great season next year to end his collegiate career.
*Side note about that Syracuse game in 2008: that was Manti Te’o’s official visit — a 5-star LB from Hawaii who was considered a near-USC lock, watching the Irish fans throw snowballs onto the field because their team was so disappointing. The fact he chose ND on signing day and ended up being one of the best players in Notre Dame history after all that is hilarious.
TNIAAM: We know all about Jeremiyah Love and his love for hurdles. Has he given the proper respect to Riley Dixon for inspiring his signature move?
OFD: I’m sure I saw this play at the time it happened, but I completely forgot it existed and can’t thank you enough for reintroducing it into my life. I just watched it like 7 times in a row and it’s simply electric.
I don’t know if Love has indeed given Riley Dixon the shout-out he so clearly deserves for inspiring his hurdling, so I think the only right thing to do would be to have Love handle punting duties this weekend, run a fake punt late in the game, and hurdle some poor Orange special teams player. Then, he needs to follow through and fully emulate Dixon by executing an aggressive fist pump without looking at the area around him, effectively taking a swing at an opponent as he does so. That was as enjoyable as the hurdle in that video, in my humble opinion.
TNIAAM: Notre Dame is converting over 45% on 3rd down. What are the biggest keys to success in those situations?
OFD: I’d say the biggest key is for Notre Dame to need 3+ yards to convert those 3rd downs. Seriously.
The Irish have been REALLY bad in short yardage situations, which is obviously insane considering they have a big, strong, and talented offensive line and the best running back tandem in America. But there’s been some questionable play-calling, a lack of push from the line, and this group clearly misses having 6’4″, 216-lb Riley Leonard to basically just fall forward for 2+ yards whenever they need him to, as they had in 2024. CJ Carr isn’t a statue nor is he tiny, but he simply isn’t the powerful, tall running threat that Leonard was.
In terms of how they’re making their conversions happen in general, I’d say it’s a mix of Love and Jadarian Price beating people to the corner when there IS some room to run, or Carr finding guys like Jordan Faison and Malachi Fields in the flat/on screens/on out-routes and allowing them to just make guys miss and keep the chains moving.
TNIAAM: Which Notre Dame defenders should Syracuse fans be on the lookout for in this one?
OFD: I’ll give you some names to know at each level of the defense — starting with Boubacar Traore at defensive end. He’s by far the best pass rusher on the team (6.5 sacks, 8 TFL, 7 QB hurries, 1 forced fumble), and at 6’4″, 250 lbs is a long, quick, athletic guy who really knows how to run down QBs and make their lives miserable. With a Syracuse offensive line tied for 125th in the country in sacks allowed and tied for 85th in tackles for loss allowed, I anticipate Traore and his crew up front will get home a few times, especially against the Orange’s walk-on, 3rd string QB Joseph Filardi. I imagine his lacrosse background may allow him to scramble away from some pressure, but ultimately he may be in for a rough day.
Another reason I believe that is because at linebacker, the Irish have a sophomore by the name of Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa (46 tackles, 3 sacks, 3 QB hurries, 7.5 TFL, and 2 PBU) — he’s an absolute menace who’s ALL over the field, an excellent pass rusher in his own right, and a guy who won’t need to stay in college football for 4 years. Along with him, Drayk Bowen is the other name to know at linebacker — a bit more of a classic thumper at the position (although he’s done pretty well in coverage too, with 4 PBU on the season), he loves to hit and is one of the leaders of the defense. There are a couple other very talented guys in the middle of the defense, but those two are the ones to watch out for this weekend.
The back end is where the Irish continue to thrive, even if their pass efficiency defense numbers are a bit down vs. what they did the last couple seasons. Leonard Moore is, as most probably know, the Irish’s All-American corner who’s as close to shut-down as you can reasonably get. He’s long, fast, and QBs avoid him at all costs, which still hasn’t stopped him from reeling in 3 INTs, breaking up 3 passes, and forcing a fumble. He also has some excellent help on the back-end: safety Adon Shuler was a starter on last year’s defense and is now a captain and a key leader back there (2 INTs, 5 PBU, 2 forced fumbles), and then he’s joined by redshirt freshman Tae Johnson, who’s quickly showing he’s the next-big-thing at DB for the Irish after the fun ride we’ve had with Kyle Hamilton, Cam Hart, Benjamin Morrison, Xavier Watts, Moore, and Shuler. Johnson’s emergence this year (4 INTs, 48 tackles) along with Shuler being so solid have really helped minimize the loss of Watts to the NFL, as his departure seemed to be a MASSIVE loss early in the year when Miami and Texas A&M were passing all over Chris Ash’s defense.
TNIAAM: Not that it will matter much this week, but how nervous are Irish fans about the kicking game?
OFD: To steal from my response to Question #1: extremely.
We’re at a point where I think I’d just prefer if Marcus Freeman went full-send on going for the 2-point conversion every single time, to at least put pressure on the opponent and make them feel like ND’s a bit unhinged and looking to get into a wild shoot-out. And unless it’s a field goal from essentially extra point range, or maybe unless it’s 4th and 10+, I would probably prefer the Irish go for it in enemy territory rather than try a 40-50-yard field goal that probably won’t go in. It feels dumb to fully abandon the kicking game and I normally wouldn’t say that, but that’s where we are considering the kicking the Irish have trotted out this season.
One note, though: Notre Dame went through a similar situation with their kicking last year, as Mitch Jeter was injured, and then seemed to have developed the yips when he returned from injury, and so it was a huge question mark as ND entered the CFP whether they would have any sort of reliable kicking game in crunch time against good competition. But then Jeter pulled himself together and made some preeeeetty important kicks, in my opinion, so I guess it’s technically possible the Irish will get this all figured out by Playoff time (assuming ND wins out and gets a bid). I don’t think injured kicker Noah Burnette is as talented as Jeter was, but hopefully he can pull himself together and be healthy for the postseason, or otherwise hopefully true freshman kicker Eric Schmidt gets much better, real soon. If not, it’s 2-point conversion/4th down go-for-it season, baybeeeeee!!!
TNIAAM: Just between us, how much do you enjoy the meltdown of Miami fans over Notre Dame being ranked in front of them by the CFP committee?
OFD: Oh, it’s absolutely incredible to see — and I’m enjoying Alabama fans being added to that meltdown group after the rankings released on Tuesday night with the Crimson Tide ranked behind Notre Dame after their loss to Oklahoma.
To be completely honest, though, I actually agree with these folks on principle — especially Miami. I have always firmly believed that if two teams have similar records and have played at similar levels (i.e. you’re comparing two P4 teams; a 10-2 MAC team is probably not playing a comparable schedule to a 10-2 P4 team, so that’s different), then head-to-head should absolutely matter. I know teams can get better or worse as a season goes on, but the actual games that are played still need to count no matter when they’re played. Back in 2018, Notre Dame beat Michigan in the season opener, and then heading into the final weekend of the regular season, the whole narrative was about how much better Michigan had gotten and how they deserved to be ranked above ND. At the time, I thought that was pure poppycock and I still do. Luckily, Ohio State exposed them and made it a moot argument, but I know Irish fans’ feathers were pretty ruffled by that line of thinking at the time.
I feel the same way now that I did then, and I KNOW that if the roles were reversed and ND was the team who won the opener against Miami but then lost a couple along the way to teams that aren’t exactly stellar (although Louisville and SMU aren’t bad…people seem to be ignoring that), Irish fans would be screaming about being ranked behind a team they beat and who has the same record as them.
With all that said, I fully agree with the spirit of the question — Miami fans deserve all the pain that their football program can bring/has brought them in the last 20 years. And so it’s been positively lovely to watch them melt down over the rankings. Also, Alabama fans probably have a nice argument against ND too, considering the opponents they’ve had to face (although we all know teams like Mizzou and Tennessee are being propped up by being in the SEC, not because they’re actually really good), but I also just don’t have sympathy for a fan base who’s seen their team win 7 national titles in my 34-year lifetime. Maybe don’t lose to a bad Florida State team, ya nitwits.
Here’s to hoping the ND #brand continues to deliver the Irish a ranking they deserve but probably haven’t earned, and here’s also to hoping ND shows well in the CFP again if they make it. I have a feeling a blowout loss will restart all the “ND doesn’t belong, they can’t beat anyone good” talk that was valid for a while but was finally proven wrong last season with wins over IU, Georgia, and Penn State.
TNIAAM: What is your prediction for this game, and since this game is a foregone conclusion, when will Notre Dame finally do Jim Phillips a solid and just join the ACC?
OFD: I know Syracuse is decimated by injuries and the Irish are rolling their lesser opponents here down the stretch, and also that this is Senior Day, so I don’t expect a flat performance from the Irish by any means…BUT, with that said, 35.5 points is a WIDE spread, so I’m gonna actually say that Syracuse covers in a game that’s still a blowout — something like ND 45, Cuse 17. Jeremiyah Love runs for ~125 yards plus has a few nice catches in the passing game, and then we’ll see some seniors like WRs Malachi Fields and Will Pauling, TE Eli Raridon, DEs Joshua Burnham and Jordan Botelho, and LB Jaylen Sneed come up with a few big plays on their big day to punctuate the victory.
Notre Dame will join the ACC fully when Oranges fly, my friend. At the present, there’s just no reason for the Irish to actually join a conference, love it or hate it. They wield too much influence and gain more than enough preference based on their independent brand alone, and are making plenty of money with the current arrangement. Who would give all that up to have to play by the same rules as teams in conferences? It’s just too good of a situation to abandon it without it being absolutely necessary to do so.
Now, what I’m actually worried about is at some point, as the super conferences gain more and more power, that they’ll try to squeeze Notre Dame out of postseason play unless they join the Big Ten or SEC. If it came to that, I’m sure ND would join the Big Ten due to it being a better fit for academics, other sports, geographic reasons (excluding the former Pac-12 teams and Rutgers/Maryland), and so on. My hope, though, is that the SEC never lets it get to that point, because as the chief rival of the Big Ten for ultimate power/$$$, I’m not sure it’s in their best interests to push the Irish and their super valuable brand into their rival conference’s membership ranks. Keeping them independent is how you keep the Big Ten from surpassing the SEC, so ND may be able to coast as an Independent for a while if just for that reason. And if they can, the ACC has been a great partner in terms of this partial arrangement that allows all the other sports to have a home, so I would bet they keep that going if the ACC is game.
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Thanks again to Pat for the responses. Be sure to check out One Foot Down for more Notre Dame coverage
