Notre Dame will turn the page to Boise State this week after a second-straight week of 56 points and another lopsided victory.
While South Florida kicked Boise State out of the national conversation with a 34-7 beatdown in Week 1, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman won’t overlook the Broncos (3-1). Boise State became one of the first 12 teams to make the new College Football Playoff format in 2024, and the Broncos return plenty of talent from the team that fell 31-14 against Penn State in the quarterfinals.
“You think about the history of Boise State and somebody told me it’s the second-winningest program since 2000 in college football,” Freeman told reporters on Monday. “I mean, that’s a credit of a program.”
Boise State has 16 conference championships, 13 bowl wins, and 14 top-25 finishes. The Broncos went 13-0 in the 2006 season, capped by a Fiesta Bowl win over Oklahoma, but didn’t get a share of the national championship.
This season’s Broncos are riding a three-game winning streak going into South Bend, Indiana. Boise State scores 38.5 points per game, 22nd in the nation, and allows 24.8 points per contest.
“Their offense is explosive,” Freeman said. “They’ve averaged about 500-plus yards in four games. I always say it starts with that quarterback. They’ve got a good quarterback that’s experienced, that’s tough, gritty, takes care of the ball, so it’ll be a good challenge for our defense again, and then their defense is a high-pressure attacking unit.”
“We’ll see more pressure if they continue to do what they’ve done than we’ve seen all year and it’s going to be a great challenge for us to protect our quarterback,” Freeman added.
“That’s going to be important. So looking forward to a challenge on Saturday, obviously in Notre Dame Stadium for Irish Wear Green.”
Marcus Freeman Anticipates Run Game Challenge From Boise State
While Boise State no longer has running back Ashton Jeanty, the Broncos still have a formidable rushing attack. Dylan Riley has 360 yards and five touchdowns, and he averages 7.5 yards when he touches the ball. Sire Gains averages 6.4 yards per carry, amid his 245 yards and a touchdown on 38 carries.
“We always want to stop the run. It’s going to be another great challenge this week. They’ve got a few running backs,” Freeman said. “They’ve got a running back by committee. They’ve got some guys that can take it the distance. They’re going to keep fresh guys in there and make you stop the run.”
“We have to understand that. We can’t always just put an extra guy in the box and blitz and do those types of things because you’ve got to protect against the pass, too,” Freeman added. “We’ve got to be gap sound. We’ve got to be aggressive, and we’ve got to tackle well because these running backs, if you miss them, they’ll go the distance.”
Marcus Freeman Sees Areas For Improvement From the Arkansas Game
While Notre Dame’s 56-13 win over Arkansas looked flawless at first glance, Freeman sees plenty of areas for improvement going into the Boise State game.
“I’ll start with defense,” Freeman said. “We have to eliminate some of those explosive runs, right, and execute exactly on every play what we do in practice, like perfectly, so that the quarterback can’t keep the run.”
Notre Dame gave up 160 yards rushing, amid a 5.5 yards per carry average. The Fighting Irish could also improve on-field communication, Freeman said.
“On both offense and defense, there was one or two plays where one guy got the wrong signal for some reason, right? The signal — we’ve got to be very intentional with how to hide signals and things like that. It’s just a game of college football,” Freeman said. “We’ve got to be so dialed in. We know what the right signal is. We missed a couple signals on both sides of the ball that we can’t have.”
Freeman also sees room for improvement in pass protection, though the Irish gave up only one sack against the Razorbacks. Notre Dame also only took four tackles for loss.
“We’ve got to protect our quarterback, right? I don’t ever want to see that quarterback on the ground,” Freeman said. “There were one or two times he was on the ground, so there’s always room for improvement. We’ve got to enhance the things we’re doing well, but dive into those things that we didn’t perform perfectly and make them better.”
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