Notre Dame returns home today for its first home game of the 2024 season following its 23-13 win over Texas A&M a week ago. The Irish will face MAC opponent Northern Illinois for the first time as heavy favorites. Their biggest opponent of the day, however, may be themselves as they look to avoid an emotional letdown.

What worries me this week

Emotional disappointment

A home game against a MAC opponent a week after a big emotional away win is usually a recipe for emotional disappointment. Hopefully the first home game of the year will give the Irish enough energy to avoid total disappointment, but it’s fair to expect the Irish to start off a bit slow. Marcus Freeman showed last week that he knows how to push all the right buttons with this team, though with the emotion he showed in the tunnel before the Irish took the field last week, expect Freeman to once again try to set the tone early.

Explosive plays from Northern Illinois

Northern Illinois can’t keep up with Notre Dame all game if they’re forced to make long, sustained drives all game, but they do have playmakers who can make things interesting with explosive plays. Notre Dame didn’t allow Texas A&M a single explosive play last week, but Northern Illinois has enough firepower to make a few this week if the Irish defense slips up a bit. The only way for the Huskies to make this a game-winning drive is to make a few big plays, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Irish play a little risk averse early in the game to avoid that.

What doesn’t occupy my mind this week

Notre Dame’s vertical passing game

Notre Dame did what it had to do on offense to beat Texas A&M a week ago. That meant very little vertical passing, as the Aggies have an elite pass rush and the Irish have a green offensive line. That should change today. Don’t expect Notre Dame to just throw it out there every down, but they will make some shot plays this weekend. They need to develop that part of the offense if they want to make a serious run at the playoffs and save the wide receiver recruiting for the class of 2025.

The passing game doesn’t have to be perfect today, but it does need to take a step forward because the Irish will need it later this season, especially if they make the playoffs.

Riley Leonard needs to run as much as possible

In addition to seeing more vertical passes, I expect Riley Leonard to run the ball a lot less today. If he’s attempting more than he did a week ago, something went terribly wrong today. Notre Dame has to use Leonard’s leg wisely this season, given his injury history, and this is the kind of game where they need to keep Leonard’s planned runs to a minimum. If there’s something for him in an RPO, take it. Otherwise, let the dynamic duo of Jadarian Price and Jeremiyah Love do their thing and get the passing game going.

Notre Dame’s young offensive line

If the Irish OL can survive a trip to Kyle Field and the Aggie defensive line, I wouldn’t worry about it today. That doesn’t mean it will be perfect. There will still be times when it looks like an offensive line that had only made six starts in its career before this past weekend, but overall the offensive line should be more than fine against Northern Illinois.

Players to watch

Kris Mitchell – Jordan Faison beat out Mitchell for the starting outfield receiver position in camp, but is out for the next week or two. That gives Mitchell a huge opportunity that I think he will seize with a big game today.

Nice Collins – He certainly looked like WR1 last week. Is that going to be the case every week, or was it just a good game for the Clemson transfer? We’ll get a hint on that today.

Mitch Evans – His pitch count is up today, and it would be shocking if he doesn’t get a target or two. Like the passing game in general, Notre Dame needs him at 100% later this season, so hopefully he’s a little more involved today.

Boubacar Traoré – I just feel like today is the day that a lot of Notre Dame fans see how good he can be.

Kyngstonn Villiamu-Asa – KVA looked like anything but a freshman last week. For the first time in a long time, Notre Dame has a deep, talented, and fast linebacking corps. How the snaps are split between KVA and Drayk Bowen, who was also great last week, will be interesting.

Anthony Knapp – He played about as well as anyone could have hoped for last week against a future first-round draft pick. It will be interesting to see how he responds.

Prediction time

Expect Notre Dame to start off a little slow. I wouldn’t be surprised if Northern Illinois scores an early touchdown and the Irish offense starts off slow. In the end, Notre Dame will look like the top 5 team it is and win comfortably.

Notre Dame 41, Northern Illinois 13