Three Things We Saw in Notre Dame’s Win Over Michigan State

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Your Notre Dame Fighting Irish advanced to 3-0 with a vintage win over Michigan State – never in doubt and mostly not close, but still hard-fought and a little nerve-wracking. A lot of people may find this win rather underwhelming and I don’t disagree with them, but I also think it’s worth reminding ourselves that the Spartans, like their likeminded counterparts in Pittsburgh and Boston, are a terrorist football program that relishes the opportunity to ruin their blue-blood rivals’ season. That desire is very much still alive, as we could see in everything from their physicality to Pat Fitzgerald’s demeanor on the sidelines. So with that in mind let’s make sure to appreciate the win and some of the good things we saw on the field last night.

Nolan James, Explained

In the limited action I had seen from him through this year’s opener, I didn’t get Nolan James. By this I mean I didn’t see what those reporting out of camp apparently saw, or why he should have a major role in the Irish offense. He didn’t seem to have the size or physicality necessary to be more than a gadget player. I started to see it a little more during last week’s game in his limited action. Having seen him get extended minutes in this game as Aneyas Williams continued to struggle, I can confidently say I get it.

At the risk of making a bold comparison, James’ game against the Spartans reminded me a lot of Kyren Williams’ days in blue and gold. James showed subtle strength and elusiveness on Saturday night that allowed him to slip just out and away from tackles and somehow grab 3-4 extra yards on seemingly every run, many times finding the first-down marker when it looked out of reach. It wasn’t the most dominant performance we’ve ever seen, but it did become increasingly effective over the course of the night and seemed to cement James as Notre Dame’s lead back. Whether James continues to progress or even becomes RB1 for the remainder of the season is still in question, but he finally got the chance to show the skillset we had been hearing about and definitely impressed.

The Talich Takeover

A relatively unheralded name in the offseason compared to his counterparts Adon Shuler and Tae Johnson, the former walk-on has been thrust into a larger role due to Johnson’s injury and shown himself to be a dynamic playmaker in his own right. Talich made his presence felt at every level of Notre Dame’s defense as he grabbed a sack and half a TFL in the backfield, swarmed to the football in run defense and nabbed an impressive leaping interception off Alessio Milivojevic. His tight coverage on a well-thrown fade route to the end zone in the first half also likely kept a Spartan touchdown off the board.

Talich’s story and his impact on the field speak to a coaching staff for Notre Dame’s secondary that has excelled at everything from talent evaluation to player development to schematics, and the end product is an incredible luxury – a player as talented and dynamic as Talich able to fill in when a player like Johnson goes down. More challenging passing offenses than Michigan State’s are coming for Notre Dame, but Irish fans should be encouraged that their team will have plenty of options and knowledge at work in defending them.

The Gilbert Explosion

With respect to Nolan James, the most significant development of this game for Notre Dame’s offense was Micah Gilbert’s explosive performance. The Irish have desperately needed a playmaker to emerge opposite Jordan Faison on the perimeter, and in particularly have been missing an athlete of Gilbert’s size and skillset to threaten teams vertically in a way that Faison does not. Gilbert has always been there as a possibility and made some impressive plays early in this season, but Saturday night was the first time we saw him take over a game. As a chain-mover, a downfield threat and a winner of contested balls Gilbert was seemingly always there for CJ Carr, and of course it didn’t hurt the young wideout that every ball Carr threw was dropped in a bucket.

The big question, of course, is whether Gilbert will sustain this over the course of the season. Jaden Greathouse has had similar performances only to disappear for stretches of each season in his career, a pattern which frustratingly re-emerged Saturday night. Still, it is obviously encouraging to see a performance like this from a receiver for the first time in several years (Gilbert’s 170 yards on nine catches were the most since Chase Claypool’s breakout performance against Wake Forest in 2017) and bodes well for the development of Notre Dame’s offense as a whole if a bigger, physical threat on the outside becomes an element defenses have to fear.

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