What four players may help swing Notre Dame football game at Pittsburgh?
NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...
SOUTH BEND − Anytime a certain four-letter cable sports heavyweight sends its personalities and its production people and everything else that comes with that Saturday morning circus to town, you know it’s a big game.
Saturday certainly classifies as one when No. 9 Notre Dame football (7-2) visits No. 23 Pittsburgh (7-2), but for the Irish, this is just the next game. The next step. Notre Dame has come too far and has sacrificed and struggled too much to see its College Football Playoff hopes sink to the bottom of the Allegheny or the Monongahela or the Ohio.
This is an event for ESPN’s College Gameday and all it entails. For Notre Dame, this is just another game. Sorry, TV fellas. Business trip for the boys from South Bend.
Here are four players to watch who might play major roles in Saturday’s game.
No. 9 NOTRE DAME FIGHTING IRISH (7-2)
LB Jaiden Ausberry (4)
In a crowded position room of talented tacklers, Ausberry has been on a quiet heater of late following eight tackles in the win over Navy.
That capped a five-game run for the 6-foot-2, 228-pound sophomore from Baton Rouge, Louisiana that saw him tally 27 of his 41 tackles this season, all while playing as backup to Jaylen Sneed at the Will (weakside) linebacker spot.
Ausberry had eight tackles against Boise State, then four against North Carolina State. He made two stops against USC, then followed with five (and a tackle for loss) against Boston College before Navy, which also included a tackle for loss, a sack and a forced fumble.
The recent run has allowed Ausberry to move into fifth on the team in total tackles. The top five includes three linebackers — Ausberry, captain Drayk Bowen and sophomore Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa. As the end of the regular season nears, Ausberry is playing his best football. Again, quietly. You don’t notice him until a glance at the stats and he’s again flirting with double-digit tackles. It’s been a process for him to get here after a 2024 season in which he made 58 tackles, but he’s here.
WR Malachi Fields (0)
Someone who looks like a pro at 6-4, 222 pounds needs to deliver like a pro on the same Acrisure Stadium field where pros play.
These are the kind of high-stress road games and moments that Fields was brought to Notre Dame as a transfer from Virginia to flourish. He’s got size. He has skills. He has game-breaking ability that really hasn’t been seen to date. Pittsburgh’s defense, which ranks third nationally against the run, will gear up to stop the Irish ground game. Time for the pass game — time for the receivers — to have a big day. That means you, Mr. Fields.
We’re still waiting for that big Fields breakout. The game where he makes a ton of catches for a ton of yards and maybe finds the end zone a few times. Fields has been good nine games into his lone Irish season (25 catches, 497 yards, three touchdowns), but it sure would be nice to see him build off his four-catch, 97-yard showing against Navy.
It’s mid-November, which means your biggest stars must be at their best in the biggest games. It’d be nice to see Fields be one of those guys.
No. 23 PITTSBURGH PANTHERS (7-2)
LB Rasheem Biles (3)
Biles shoe-horned a lot into a little through six games. He’s been down (and out) the last three with a foot injury. Before that happened against Florida State, it was hard to find a better ‘backer in the Atlantic Coast Conference than the 6-1, 220-pound Biles.
Biles is tied for second with 53 tackles. He leads Pittsburgh with 8.5 tackles for loss. He made a season-high 15 stops in the loss to West Virginia. That was one of four games where he tallied at least eight tackles and one of three where he had at least 11.
Throw in two sacks, an interception that he returned 75 yards and a TD, two pass breakups, three quarterback hurries and one forced fumble and you know why he means a lot to a defense ranked third nationally against the run (80.9) and 25th in total defense (318.3). They’re good.
The Columbus, Ohio native has found a home as Pitt’s “money” linebacker — fancy football lingo for inside. On November 4, he took to the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to respond to a post about a possible return.
“Back Soon,” Biles wrote.
Soon might be Saturday.
QB Mason Heintschel (6)
Everything about Pittsburgh’s season flipped on October 4 in a conference game against Boston College. That’s when head coach Pat Narduzzi effectively pulled the plug on the Eli Holstein quarterback experiment/experience. Out went the Alabama transfer; in came the lightly recruited 6-2, 215-pound kid from Oregon, Ohio (just east of Toledo) who threw for more than 7,300 yards with 79 touchdowns in his prep career.
Heintschel has been a revelation. He completed 30 of 41 passes for 323 yards and four scores in the win over Boston College but did more than that. He lit a fuse of focus within the Panthers. They became more united. They became better. It was all because of Heintschel, so much so that “Heintschel for Heisman” has become a thing with him 5-0 as the starter.
Heintschel won’t win the Heisman, but he’s done a lot and won a lot. He’s completed 64.1 percent of his passes for 1,547 yards and 12 touchdowns for a Pitt offense that ranks 39th nationally for pass efficiency (149.8), 36th in total offense (426.8), 10th in passing offense (302.6) and sixth in scoring offense (39.7). How’d all of that happen?
Hand it to Heintschel.
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at tnoie@sbtinfo.com
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Can Notre Dame football run its win streak to eight straight at Pitt?
More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos