Just finished latest II pod w/ Prister, O’Malley, Brice & Mentock.
Brice seems to me to be the most confident in ND winning this game. He respects IU but likes ND’s athleticism. He agreed w/ the others that IU is more of a sum of their parts & that Cignetti has built a good team in a short period of time.
They seem to agree that IU is the best overall offense that ND has faced. And likely the best defense they’ll have faced but they admitted the defensive rankings could be skewed b/c of opponents. They added that ND’s offense will be far & away the 2nd best offense IU has seen behind OSU.
Mentock noted that w/ IU‘s offense they are very efficient. Brice added that they lack explosiveness like an SC so if ND can get up on IU, they shouldn’t have the fear of them charging back like SC a few weeks ago.
IU’s defense is very attacking & they will be focusing on shutting down the run…like every other ND opponent. On offense, Prister noted that IU picked on the CB Igbinosun when they faced OSU & fully expect them to do the same to Christian Gray in this game. The IU QB is very adept at the back shoulder pass & they love to throw slants.
ND needs a healthy Cross to help shore up the pass rush to help the DBs out who will all be on islands.
I think what makes this game so tough to predict is that, outside of OSU; IU didn’t play any decent teams other than scUM who shut them down in the 2H & likely win if they had any semblance of an offense.
I watched what I could find from the Michigan and Ohio State games, and here was my takeaway:
It seemed like their offense was 100% gimmick and only capable of producing points when they "scheme" a mistake for a chunk play.
Michigan game they had two big drives early, and then did nothing for the rest of the game. 6 points on 8 drives, 18 yards of offense in the entre second half.
Same thing against Ohio State... big early drive, 0 points on their next 8 drives. Only one of those drives did they even earn 10+ yards.
I think the commentary on their offense is entirely overblown by the fact that they play a certain style to run up the score on bad teams. If you can cover or get pressure, they have nothing. I do not think they are better than Louisville or USC in terms of playmakers or overall talent on that side of the ball. They are a well-coached, system team that can exploit weaknesses.
To me, the part of their team that is more of a worry is their defense, which seems fundamentally sound and capable of winning the game for them if ND makes special teams errors or Leonard is asked to throw a significant amount.