Players to Watch: No. 10 Notre Dame vs. Florida State

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Marcus Freemans The introduction to the Notre Dame-Florida State series was done without entry, prompting the Irish defensive coordinator at the time to do some research and adjust his plans afterward.

On Saturday night, the Seminoles and Irish meet in Tallahassee for the first time since the 2021 season opened on Labor Day weekend this year, a 41-38 Irish overtime survival for an ND team that finally fell in November Defense found its breakthrough.

The development in November that will be critical heading into Saturday night's clash at Notre Dame Stadium, the 12th of the series, is that the Irish offense continues its encouraging progress from October.

In a matchup that looks much different than it looked in August, when the Irish were ranked No. 7 in both preseason polls and the Seminoles were ranked No. 10, the TV start time is 7:30 p.m. EST on NBC/Peacock.

The WSBT Gameday SportsBeat The pregame radio show precedes the ND-FSU game from 4:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. EST (wsbtradio.com/96.1 FM). At ND Sports Got you covered with our after the game on our YouTube channel Post-game takeaways Show with Tyler James and Eric Hansen.

Freeman, now in his third year as Irish head coach since being promoted in December 2021, has Notre Dame (7-1) at No. 10 in the first set of the College Football Playoff rankings. The Seminoles, 13-0 last season, are 1-8 and slipped to 17th place in the newly expanded 17-team ACC on Friday night when Cal won its first-ever ACC game – 46-36 at Wake Forest.

In Friday night's ACC game, former Irish wide receiver Tobias Merriweather made his season debut after missing the first eight games due to injury. He was targeted a team-high 11 times and finished with six catches for 52 yards.

The Seminoles are now 26½-point underdogs, and Freeman has seen this film before.

“I'm sure it's pretty hard for them to be a head coach and know that you have a lot of that talent, but the result wasn't what you wanted,” he said Monday. “You just put your head down and find ways to help your team improve.

“For us this is one of twelve guaranteed chances. They play Florida State at home in a night game. What a great opportunity. You must respect this opportunity in the way you prepare. I will continue to preach that. That our preparation needs to be better physically and mentally than in the past.

“Because if you do the same thing, the natural attraction will make you worse. This is what I told the boys last week: If we think that this farewell week we're going to do the same thing we did last farewell week and think we're better off, then God didn't create this earth that way.

“There is a natural attraction. If you do the same thing, you will feel worse. We have to improve. We have to prepare better this week than in previous weeks. We pushed them hard. But there has to be another step for this program.”

The Irish have won six straight since taking four-TD underdog Northern Illinois for granted and losing 16-14 on Sept. 7. Notre Dame trails FSU 6-5 in the series, but has won its last three games and has scored in the 40s in all three of those games.

Notre Dame had a bye week last week and is 4-0 after an open date under Freeman.

There are plenty of other players to keep an eye on on both teams. It is our practice At ND Sports to limit that to four, two per team. Here they are:

SUBSCRIBE INDOOR AND SPORT To stay up to date on Notre Dame athletics

Arguably ND's best offensive lineman returned to the Irish lineup on Oct. 26 against Navy for the first time since suffering an early ankle injury in a 66-7 game against Purdue on Sept. 14.

But instead of moving him back to his right deck spot, the Irish coaching staff left a substitute Rocco Spindler on the right side and Schrauth on the left side next to the freshman left tackle Antony Knapp.

“I think it gave Anthony a little bit of security last game when Billy was there,” ND offensive coordinator said Mike Denbrock said earlier this week. “It seems like ages since we played but the last time we played. So, I like that element of it.

“I thought there was a certain calm about the way they both implemented the game plan and somehow communicated with each other. The reason for putting him on the left instead of the right is actually kind of looking at the group as a whole going into this game – and of course that was the Navy game – with the things they did defensively. Who gave us the best opportunity to perform at a high level? And that’s how the decisions were made.”

Freeman confirmed Monday that the offensive line configuration from Navy's 51-14 loss to a Florida State team whose defensive line is overall the strongest of its position groups on both sides of the ball would be repeated.

Schrauth, who has a week off to get the ankle stronger and now has a chance to shake off the rust, is a player who could accelerate the improvement of the entire ND offensive line. So he's not just a player to watch on Saturday, but one to keep an eye on throughout November.

Given that Florida State ranks second-to-last among the 133 FBS schools nationally in both total offense and scoring, highlighting the Seminoles' punter seems like a pragmatic decision considering there are seemingly numerous There are opportunities to score points in games.

And Mastromanno is very good at it. Probably all-American good. His 49.3 yards per boot leads all players individually, and the Seminoles are first nationally in the team category of net punting (46.23).

He also leads the country with 24 punts of 50 yards. He has by far the most 50-yard punts with one or fewer touchbacks this season, while the next closest punter has 15.

And yet he “only” made 43 punts – tied for 16th most in the FBS and 15 behind the leader Josh Smiths 58 punts for winless Kent State.

That's partly because Florida State tries to go for it on fourth down often – as it has done 29 times this season, tied with Air Force and nearly twice as many times as ND has attempted on fourth down (15).

Like first-year Notre Dame freshman James Rendell, Mastromanno is an import from Australia and also comes from Melbourne.

Join the conversation THE INSIDER LOUNGE MESSAGE BOARD

The Seminoles don't have many players with big numbers, but the redshirt-junior safety has a team-leading 61 tackles – 20 more than the next closest FSU player. He also blocked two field goals for an FSU team that leads the nation with five blocked kicks.

Florida State ranks 96th nationally in total defense and 86th in scoring defense.

The unanimous All-American in 2023 is on track to do so again in 2024 and could be ND's only All-American this season.

He definitely deserves it, not only statistically (30 tackles, 3 interceptions, 7 pass breakups, 2 QB hurries, 1 forced fumble), but also with a presence that the younger defensive backs around him – Sophomore starter – upgraded Christian Grey (Cornerback) and Adon Schuler (Safety) and Freshman Starting Cornerback Leonard Moore.

“I think he’s a guy that continues to improve his skills,” Freeman said of the former wide receiver. “He has all the talent in the world now. He's improving his skills as a safety, in terms of ball tracking, in terms of tackling and things like that.

“What I love most about X and what he has really improved on is his vocal communication. He is a leader. He is a problem solver. He gets the boys in a row. You see him all the time checking, making calls, and that's where I think he's made the biggest leap: he's really a problem solver on the field.

“When he’s out there, he can really get everyone on the same page. And that’s where he really made a big leap.”

CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE INDOOR AND SPORT ON YOUTUBE

• Talk to Notre Dame fans in the Insider Lounge.

• Subscribe to the Inside ND Sports podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud, Podbean or Pocket Casts.

• Subscribe to the Inside ND Sports channel on YouTube.

• Follow us on Twitter: @insideNDsports, @EHansenND And @TJamesND.

• Like us on Facebook: Inside ND Sports

• Follow us on Instagram: @insideNDsports