Week 11 Data Review: Notre Dame VS Florida State

The data story coming out of Notre Dame’s 52-3 rout of Florida State.

Notre Dame’s continues its pursuit of ending the 2024 season on a high note. They trounced Florida State 52-3 in Week 11 and have brought their overall record to 8-1, with a 7-game win streak.

Scoring Overview

Unfortunately for Seminole fans, their team looked just as bad as we anticipated, although not necessarily worse. Silver linings. Notre Dame scored on their first drive but didn’t put up anymore points during the 1^st quarter. FSU put up 3 points and I was definitely feeling “uncomfortable” with the 1^st quarter ending 7-3, even if ND was winning.

That early score turned out to be FSU’s only real success and Notre Dame shut the team out 45-0 through the 2^nd and 4^th quarters. The bulk of those points, 21, came late in the game.

Scoring Details

The Irish found their points via a lot of different avenues. They finished with four rushing touchdowns, two passing touchdowns, a pick-six and a successful field goal.

Drive Summaries

Notre Dame’s offense got the job done against Florida State but it wasn’t a particularly pretty or cohesive performance. The game’s opening drive was textbook success but the rest of the 1^st quarter drives were sort of sketchy. They scored on two out of their six remaining drives but four ended in punts after 3-4 plays and a missed field goal to cap off a 7-play, 26-yard drive.

Things tightened up significantly in the 2^nd half but it wasn’t what I’d consider to be a comforting offensive performance.

Offensive Benchmarking

Even though it wasn’t always pretty to watch, it was a very strong stat game for Notre Dame’s offensive unit. They were above the 2023 per-game benchmarks in all of the major categories except passing accuracy.

It was the season’s 4^th best outing in terms of total offense, their 2^nd best in total passing production and the 5^th best for total rushing production. Last season, the Irish offense had a per-game passing accuracy benchmark of 65%. They completed 17 of their 30 attempts against FSU for a 57% accuracy rating.

The Texas A&M game was the only outing that the team was less accurate throwing the ball. They completed 12 of its 30 attempts against A&M for a 40% accuracy rating.

There have been two other games so far in the season where the Irish have made 30 or more passing attempts. ND had 33 attempts against Northern Illinois and completed 20 for a 61% accuracy rating. They had 30 attempts against Georgia Tech and completed 21 for a 70% accuracy rating. I can’t knock Freeman and Co.’s decision to press the passing issue, since it was clear that Florida State’s offense wasn’t going to get it together. Even though it wasn’t the most accurate or efficient, a team cannot live on rushing alone forever.

Receiving Details

Wide receiver Jaden Greathouse returned to the spotlight against FSU. He recorded five catches for 66 yards but failed to get in the end zone, the only thing missing from hist standout performance. From a production perspective, wide receiver Jayden Harrison and running back Aneyas Williams had good days. Harrison pulled in two receptions for a total of 47 yards and Williams had one catch for 28 yards. Tight end Mitchell Evans had a dominant performance, even if it doesn’t show up clearly on the stat sheet. He finished with two receptions, 21 yards and one touchdown. Senior wide receiver Deion Colzie also had a flash and pulled in the team’s other receiving touchdown.

Rushing Details

Although Riley Leonard spent a lot more of the game flexing his throwing muscles than we’ve gotten use to, the quarterback maintained a strong presence in the run game. Leonard recorded 11 carries, 70 rushing yards and two touchdowns. Running back Jeremiyah Love had a quieter game with only nine attempts for 19 yards and a touchdown. Jadarian Price had the most prolific game. The junior running back finished the FSU game with seven carries, 95 yards and one touchdown on the ground.

Defensive Summary

Dominance. The best description for this 2024 Irish defense.

Florida State’s offense opened the game with arguably its best drive of the season but it was all bad news from then on. The Seminoles had a 10-play, 35-yard drive that unfortunately ended with a turnover on downs late in the game. With time running down in the 4^th quarter, they also made it seem like they’d find something worth writing back home to Tallahassee about. But that 10-play, 55-yard drive ended with a Notre Dame pick-six that had to be pretty demoralizing.

Defensive Details

It was a feasting day for Notre Dame defensive players, regardless of position or classification. In terms of total tackles, Jack Kiser, Rylie Mills and Donovan Hinish were the group’s big leaders. Kiser and Hinish led the team in solo tackles.

Rylie Mills had a monster day with three solo tackles, three sacks (two which came in back-to-back plays) and three tackles for loss. There was a stretch in the second half where he was just stomping all over the Seminole’s offensive line without any grace or care. Sophomore defensive lineman also excelled with two sacks and two tackles for loss.

It was a crazy stat day for the collective unit and they finished with eight sacks and ten tackles for loss. Sophomore safety Luke Talich accounted the pick-six and senior safety Jordan Clark also snagged an interception in the game.

Final Thoughts

With Florida State being who they are this season, it’s hard to walk away from this game with a bunch of strong thoughts. Positive or negative.

Notre Dame is succeeding at its main mission through the regular season’s final stretch: stay out of your own way. They’re definitely showing out in some categories, and flexed a bit more of the passing game potential this weekend. But the core mission, for better or worse, hasn’t changed much since the NIU game’s final whistle.

A lot of the Irish’s future is going to depend on how the rest of the CFB field closes out and it’s getting sketchier and sketchier each week.

Cheers and Go Irish!!