Desmond Howard explains why Notre Dame is on upset alert at Duke
After suffering a devastating defeat to Ohio State at home this past weekend, Notre Dame travels to North Carolina to play Duke on Saturday. In most years, the game would be viewed as an easy win for the Fighting Irish.
That’s not the case this year.
Blue Devils head coach Mike Elko has done a tremendous job turning the program around since taking over after the 2021 season. Duke is 4-0, including one of the program’s most memorable wins ever over Clemson in its season opener, and ranked 17th in the country.
This weekend is also set to be one of the most exciting in recent memory for the football team. College GameDay is coming to town for the first time ever, and GameDay‘s own Desmond Howard believes Notre Dame is on upset alert.
He explained why Friday morning on ESPN’s Get Up.
“I was in the stadium and Ohio State just gutted Notre Dame with that last-second touchdown victory,” Howard said. “Like you’re saying, how do they bounce back from such an emotional loss? I would say they should be on upset alert because when you lose, weaknesses get exposed. Maybe something in the defensive line that Duke saw that they can take advantage of. Don’t forget, we’re talking about a Duke team that started the season knocking off a highly-ranked Clemson.”
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Howard highlighted Duke quarterback Riley Leonard as someone who could cause trouble for Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman and his defense.
Leonard has emerged over the first few weeks on the national stage as a standout player. While the Fighting Irish have their own star quarterback in Sam Hartman, Leonard has a different set of skills that makes him dangerous.
“They have a dual-threat quarterback in Riley Leonard; dual-threat quarterbacks, they put a lot of pressure on defenses,” Howard said. “This is one who led his team in rushing a year ago, second in rushing right now on his team and he throws the ball extremely well too. I think that because of what happened last week in South Bend, and now going up against a Duke team that’s very confident…I do think that Notre Dame should be upset alert because this Duke team, they’re out to make the statement Saturday night against Notre Dame.”