Love comes with a Price … The Notre Dame 3-2-1: 3 numbers, 2 questions, 1 prediction

One of the most entertaining and rewarding seasons in Notre Dame history resumes next week when the seventh-seeded Irish host 10th-seeded Indiana in the first-round of the College Football Playoffs on Dec. 20. 

The Irish have won 10 straight games, the third-longest active winning streak in the FBS (Oregon 14, Boise State 11), and Notre Dame has actually won 14 of 15 games dating back to last year.

The Irish ground game averages 6.3 yards per carry, the third-best mark in the country, and its improving passing game has made this Notre Dame offense the most balanced in the country.

After a four-game struggle in the passing game to start the season, the Notre Dame offense in its last eight games has gained 3,407 total yards — 1,745 yards on the ground (51.2 percent) and 1,662 yards through the air (48.8 percent). 

With Notre Dame rolling and ready to get this playoff party started, it’s time again for The 3-2-1, a weekly column made popular by the late Lou Somogyi. 

3 Numbers

7 — Notre Dame — which ranks No. 1 in the country in team passing efficiency defense — has held seven opponents to 125 or fewer passing yards this season, the most of any FBS program in the country. 

6 — Six times this season the Irish football team has scored 49 or more points in a game, the most during a season in program history. They are: Purdue (66), Stanford (49), Navy (51), Florida State (52), Army (49), and USC (49). 

4 — The number of Irish players who have scored a rushing touchdown of 50 yards or more, the only team in the country to make that claim. They are: tailbacks Jeremiyah Love, Jadarian Price and Aneyas Williams, and quarterback Riley Leonard.

2 Questions

How much has Leonard improved this season?

A heckuva a lot. 

It seems like a long time ago that almost all of ND Nation was ready to run the Irish senior quarterback out of their country.

Through four games, Leonard had only 1 touchdown pass total, and his passer efficiency rating hovered around the worst in the country.  

But through some strong messaging from his coaches, a growing familiarity of the offense and its architect Mike Denbrock, and a short memory, Leonard has become one of the best dual-threat quarterbacks in the country.

During Notre Dame’s 10-game winning streak, Leonard has posted a 152.19 passer rating, a mark that would rank No. 21 nationally for the season.

During that stretch, Leonard completed 156 of 231 throws (68 percent) for 1,771 yards with 16 touchdowns and 3 interceptions.

While on the ground, Leonard added 721 rushing yards (ninth among quarterbacks) and 14 rushing touchdowns (fifth among quarterbacks) during those 10 games. 

Irish head coach Marcus Freeman said that by finally putting the slow start behind and focusing only on future improvement, Leonard has played freer and better.

“I’ve always said that our job as coaches is to put our guys into positions to succeed based off of their athletic skills, their mental and physical talents,” Freeman said. “And I think all those things combined have really put Riley in the situation that he’s in.” 

In the last 8 Irish games, Leonard has thrown multiple TD passes six times.

Interestingly, before this streak, Leonard had thrown multiple touchdowns in a game only five times in his entire career (31 games). 

Is the Irish tailback tandem of Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price the best one-two punch in the CFP?

Initial reaction suggested that absolutely this Irish duo would top the list — and it probably does — but there is some notable competition among the other 11 teams. 

Using the starting criteria — and only rushing statistics — that show at least a 60-percent/40-percent carry split between two tailbacks, six CFP teams qualified for the survey, and Notre Dame’s tops the list in essentially every pertinent category.

*Love and Price have combined for 133.4 rushing yards a game, which leads the group of six.

The Ohio State tailback tandem of junior Quinshon Judkins and senior TreVeyon Henderson rate second in this category at 129.7 rushing yards per game.

Behind seniors Justice Ellison and Ty Son Lawton, Indiana — Notre Dame’s first-round opponent — is fourth here at 120.4 rushing yards per game.

*Love and Price average an incredible 7.6 yards per carry together, which again, leads this group. 

Judkins and Henderson are again second here at 6.1 yards per tote. 

Indiana’s Ellison and Lawton are fourth out of the six teams at 5.2 yards per carry.

*And finally, Love and Price have combined for 22 rushing touchdowns this season, which ties them with Ellison and Lawton at IU for top honors in the scoring column at 1.8 TDs a game. 

Texas, Penn State and Georgia were the other three schools with tailback duos that qualified for this 60-40 evaluation. 

And none of those three tailback tandems could touch the production of Notre Dame’s, making one thing for certain, Love comes with a Price. 

1 Prediction

I predicted in the preseason that Notre Dame was so talented and its schedule so favorable that it would make the CFP, win two games in it, and set a single-season program record with 13 victories. 

I’m standing by it.

Also, the Irish will cover the 7.5-point betting line against Indiana for their eighth cover in the last 9 games.

Notre Dame is third in the country this season with a 9-2-1 mark (79 percent) against the spread.

Only Arizona State and Marshall at 10-2 (83 percent) have a better cover percentage this season.