Report card: Grading Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame football in win over Cal

Notre Dame earned its first victory of the 2022 season and the first of head coach Marcus Freeman‘s career with a 24-17 triumph over Cal at Notre Dame Stadium. This report card isn’t one you necessarily pin to the fridge, but it’s not one you hide from mom either.

Here’s how the Fighting Irish graded across the board in their win.

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Notre Dame Passing Offense: B

Simplistic. Far from flashy. Yet, effective.

Notre Dame isn’t going to get a grade of “A” here until it finds an element of verticality. Those who thought it would come with junior Drew Pyne’s first career start have to wait. Pyne showed what should be a strong suit all season, though: His ability to make the right decisions on run-pass-options.

The Irish started the game with one intended for sophomore wide receiver Lorenzo Styles. Pyne missed low. He missed low on a similar play intended for junior tight end Michael Mayer on the Irish’s second drive. After that, Pyne was money on quick passes after play-action into the flats. If a team can’t throw downfield, it better be able to create space with those. Notre Dame did.

A stat line of 17-for-23 for 150 yards and two touchdowns won’t “wow” anybody in 2022. But it won a ballgame against Cal. And it can continue to work for Notre Dame in games that don’t devolve into shootouts.

Notre Dame Rushing Offense: B

A yards per carry average of 3.6 isn’t going to “wow” anybody, either. But without sophomore Logan Diggs because of an illness, sophomore Audric Estime (18 carries for 76 yards) and junior Chris Tyree (17 carries for 64 yards) wore down the Cal defense in the second half. Notre Dame didn’t have a rushing play longer than 14 yards. Pyne was not much of a factor with four rushes for 17 yards not including sacks. But he did scramble for 13 yards and a touchdown, and the Irish did just enough on the ground to sustain drives and win the game.

Notre Dame Passing Defense: A

Pass rush is included in passing defense, right? Right. This group got an unquestioned A in that department with six sacks. Cal quarterback Jack Plummer was only 16-of-37 for 184 yards and one touchdown, too. He wasn’t very accurate to begin with, but Notre Dame certainly had him flustered.

The Irish will want to have one drive in particular back when Plummer connected with redshirt freshman J. Michael Sturdivant twice in a row for 33 yards and a touchdown on the two receptions, but outside of that Cal wasn’t able to push the ball downfield. That’s been a theme for the Notre Dame passing defense in the early going. The Irish find a way to keep almost everything in front of them. If there was one knock on this phase of the game, it was that Notre Dame allowed Plummer to rush six times for 81 yards and a touchdown not including sacks. Notre Dame needed to 1) put a spy on him or 2) get to him quicker when he got out on the run.

Notre Dame Rushing Defense: A

Cal didn’t have much of a running game outside of Plummer improvising. Freshman back Jaydn Ott ran 13 times for 33 yards. DeCarlos Brooks ran five times for 43 yards. Three of his rushes went for at least 10 yards. The other two combined for a loss of two.

Notre Dame was much better with run fits than it was a week prior against Marshall. With how feeble Cal’s passing attack was, the Bears needed something consistent on the ground in addition to Plummer’s propensity to scramble. They didn’t get it. Notre Dame made it so.

Notre Dame Special Teams: B

Arkansas State graduate transfer Blake Grupe nailed his only field goal attempt (that counted), Harvard graduate transfer Jon Sot is an absolute weapon and the Irish did not badly lose a field position battle. In fact, they won it. Two of their drives started on their own 40-yard line. They got the ball at the Cal 42 on their last possession of the game.

Grupe missed a 45-yard attempt, but there was a flag on the play and Notre Dame scored a touchdown two plays later. His 47-yarder tied the game at 17-17 early in the fourth quarter. Sot punted seven times for an average of 45.6 yards per boot. He downed three punts inside the 20-yard line.

The one thing that’s still missing from Notre Dame on special teams is any semblance of a return game. Senior safety Brandon Joseph averaged six yards per return. Tyree averaged 17 yards per kick return.

Notre Dame Coaching: B+

This was a must-win game. Back against the wall. Notre Dame didn’t do anything to give it away, and the Irish finally made winning plays in the fourth quarter. Head coach Marcus Freeman and company had the Irish in a position for that to be the case, mentally and physically.

Given Notre Dame’s personnel impediments offensively, coordinator Tommy Rees called quite a game. The run-pass balance was fortuitous. He dialed up plays Pyne could excel with.

Defensively, there wasn’t ever a sense the Irish did not have a good grip on the game outside of Cal’s second touchdown drive when the Bears ran eight times for 58 yards. The Irish tightened up and didn’t crumble in the fourth quarter.