On paper: How does Week 1 opponent Tennessee State stack with Notre Dame?
Notre Dame faces its first-ever FCS in Tennessee State opponent this Saturday. The Irish match up with the Tigers like a traditional college football power should.
Here’s how Notre Dame stacks up against Tennessee State in every phase of the game.
Tennessee State Running Game vs. Notre Dame Run Defense
Last year, Tennessee State finished seventh out of seven teams in the Ohio Valley Conference with 3.5 yards per rushing attempt. That’s a bit of a misleading number, for reasons that will become clear in the passing game section, but the Tigers’ run game still could have been better after averaging just 132.6 yards per contest last season.
Junior Jalen Rouse, TSU’s leading rusher in 2023, finished with 613 yards on 4.8 yards per carry with 2 touchdowns. However, second-leading rusher Devon Starling (540 yards, 4.7 per carry and 1 TD) — also a useful receiver (16 receptions for 221 yards and 1 TD) — transferred to Northern Arizona during the offseason.
The Tigers will have to replace three of their five starters along the offensive line, so it’s hard to say what their run game will look like this season. Whoever steps in will have a difficult time against the likes of Notre Dame, though.
The Irish run defense is looking to build on its 132.6 yards allowed per game and 3.9 yards allowed per carry in 2022. Interior linemen like senior Rylie Mills, graduate student Howard Cross III and junior Jason Onye in particular were difficult for Notre Dame’s offensive line to handle during fall camp.
Additionally, graduate student linebacker Jack Kiser and JD Bertrand performed well against the run in 2022, with Kiser earning an exceptional 80.5 run-defense grade from Pro Football Focus. Both looked good in camp this fall. Even graduate student linebacker Marist Liufau, more renowned for his ability in coverage, filled gaps well throughout late July and early August. Liufau showed out against the run this past Saturday in Dublin, Ireland, too.
Tennessee State will have a difficult time generating yardage on the ground.
Advantage: Notre Dame
Tennessee State Passing Game vs. Notre Dame Pass Defense
The Tigers’ 3.5 rushing yards per carry is misleading because sacks count against that rate in college football. TSU allowed 38 sacks for 285 yards, both of which were marks that led the OVC.
Notre Dame edge rushers Jordan Botelho (6.5 career sacks entering the season), Joshua Burnham (0), Javontae Jean-Baptiste (8) and Nana Osafo-Mensah (2) have plenty to prove in 2023, and a big game against TSU would go a long way toward assuaging any concerns.
Quarterback Draylen Ellis is back for his senior year, which will be his second season as Tennessee State’s starter after transferring from Austin Peay. His numbers in the OVC, though, don’t bode well for a matchup against the Irish secondary. Ellis completed 153 of 279 passes (54.8 percent) for 1,806 yards (6.5 yards per attempt) with 8 touchdowns and 6 interceptions in 2022.
Tennessee State only threw for 10 touchdowns as a team last season, which ranked last in the OVC. Two of those scores came from wide receiver John Roberts IV, who only caught 8 passes and is not on the 2023 roster. He was the only Tiger who caught more than 1 touchdown pass.
Of TSU’s six leading receivers, only redshirt sophomore Karate Brenson and senior Da’Shon Davis returned for 2023. Brenson is the team’s top returning pass catcher with 25 receptions for 329 yards (13.2 per catch) and 1 score. Davis had 19 catches for 210 yards (11.1 per reception) and no touchdowns.
The Irish secondary, anchored by sophomore cornerback Benjamin Morrison, yielded only 198.0 passing yards per game while intercepting 10 passes last season.
Advantage: Notre Dame
Notre Dame Running Game vs. Tennessee State Run Defense
Tennessee State had a middle-of-the-pack run defense in 2022, placing fourth in the OVC in yards per carry against (4.5) while allowing 174.1 yards per game. Contributors from last year like linebacker Jahsun Bryant (80 tackles) and Gleson Sprewell (62), as well as defensive linemen Terray Jones (37) and Tadarrius Patterson (35), all need to be replaced.
Junior running back Audric Estimé leads the way for an Irish rushing attack that eclipsed 220 yards on the ground seven times last season en route to averaging 189.0 yards per contest. With an offensive line that is anchored by All-America left tackle Joe Alt paving the way, Estimé and his fellow running backs — graduate student Devyn Ford, sophomores Jadarian Price and Gi’Bran Payne, and freshman Jeremiyah Love — should have plenty of room to run against the Tigers.
It would be a big surprise if the Irish didn’t crack the 200-yard mark in this matchup.
Advantage: Notre Dame
Notre Dame Passing Game vs. Tennessee State Pass Defense
Relative to the rest of the OVC, Tennessee State’s pass defense was excellent this past season. The Tigers allowed only 6.4 yards per attempt, best in the league by a wide margin, and most of its key contributors are back.
Senior safety Josh Green made 56 tackles and notched a team-best 3 interceptions last year. Bryce Phillips, only a true freshman in 2022, rated very well via Pro Football Focus in coverage. He finished with a 77.5 grade, while redshirt junior cornerback Fondren Hollis III was close behind him at 75.8.
TSU finished with 25 sacks (tied for third in the OVC) last year, but it doesn’t have one bona-fide sack artist returning. The Tigers hope they found one in Mississippi Valley State transfer defensive lineman Jalen Bell, a senior who totaled 12 quarterback takedowns in 30 games for the Delta Devils. The sack leader among returning players is senior defensive lineman Terrell Allen, who finished with 4.5 a year ago.
Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman, offensive coordinator Gerad Parker and the Irish players will likely spend the whole week talking about how much respect they have for TSU’s defensive backs. If all goes according to plan, everyone involved can say they did well against a pass defense they respect.
That being said, Tennessee State’s one FBS opponent this past season was Conference-USA Middle Tennessee State, which finished 8-5 in 2022. The Blue Raiders threw 25 times and completed 21 of them for 212 yards (8.5 yards per attempt) against TSU.
Expect a similar outing for graduate student quarterback Sam Hartman and the Fighting Irish.
Advantage: Notre Dame
Special Teams
Tennessee State struggled on special teams last year, most notably finishing last in the OVC in net yards per punt (31.8). On the flip side, Notre Dame excelled in the third phase of the game in 2022, blocking 7 kicks. Marty Biagi takes over as Notre Dame’s special teams coordinator after the departure of Brian Mason to the NFL, and Biagi will look to continue the momentum this season.
The Tigers will feature new starters at both placekicker and punter, though it wasn’t yet clear who would claim those roles in late August. Redshirt junior James Lowery, who handled kickoff duties for much of the past two years and also has spent time kicking field goals, could be the front runner to handle the placekicking duties.
Notre Dame features graduate transfer kicker Spencer Shrader (who will handle kickoff duties as well) and sophomore punter Bryce McFerson, who won the punting competition with Penn graduate transfer Ben Krimm.
The Irish also ran a competition at the punt return spot, which senior wide receiver Chris Tyree won.
Advantage: Notre Dame
Coaching
Ohio State running back Eddie George earned the Heisman Trophy in 1995, winning a relatively close race with Nebraska quarterback Tommie Frazier. In the final year of his Buckeye career, George rushed 328 times for 1,927 yards— including 207 in a 45-26 win over Notre Dame — and 24 touchdowns while leading Ohio State to an 11-2 record.
After a nine-year NFL career, George went back to Ohio State and got his bachelor’s degree, then earned his master’s at Northwestern. He helped open a restaurant called Eddie George’s Grille 27 in Columbus, Ohio, and which he still owns. George spent approximately 15 years out of football, but he returned in April 2021 when Tennessee State hired him as its head coach.
Now in his third season, George is, by all accounts, a solid coach. He spent two weeks in May with the Chicago Bears during organized team activities as part of the NFL’s Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship. According to the Chicago Tribune, George said he hopes to apply lessons from the Bears’ organized team activities to his own coaching at Tennessee State.
Tennessee State’s administration definitely believes in George. Tigers athletics director Mikki Allen all but confirmed back when the game was scheduled in April 2022 that excitement about George was a big reason they accepted an invitation to play Notre Dame.
“When we hired Eddie George I knew we had someone that was a high-character individual with a football mind, but also someone that was really going to change the trajectory of our program and get us back to a championship level,” Allen told The Tennessean. “This game is huge for our program.”
All that being said, Freeman has 12 more years of coaching experience than George does, as well as a more experienced, more expensive and more highly regarded staff. This one isn’t close, either.
Advantage: Notre Dame
Intangibles
There’s a case to be made that Tennessee State has the advantage here, because it will enter South Bend with nothing to lose. But on the other hand, Tennessee State’s players will likely walk into Notre Dame Stadium in disbelief about playing there. George himself had that feeling when the game was scheduled.
“Oh my gosh,” George said. “I’m actually going to be coaching on the sideline at the stadium that Knute Rockne built.”
There is zero doubt that George will have his team ready to play. But it’s human nature to walk into a place like Notre Dame Stadium — somewhere none of them would have dreamt of playing when they enrolled at TSU — and think more about the atmosphere than the player across the line of scrimmage.
And on the other side, Freeman and his “one play, one life” mantra will ensure that the Irish don’t take the Tigers lightly. They learned that lesson the hard way in last season’s second game, although it should be noted that Marshall — who wound up finishing 9-4 — was a much stronger opponent than Tennessee State should be.
Make no mistake, having Notre Dame on its schedule is undeniably a good thing for TSU. George said at that same press conference in April 2022 that the exposure of his players to a national stage, and the exposure of a national audience to Tennessee State, is awesome for his program. Not to mention a guaranteed buy game fee of $1 million.
The game itself, however, will be decided quickly.
Advantage: Notre Dame
