The Notre Dame defense swarms to the ball in a pursuit drill ahead of ND's home opener against Texas A&M on Saturday night.
Mike Miller/Blue & Gold
All eyes are on the three Notre Dame players listed as questionable on Monday for Saturday’s first-time ever football meeting between the 22nd-ranked Irish (1-2) and Arkansas (2-2).
Two of them, for the second week in a row, are starters on an Irish defense challenged with dealing with a a team ranked in the top 35 in total offense nationally for the fourth game in a row. In fact, among Miami, Texas A&M, Purdue and Arkansas — the latter is ranked the highest among those four in total offense, at No. 8.
The Razorbacks are also the top team ND has faced to date in rushing offense (20th), passing offense (15th), total offense (15th), scoring offense (15th), team pass efficiency (16th) and third-down conversion rate (6th).
Starting cornerback Leonard Moore (left ankle), starting nickel Devonta Smith (right ankle) and starting place-kicker Noah Burnette (hip) were all listed as questionable last week, and all three ended up sitting out Notre Dame’s 56-30 home win over Purdue.
Kick time for ND-Arkansas in Fayetteville, Ark., is noon EDT on ABC.
As was the case last week, in Moore’s case, if he were unavailable, this is where the depth chart doesn’t always follow straight lines. It’s more likely freshman Mark Zackery would again be promoted and play field corner with starting field corner Christian Gray flipping over to Moore’s boundary spot.
Freshman Dallas Golden, who made his first career start Saturday at nickel, would again be the top option this week to replace Smith. Sophomore Karson Hobbs, who shared time at nickel in the first two games, has been moved to a backup position at boundary cornerback.
Irish head coach Marcus Freeman turned to freshman Erik Schmidtto not only replace Burnette as the place-kicker, but had him kick off instead of Marcello Diomede as well.
Get the Daily On3 Newsletter in your inbox every morning
By clicking "Subscribe to Newsletter", I agree to On3's Privacy Notice, Terms, and use of my personal information described therein.
AtBlue & Gold, we’re committed to a depth chart projection on Mondays, and anytime there’s a change. The difference is we’ll go beyond the two-deeps for the Irish.
A few things to note. Players with an -x after their names have been ruled out for the season. Players with -y have been ruled out for at least the upcoming game. Players with -q were listed as questionable in Monday’s official availability report from Notre Dame. OR denotes players tied for a spot on the depth chart.
There were no new additions to the out-for-the-season list and no significant additions when it comes to players with more short-term recovery timelines.
With Notre Dame shifting to eligibility year as its primary identifier this season for the first time ever, we will follow that lead, but clarify between a redshirt freshman, for instance, and a true freshman.
Heights and weights were refreshed at the start of preseason camp on July 31.
