The Notre Dame Fighting Irish return home after suffering a 50-47 double-overtime defeat at the hands of the Texas Longhorns. This will be Notre Dame’s first home game of the season. They are taking on the Nevada Wolf Pack. The Wolf Pack are coming off of a 30-27 win over the Cal Poly Mustangs. Notre Dame enters this game as a 28-point favorite.
DeShone Kizer is the starting quarterback
After alternating between DeShone Kizer and Malik Zaire for the first half of the game against Texas, Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly has named Kizer the starting quarterback for the foreseeable future. Kizer completed 15 of his 24 passes for 215 yards and five touchdowns. He also rushed for 77 yards and one rushing touchdown.
Tarean Folston and Josh Adams carry the load
Tarean Folston will start the game but expect to see Josh Adams get his share of carries in this game against Nevada on Saturday. Folston had 18 carries for 88 yards in the game against Texas while Adams had 43 yards on 11 carries. As a team, they rushed for 206 yards and you can expect more of the same against Nevada.
Nevada features a balanced attack
In their game against Cal Poly, the Wolf Pack passed for 189 yards and rushed for 174 yards. That’s a pretty balanced attack. The one thing that they lacked was the time of possession. Cal Poly held the ball for 36:09 minutes of the game and rushed for 383 yards. The one bright spot for the Wolf Pack was holding the Mustangs to only 62 yards in the air.
Keys to the game
Notre Dame will want to show that they are a much better defensive team than they showed against Texas. They will need to get the quarterback much quicker than they did against the Longhorns. Texas was able to throw for 238 yards, including a 72-yard touchdown pass just 31 seconds into the second half. They also gave up over 500 yards of offense to a strong Texas team.
Nevada will want to control the ball and keep Notre Dame’s talented offense off of the field at all cost. Notre Dame has a quick strike offense that can hurt you at any time. They will need to be wary of Kizer taking off and running the ball if none of his receivers are able to get open.
Prediction
Notre Dame will come out and prove they are a better team than the one that played in Austin, TX. Granted, Nevada is not of the same caliber of a team, but the Irish will want to make a statement in this game. Look for the Notre Dame defense to be at their very best and expect the offense to be clicking on all cylinders.