Notre Dame Football: 3 hot takes as Irish avoid upset at Florida State

The Irish defense will be just fine

Everybody was very excited to see the new look on defense with defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman in his first game for the Irish. It did not end up going as well as many would have liked for much of the night.

The Irish seemed to be living in the Seminoles backfield all night with pressure only rushing four as well which is good, but many times could not wrap up and take advantage of putting Florida State that much more behind the chains. The tackling was sloppy and a lot of missed tackles which helped the Florida State offense to extend drives.

Notre Dame seemed to change up their defensive scheme when the lead widened to 18 points which was odd to figure out at the time.

As Aaron Rodgers famously said during a radio show in the 2014 season, “five letters here just for everybody out there: R-E-L-A-X.”

Marcus Freeman was a hot commodity for a reason this past offseason. He will help get these miscues fixed up and get the Irish defense playing well on that side of the ball. The Notre Dame faithful just needs to take a deep breath and relax. Everything will be okay for Freeman and the Notre Dame defense.

One huge positive is that Kyle Hamilton looks everything like a first-team All-American at the safety position. Hamilton sure looks like a player who will be hearing his named call in the top 10 and maybe even in the top 5 picks in the 2022 NFL Draft.