Irish brace for dashing Demon Deacons
No. 8 Notre Dame (3-0) is loaded with top-tier athletes from across the country.
But it’s one thing to have fast players. It’s another to run a fast offense — which is exactly what Wake Forest (2-1) plans to have when it hosts the Fighting Irish on Saturday afternoon at BB&T Field in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly has told his defense to be ready.
“(It’s) always a challenge to play on the road against a Power 5 team, especially one that likes to run 100 plays a game,” Kelly told reporters this week during his news conference in South Bend, Ind. “So that’s certainly a challenge with the tempo.”
The Fighting Irish have opened the season with three wins in a row for the first time since 2015. Their best win came in the opener against Michigan, while their past two wins over Ball State and Vanderbilt have included some turbulence.
This marks Notre Dame’s first road game of the season. It will be vital for Kelly’s crew to stay focused and not look ahead toward next week’s matchup against No. 7 Stanford.
Perhaps Wake Forest’s pace of play will not allow Notre Dame enough time to look ahead. The Fighting Irish experienced an up-tempo offense when Ball State ran 97 plays against them.
Kelly could keep his unit fresh by making frequent defensive substitutions.
“Yeah, if you’re allowed to,” Kelly said. “Ball State allowed us to move guys in and out. Wake Forest will make it difficult to get in and out of the game, much more like line changes in hockey than it is, you know, you get a chance to get your guys in. We’ll have to be very coordinated in getting the changes that are close to our sideline. And you know, again, they make it much more difficult to get your personnel in and off the field.”
What’s the best strategy on defense to slow down an up-tempo attack?
“Force them to punt is the best way. Right?” Kelly said. “You know, certainly if you look at the statistics, they were in a lot of third-down situations, so third-down conversions, getting them off the field. But you know, you say that and I think they were maybe six of seven on fourth-down conversions, too.
“They’re going to play fast, but playing fast requires you to keep things fairly simple in a sense. Not that they’re a simple offense, but there can’t be a lot of checking. There can’t be a lot of changes at the line of scrimmage. Last year they did much more of that. So in some instances you’ve just got to go play.”
