Can Riley Leonard make up ground after slow start? Notre Dame mailbag

SOUTH BEND, Ind., — So, how was your bye week?

Did you lose to Vanderbilt or Arkansas? Maybe play a third-string quarterback at Washington? Taunt the Kyle Field crowd? Because all of that happened as Notre Dame watched from a distance while college football offered a reminder that chaos is king.

The best way to avoid it? Stay home.

As Notre Dame starts the middle section of its season with a three-game stretch against Stanford , Georgia Tech and Navy , the mailbag returns to take stock of where the Irish stand moving into October. Is Notre Dame getting better with Riley Leonard at the controls? How much does the Texas A&M win matter a month later? And has the stress of sky-high expectations shown around the program?

This Notre Dame mailbag hits all that and more.

(Note: Submitted questions have been lightly edited for length and clarity.)

Over the last few weeks, I've watched some of the Marcus Freeman news conferences. It seems like the joy has been taken away from Freeman since the loss to Northern Illinois. He seems more serious and somewhat agitated when asked big-picture questions. Are you getting a similar sense? Or are my own frustrations with the team leading me to become a member of the body language police? – John J.

I don't think you're totally off, but "since the loss to Northern Illinois " is sort of like asking Chief Martin Brody if some of his joy for swimming has been taken away since the shark attack.

The Northern Illinois loss changed everything about this season, not just Notre Dame's head coach in news conferences. The University had been banking that this season could/would include a home game in the College Football Playoff. That's pretty much toast. The good will Freeman generated with that win at Texas A&M was incredible, then it evaporated seven days later. The whole thing left a mark and Freeman continues to get asked about it a month later. It's even come up during the NBC broadcasts.

Basically, the grace afforded Freeman after losing to Marshall and Stanford has since expired. Notre Dame's head coach needed to be beyond moments like this. He knows it. He owns it. I asked him as much after the Northern Illinois game. And he agreed.

Of course, that doesn't mean he needs to enjoy the reminders.

I do think this is part of growing into a major college head coach for Freeman. You're not there to be liked. You're not there to please or entertain. And you need thick skin to operate that way. Freeman has been very good at connecting through two-plus years, whether that's at alumni clubs, in his own locker room or even with the media. He's always known the job is to win games, with everything else coming after. The loss to Northern Illinois made the "everything else" more of an afterthought in his day-to-day. And maybe that's healthy, even if the loss to NIU was not.

At the end of the day, Freeman is always going to be Freeman. He's one of the few major college head coaches that if you ran into him around town, it wouldn't be awkward to say hello or small talk. That guy is still there. You don't need to squint to see him, either. He's there before and after news conferences if you're in the room. But there is a pressure on Notre Dame football this season that's different than the previous two. I don't think there's a single person inside the program who doesn't feel that, head coach included. Freeman is just the only one doing news conferences three times per week.

What's the plan now with Deuce Knight flipping to Auburn ? – Joe T.

Oh yeah, that. Good times.

The longest-running impending de-commitment finally happened last week when Deuce Knight flipped from Notre Dame to Auburn, which is dead last and winless in the SEC with a head coach accused of regularly throwing his quarterbacks under the bus. The Tigers have beaten Alabama A&M and New Mexico .

-star QB Deuce Knight from Notre Dame

As for Notre Dame's next step, there are at least two new quarterbacks worth tracking: North Carolina commitment Bryce Baker (East Forsyth, N.C.) and Cal commitment Jaron Keaewe Sagapolutele (Ewa Beach, Hawaii). There's been at least some early interest in both, but it's too soon to predict where that will go, assuming it goes anywhere at all. Both ranked among the top 11 quarterbacks at the Elite 11 Finals, according to 247Sports and On3.

It's worth remembering that Notre Dame didn't get serious with Kenny Minchey until mid-November two years ago after missing on Dante Moore during the summer. With three home games to go, there's plenty of opportunity to get senior quarterbacks to campus while evaluating their senior film.

Marcus Freeman is given a time machine that takes him back to the clock hitting triple zeroes in the Sun Bowl. He gets to do the whole offseason and the first five games over. What is the biggest thing he changes?

A. Pursue a different quarterback in the portal ( Will Howard , Kyle McCord , etc.)B. Take Riley Leonard out after his apparent injury against NIUC. Bring in another quality piece on the D-lineD. Something else – Will H.

D: Something else. Somehow prevent Riley Leonard from needing two ankle surgeries during his first four months on campus, missing much of winter workouts and basically all of spring practice. How much different does Notre Dame's offense look if Leonard gets an actual offseason? Does he read out that second-and-1 play at midfield differently against Northern Illinois?

Scale of 1 to 10 how surprised is the coaching staff that this is what Riley Leonard's throwing ability is? I know they referenced him being "developmental" several times throughout the offseason, but this seems like an epic miss. – Paul G.

This is a truth serum question because you're never going to get a full accounting of the surprise here. But when Notre Dame was evaluating Leonard versus Will Howard last year — it was a short evaluation — the staff saw Leonard as the better runner and better leader while they saw Howard as the better passer. Necessary development in the passing game was always baked into the expectations.

I think the surprise, if you want to call it that, is Leonard's ability to get on the same page as offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock and vice versa. Maybe this shouldn't have been a surprise at all. College football offenses are complicated. And that's before Nic Scourton or Ashton Gillotte are coming around the corner. Denbrock tipped us to this in August when referencing the two years it took to get Jayden Daniels to an elite level. Daniels didn't trust his receivers during the first month of his first season at LSU. Against Power 5 competition, he rushed for 114 yards in his first game and 93 in his second. There was an 8-of-20 for 80 yards clunker against Auburn in there. He had a passer rating of 121.56 in his first four games against Power 5 competition. Leonard's passer rating against Texas A&M, Purdue and Louisville was 128.95.

The Denbrock-Daniels combination didn't hit the ground running but got better and better during that first season. Sometimes we forget players can improve during the year. If Leonard can better sync with Denbrock and think pass-first more often, the Duke transfer can improve through October and November.

There were a bunch of "Why not Steve Angeli ?" questions in the mailbag callout this week. This is why. There's a path for Leonard to get better. Considering the Louisville performance, it feels like he's already on it. The question is how quickly he can make up the ground.

Georgia – Alabama was a splash of cold reality on how far Notre Dame is from the top. Truly felt like watching a different sport. While Notre Dame's defense feels elite, the offense isn't even close. How does Notre Dame address the dearth of talent at quarterback and receiver? It's been a serious issue for years, and until that gets solved, it's hard to see the Irish making any serious noise. – Terence M.

If only Notre Dame could hire a coordinator who produced an SEC offense even better than the one you watched two weekends ago!

I agree Notre Dame needs to be more balanced as a program. Winning rock fights only gets a team so far. And clearly, they're trying. That's the point of bringing in Leonard and three graduate transfer receivers. It just hasn't worked, as outlined above.

Notre Dame doesn't need to try to win exactly like Alabama or Georgia. Just like those programs don't need to try to play defense like Notre Dame, although Alabama would like to. It's a question of versatility, because there will come a game when Notre Dame goes down early and punching its way back to the lead will require more than a short passing game, fourth-and-short conversions and a steady run game.

But think about where Alabama and Georgia are offensively compared to Notre Dame. Some of that is recruiting five-star talent like Ryan Williams . Some of that is coaching considering Kalen DeBoer being an offensive savant, even after losing to Vanderbilt. Some of that is having a returning starting quarterback in Jalen Milroe or Carson Beck . Notre Dame has a new offensive coordinator, a transfer quarterback and mined the portal for receivers, including a couple from Group of 5 programs.

You're correct that Notre Dame is a long way from being able to win a game like Alabama won (and almost lost) against Georgia. But there's no magic bullet to make the Irish capable of getting there. It's just development, recruiting and time. How Notre Dame develops CJ Carr along with the sophomore/freshman classes of wide receivers may go a long way toward answering this question.

If Notre Dame and Army are both ranked for the Yankee Stadium matchup, will you wear a suit and Stetson hat to cover the game? – Zygmund K.

You make it sound like I haven't been already scouring E-Bay for vintage typewriters.

Is being 4-1 through September with wins over No. 15 Texas A&M and almost-ranked Louisville, better than 4-1 with an opening loss in College Station? Given how weak the schedule is, isn't it better for Notre Dame to have a ranked win with a fluky loss? – Bill S.

I think you're probably right. But because we've never done this before, it's impossible to know if the committee forming the 12-team College Football Playoff field will view "best win" as the bedrock metric it was in the four-team world. It just feels like it will be when it comes to Notre Dame's opening night win at Texas A&M, which is a marker against the rest of the SEC, including Missouri , which just got blown out in College Station.

Consider that the top 15 teams in the AP poll have a combined eight losses among them. Five of those losses were to SEC teams. On top of that, Texas A&M still hosts Texas and LSU . If the Aggies sweep those games, it's great news for the Irish.

Notre Dame's schedule remains one of the weakest among CFP contenders. That's not changing, even with Navy and Army both 5-0. In the same way, beating Texas A&M offers a point of comparison against the SEC, there's not much value in a marker against the AAC.

The best-case scenario for Notre Dame's schedule was USC building on its opening week win against LSU. Instead, the Trojans lost to a Michigan team that threw for 32 yards, then lost to a Minnesota team that threw for 169. USC can still be a valuable win for Notre Dame, but it comes down to the Trojans knocking off Penn State at the Coliseum next weekend. If USC drops to 3-3 (1-3 Big Ten), the regular season finale will have must-not-lose vibes to it.

For all the schedule talk, Notre Dame just needs to win the games. The Irish have a 56 percent chance of making the CFP in The Athletic's model. The chances of hosting a first-round game feel remote, but getting invited to the party feels within Notre Dame's grasp. There was a chance that a 10-2 season might leave the Irish on the outside looking in. Thanks to Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Arkansas and Washington in the past few weeks, that feels less and less likely.