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    • Notre Dame football shakes off post-bye week blues
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    Notre Dame football shakes off post-bye week blues

    Harry Posted on

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    SOUTH BEND — Jaylen Sneed smiled at the question.

    third year explorer Notre-Dame In football, Sneed has come to appreciate the many benefits of a bye week, especially regarding self-care.

    “Honestly, it’s just recovery,” Sneed said this week ahead of Saturday night’s home game. Playing against Florida State (1-8). “Recovery has been a big thing for me this year because when you go six days in a row, your body doesn’t feel good on the seventh day.”

    Even though he had his best game of the season in the Oct. 26 win over Navy, Sneed took full advantage of the chance to reset for a breather and stretch drive. Should it be 10?ThisThe ranked Irish continue their Nov. 30 road date with USC; A ticket to the first 12-team College Football Playoff likely awaits.

    That could mean four more games if Notre Dame makes it to the CFP championship on Jan. 20 in Atlanta.

    “Recovery was the biggest thing for me,” Sneed said. “I go into the training room and do the things I need to do to get my body back on the field and be healthy and ready to play.”

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    The delicate balance of the bye week in Notre Dame football

    Pausing the rhythm of college football decline can be risky business if not handled correctly. The possibility of failure cannot be ignored, especially in the new period when more than one bye week begins.

    “It seems like a long time has passed since we played,” Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock said after practice on Tuesday.

    Notre Dame, which has won six straight games since Week 2, lost to Northern Illinois and beat Stanford 49-7 in its first bye week last month. The gap between contests was preceded by an emotional and physical slowdown in the 31-24 victory over Louisville.

    “We needed to get better,” Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said Oct. 7. “Our guys were overwhelmed and we had to be smart about preparation and development, but we also really had to recover.”

    Heading into the Navy game three weeks later, Freeman reflected on the differences between Week 1 and Week 2 after the bye.

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    “I really liked the way we prepared for last week and the structure of our practices will be similar,” Freeman said. “The challenge for me is going to be how do we make sure we improve in that bye week, maybe have conversations about the future, but also find a way to really engage with this team right now and try to reach full potential.”

    Can the Irish (7-1) perform as expected on the road this weekend as 25-point favorites? SeminolesThey would improve to 5-0 in their bye week during Freeman’s tenure as head coach.

    Notre Dame edged BYU 28-20 in Las Vegas two years ago, then bounced back with a 103-14 lead in 2023 with home passes from ACC rivals Pittsburgh and Wake Forest.

    Going back to 2010, Notre Dame had just two byes in its last 19 games. Brian Kelly’s 13-2 mark included an upset of No. 19 Michigan (45-14) in 2019 and a 31-17 loss to No. 23 USC in 2011.

    “We’re very proud of it because we know we had to rest a week ago,” Sneed said. “We know we have to shoot, start fast and play fast the whole game.”

    Extra time, extra dangerous

    Counting season openers (2-1) and bowl games (2-1), Freeman and Co. are 8-2 overall so far when given more than a week to prepare. Those two losses came at the start of the Freeman era: No. 9 Oklahoma State 37-35 in the 2021 Fiesta Bowl and 21-10 No. 2 Ohio State the following year.

    On Saturday night, Notre Dame can get its ninth straight win under the extra preparation scenario. That could bode well under a CFP format that includes a gap of at least 10 days for first-round winners, followed by gaps of at least eight and 10 days for those who survive the quarterfinals and semifinals.

    “There is no magic formula,” Freeman said Oct. 7. “Every bye week is different: Where it occurs in your season, what injuries you have, your upcoming opponent. There are many different things you need to focus on during this particular bye week.

    “After three weeks we have another bye week and what we do in that bye week, although the general focus will probably be similar, the details of what we do during that week will vary as it does in the season and the opponent that comes after that.

    Every break comes with a degree of nuance that Freeman’s schedule seems to handle well.

    “Most importantly, you have to evaluate your team in this particular period as you enter the bye week,” he said. “You can’t just say, ‘We did this last year.’ ‘Let’s throw it right here in this window and let’s do it this year.’ “

    Kris Mitchell: “Last week sucked, fix it today”

    Losses have piled up throughout Kris Mitchell’s four seasons at Florida International, whether after bye weeks or not.

    Cumulative 9-32 mark in 2020-23, road bye week against Middle Tennessee State (40-6), New Mexico State (34-17), Western Kentucky (73-0) and Texas State (73-0) The aftermath included major defeats. 41-12).

    The graduate transfer wide receiver has enjoyed the change in fortunes since arriving at Notre Dame, including the Irish’s approach of having extra days between games.

    “Here in the bye week, we’re accomplishing a little bit more,” Mitchell said of his training routine.

    Off the training field, Mitchell noted that his bye week routine with his old and current programs is “pretty similar in terms of working on ourselves.” We have no rival, but our rival is still ourselves; “So we’re still working on our games to make sure we’re doing everything we can to get the result we’re looking for on Saturday.”

    Playing in Conference USA, Mitchell experienced the rigors of accordion-style game week schedules. In 2022 alone, the Golden Panthers have had eight- and nine-day breaks between games, as well as a pair of six-day turnarounds.

    How much benefit does taking even an extra day to prepare for the opponent have in terms of preparation? How much more can be learned?

    “So much more,” Mitchell said. “Even on special teams, you have an extra day to mess up or fix mistakes. It helps us a lot. Instead of breaking it today and fixing it tomorrow, we break last week and fix it today. “It’s always better.”

    When a full two weeks (or more) pass between games, familiarity with the opponent’s scheme and personnel becomes deeply ingrained.

    “I saw what their plan was by watching twice as much film time,” Mitchell said of preparing to face Florida State. “We just looked at their news all (Tuesday) morning. This is so that we can learn, so that we know what we expect from certain personnel, from certain formations. Just stuff like that.

    In Mitchell’s case, the dig route became a choice for him and point guard Riley Leonard, a Duke transfer. To do this, Mitchell needs to read how the safety reacts to the slot receiver, and Leonard needs to know where Mitchell is going based on that snapshot.

    “(Leonard) agrees with the people around him,” Denbrock said. “You got to see that after the (first) bye week, but it’s been a process where he’s gotten better every week. And I saw that in the bye week. He was throwing the ball with a lot of confidence.”

    In the hands of an experienced group, extra time for preparation can make a big difference.

    Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.

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