Notre Dame doesn’t have much time to bask in the glow of the beatdown they placed on USC over the weekend. The Irish host #14 NC State for the Wolf Pack’s first ever trip to Notre Dame this weekend. Notre Dame is expecting to have two players who missed the USC game back in action when NC State rolls into town. According to Brian Kelly, both Greer Martini and Dexter Williams are expected back this weekend.
“Greer Martini is cleared to practice on Tuesday. We expect him back,” Kelly told the media on Sunday. Martini got hurt during the bye week and sat out the USC game. In his absence, Tevon Coney filled in and had himself a game and a half. Even with Coney’s huge game against the Trojans though, having Martini back is a big boost as Notre Dame gets ready for the gauntlet portion of its schedule over the next five weeks.
Kelly praised Coney for his play against USC on Sunday, “He played his butt off. He was outstanding,” he said. “And not only obviously sets up the biggest play of the game, which was the strip early on in the game, which sets us up in great field position — he had two and a half tackles on special teams.”
Dexter Williams on the other hand has missed the last three games for the Irish. Brian Kelly expects him back this weekend too though. “We made a conscious decision not to play Dexter until he got back to 100 percent. We think he’s going to be 100 percent for the North Carolina State game,” Kelly said.
In past seasons Notre Dame might have been tempted to play a back like Williams before getting fully to 100% but with Josh Adams, Tony Jones, and Deon McIntosh all playing so well, they were afforded that luxury. Even with that depth though, the return of Williams is a welcome sight. “We’ve got a lot of big football games. We’re going to need Dexter,” Kelly said. “So expect to see him play a big role in what we do down the stretch here.”
While Josh Adams has been racking up video game style numbers this season, Williams is a dynamic back who has scored four touchdowns on just 20 carries in limited action this season. Getting him back in the fold gives Notre Dame another running back who can take any carry the distance.
Other than Martini and Williams, Notre Dame was without Cameron Smith last weekend due to a hamstring injury suffered in practice but he too is expected back this weekend. The Irish managed to navigate their blowout of USC without suffering anything else other than a few minor bumps and bruises.
Getting back to full strength this weekend is big for Notre Dame as they could very well be facing their toughest challenge standing between them and a potential playoff bit. Miami is sporting a better record than NC State right now but the Wolf Pack have been a more impressive team than the Hurricanes who have been largely surviving each week.
“Freakin animal????” Josh is an outstanding student athlete at the marquis university in the country.
Nice to see the Irish playing physical and
aggressive. Every game is a playoff
game. The way they’re playing, the Irish
could win out. Stanford might give ND
some big trouble. I was a skeptic at
the beginning of the year to be honest,but
the vibe and energy are like 2012 team.
Defense looks really dialed in. Tackling is
best in years. Go Irish hopefully the faithful
are happy.
No freebies this week. All hands will be needed to put Wolfpack back in their kennel.
Even though Adams is killing it, I’m still really excited to have Williams back. It’s hard to argue that Williams is as good as Adams considering what Adams has done this season but Williams also hasn’t been given the bulk of carries for us to see that. But Williams still has pretty amazing stats on the limited number of carries. We truly have two stud RBs that match up to any tandem in the country. Seeing that stat of Adams having over 6 yards on average after contact (which leads the nation) is ridiculous! What a freakin animal!
Also, the starting WRs should be EQ, Claypool, and Stepherson. Adams/Williams in the backfield and Wimbush. How do you possibly stop that?