Two Players Who Need to Step it Up Against Michigan

Although Notre Dame defeated the Temple Owls quite easily, I think every Notre Dame fan agrees that the Fighting Irish need to play better against Michigan. The defense was particularly frustrating to watch at times. After being so dominant a year ago, it was frustrating watching Temple move right down the field. Probably the most disappointing part was the fact that the defensive line did not just dominate the Owls line. Louis Nix did not record a single tackle. That was due in large part to the fact that he was double teamed. That will continue to happen every week. The good thing about that though is that it opens up the other defensive linemen. Stephen Tuitt was in on 3 tackles and did have a sack. But the other defensive tackle Sheldon Day only had one tackle.

Yes it was his first start replacing Kapron Lewis-Moore, so I won't rush to judgement on the sophomore. Having said that, he needs to do something this week against Michigan. He needs to make more of an impact to take some of the attention off of Nix. There is a lot of hype around this young man. Now he needs to live up to it.

Another young man with a lot of hype is freshman linebacker Jaylon Smith. Smith is replacing Danny Spond and only recorded one tackle. He needs to improve on that to help veteran linebackers Dan Fox who led the team with 10 tackles, Carlo Calabrese who had 9, and Prince Shembo who had 4. We can expect that Michigan might see unproven Smith as a weakness that they will want to exploit. He better be up to the challenge.

I don't want to come across as all negative because they did only surrender six points. However, we all know that Temple did leave some off the board with missed field goals and a questionable decision to go for it on 4th and goal on the first drive of the second half. After that the defense did play better and allowed no more long drives. But still, they still were not as dominant as they should be.

Manti Te'o's leadership was sorely missed and somebody needs to step up and take that role on now. Heading into Michigan, Smith and Day are definitely two players under the microscope and they both need to step up their game.