Bruce Feldman has a piece that he does somewhat frequently interviewing coaches who played ND, and some that played ND and OSU (meaning: position coaches for Indiana and PSU). In the Athletic behind the paywall - https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6062547/2025/01/16/notre-dame-scouting-....
Basic things that stood out:
- Other coaches saying ND is much better than people think, fast and fundamentally sound.
- Leonard is bigger than people think and just athletic enough to keep getting first downs.
- Their DBs are fast and smart.
- The special teams annoy teams and give them fits - they regularly try to block punts (this one raised a huge red flag for me).
- The WRs are limited, but they can make a big play if you don't execute - particularly on fades from the slot. Greathouse did that against PSU.
- Coaches curious what Golden will do because they usually play man. Assumption that they will double JJ, but playing man is dangerous.
A lot of the "smart and gritty" theme. The coaches said they use motions and multiple pre-snap looks, and the totality of their run game is tricky because Leonard runs a lot of different QB run looks. Coaches said they do a really good job of knowing their own tendencies and knowing their own film.
At the end, though, the coaches sort of take the turn to: ND is better than you think and absolutely can win. However... they need to keep the game close and force 3 and outs and steal it at the end because they don't have OSU's matchup talent.
