Ask Me Anything: The Notre Dame edition

Welcome back to another incredibly important edition of Ask Me Anything. We've had a short hiatus from the series this month because November is the worst month ever if you cover college basketball AND football for your day job (which is really a day/night/morning/weekend/holiday job).

Alas, Ask Me Anything returns for big moments, and Saturday's game at Notre Dame is a big moment for Louisville. A historic moment, even.

So, using the great power of Twitter, I solicited your questions and put together a little thing I like to call the Ask Me Anything mailbag: The Notre Dame Edition.

More on Louisville-Notre Dame: Cards prep for "amazing" moment

First question comes from Allan Mathis, loyal reader and owner of many leather-bound books:

@AllanMathis: With Notre Dame missing their best defensive lineman and middle linebacker, and with Reggie Bonnafon starting, will Louisville pass at all? Whats the over/under on passes, 20?

Jeff Greer: Oh, this is a good one. That's a solid over/under. Let me think about this ... Louisville ran all over Syracuse in early October -- 48 carries for 178 yards, to be exact -- and Bonnafon still threw 22 times. But Louisville also had 36 minutes of possession in that game and led most of the way. By my calculations, Notre Dame is approx. way better than Syracuse, and I'd be surprised if Louisville had the ball that much on Saturday, which means fewer runs and passes altogether. HOWEVAH, Louisville is, in fact, the underdog here, and there's a chance they could be trailing in the second half, which means more passing. Man, this is like picking the brisket vs. chicken and waffles. Um, I'll take the over on pass attempts, but I'm not happy about it.

I do think, though, that Louisville will still run the ball north of 30 times. Why? Let's break down a misleading assumption about Louisville football. It's easy to glance at stats and off-hand just say, "Hey, Louisville's been pretty balanced this season." And the coaches always say they don't change their play calling between Bonnafon and pocket passer Will Gardner. But as Mike Gundy once said, that ain't true.

As a team, the Cards have run 395 times and passed 328. But if you actually do some research, you'll find that they are incredibly run-heavy with Bonnafon at quarterback. I looked at the play-by-play from Bonnafon's appearances against Virginia, Syracuse, Wake Forest, Clemson and BC -- I did not include Murray State because it's Murray State -- and found this: Louisville ran it 155 times and passed just 82 times with Bonnafon at QB. That's 65-percent run. That ain't balanced. So if they throw it, say, 20 times tomorrow, they'll run it more than 30 times.

@rsj311: If or when Gerod Holliman breaks the NCAA record for most interceptions in a season, will they let him keep the ball?

JG: You know what? That's a good question, too. I would assume so, right? How could they be so heartless? (Update: Noted mastermind Steven Rawlings tells me that the NCAA recently changed the rules to allow student-athletes to keep the balls from their record-breaking moments. Pretty good rule change, I'd say.)

I will say this: Watching this run of interceptions, I keep coming back to all these funny moments in the press box, watching Louisville down below on the field. The ball's tipped or misthrown or whatever, and a Louisville player snaps it up, and in that brief moment, you wonder who it is. The incredible thing is, it's been Holliman 13 times. Thirteen. That's preposterous. The rest of the team has nine picks. He has 13. And it makes you wonder: How on earth did Al Worley snap up 14 picks for Washington in 1968 when the Huskies played just 10 games? That's also preposterous.

OK, last question and then I'm outta here ...

From just about everyone else who asked a question: Was (or wasn't, depending on your use of the English language) Rudy offsides?

JG: Serious question here: If you're a Notre Dame fan, coach, player, student, etc., does that stuff get old? All the stuff about Rudy or Touchdown Jesus or all the other Notre Dame lore that carries on and on and on ... I guess on one hand, you go to Notre Dame, and if you go to Notre Dame, you are really, really, really proud that you go there. (And why wouldn't you be? It's a great academic institution with a lot of history.) But on the other hand, it's a great academic institution with a lot of great history, and as much as Rudy and TD Jesus are part of it, there's so much more to it than them. I don't know. Answering this question was a bad idea because now I'm having an internal debate and you guys know I hate thinking.

Have a solid weekend, y'all.