Ian Book's 2 touchdowns lead No. 9 Notre Dame with an 18-point road victory against Louisville

Ian Book and Notre Dame Fighting Irish No. 9 took the first step in their efforts to reach the College Football Playoff in the following years with a 35-17 victory over the Louisville Cardinals on Monday at Cardinal Stadium.

Book drove 14-from-23 past for 193 yards, one touchdown and zero interceptions while adding 81 yards and another score on the ground. He and Tony Jones Jr (112 rushing yards and goals) helped ensure there would be no upset from the top 10 teams in the first full week of the 2019 college football season.

Louisville failed to make a deep national statement in frustration in the first match of head coach Scott Satterfield after hiring him from this last Appalachian State offseason and will need to overcome initial losses to return to the bowl game after an effort 2-10 years ago.

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Notre Dame wasted no time sending messages to the Louisville defense, which was the 128th point inappropriate in the country in points allowed per match (44.1) last season.

He lined up 75 yards in six plays in initial possession and mixed in the careers of Jones, Jafar Armstrong and Book before Jahmir Smith found the final zone. The hasty attack then put Fighting Irish in the game early when Louisville hit the defense on the other side.

Jones demonstrated his ability as a strong runner by crossing the tackle arm in critical conversion in the third attempt before scoring the visitors' second goal, and Book put forward Notre Dame, with a goal trajectory with 17 seconds left in the first half.

However, Book struggles to throw the ball early in the game and sees a part of someone who won't win many contests with his hands. That's especially the script from last year when he completed 68.2 percent of passes for a solid but unspectacular 2,628 yards, 19 goals and seven selections.

The numbers haven't really changed in a single season which made Dwayne Haskins make 50 scores and Kyler Murray recorded 54 total scores in other PPC competitors, but Notre Dame was able to escape on a relatively weak schedule.


Michigan, Syracuse and Stanford were home matches for Fighting Irish last year, and the defense led many campaigns. That was especially true in the Michigan game when they jumped to a 14-0 quick lead and lasted a lifetime in a 24-17 victory.

This year it will be different to see how the team's head coach, Brian Kelly, has to travel to Georgia, Michigan and Stanford.

It's no surprise that the Louisville offensive has been hard given the Satterfield State Appalachians ranked 17th in the country in points per game (37.3) last season. This forced overtime at Penn State and placed 45 points in the win over central Tennessee using many of the same Monday display contests.


The three programs boast of their defenses and will surely force Book to defeat them in the air in a frightening atmosphere. The last time he faced an elite team away from home was a 30-3 loss to Clemson at CFP, who was the same choir for Fighting Irish when the most important moment came:

That is what makes the appearance of the second round of the book so interesting from the point of view of Notre Dame.


The game depended on balance in the third quarter with his team with seven points ahead, and he found Chase Claypool for 31 yards and Tommy Tremble to score 26 yards in a row to create much needed breathing space.

In fact, it was not as impressive as the methodical play of 12 plays and 75 yards in the last quarter which extended the 11-18 advantage. He used his arm for two conversions on the third floor and his legs for the others before finding Claypool for an attack to build another Smith touchdown run.


He passed his first test of the season along the way by making some of the individual matches he needed to fight the scariest opponents of the season. You must instill confidence after a lonely season to revive the loss of CFP and provide the Fighting Irish road map to another dispute season.

The Louisville Quarterback Jawon Pass was largely inconsistent last season and completed only 54 percent of its operations for 1,960 yards, eight goals and 12 interceptions. He also only has 93 yards on the ground, as coaching staff Bobby Petrino failed to maximize his experience in a double threat.

Everything looks different under Satterfield.


Pass uses agility and acceleration as a runner to score two goals only in the first quarter. He finished 67 meters on the ground, close to last season's total, and looked explosive with a series of play options, speed and ability to move when the bag broke.

Everything fell apart for Louisville after the first quarter, largely because of an error killing disk.


The two teams joined for three consecutive mistakes at the end of the second quarter, and Pass failed again while struggling in the second half to complete a promising push that could tie the game. Louisville is having a hard time with a series of bad shots, and Tutu Atwell's pass in a beautifully designed trick game that can turn it into a score game in the last quarter just floated high.

The Notre Dame defense is praiseworthy for adapting to the direction and bad choices that worked so well in the first half, but the Cardinals can challenge to the final whistle without injury suffered alone.

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