No. 5 Notre Dame aims to stay focused vs. No. Illinois

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Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman's phone buzzed this week after his team jumped to No. 5 in the rankings following a road win against Texas A&M.

It was one of Freeman's coaches from his playing days. He made sure to answer.

"I got a call from my college coach," Freeman said, "expecting to hear 'great job' and 'big win.' And it was, 'Hey, I just want to remind you: The greatest danger is the illusion that all is well when indeed all isn't well.'

"That's the reminder that I needed more than anything. It was a big win for our program versus a good opponent, but we have so much work to improve on. That's the focus now."

Notre Dame (1-0) will look to build upon a prime-time victory when it hosts Northern Illinois (1-0) on Saturday afternoon in South Bend, Ind. The game marks the home opener for the Fighting Irish.

Riley Leonard will make his home debut for Notre Dame after transferring from Duke during the offseason. Leonard completed 18 of 30 passes for 158 yards in a 23-13 win at Texas A&M, and he carried the ball 12 times for 63 yards.

Freeman said his favorite statistic about Leonard's performance was zero -- as in, zero turnovers.

"He really played the quarterback position well," Freeman said. "He did what we asked him to do, and that was to take care of the football. We weren't asking for explosive plays. This had to be a complementary football game, and Riley did a really good job at doing that."

Northern Illinois will go for the upset in its first road game of the season. The Huskies are coming off a 54-15 win at home against Western Illinois last week.

Ethan Hampton completed 18 of 20 passes for 328 yards and five touchdowns to lead Northern Illinois to the victory. Trayvon Rudolph (four catches, 104 yards, 1 TD) and Grayson Barnes (five catches, 95 yards, 1 TD) were the top targets.

Northern Illinois coach Thomas Hammock said he and his players were ready for what promises to be a loud crowd at Notre Dame Stadium.

"For us, it's a tremendous challenge," Hammock said. "We obviously know it's going to be a hostile environment. We'll work crowd noise this week. There are going to be a lot of things that go into the preparation standpoint.

"But for us, it's about making it about us and how we prepare and how we go execute. We know it's going to be physical. Notre Dame is going to stand in the middle of the ring, and we've got to go to the middle of the ring and match their intensity."

The Fighting Irish shined on defense against Texas A&M and will look to stay sharp against Northern Illinois. Notre Dame defenders Xavier Watts and Adon Shuler each notched an interception last week, and Jack Kiser led the team with eight tackles.

Freeman said wide receiver Jordan Faison sprained his right ankle and would miss the next 1-2 weeks. He will miss the game against Northern Illinois.

"We'll see over the next week how he improves and when he'll be able to come back," Freeman said.

--Field Level Media