Alright folks, before we get to this week's 3-2-1, we probably need to talk a little bit about the people waiting on us Friday night.

That would be the Christian Academy of Knoxville Warriors.

And if you've been casually glancing at scores from around East Tennessee while wondering whether LSU's Lane Kiffin will be successful in his efforts to blow up the SEC by downloading the Philadelphia Eagles into his two-deep…

CAK appears to be pretty good at football.

The Warriors went 7-5 last season, made it to the second round of the Division II-AA playoffs and came down to Chattanooga and beat our Irish 28-10. This year?

They've apparently decided to skip the warm-up period.

CAK opened the season by beating Concord Christian 57-20, then followed that up Friday night by beating Heritage 49-0. That's 106 points in two football games.

For those of you keeping score at home, that's 53 points per game, which is generally considered a healthy offensive output unless you're playing PlayStation against your eight-year-old nephew.

CAK's offense isn't complicated because one player does everything. It is complicated because several players do something different.

Isaac Kannah is averaging more than eight yards per carry. Quarterback Seaton Moffett has thrown six touchdowns without an interception and is averaging more than 13 yards every time he runs it.

I don't know what it is with the genetically engineered quarterbacks so far this year. Last week we had Rhea County's Jaxton Schmitt, the Peyton Manning/Michael Vick clandestine chimera hiding in hill country…

This week we have Knoxville's Seaton Moffett...

I'll say that again for the people in the back...Seaton Moffett, ladies and gentlemen...

In addition to having a name worthy of a seat on the Supreme Court, young Justice Moffett is 22-of-28 passing for 303 yards with six touchdown passes.

Zero interceptions.

He has also rushed for 147 yards and two touchdowns while averaging 13.4 yards per attempt. Moffett has a quarterback-efficiency rating of 240.2.

To put that into perspective, Jayden Daniels had a rating of 208.0 during his Heisman campaign for the 2023 LSU Tigers.

Why do I pound this drum?

Sun Tzu once said, "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles." Now, I don't know how much high school football Sun Tzu watched—or whether ancient China ran a 4–2–5—but the man apparently understood the importance of a scouting report.

So I continue…

Working with Moffett is running back Isaac Kannah, who has 214 yards on 26 carries and three touchdowns at 8.2 yards per carry. That's just foul and obnoxious...

Sawyer Anderson, Baker Sterchi and Hunter Bennett are all receiving threats, and they have been doing work this year. In other words, whatever else may have contributed to those 106 points, the scoreboard isn't being propped up by trick plays and favorable bookkeeping.

These people are moving the football.

CAK runs it until you commit enough bodies to stop it. Then Moffett pulls the ball, escapes out the back door or throws it to whichever receiver your defensive adjustment forgot about. It's less an offense than a weekly exercise in making defenders choose incorrectly.

And Friday night isn't just another early-season road game.

It's the region opener.

Notre Dame. CAK. Knoxville. Two undefeated football teams. And this is where the schedule quits clearing its throat and starts speaking in complete sentences.

So, with that cheerful little bit of information out of the way…

Here are three things I'm thinking about as the Irish head north on I-75.

THREE OBSERVATIONS

OBSERVATION #1: Pick Your Poison

We've played two football games, which isn't enough to start engraving trophies, ordering rings or naming streets after anybody. But it is enough to notice something.

This Notre Dame offense has options.

Through two games, the Irish have piled up 682 yards of offense...412 on the ground and 270 through the air.

But here's the number that got my attention: Notre Dame is averaging 9.4 yards per rushing attempt.

Nine. Point. Four.

That's not "three yards and a cloud of dust." That's the opposition asking, "Why are our linebackers on the back of a milk carton?"

Michael "Raptor" Woodley leads the way with 179 yards on just 16 carries - 11.2 yards every time somebody hands the young man the football.

Dremel "Turbo" Green has another 97 yards and two touchdowns. And about Turbo…We have this fancy new GPS tracking system that helps coaches understand how fast players are moving in practices and games. At least that's what the coaches say…but because I know how coaches think, I know it's really a data-driven reason to go all R. Lee Ermey on a player after practice if they think they have proof that he's loafing.

"WHAT IS YOUR MAJOR MALFUNCTION?". But I digress…

I can't divulge what Green's number is, but I can confirm that he is touching speeds comparable to Saquon Barkley and Jahmyr Gibbs when he gets into the open field. How fast is that? Like Earl Scruggs on a banjo.

JT Tramble has 52 yards and two touchdowns.

Zion Bennett touched it once and went 43 yards.

At some point, Coach Hill may need to start handing the ball to people based on birthdays.

And here's where things get complicated for CAK. Load the box?

Notre Dame's quarterbacks have completed 61% of their passes, haven't thrown an interception and are averaging nearly 16 yards per completion. Georgia's Gunner Stockton averaged 10.76 last season...

Andrey Greene has thrown for 174 yards and two touchdowns. Colt Smith has added another 96 yards and a score.

Jamari Whiteside is averaging 23 yards per reception with two touchdowns.

And Dremel Green has exactly one reception. It went 52 yards for a touchdown. And of course it did…

Because if he gets the ball in space, the defense is just looking at taillights.

So I'm not sure there's a particularly comfortable answer here.

Bring everybody downhill to stop our backs, and you're leaving some very fast human beings running around behind you. Back everybody out to deal with Tramble, Whiteside, Ivey and Green?

Well…

Raptor would like a word.

OBSERVATION #2: A Couple of Names We Need to Call

We've spent plenty of time talking about the explosiveness on offense - and understandably so. But through two games, there are a couple of young men on defense whose names probably need to be called.

Number 55, Braydon Collins, leads Notre Dame with 10 tackles.

Eight of those have been solo tackles. He has also recorded two tackles for loss and forced a fumble. That means Collins isn't merely arriving after the excitement is over. He is getting there first, getting there behind the line of scrimmage and occasionally separating people from their personal property.

Right behind him is number 29, Jeremy Casey, with nine tackles. Casey has been involved in just about everything. Eight assisted tackles tell me that when somebody else starts the job, number 29 has developed a habit of showing up to help finish it.

And there is something reassuring about a defense whose leading tacklers aren't necessarily the same names receiving most of the attention.

We already knew about the speed on the outside. We knew about the hosses up front. We knew Notre Dame had playmakers.

Now we're beginning to learn who keeps appearing at the bottom of the pile.

So, if you're watching closely Friday night, keep an eye on 55 and 29.

Because through two games, Braydon Collins and Jeremy Casey have spent an awful lot of time introducing themselves to opposing ball carriers.

OBSERVATION #3: This Defense Has Developed a Taste for OPP

Through two games, Notre Dame has turned the football over twice. The Irish defense has taken it away six times.

That gives Notre Dame a plus-four turnover margin, which is the sort of statistic coaches love because it generally means two things: Your offense isn't handing out souvenirs, and your defense has stopped respecting personal boundaries.

The Irish have recovered four fumbles and intercepted two passes.

Meanwhile, Andrey Greene and Colt Smith have combined to throw 28 passes without an interception. That matters every week. But against a team averaging 53 points per game, it matters a little more.

CAK has spent its first two games operating on schedule, playing with a lead and turning football games into track meets before halftime. The easiest way to interrupt that rhythm is to take away the football.

Not figuratively.

Actually take it away from them.

Make the quarterback throw one into traffic. Get a helmet on the football. Let Braydon Collins introduce himself to a running back while somebody else retrieves the merchandise.

Notre Dame doesn't necessarily have to stop CAK on every possession Friday night. But if the Irish can steal two or three of them?

Well, 106 points in two weeks is impressive.

It is considerably harder to score when the other team has your football.

TWO QUESTIONS

QUESTION #1: Can Notre Dame Make CAK Play a Game It Hasn't Played Yet?

CAK has opened the season by winning 57–20 and 49–0. The Warriors have not been forced to protect the football in a close fourth quarter. They have not had to look across the line of scrimmage late in a game and wonder why the other team is still standing there.

We, on the other hand, just did our best Rocky Balboa impersonation by leading with our face for three quarters against Rhea County - but finding a way to get off the deck first.

What happens if Notre Dame takes the opening possession, puts together a drive and goes up 7–0?

What happens if the Irish force a turnover and suddenly it's 14–7?

What happens if CAK looks at the scoreboard in the third quarter and realizes this isn't another Friday-night scrimmage with concessions?

We know CAK can play fast and loose with a comfortable lead. Friday night, Notre Dame needs to find out how the Warriors play when somebody keeps eating the pepperoni off the top of their pizza.

QUESTION #2: Whose Tempo Is This Going to Be?

Here's a number that hasn't gotten enough attention.

Notre Dame is averaging 341 yards per game while running only 36 plays per contest.

Read that again. The Irish are putting up all that offense on barely three dozen snaps a game. That's not a team grinding out fourteen-play drives and bleeding the clock. That's a team scoring in chunks and getting off the field in a hurry.

Which raises a question that has nothing to do with who CAK decides to cover.

Who controls the pace Friday night?

Because CAK wants this game played a certain way. Fast. Loud. Points on the board early, the tempo cranked up, the other team pressing to keep up by the time the band takes the field at halftime. That's the Warriors' comfort zone, and it's exactly the water they've been swimming in during those 57 and 49-point evenings.

So the question isn't only whether Notre Dame can score. We know the Irish can score. The question is whether Notre Dame is willing to score on its terms and not CAK's.

If the Irish hit a couple of those chunk plays and then actually string together a possession or two that chews clock, CAK's offense spends Friday night doing the one thing it hasn't had to do all season.

Watching from the sideline.

You cannot average 53 points a game from the bench. And an offense built to sprint gets a little uncomfortable when somebody keeps making it stand around and wait its turn.

Explosive is good. Explosive and patient is a problem for a track team.

ONE PREDICTION

CAK is good.

The Warriors are at home, they've put up more points in two weeks than most teams manage in a month, and they have every reason to believe they are about to continue right where they left off.

But Notre Dame is sitting here like Doc Holliday with his hat pulled down low..."I'm your Huckleberry"...

The Irish have an offense averaging 341 yards per game despite running only 36 plays per contest. They have speed all over the field, multiple ways to score and a defense that has already forced six turnovers.

I think CAK lands a few punches.

I also think Notre Dame lands some of its own - and for the first time this season, the Warriors find themselves playing four quarters with somebody who keeps getting back up.

My prediction? I will be very specific...

Notre Dame forces two turnovers (one of those an interception by Briggs Hill), Michael Woodley hits another long run at a key moment, and at the end of the fourth quarter, the Irish pull a log chain across the road and break the Warriors' wheels off...

Notre Dame 35, CAK 31.

DMGB.