(Notre Dame) — Saturday’s win over Arkansas was the kind of performance most Notre Dame fans expected this season. It was something that put the Irish faithful in their comfort zone.

That’s not where Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman wants his team.

“Our challenge as we move forward is to continue to be uncomfortable and continue to find ways to grow with success when it’s natural to feel good, feel satisfied,” said Freeman at his Monday press conference. “We have to be uncomfortable because that’s the only way you grow. We’ve got to get back to work.”

Indeed, there’s no rest for the Irish as Boise State makes its first visit to Notre Dame Stadium Saturday. The Broncos have developed a reputation as giant killers, and will be looking to add the Irish to a long list of upset victims over the years that includes Oklahoma, Oregon and Florida State.

“You think about the history of Boise State and somebody told me it’s the second-winningest program since 2000 in college football”, noted Freeman. “I mean, that’s a credit of a program.”

The 3-1 Broncos have scored 38.5 points per game this season and have a veteran quarterback in Maddux Madsen, along with a strong running game. That will be a test for an Irish defense that has struggled, but showed improvement over the last six quarters with a simpler approach.

“Does that mean that we’ve simplified? Maybe,” admitted Freeman. “Maybe we’ve condensed. I don’t know if the defensive play calls were that much different. But we better find ways to teach it better. You guys might notice it, but maybe we played with a little bit of a different technique in certain positions.  Maybe the types of defenses weren’t that much different, but how we played them were simplified. Maybe less checks, maybe less versions of playing this type of defense were simplified so they understood, OK, you can play Cover 3 five different ways, or you can play Cover 3 one or two different ways. I think that’s maybe how you saw us simplify.”

Those kind of changes are not necessary with an Irish offense that is scoring 44 points per game, and looks like a juggernaut. The combination of running backs Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price and the passing of C.J. Carr has been near perfect.

“We’ve got to know what our strengths are,” comments the Irish head coach. “And our strengths is the ability to hand the ball off to 4 (Love) and 24 (Price), let our O-line grind it and get bodies on bodies. Or, you know what, if you’re going to put an extra guy in the box, we have to be able to go over top.”

And while Freeman is focused on the constant improvement of his team, he reiterated the respect he has for Boise State.

“They’ve got a good quarterback that’s experienced, that’s tough, gritty, takes care of the ball, so it’ll be a good challenge for our defense again,” lauded Freeman. “Their defense is a high-pressure attacking unit. We’ll see more pressure if they continue to do what they’ve done than we’ve seen all year and it’s going to be a great challenge for us to protect our quarterback. That’s going to be important.”

Saturday’s game has a kickoff shortly after 3:30 at Notre Dame Stadium (NBC TV) and is the annual “Irish Wear Green” contest.