Now that the awards have been handed out, the college football playoffs have begun and players are now starting to declare for the NFL Draft or the transfer portal, it’s time to close the book on the 2025 season for Notre Dame. This season, we saw some greatness, some good, some bad and some down right ugly football at times. Before we can officially move onto the offseason, it’s time to recap this regular season by breaking it down into four separate quarters. The third quarter of Notre Dame’s season featured three distinct rivalries and the Irish emerging victorious in all three.
This was a big one. At the time, we didn’t have clarity on if the rivalry would continue past the 2025 season. This past week, it was announced that the Irish and the Trojans weren’t able to reach a scheduling agreement and won’t pursue anything until 2030 which gave this matchup on October 18 significantly more meaning. Under the lights in South Bend is where Notre Dame won the Jeweled Shillelagh and it’s here to stay in South Bend due to a strong performance from a handful of Notre Dame’s stars.
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Defensively, star cornerback Leonard Moore shut down the Biletnikoff winner Makai Lemon holding him to three catches for 33 yards when targeted. Lemon’s longest reception of the day didn’t come against Moore. Offensively, star running back Jeremiyah Love had his best game of his career rushing for 228 yards and one touchdown against a Trojan defense that wanted nothing to do with the St. Louis native. Fellow running back Jadarian Price had a kick return for a touchdown which gave Notre Dame a lead in the second half and ultimately helped seal the game for the Irish.
Outside of their losses, I’d argue that this was their sloppiest performance of the season. Inconsistent on offense and undisciplined on defense. Despite putting up 458 total yards of offense, Notre Dame only scored 25 points on the afternoon. The highlight of the game was Love taking it 94-yards to the house on their first possession of the fourth quarter. Outside of that, they were unable to capitalize down in the red zone and had one of the worst kicking performances I’ve seen from a Notre Dame special teams unit.
The defense played relatively well outside of one series and a handful of plays. Boston College finished the afternoon with 281 total yards of offense but 74 of those came on their opening drive of the second half which lasted for 21 plays and ate over 11 minutes of game clock. Still, Notre Dame’s defense was able to force three turnovers, all interceptions, and held the Eagles to just 10 points on the afternoon. Despite another double digit win, some were left questioning the level of focus with this team after picking up their 6th straight win.
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There were a lot of questions surrounding defensive coordinator Chris Ash heading into this matchup as it was his first time preparing for the triple option. Notre Dame’s offense also hadn’t looked like the unit we saw in early September over the last several games. Thankfully, this team put a lot of those questions to rest on the night of November 8. The Irish offense came out firing on all cylinders scoring 49 points. Quarterback CJ Carr had one of his more efficient performances completing 13 of his 16 pass attempts for 218 yards and three touchdowns. Love had another highlight reel run breaking multiple tackles on his way to a 48-yard touchdown.
The defense held Navy, the No. 1 rushing offense in the country, well below their season average on the year and only allowed the Midshipmen into the end zone once all night long. Kicker Erik Schmidt also went 7 of 7 on extra point attempts, something we didn’t know if it was possible or not after the performance against Boston College. The Irish starting firing on all cylinders making it out of the rivalry segment of the schedule unscathed which helped set up a dominant 4th quarter of the regular season.
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