Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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10 NOV. 16, 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED UNDER THE DOME Notre Dame To Open 2025 Season At Miami The Notre Dame-Miami game that was supposed to take place this season and would have pitted two current playoff teams together will be played in Week 1 of 2025, Blue & Gold Illustrated can confirm. The Fighting Irish will take a Labor Day weekend trip down to Miami Gardens, Fla., to open the season against the Hurricanes. Miami will return the home-and-home favor and head to South Bend in 2026. The back- and-forth was supposed to begin in South Bend this season, but the Hurricanes post- poned it last year because of a scheduling conflict. Notre Dame will begin on the road at a power conference foe for the fourth time in five years (Florida State in 2021, Ohio State in 2022, Texas A&M this year and Miami next year). The two storied programs have played 26 times with Notre Dame owning a 17-8-1 ad- vantage in the all-time series. The Hurricanes won the last meeting 41-8 in Miami Gardens, Fla., on Nov. 11, 2017. Before then, the Irish had won four consecutive matchups spaced out between 1990 and 2016. — Tyler Horka Notre Dame And Texas To Play Home-And-Home Two of college football's premier programs will play for the 13th and 14th times in their storied histories when Notre Dame and Texas take part in a home-and-home in 2028 and 2029, according to a Nov. 4 report from Bobby Burton of On Texas Football. The Fighting Irish own an all-time record of 9-3 against the Longhorns. The two teams last met in Austin in 2016, when the Horns notched a 50-47 double-overtime win. That was the second game of a home-and-home as well. The Irish easily rolled in the first game, 38-3 in South Bend during the 2015 campaign. Both of those matchups were season openers. Burton's report did not specify what week of the season the future home-and-home will take place. Prior to the two games almost a decade ago, Notre Dame and Texas had not squared off since the 1990s. They played three times in the Cotton Bowl in the 1970s with the Irish winning twice. Eight of the 12 matchups to date have taken place in the Lone Star State. Notre Dame is scheduled to play Arkansas, Purdue, Virginia Tech, Clemson, Boston Col- lege, Miami, Pittsburgh and Navy in 2028. The Irish have Alabama, South Florida, North Caro- lina State, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Wake Forest, Navy and Syracuse scheduled in 2029. — Tyler Horka Jordan Botelho To Return To Notre Dame In 2025 On Sept. 16, Notre Dame head coach Mar- cus Freeman announced that graduate stu- dent defensive end Jordan Botelho, who was off to a strong start to his fifth season in South Bend, would miss the rest of the 2024 season due to a knee injury. The idea of Botelho returning for a sixth sea- son has been floated, and it was confirmed by Freeman during his press conference Nov. 4. "Yeah, he's planning on coming back next year," Freeman said. In five seasons at Notre Dame, Botelho has accumulated 77 total stops, 15 tackles for loss and 11.5 sacks. In 2024, he had 12 total stops with 1 tackle for loss and 1 sack. He led the Irish with 7 quarterback pressures and 5 quarterback hurries through three games, per Pro Football Focus. He had a pass-rush win percentage of 23.3, the highest among any Notre Dame player with double-digit pass-rush snaps logged. Botelho retains a year of eligibility by taking a medical redshirt for this season, meaning he can indeed return to Notre Dame for a sixth season in 2025. He arrived in South Bend in 2020, so his first season was the COVID year, which did not count against anyone's eligibility. The pass-rushing tandem of Botelho and current sophomore Boubacar Traore that was looking so promising in the early stages of this season has a chance to take college football by storm next season. Traore was playing admirably as a starter in Botelho's place, with 8 quarterback pressures in five games, until he also went down for the season with a knee injury in the Irish's win over Louisville Sept. 28. There is no timetable for either of their returns, but both of their injuries occurred early enough this year to expect them back decently early next year. — Mike Singer 2025 NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL SCHEDULE Date Opponent TBA* at Miami Sept. 13 Texas A&M Sept. 20 Purdue Sept. 27 at Arkansas Oct. 4 Boise State Oct. 18 USC Nov. 8 Navy TBA at Boston College TBA North Carolina State TBA at Pittsburgh TBA Syracuse * Game will be played Labor Day weekend, but the exact date is TBD Botelho will return to Notre Dame for a sixth year after starting the 2024 season in strong fashion with 1 sack and 5 quarterback hurries in three games prior to injuring his knee. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER Notre Dame and Miami, who last met in 2017, are set to open the 2025 college football season over Labor Day weekend in Miami Gardens, Fla. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA