Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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42 PRESEASON 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED GAME PREVIEW: MIAMI BY TYLER HORKA T he scene and stage for Notre Da m e 's 2 02 5 sea so n o p e n e r couldn't be any more surreal. Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla. Home of the Miami Hur- ricanes. It's a setting that invites the culmination of a plethora of positive vibes — past, present and, presumably, future. Past: Notre Dame's most recent vic- tory occurred at Hard Rock. The Fight- ing Irish came from 10 points down in the Orange Bowl, doubling as a College Football Playoff semifinal for the 2024 season, to eliminate Penn State, 27-24. It's difficult, in a good way, to select a favorite memory from that utterly memorable night for the Blue and Gold. Steve Angeli's pinch-hitting master- class of a drive operation that helped put Notre Dame's first points on the board in the final seconds of the first half, getting the game back within a single score? Aneyas Williams' over-the-shoulder catch that led quickly to a Riley Leonard rushing score and a 10-10 ballgame in the first five minutes of the second half? Je re m iya h L ove 's h e ro i c 2-ya rd touchdown that defied gravity and physics? Jaden Greathouse's 54-yard catch- and-run touchdown that introduced a new meaning of gravity to two poor Penn State defensive players who ended up on the ground as Greathouse galloped into the end zone to tie the game at 24 points apiece in the fourth quarter? Finally, and certainly last but not least, the bang-bang sequence of a Christian Gray interception and a Mitch Jeter 41-yard field goal that put the fin- ishing touches on Notre Dame's circus ride of a three-point triumph that sent the Irish to the national championship game? Yeah. That's a lot. But it all happened in the same spot where Notre Dame will first embark on the upcoming cam- paign, so it's worth mentioning and vividly remembering. Also worth mentioning (and, perhaps, vividly worth remembering, if the game goes the way Irish fans hope it does) — this season opener has the chance to be quite the epic in and of itself. That takes us to the present. It's been eight years since Notre Dame played Miami. That's not even half as long as the drought between games pairing the Irish and Hurricanes from 1990 to 2010, but it's a pretty lengthy gap, nonetheless. A lot has happened in those eight years, too. In 2024, Miami won 10 games for the first time since the last season it faced HOME AWAY FROM HOME Notre Dame begins the 2025 season in a familiar location — one the Fighting Irish would love to return to in January, again The biggest win of Marcus Freeman's Notre Dame career came at Hard Rock Stadium when his Irish beat Penn State in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 9, 2025. PHOTO COURTESY MIAMI ATHLETICS