Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM SEPT. 13, 2025 21 BY TYLER HORKA A nyo n e wh o c o u n te d No t re Dame out of the season opener at Miami Aug. 31 clearly didn't care to recall what happened on the very field the Fighting Irish played on eight months prior. They just refuse to lay down at Hard Rock Stadium. This result, though, wasn't the same as the previous one. Essentially, the ex- act opposite; Miami beat Notre Dame, 27-24, the same score by which the Irish defeated Penn State in the Orange Bowl to punch a ticket to the national championship game. The stakes were much lower this time around, but the circumstances felt eerily familiar. Once trialing by double digits, Notre Dame clawed all the way back to tie the game at 24 points apiece late in the fourth quarter. Riley Leonard had a lot to do with it in January. On the final day of August, the comeback was com- pliments of his successor — redshirt freshman CJ Carr. Making his debut as a starter, Carr completed 19 of 30 pass attempts for 221 yards with 2 touchdowns and 1 interception. His first TD pass was a Houdini-act type play of epic propor- tions. He nearly stepped foot on the 30-yard line on a play that was snapped from the 7. He worked himself free enough — by way of running all over the field with defensive linemen in hot pur- suit — to fire a touchdown toss to fellow redshirt freshman Micah Gilbert. Then Carr perfectly played a run- pass-option for an easy flick to junior wide receiver Jordan Faison to bring Notre Dame within a touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter. He didn't lay down. "He's a gamer, man," Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said. "He performs when the lights are on." Carr accounted for 75 yards on three plays, including a 7-yard touchdown rush on a keeper, on Notre Dame's game- tying touchdown drive. He completed a 65-yard catch and run to tight end Eli Raridon that was aided by a nifty pump fake to set Raridon off and running. As impressive as he was, Carr wasn't the only quarterback dealing. His counterpart, Carson Beck, played an effective game himself. He was a big reason why Miami was in position to kick a 47-yard field goal for the win with just over a minute remaining. Beck led Miami on back-to-back 75- yard touchdown drives of double-digit plays, one to close the first half and an- other to open the second, and suddenly the Irish trailed by two scores. It proved to be just enough of an advantage for the Canes to hold off the pesky Irish. The latter just didn't have enough magic acts left in them. Or enough time. Beck, the Georgia transfer with 28 ca- reer starts including his first in a Miami uniform, admirably dueled Carr, who made his first career start in front of a Hard Rock Stadium crowd that felt like it was transported through time and transplanted from the old Orange Bowl. You know, where the Hurricanes played when The U was still The U. Well, it sure seemed like The U was back to kick off the 2025 college football season in front of a Hard Rock record 66,793 attendees. The Canes protected Beck and en- abled him to put forth a clean stat line of 20 of 31 for 205 yards with 2 touch- downs. When Beck needed to make a play, he did. Miami's running game got better as the game went along as well. "I felt like they did a good job pro- tecting the quarterback," Freeman said. "I think there were times where Beck had enough time to really figure out what coverage we were playing and put the ball where it needed to be put." Notre Dame, meanwhile, did not win the line of scrimmage. Widely viewed as the best running back in the sport, junior Jeremiyah Love had 10 carries for 33 yards. It wasn't his fault; he had no room to run. The Irish often tried using the passing game as an extension of the running game to spread the field and open things up a bit, but it only resulted in a meager beginning of the game for Carr. He was under 100 yards passing well into the second half. ND MIA SECOND QUARTER MIA Toney 28-yard pass from Beck (Davis kick) 14:03 0 7 Drive: 8 plays, 70 yards, 2:43 ND Gilbert 7-yard pass from Carr (Burnette kick) 5:21 7 7 Drive: 11 plays, 68 yards, 5:49 MIA Daniels 20-yard pass from Beck (Davis kick) 0:12 7 14 Drive: 10 plays, 75 yards, 5:09 THIRD QUARTER MIA Brown 5-yard Run (Davis kick) 7:23 7 21 Drive: 12 plays, 75 yards, 7:37 FOURTH QUARTER ND Faison 1-yard pass from Carr (Burnette kick) 14:55 14 21 Drive: 11 plays, 64 yards, 5:16 MIA Davis 38-yard field goal 9:42 14 24 Drive: 4 plays, 8 yards, 2:13 ND Burnette 39-yard field goal 5:32 17 24 Drive: 10 plays, 54 yards, 4:10 ND Carr 7-yard run (Burnette kick) 3:21 24 24 Drive: 3 plays, 75 yards, 1:14 MIA Davis 47-yard field goal 1:04 24 27 Drive: 10 plays, 46 yards, 2:17 ND MIA Total First Downs 18 20 Rushing 7 7 Passing 9 12 Penalty 2 1 Rushing Attempts 28 38 Yards Gained Rushing 124 139 Yards Lost Rushing 31 20 Net Yards Rushing 93 119 Net Yards Passing 221 205 Passes Attempted 30 31 Passes Completed 19 20 Had Intercepted 1 0 Percent Completion 63.3% 64.5% Yards Per Attempt 7.4 6.6 Yards Per Completion 11.6 10.2 Total Offensive Plays 58 69 Total Net Yards 314 324 Average Gain Per Play 5.4 4.7 Fumbles: No.-Lost 2-1 1-0 Penalties: No.-Yards 5-30 6-51 Punts: No.-Yards 4-180 5-213 Average Per Punt 45.0 42.6 Average Net Punt 42.8 40.8 Punt Returns: No.-Yards 2-9 1-9 Kickoff Returns: No.-Yards 1-15 1-32 Interception Returns: No.-Yards 0-0 1-12 Fumble Returns: No.-Yards 0-0 0-0 Miscellaneous Yards 0 0 Possession Time 26:03 33:57 Third-Down Conversions 4-9 5-14 Percentage 44.4% 35.7% Fourth-Down Conversions 0-0 1-2 Percentage 0.0% 50.0% Sacks By: No.-Yards 1-7 3-13 MIAMI 27, NOTRE DAME 24 Aug. 31, 2025 ✦ Attendance: 66,793 Hard Rock Stadium ✦ Miami Gardens, Fla. 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Final Notre Dame 0 7 0 17 24 Miami 0 14 7 6 27