Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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26 SEPT. 13, 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED Losing Both Sides Of The Line Of Scrimmage Raises Several Red Flags With Notre Dame down to its last breath, Miami defensive ends Rueben Bain and Akheem Mesidor met at the quarterback. On the next play, they met there again. Bain and Mesidor combined for back-to-back sacks (redshirt freshman quarterback CJ Carr was flagged for intentional grounding on the first one, but for all intents and purposes, it was a sack), ending Notre Dame's attempt at a game-tying field goal drive. Irish head coach Marcus Freeman said afterward that he expects his defensive line to dominate its opposition. Bain, Mesidor and the Hurricanes' front four dominated Notre Dame. "The effort was there," Freeman said. "I guess you've gotta give credit to their team." The Irish were not strong as they expected to be in the run game, either. And defensively, the Hurricanes had their number up front, too. Miami moved the line of scrimmage significantly more than Notre Dame, particularly up the middle. The ballyhooed Irish defensive tackles were often over- matched. Up until the third quarter, the pass rush was virtually nonexistent. Miami is one of the top teams in college football in the trenches. But Notre Dame expects to be on that short list, too. Decisively losing the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball is a red flag for the Irish. Everyone Will Be Mad At Denbrock, But I Took More Issue With Chris Ash There were times when, to be frank, Notre Dame's defense played soft. Take the third-and-8 Miami faced on its first se- ries of the second half. The Irish played a soft zone coverage, and they played it poorly. Miami tight end Elija Lofton found a massive gap between red- shirt sophomore linebacker Jaiden Ausberry and redshirt senior safety Jalen Stroman, and made the catch for a gain of 15. Soft zones were much more prevalent all night under Ash than they were with Al Golden in charge. But it wasn't just the play calling. Credit Ash's defense for stepping up in the fourth quarter and coming up with key stops to give Notre Dame a chance. But the Hurricanes just seemed to have an edge that the Irish did not. They played faster. They played harder. They pushed the pile into the end zone on running back CharMar Brown's third-quarter touchdown, because they were tougher. This looked nothing like the defense that pro- pelled the Irish to the national championship game, and that is a problem. Notre Dame Run Game Lost Its Identity Notre Dame ran everything out of shotgun, and that was perplexing to me. Where were the mid zones? Where were the counters, the powers? Where were the runs out of pistol that let junior running back Jeremiyah Love get a head of steam last season? With no Riley Leonard to keep defenses honest, Notre Dame's shotgun run game didn't have any juice. Part of it may have been Notre Dame's complete lack of tight end depth, which is a bigger problem than we thought. Senior Eli Raridon was the only tight end who entered the game. For that reason, the Irish gave wideouts like 5-foot-10 wide receiver Will Pauling in-line blocking assignments at the goal line, with predictable results. The Irish will struggle to score consistently if they can't impose their will in the run game. They didn't come anywhere close to that against Miami. Playmakers Need To Make More Plays Love didn't take over the game, though most of that was blocking and coaching. Price had a 30-yard run in the second quarter, but he fumbled two plays later and grabbed some bench the rest of the night. Neither slot receiver, junior Jaden Greathouse nor Wisconsin transfer Will Pauling, caught a pass. Senior tight end Eli Raridon and Virginia transfer wideout Malachi Fields both did good things, but the former had two drops, and the latter lost a fumble on his first touch. Defensively, redshirt sophomore defensive end Boubacar Traore was excellent, but he needed help. The four linebackers combined for only one tackle for loss. Redshirt sophomore safety Adon Shuler, instead of attacking the football, waited for it with open arms as Miami wide receiver CJ Daniels made the catch of the year right in front of him. Notre Dame's best players on both sides of the ball had to step up more than they did. Notre Dame's Mindset: Back To Work There were no tears from the players as they left the field at Hard Rock Stadium. Freeman didn't show much emotion in his postgame press confer- ence, though he obviously acknowledged that the Irish have work to do. "There's obviously a lot out there that we didn't do well, but there are some things we did do well," Freeman said. "And we got to build on the things that we did well, and we got to fix with urgency the things we didn't do so well." He's right, and that urgency is paramount be- cause Week 3 at Texas A&M, following a Week 2 bye, is absolutely a must-win game. The ultimate silver lining from Sunday night is concrete proof that the Irish have a quarterback. And the outcome, let's be honest, won't kill them. On its surface, this was a three-point loss to a top-10 team. It's not a resume-destroyer by any stretch. The process, though, featured several red flags that the Irish must get fixed. FIVE THOUGHTS BY JACK SOBLE Redshirt sophomore defensive end Boubacar Traore notched a career-high 6 tackles and recorded Notre Dame's only sack versus Miami. PHOTO BY LARRY BLANKENSHIP