Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM SEPT. 27, 2025 39 GAME PREVIEW: ARKANSAS Even if Carr occasionally takes a step back, his overall trajectory to improve consistently is prom- ising, as is his chemistry with Notre Dame's deep receiver corps. Notre Dame went into the game against Purdue Sept. 20 ranked 43rd in passing offense, up from 101st last season. Carr's 142.1 pass efficiency rank- ing combined against Miami and Texas A&M was better than any season in predecessor Riley Leon- ard's college career and better through Week 3 of this season than notables like Michigan prodigy Bryce Underwood, Texas phenom Arch Manning, Clemson preseason All-American Cade Klubnik and LSU's vaunted veteran Garrett Nussmeier. A curiosity in this game is whether former Arkan- sas tight end Ty Washington, who transferred to the Irish this past offseason, will make an impact in the contest. Advantage: Notre Dame SPECIAL TEAMS One of the best things Arkansas does statisti- cally is punt. The Razorbacks just don't do it very often — only six times total in their first three games, but redshirt senior Devin Bale is one of the nation's best. At the quarter pole of the season, Arkansas was ninth in net punting (46.2), and Bale's raw average was 48.5 yards per boot. That would have ranked him fourth nationally if he had enough attempts to qualify for the individual punting stats, right behind Maryland's Bryce McFerson, who started his career at Notre Dame. Bale also can not only execute an onside kick, he recovered one this season. And last season he ran for 25 yards on a fake punt against Texas A&M. One of the worst things Arkansas does is kick field goals, albeit in a very small sample size. Freshman Scott Starzyk missed both of his at- tempts in the six-point loss at Ole Miss Sept. 13. His only make this season, though, was a 53-yarder in Arkansas' opener against Alabama A&M. Kicker Noah Burnette for Notre Dame was 3 of 3 on field goals and 7 of 7 on point-after tries heading into the Purdue game while nursing a hip injury. In most of the other facets of special teams, it's kind of a wash. Notre Dame is by far the bet- ter team in punt returns. Arkansas has the heavy edge in kickoff returns. Both teams are equally unimpressive in the coverage game on both units. Burnette's health is the wild card, and a healthy Burnette tips the scales. Advantage: Notre Dame COACHING Sam Pittman, 63, peaked in his second of six seasons heading the Razorbacks program, with a 9-4 overall record in 2021 and a 4-4 mark in the SEC. Since then, though, he's 7-18 in SEC games. Hiring former Arkansas head coach Bobby Petrino to be the offensive coordinator ahead of the 2024 season seems to have at least revived that side of the ball. And it's at the coordina- tor level where this game feels more like it will hinge. Petrino versus Notre Dame's Chris Ash, and Irish offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock versus Arkansas third-year defensive coordinator Travis Williams. Denbrock faced Arkansas twice while coordinat- ing Brian Kelly's LSU offense for two seasons, and the Tigers won both of those games. In 2023, Den- brock got the better of that matchup over Williams in a 34-31 victory. In 2022, Denbrock faced current Purdue head coach Barry Odom, who was Arkansas' defensive coordinator that season. LSU prevailed in a much lower-scoring battle, 13-10. Freeman, in his fourth year as Irish head coach, has won these types of big games on the road. This feels like a familiar script when Freeman needs to have it. Advantage: Notre Dame INTANGIBLES Perhaps some of the most intriguing intangibles in this matchup — besides the outright unfamiliar- ity of the programs with each other — are how teams win in the margins — something Notre Dame flexed a lot last year. OFFENSE Pos. No. Name Ht. Wt. Yr. WR-X 9 O'Mega Blake 6-2 187 R-Sr. 5 Ja'Kayden Ferguson 6-2 187 Fr. WR-W 3 CJ Brown 6-1 200 So. 6 Raylen Sharpe 5-9 169 R-Sr. or 15 Kam Shanks 5-8 169 R-So. LT 51 Corey Robinson II 6-5 311 R-Sr. 75 Kavion Broussard 6-6 317 R-Fr. LG 55 Fernando Carmona 6-5 325 R-Sr. 70 Blake Cherry 6-5 316 Fr. C 52 Caden Kitler 6-3 305 R-Jr. 53 Kash Courtney 6-4 297 Fr. RG 50 Kobe Branham 6-5 329 R-Fr. 74 Marcus Dumervil 6-5 306 R-Sr. RT 76 E'Marion Harris 6-7 313 R-Jr. 71 Shaq McRoy 6-8 344 R-Fr. QB 10 Taylen Green 6-6 235 R-Sr. 7 KJ Jackson 6-4 225 R-Fr. RB 4 Mike Washington 6-2 228 Sr. 0 Braylen Russell 6-1 238 So. FB 47 Maddox Lassiter 6-4 250 R-So. TE-H 88 Rohan Jones 6-3 242 Sr. TE-Y 81 Andreas Paaske 6-6 267 R-Sr. or 83 Jaden Platt 6-5 265 R-So. WR-Z 17 Jalen Brown 6-1 171 R-So. 14 Andy Jean 6-1 189 R-So. or 2 Courtney Crutchfield 6-2 195 R-Fr. DEFENSE Pos. No. Name Ht. Wt. Yr. DE 97 Quincy Rhodes Jr. 6-6 275 Jr. 9 Charlie Collins 6-5 255 So. DT 5 Cam Ball 6-5 323 R-Sr. 54 Keyshawn Blackstock 6-5 320 R-Sr. DT 95 Ian Geffrard 6-5 387 R-So. 88 Danny Saili 6-3 319 Sr. DE 0 Justus Boone 6-4 278 R-Sr. or 1 Phillip Lee 6-4 240 R-Sr. LB 14 Stephen Dix Jr. 6-1 246 R-Sr. 7 Bradley Shaw 6-1 237 So. LB 10 Xavian Sorey Jr. 6-3 225 R-Sr. 26 Trent Whalen 6-3 238 R-Sr. CB 23 Julian Neal 6-2 208 R-Sr. 2 Selman Bridges 6-2 185 So. or 21 Keshawn Davila 6-1 165 Jr. S 16 Miguel Mitchell 6-1 222 R-Jr. or 22 Caleb Wooden 6-1 195 Sr. S 3 Larry Worth III 6-4 226 Sr. 8 Quentavius Scandrett 6-3 210 Sr. CB 13 Kani Walker 6-2 204 R-Sr. 15 Jaheim Singletary 6-2 201 R-Jr. NB 4 Jordan Young 6-0 198 R-Sr. 19 Shakur Smalls 6-0 209 R-Sr. SPECIAL TEAMS Pos. No. Name Ht. Wt. Yr. K 80 Scott Starzyk 5-10 172 Fr. 40 Blake Ford 6-1 223 R-Jr. P 37 Devin Bale 6-3 205 R-Sr. 36 Gavin Rush 6-3 207 Fr. KO 37 Devin Bale 6-3 205 R-Sr. or 40 Blake Ford 6-1 223 R-Jr. LS 30 Ashton Ngo 5-11 236 R-Sr. 49 Zach Haber 5-10 226 R-So. H 37 Devin Bale 6-3 205 R-Sr. 36 Gavin Rush 6-3 207 Fr. KR 1 Rodney Hill 5-10 193 R-Jr. 25 Markeylin Batton 5-10 178 Fr. PR 15 Kam Shanks 5-8 169 R-So. 6 Raylen Sharpe 5-9 169 R-Sr. ARKANSAS RAZORBACKS TWO-DEEP DEPTH CHART