Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM OCT. 4, 2025 25 1 Notre Dame player in the last 30 years has scored 4 touchdowns in a single half: junior running back Jeremiyah Love. Love tallied a pair of rushing scores (1 and 3 yards) and a pair of receiving touchdowns (7 and 34 yards) while helping the Fighting Irish build a 42-13 half- time lead. He is now only the eighth player all time to find the end zone four times in a single game. 4-1 Record for Notre Dame versus SEC com- petition under head coach Marcus Free- man. The Irish knocked off South Carolina (45-38) in the Gator Bowl following the 2022 season, de- feated Texas A&M (23-13) and Georgia (23-10) last year, and lost to Texas A&M (41-40) before crush- ing Arkansas (56-13) during the opening month of this campaign. 5 Times Notre Dame has faced an SEC team in its home state in a first-ever meeting, four of which were true road games. The Irish are now 4-1 in those games: • 30-7 win at Texas in 1913 • 13-6 victory at No. 19 South Carolina in 1976 • 27-17 triumph at No. 18 Missouri in 1970 • 20-13 loss to Ole Miss at a neutral site in Jack- son, Miss., in 1977 • 56-13 rout at Arkansas in 2025 5.9 Yards per play for Arkansas' offense, down from the Razorbacks' season-long average of 8.12 entering Week 5. In the second half, that dropped to 5.4. Notre Dame's bounce- back defensive performance wasn't a fluke. 6 Combined touchdowns for Love and redshirt junior running back Jadarian Price for the second straight week. After neither reached the end zone in Week 1 at Miami, the two star run- ning backs scored 16 touchdowns in Weeks 3, 4 and 5 against Texas A&M, Purdue and Arkansas, respectively. 11.8 Yards per attempt for Carr. It's his sec- ond straight week with 10 or more yards per attempt, which is considered elite in the all-important stat. 22 Explosive plays for Notre Dame (defined as rushing plays of 10 or more yards and passing plays of 15 or more yards), totaling 490 yards of offense for the Irish (22.3 yards per explosive play). Five of those explosives went for touchdowns, 3 through the air and 2 on the ground. Meanwhile, Arkansas has only 11 explosive plays, 5 through the air and 6 on the ground. The Ra- zorbacks gained 253 yards on those explosives, headlined by a 54-yard run for Green. 26 Seconds in which Notre Dame scored 14 points at the end of the first half, begin- ning with Love's 3-yard touchdown run and ending with Price's 35-yard receiving score after the Irish forced and recovered an Arkansas fumble near midfield. 42 Points tallied by Notre Dame in the first half were the most in a half by a non-SEC team versus an SEC team on its home field in the last 20 seasons, per ESPN. The 42 first-half points allowed were the most Arkansas has given up in the opening 30 minutes of a game since allowing the same total to No. 1 Southern Cal in 2005. 56 Points are the most for the Irish against an SEC opponent since a 59-6 victory over Tu- lane on Nov. 22, 1947. Among current SEC teams, the Irish's previous highest point total came in a 55-27 win over Texas in 1995. They also put up 45 against Oklahoma in 1968, 45 versus South Carolina in 2022 and 41 against Vanderbilt in 1995. Per Notre Dame media relations, it also marked the first time ever the Irish have scored at least 56 points in back-to-back games — 56-30 over Purdue Sept. 20 and 56-13 at Arkansas Sept. 27. 70 Receiving yards for Love, which is his new career high. Love is on pace for 596 yards in a 12-game season, which would blow past his career high of 237 yards in 2024. 79 Rushing yards for Arkansas players not named Green. Notre Dame's run defense played well for the second straight week. 294 Passing yards and 4 touchdown passes — both career highs — for Irish red- shirt freshman quarterback CJ Carr in the first half alone against Arkansas. The 294 passing yards by Carr were the third- most in program history for the first half, and the most since Jimmy Clausen threw for 300 in the opening half against Hawaii on Dec. 24, 2008. His 4 first half passing touchdowns are tied for the sec- ond-most in Notre Dame history, just behind Ian Book's five against Bowling Green on Oct. 5, 2019. 344 Pounds is the weight of Arkansas' only player to score a touchdown against Notre Dame, redshirt freshman offensive lineman JacQawn McRoy. Standing 6-foot-8, McRoy took the ball on a fullback dive from the 1-yard line and the Irish were not stopping him. BY THE NUMBERS BY JACK SOBLE 7 Different receivers who caught at least 1 pass from Notre Dame redshirt freshman quarterback CJ Carr, and all of them totaled at least 30 receiving yards. Junior wide receiver JORDAN FAISON led the way with 7 receptions for 89 yards. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER