Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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38 OCT. 4, 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED GAME PREVIEW: BOISE STATE that night, and while one game doesn't define their season, some of what they put on tape is impossible to ignore. USF senior quarterback Byrum Brown — who's a big guy at 6-foot-3, 231 pounds but didn't look particularly fast — just kept running through defenders. The fi- nal stats won't show it (USF rushed for 4.2 yards per attempt and 3 touchdowns), but it was bad. The biggest missed tackle culprits through Week 4 were redshirt senior safety Zion Washington (6), ju- nior safety Ty Benefield (3) and redshirt sophomore linebacker Boen Phelps (3). Benefield is also a big part of Boise State's run defense when it works well, though. He leads the Broncos with 26 tackles and 5 tackles for loss. Redshirt se- nior Marco Notarainni (13 defensive stops, which are tackles that result in a failure for the offense) is a big piece as well. The defensive line has some solid pieces, too, such as first-team All-Moun- tain West defensive end Jayden Virgin- Morgan and second-team All-Mountain West defensive tackle Braxton Fely. The Broncos are likely to have their hands full with Notre Dame, who ran the ball extremely well in Week 3 against Texas A&M and Week 4 against Purdue. In those two games, redshirt junior run- ning back Jadarian Price and junior run- ning back Jeremiyah Love combined for 393 yards on 63 attempts (6.2 yards per attempt) with 8 touchdowns. They have forced 19 missed tackles so far this season. Combined with an offensive line that has gotten better every game, Love and Price should have no problem continuing their hot streak against Boise State. Advantage: Notre Dame NOTRE DAME PASSING GAME VS. BOISE STATE PASS DEFENSE Through three games, Boise State's highest-graded defensive back on Pro Football Focus is actually former Notre Dame cornerback Jaden Mickey. He got the start in Week 2 against Eastern Washington at safety and produced a 91.3 PFF coverage grade, alongside a 90.6 mark overall. That was Mickey's only game of sig- nificant playing time, though. Boise State has a veteran secondary led by Benefield, senior cornerback Jeremiah Earby and fifth-year senior cornerback A'Marion McCoy. All three are return- ing starters, but — here's that USF game again — they allowed 8.8 yards per at- tempt to Brown that night. As for the pass rush, Virgin-Morgan and Notarainni lead the way with 9 quar- terback pressures each. Some of Virgin- Morgan's sack luck (he had 10 last year on 43 pressures) is coming back to bite him; he had just 0.5 through three games OFFENSE Pos. No. Name Ht. Wt. Yr. WR 0 Malachi Fields 6-4 222 R-Sr. 14 Micah Gilbert 6-2 204 R-Fr. WR 1 Jaden Greathouse 6-1 215 Jr. or 2 Will Pauling 5-10 190 R-Sr. LT 54 Anthonie Knapp 6-4 300 So. 71 Styles Prescod 6-6 292 R-Fr. LG 74 Billy Schrauth 6-4 310 R-Jr. 55 Chris Terek 6-6 322 R-So. C 70 Ashton Craig 6-5 310 R-Jr. 64 Joe Otting 6-4 308 R-So. RG 76 Guerby Lambert 6-7 335 R-Fr. or 75 Sullivan Absher 6-8 327 R-So. RT 59 Aamil Wagner 6-6 300 R-Jr. 76 Guerby Lambert 6-7 335 R-Fr. TE 9 Eli Raridon 6-7 252 Sr. 7 Ty Washington 6-4 248 R-Jr. or 85 Jack Larsen 6-3 250 R-Fr. WR 6 Jordan Faison 5-10 185 Jr. 11 KK Smith 6-0 176 R-So. QB 13 CJ Carr 6-3 210 R-Fr. 8 Kenny Minchey 6-2 208 R-So. RB 4 Jeremiyah Love 6-0 214 Jr. 24 Jadarian Price 5-11 210 R-Jr. DEFENSE Pos. No. Name Ht. Wt. Yr. DE 5 Boubacar Traore 6-4 250 R-So. 44 Junior Tuihalamaka 6-2 255 Sr. or 12 Jordan Botelho 6-3 260 R-Sr. DT 47 Jason Onye 6-5 302 R-Sr. 97 Gabriel Rubio 6-5 321 R-Sr. DT 41 Donovan Hinish 6-2 277 Sr. 93 Jared Dawson 6-1 288 Gr. DE 95 Bryce Young 6-7 271 So. 40 Joshua Burnham 6-4 260 R-Jr. WILL 3 Jaylen Sneed 6-2 230 R-Jr. 4 Jaiden Ausberry 6-2 228 R-So. MIKE 34 Drayk Bowen 6-2 235 Jr. 27 Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa 6-3 230 So. CB 15 Leonard Moore 6-2 195 So. 18 Chance Tucker 6-0 183 R-Sr. or 21 Karson Hobbs 6-1 189 So. BS 8 Adon Shuler 6-0 205 R-So. 28 Luke Talich 6-4 210 Jr. FS 9 Tae Johnson 6-2 192 R-Fr. 7 Jalen Stroman 6-1 201 R-Sr. CB 6 Christian Gray 6-0 190 Jr. 24 Mark Zackery IV 5-11 175 Fr. NIC 0 DeVonta Smith 5-11 195 R-Sr. 14 Dallas Golden 6-0 187 Fr. SPECIAL TEAMS Pos. No. Name Ht. Wt. Yr. KO 48 Marcello Diomede 6-1 195 Jr. PK 98 Noah Burnette 5-10 185 Gr. P 16 James Rendell 6-6 225 Gr. 18 Erik Schmidt 6-2 210 Fr. LS 96 Joseph Vinci 6-4 232 So. 49 Andrew Kros 6-4 225 Jr. H 10 Tyler Buchner 6-1 206 Sr. 16 Anthony Rezac 6-3 201 So. PR 6 Jordan Faison 5-10 185 Jr. or 2 Will Pauling 5-10 190 R-Sr. KR 4 Jeremiyah Love 6-0 214 Jr. or 24 Jadarian Price 5-11 210 R-Jr. NOTRE DAME FIGHTING IRISH TWO-DEEP DEPTH CHART Matt Lauter, a redshirt senior, reeled in 47 recep- tions for 619 yards in 2024. The 47 catches were a single-season school record for tight ends, while the yardage was the second-best total. PHOTO COURTESY BOISE STATE ATHLETICS