Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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54 OCT. 11, 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED C ole Mullins fired off the ball and drove the Purdue offensive line- man five yards into the backfield, blowing up a first-and-10 run play be- fore it started. Notre Dame was winning 56-23 at the time. The game was over. But Mullins, a redshirt freshman defensive tackle making his college football debut, showed something. And if Blue & Gold Illustrated noticed, you can bet the Irish coaching staff did, too. "When Cole got in the game versus Purdue, he produced," head coach Mar- cus Freeman said. "He did a good job. He is a high-motor guy and plays ex- tremely hard." Sure enough, in the second quarter of Notre Dame's 56-13 win over Arkansas — at a point when the game was very much still up for grabs — there was Mul- lins, getting his opportunity on third- and-long with redshirt junior Donovan Hinish out with a shoulder injury. Mullins executed a stunt with redshirt senior defensive end Jordan Botelho and flushed Razorbacks quarterback Taylen Green out of the pocket, busting his tail in order to chase him down. With help from spying junior linebacker Drayk Bowen, he forced Green to throw it away. Mullins is a bit of a tweener, standing 6-foot-5, 275 pounds. He's flip-flopped between tackle and end in his short time at Notre Dame, much of which he spent rehabbing a knee injury. He wasn't a ballyhooed recruit, coming in at No. 659 overall in the Rivals Industry Ranking. Countless players with his profile wind up becoming "just a guy." Unless, of course, they bust their tail when they get their shot. "Him and Elijah [Hughes] — those two guys play extremely hard, and they're getting better with some tech- nique," Freeman said. "But guys who play the game really, really hard usually are rewarded." Hughes, a junior who transferred from Southern Cal, is another defen- sive tackle who's seen his playing time increase in recent weeks. He was fifth in line for reps at the position, behind three redshirt seniors (Jason Onye, Ga- briel Rubio and Jared Dawson) and a redshirt junior (Hinish) in Week 1. Against Arkansas, though, he played more than all but Rubio. Why? Because against Purdue, given an extended op- portunity with Dawson nursing an in- jury, he showed out. "Very similar to Cole Mullins." Freeman said. "What sticks out to me more than anything about Elijah and Cole is that those guys play hard. They make up for maybe some of their size physically with the aggression and how hard they play." Freeman didn't outright say it, but Notre Dame's defense needed some of that. Coaches will rarely (and Freeman will never) publicly criticize their own play- ers, but they will speak with their snap distribution. And in elevating Hughes and Mullins to larger roles, the Irish not only rewarded two players who play with high effort and intensity, but they also sent a message to the rest of the roster: Play hard, or we'll find someone else who will. "We demand that you give relentless attitude," Freeman said. "That means you play from the start of the snap to the end of the whistle. "The reality is, not everybody executes that every single play. You can watch any team play, and not everybody goes zero to 100 every single play. But when you see a few guys that do, it's a unique trait." That's what has given Mullins and Hughes an advantage since Notre Dame began taking a hard look at its defen- sive personnel. And they're not the only changes, though they are the only ones Freeman has directly attributed to effort. At linebacker, true freshman Mad- den Faraimo has taken many of red- shirt junior Jaylen Sneed's reps. Red- shirt freshman Tae Johnson replaced redshirt senior Jalen Stroman at safety, and junior Luke Talich knocked Stro- man out of the regular rotation. And at nickel, true freshman Dallas Golden took sophomore Karson Hobbs' job as the primary backup to redshirt senior DeVonta Smith. With Hughes and Mullins specifi- cally, though, Freeman admitted that their talent level — while high, or else they wouldn't be playing — might not be as high as some of their peers in the defensive tackle room. They make up for it, though, with effort. "Guys like that just find a way," Free- man said. "They keep finding a way to get on the field. They keep finding a way to show up in practice, and they'll get a re- ward in the game as you've seen recently." Notre Dame could use more defensive players who find a way. ✦ Effort And 'Relentless Attitude' Gets Rewarded Staff writer Jack Soble has covered Notre Dame athletics for Blue & Gold Illustrated since August 2023. Contact him at Jack.Soble@on3.com. OFF THE DOME JACK SOBLE Head coach Marcus Freeman praised the effort of Cole Mullins, a redshirt freshman defensive lineman: "He is a high-motor guy and plays extremely hard." PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER