Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1540307
18 OCT. 18, 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY ERIC HANSEN AND JACK SOBLE W as Notre Dame caught doing a little California Dreamin'? A week before archrival Southern Cal comes to town — maybe for the last time in the fore- seeable future — the Irish offense, sput- tered, gaffed and got some controversial decisions from the replay booth before the 16th-ranked Irish broke free from North Carolina State for a 36-7 victory at Notre Dame Stadium. The Irish host the Trojans Oct. 18 at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC/Peacock. Finally solving a defense that every team the Wolfpack had played up to this point had some success against, save FCS bottom feeder Campbell, the Irish (4-2) turned a fake punt early in the third quar- ter into the quintessential wake-up call. Redshirt senior Tyler Buchner — who went from former Notre Dame starting quarterback to walk-on wide receiver to backup quarterback in a span of three years — converted a fourth-and-2 from Notre Dame's own 38-yard line with a 3-yard sprint up the middle. Current Irish starting quarterback CJ Carr then eventually finished off the 90-yard, 11- play, clock-eating drive (5:56) with an 18-yard scoring strike to redshirt soph- omore wide receiver KK Smith. It was Smith's first career touchdown. And that gave Notre Dame a 17-7 lead and enough intermittent offensive mo- mentum to finish off the Wolfpack (4-3) in the fifth-ever meeting between the two schools and only the third that did not involve a weather delay. "I felt conviction from practice that we could do that right there," said Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman, now 13-2 against ACC competition and 9-0 at home against its part-time football partners. "And we'd practiced it for a while. Shout out to [special teams co- ordinator Marty] Biagi and the special teams, the staff, the players, the buy-in and the commitment." Who did not require a jump-start was Chris Ash's defense. Playing against an offense that was coming off a school-record 10.9 yards per play in its 56-10 pounding of Camp- bell and was averaging the fourth-most total yards in school history (447.7), Ash and the Irish seemed to have an answer for everything Ash's longtime friend, QUANTUM LEAP Notre Dame's defense rises to the occasion to put away North Carolina State, 36-7 Redshirt sophomore defensive end Boubacar Traore, who recorded 2 sacks, spearheaded an Irish defense that held the Wolfpack offense to season lows in yards per play (3.9), points (7), total yards (233) and rushing yards (51). PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER