Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM OCT. 18, 2025 25 RARIDON AND PAULING PROVIDE PASSING GAME PUNCHES FOR IRISH Senior tight end Eli Raridon said he's never been around a quarterback who sees the field as well as redshirt fresh- man CJ Carr. He may very well be ac- curate in that assessment. Carr is a savant in terms of diagnos- ing defensive looks before the snap and going through his progressions after it. What exactly is he seeing, though? That's out of his control. And well within the control of his comrades. Raridon very much included. Raridon had 7 catches for 109 yards, both career highs, from Carr in Notre Dame's 36-7 win over North Carolina State. Wisconsin transfer Will Pauling reeled in 4 of Carr's pass attempts for 105 yards and a touchdown. Those two headlined a Notre Dame pass-catching corps that's as deep as it's been in quite some time. It's not just depth, either. It's talent, too. For some- one who sees the field as well as Raridon says Carr does, Carr sure must like what he sees. Especially in Raridon and Pauling. "He's a guy we can go to consistently and we trust to make plays when the ball comes his way, and he did that all day today," Carr said. He added of Pauling, "He's just a source of energy for the offense. When he's hot, the offense is hot. It's hard to stop him, really." It's hard to stop a lot of players from the Notre Dame offense. One game, running backs Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price are at the epicenter of ev- erything. Not to say they were slouches against NC State; they combined for 152 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns. But this was a day more about Carr and his 342 passing yards, and Raridon and Pauling combined for 214 of them. The final 36 yards on Raridon's ledger came on what might have been Carr's best throw of the game. He perfectly placed the ball over Raridon's shoulder and out of the reach of a Wolfpack defensive player in coverage. Love scored his second touchdown of the game on the next play from just 1 yard away from the goal line. Carr and Raridon did the heavy lifting to get Notre Dame on the doorstep. "CJ placed a dot," Raridon said. "Couldn't have been thrown any better. I thought he played awesome today." He played awesome from the start. On Notre Dame's first touchdown drive of the day, one that also culminated in a Love score, Carr completed both of his pass attempts for 51 yards — all to Pauling. Playing in place of the injured Jaden Greathouse for the second con- secutive game, Pauling was Carr's go-to guy right out of the chute. He got things going. Raridon ended things. It was a long day in South Bend for NC State head coach Dave Doeren and the Pack. "I knew Notre Dame would make some plays," Doeren said. "I was disap- pointed they got behind us in coverage a couple times. I thought our matchups should be OK. Their tight end was bet- ter than I expected. I thought he played exceptional for them. A big, tall kid that got behind us, which I didn't expect him to be able to do." — Tyler Horka EVEN IN BLOWOUT WIN, SHORT- YARDAGE ISSUES REMAIN With no recourse on fourth-and-3 inside the North Carolina State 10-yard line, CJ Carr fired up a prayer with pre- dictable results. Carr, Notre Dame's star redshirt freshman quarterback, had two de- fenders on his heels as he desperately sprinted to his right. His intended (and indeed, only) target, redshirt se- nior wide receiver Malachi Fields, was locked up by NC State's bracket cover- age. Which, to be fair to the players, the Wolfpack didn't hide before the snap. NORTH CAROLINA STATE GAME NOTES BY TYLER HORKA AND JACK SOBLE Redshirt senior wide receiver Will Pauling had 100 or more receiving yards for the second time in his five-year career, with 4 receptions for 105 yards and 1 touchdown versus North Carolina State. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER