Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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4 OCT. 18, 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED I t doesn't seem possible that the Fighting Irish regular season has al- ready reached its halfway point, and what a wild ride it has been. From an 0-2 start to the season, to some woeful play from the Irish de- fense, to the terrific work from a first- year starting quarterback, the 2025 season has already provided plenty of surprise, good and bad. With six games played and six games to go, let's hand out some midterm grades to the Notre Dame position groups and its coaches as the Irish prepare for their key matchup with Southern Cal. RUSHING OFFENSE: B+ Even with the talented Irish tail- back duo of juniors Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price performing well, Notre Dame surprisingly never did statisti- cally rank among the nation's best rush- ing attacks the first half of this season. Love and Price are consistently men- tioned as the nation's best rushing tan- dem, and rightfully so. With six games remaining, these two still have a chance at becoming the first Irish tailback duo to both rush for 1,000 yards in the same season. Fifteen rushing touchdowns apiece isn't out of the question, either. Even so, a balanced offensive attack has kept the Irish ground game ranked only around 40th nationally all season. But with a schedule that lightens up these final six games, expect Notre Dame's grade to find its way well into the A-range by season's end. PASSING OFFENSE: A First-year starting quarterback CJ Carr entered this season as the biggest ques- tion mark on the team. So, handing out a midseason A grade to the redshirt fresh- man is a pleasant and welcome surprise. Carr has spent most of this season ranked among the top 10 nationally in passer efficiency — he was ninth heading into the NC State game — and as the best first-year starting QB in the country. Poised and confident in his reads, he has connected with six different Irish receivers for a touchdown pass in his first five games, and five pass catch- ers were averaging more than 25 yards per game, marking a wonderful start for Notre Dame's wonder kid. RUSHING DEFENSE: B Considering how maligned the entire Irish defense was during the first half of this season, Notre Dame was still doing a solid job of stopping opponents' run- ning games. None of the first five Irish opponents rushed for more than 158 yards, and three couldn't even reach 130 yards. Yes, Notre Dame remains one of the worst teams in the country in tackles for loss, ranking only 131st out of 134 FBS teams entering the NC State game. But Irish opponents were also averag- ing only 3.6 yards per carry, a solid mark that ranked 35th in the country. PASSING DEFENSE: D+ Even with recent signs of improve- ment, the Irish pass defense remains the area of greatest concern and consterna- tion on the team after dropping to 130th nationally in passing yards allowed per game (289.3), and 103rd in passing ef- ficiency defense after three outings. Add to those numbers a pass defense that had only 4 sacks, 3 interceptions and countless missed assignments, and had allowed too many chunk plays to count, and first-year Irish defensive coordinator Chris Ash rightfully came under intense scrutiny, considering this unit led the nation the last two seasons in passing efficiency defense. To the credit of Ash and his players, the pass defense improved in every area following the Purdue game, and it looks poised to dramatically lift this grade. SPECIAL TEAMS: B+ A mixed bag here, Irish sophomore Loghan Thomas blocked a punt against Texas A&M in Game 2 that freshman Tae Johnson returned 20 yards for a touchdown. Then, a week later against Purdue, Price returned a kickoff 100 yards for a score against the Boilers. On the other side, Notre Dame has ranked in the bottom half of the country in kickoff and punt coverage all season, and a bungled extra point snap was criti- cal to Texas A&M's one-point win over the Irish. More recently, nagging injuries to placekicker Noah Burnette essentially put the Irish field goal unit in limbo. The blocked kicks and big plays keep coming under special teams coordina- tor Marty Biagi. But through six games, the more mundane responsibilities have been a struggle at times. COACHING: B Also a mixed bag, the Irish under sec- ond-year offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock averaged 40.8 points through five games and ranked seventh nation- ally in team passing efficiency. On defense, Notre Dame under Ash continually gave up too many pass- ing yards and struggled to get off the field on third- and fourth-down plays. Though, improvement was showing in recent games. For Freeman, he did a masterful job of keeping his troops together after an 0-2 start that could've crashed this season in mid-September. However, pre-snap and other "undis- ciplined" penalties remain an ongoing problem, and something that Freeman and Co. need to clean up. ✦ A bright star for the Irish, redshirt freshman CJ Carr ranked ninth nationally in passing efficiency through five games. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER Todd D. Burlage has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2005. He can be reached at tburlage@blueandgold.com. UPON FURTHER REVIEW TODD D. BURLAGE Mixed Results Provide Mixed Midterm Grades For Irish