Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1540994
BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM NOV. 8, 2025 11 UNDER THE DOME Irish On Social Media "If you have a premium job opening like Florida or Penn State, you're not doing your job as an athletic director if you don't at least inquire as to whether Freeman might be interested. He's going to say no, but you need to ask." — On3's Andy Staples on Notre Dame head coach Marcus Free- man being a candidate for other major jobs "[Brian] Kelly's dismissal in Baton Rouge ends a death race between Notre Dame and its former coach of 12 years. Both parties were desperate to be right about the events of December 2021, when Kelly bolted Notre Dame for the SEC while the Irish were still in the running to make the four-team College Football Playoff. The Irish finished one slot short of the field, promoted Marcus Freeman and hoped for the best. But the transition marked an existential crisis for Notre Dame, even if nobody wanted to admit it. "If Brian Kelly had won a title at LSU, it would have meant Notre Dame had been the problem all along. Maybe the small Catholic school in northern Indiana really was stuck in the past, unable to live in the era of name, image and likeness money and the transfer portal. Yes, Notre Dame's best days are behind it, considering those days included the likes of Knute Rockne and Frank Leahy. Kelly's move didn't argue that point. But it said the damning part out loud: Notre Dame might not have much of a future, either. "Nobody needs to shudder at the thought any lon- ger. That's what makes his firing such a karmic exhale for Notre Dame." — Pete Sampson of The Athletic "To me, [Notre Dame's win over USC] was the most solid indication yet that a couple things can kind of be valid: They deserve criticism for losing the early games — they deserve credit for sched- uling those games and then criticism for losing them, I guess that's the better way to put it — but if you can't see improvement defensively as of late from Notre Dame, if you can't see that as a team, the performance level is scaling a bit, I don't think you're watching Notre Dame. "And by the way, it's not like CJ Carr went off in this game. He had 136 passing yards. It was raining; it was a rainstorm. One touchdown, 1 pick. But if Notre Dame can put up those kind of rushing num- bers, Notre Dame's gonna be OK. Notre Dame's gonna be in any game they play." — College foot- ball talk show host Josh Pate "All that matters is that this is one of the five best teams in the country right now, and I'm growing to trust the Irish considerably. Combine a high- end offense with a defense that seems to have completely solved itself over the last month, and you've got a hell of a team. … "Thanks primarily to the early defensive strug- gles, the Irish were 21st in SP+ after three games. They're now sixth after seven games. Only one remaining game is projected within 17 points, per SP+, and if they make the CFP they could do some serious damage. We'll have to see what fate has in store in that regard." — Bill Connelly of ESPN on including Notre Dame among college football's most trustworthy entities "The team that is most intriguing to me is Notre Dame. I mentioned after the Fighting Irish's two close losses to Miami and Texas A&M that I thought they would still run the table and make the College Football Playoff. Barring a major upset, the Irish are in the 12-team field and worth a look at +1100 to win the national championship." — CBS Sports/ Sportsline college betting analyst Thomas Casale on ranking the Irish at No. 9 and placing them in Tier 3 ("the most dangerous group moving forward") of College Football Playoff contenders THEY SAID IT THEY SAID IT "So if you want to live with ruining this wonderful tradition, probably my favor- ite rivalry game of all time, go for it. Now, this could end up getting moved to earlier in the season, September, first game of the year. I don't want to see it, but if it has to be Septem- ber, fine. But if you're playing in Ar- lington or Las Vegas or Mexico City, scre w you. That's garbage. This is a great rivalry that should be played in great iconic stadiums—the L.A. Coliseum, Notre Dame Stadium. I don't want to see you playing in Las Vegas. That would be terrible. So USC, figure it out." — Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated on the Notre Dame-Southern Cal rivalry