Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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12 NOV. 8, 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED UNDER THE DOME Brennan Ali — Hockey The junior forward from Glencoe, Ill., scored a goal and assisted on another in Notre Dame's 2-2 tie with Robert Morris Oct. 25 at Compton Family Ice Arena. Ali tied the game 1-1 in the first period with his sec- ond goal of the season, then assisted on a goal in the third period that gave the Irish a brief 2-1 lead before the Colonials forced the 2-2 draw. Maya Baker — Volleyball The freshman setter from San Jose, Calif., tallied a career-high 31 assists and added 2 kills in a 3-0 road sweep over Duke at Cam- eron Indoor Stadium Oct. 26. Baker was averaging 20.5 points per match through 19 outings. She also led the Irish with 366 as- sists, and was fourth on the team in both digs (96) and service aces (14). Mary Bonner Dalton — Cross Country T h e s o p h o m o re f ro m Charlotte, N.C., finished fourth individually to help the No. 7 Irish to an im- pressive runner-up finish at the highly competitive Wisconsin Nuttycombe In- vite Oct. 17 in Madison. She covered the 6,000-meter course in a personal- record time of 19:40.3. Bonner Dalton, who previously won the in- dividual championship at the Joe Piane Invite Oct. 3, entered the postseason as one of the hottest runners in the country. Wyatt Lewis — Soccer The junior midfielder from St. Charles, Mo., couldn't have picked a better time to score his first goal of the season when he tallied the game winner in a 1-0 road win over Boston College Oct. 24 at Newton Field. He broke a 0-0 tie in the 75th minute for a criti- cal win that boosted hopes for an Irish NCAA Tournament bid. Through 16 games this season, Lewis had 1 goal, 2 assists and 4 points. — Todd Burlage TOP TOP OF THE CLASS OF THE CLASS Irish student-athletes excelling on the field and in the classroom ✦ GIMME FIVE Say Boubacar Traore only played in 12 games this season but he stayed on the exact same pace in terms of total sacks that he was on through seven games. His sack total at the end of those 12 games would come out to 11. Since sacks became an official NCAA statistic in 2000, there have only been four seasons in which a Notre Dame player recorded at least 11 sacks in a single season. Justin Tuck's phenomenal 2003 season still stands as the year to beat for Notre Dame pass rushers. He got to 13.5 sacks in 12 games. Ste- phon Tuitt had 12 sacks in 2012, and Isaiah Fos- key, the program's all-time leader in career sacks with 26.5, had 11 sacks in both the 2021 and 2022 seasons. Traore has a chance to etch his name alongside the best of the best Notre Dame edge rushers of this century if he continues the way he had been going in the first half of the season. In Notre Dame's first seven games of the year, there was only one game in which Traore didn't account for at least half a sack. Even without getting on the sheet in that regard in game two versus Texas A&M, Traore was steady in the first handful of games before breaking out with the second multi-sack game of his career versus North Carolina State in game six. Note: as far as unofficial records go, Ross Browner had 14.5 sacks for Notre Dame in 1976. He had 12 in 1977, and Frank Stams had 11 in 1988. The NCAA does not of- ficially recognize those statistics, though, because the organization did not identify sacks until 2000. — Tyler Horka CHARTING THE IRISH MARCUS FREEMAN OUTCLASSES BRIAN KELLY Fair or unfair, like it or not, Marcus Freeman and Brian Kelly were always going to be magnets for comparison for however long they remained the head coaches at Notre Dame and LSU, respectively. As it turned out, Kelly's stay in Baton Rouge was much shorter than it looks like Freeman's time in South Bend will end up lasting. Kelly was fired on Oct. 26, less than 24 hours after his Tigers lost at home to Texas A&M, 49-25. While it was only LSU's third loss of the season, which is just one more defeat than Freeman and the Fight- ing Irish had suffered in the 2025 season at that time, the underlying issues were clearly grounds for dismissal. Kelly just never fully grasped what makes coaches successful at LSU in the way Freeman has welcomed what makes coaches successful at Notre Dame. You can point to a strange culture fit or the amount of golf rounds he logged at the local country club in nearly four calendar years or the peculiar public moments that were aplenty, from feigning a south- ern accent with a microphone in his hand on the court at an LSU basketball game to the infamously viral video with a recruit on a 360-degree slow motion camera platform, but the proof also resides in the numbers. From the beginning of the 2022 sea- son through Week 9 of this year, Free- man had an overall record of 38-11 with a 15-7 mark against ranked teams. Three of those ranked victories came in the College Football Playoff, which Kelly never led LSU to in his short tenure. Kel- ly's overall record at LSU was 34-14, and he was a lackluster 5-11 against ranked opposition. — Tyler Horka MARCUS FREEMAN VS. BRIAN KELLY SINCE START OF 2022 SEASON Marcus Freeman Brian Kelly Overall Record 38-11 34-14 Record vs. Ranked Teams 15-7 5-11 College Football Playoff Appearances 1 0 CFP Record 3-1 0-0 Overall Postseason Record 5-1 3-0 MOST SACKS IN A SINGLE SEASON IN NOTRE DAME HISTORY (Since 2000) Rk. Player Sacks (Season) 1. Justin Tuck 13.5 (2003) 2. Stephon Tuitt 12.0 (2012) 3. Isaiah Foskey 11.0 (2021) Isaiah Foskey 11.0 (2022) 5. Victor Abiamiri 10.5 (2006) Redshirt sophomore defensive end Boubacar Traore is well on his way to becoming the pro- gram's first double-digit sack guy in a single season since Isaiah Foskey in 2022. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER