Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM NOV. 8, 2025 29 N otre Dame needs to get serious about who it wants to be. And we all know who, and what, that is. It's been nearly two months since the Fighting Irish lost a football game. Every team that has national champion‑ ship aspirations — and, hint, hint, that's who and what Notre Dame wants to be — goes on a spurt with that kind of longevity and vitality. But not all of the components of those streaks are made equal. The Fighting Irish's 25‑10 victory at Boston College, for instance, was of the not very impressive variety. Actually, quite frankly, it was of the concerning variety. Notre Dame looked far from a national title contender ver‑ sus the hapless Eagles, who fell to 1‑8. To be frank once more, the Irish looked more like the Eagles than a national title contender. That's not a comparison head coach Mar‑ cus Freeman's team should want any part of. Sometimes teams that can win it all — or even do win it all — have a week or two in that championship season in which they look completely out of it. Take Ohio State's game against Michi‑ gan last year. That was beyond ugly, and the Buckeyes still rebounded to go on a College Football Playoff run to remember. The thing about Notre Dame against Boston College, though, is that it needs to be hammered home again and again just how bad the Eagles are. Like, pos‑ sibly the worst power conference team in the country bad. Maybe even the worst team in the country, period, bad. And Notre Dame stooped to their level. Lower than their level, at times. Kick catch interference on the first punt of the game. That's not necessar‑ ily an inspiring start on the discipline front. Redshirt junior linebacker Jaylen Sneed is way too experienced to take a late hit penalty on a third‑and‑10 throwaway. Sophomore linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu‑Asa said it himself; he can't be over‑celebrating a 6‑yard tackle for loss that turns a would‑be third‑and‑8 into an automatic first down. Jumping offsides on third‑and‑3? Redshirt senior defensive tackle Jared Dawson has played way too much foot‑ ball to do that. Fumbling inside the op‑ ponent's 5‑yard line. For real? Again, Jadarian Price? You're way too good of a tailback to be doing that multiple times in the same season, especially in a game in which Notre Dame put itself behind the eight ball in so many ways in addi‑ tion to a blunder of that magnitude. That's all before getting to three different kickers missing kicks, two of those being extra points, and the other being a 35‑yard field goal by Erik Schmidt that went so far right it didn't even hit the netting that's supposed to collect every attempt. Ain't no shot of collecting that one. Playing down to an op‑ ponent's level isn't anything new. It happens all the time. But Notre Dame has not af‑ forded itself any margin of er‑ ror whatsoever. We've known that since early September. We've also known the best path to the playoff is con‑ vincingly beating everyone that stands in the way. For the first five games of the win‑ ning streak, that's more or less what the Irish did. The Irish could easily shrug their worst showing of the season off and boat race Navy in the next game. That would get them back on track and in good graces again. But it still wouldn't eradicate whatever the heck happened at Alumni Stadium in Week 10. N o t r e D a m e p r o b a b l y doesn't need to stoop to the full extent of treating this game like it did the Northern Illinois loss last year — an inexcusable black stain that set the course for a sea‑ son in which the Irish weren't ever going to let themselves look like that again the rest of the way. And, by the way, they adhered to that. But Freeman does need to make it clear that the performance versus Boston College was in no way a sign of a team that was better from one game to the next. It was a step back. No other way around it. Now the only thing Notre Dame can do is take a giant step forward. Get back to what made it so good against South‑ ern Cal in a double‑digit game against a ranked rival and enhance that. Make up for the lost ground and then some. That's what Ohio State did last year. That's what all championship‑caliber teams are capable of. We'll soon find out if Notre Dame is a championship‑caliber team or not. ✦ Notre Dame extended its current winning streak to six games against Boston College, but it wasn't a victory Marcus Freeman should be particularly proud of. PHOTO BY NICK GRACE Notre Dame Takes Step Back With Unimpressive Win Tyler Horka has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2021. He can be reached at thorka@blueandgold.com GOLDEN GAMUT TYLER HORKA