Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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54 NOV. 15, 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED A s he talked through his op- tions to fix Notre Dame's kicking crisis, head coach Marcus Freeman made one thing clear: The Brandon Aubrey route is not one of them. Aubrey is a former Fighting Irish soccer player who, after a brief MLS career, switched to football and eventually joined the Dallas Cowboys. He is now on track to be the greatest kicker in NFL history, making 91.1 percent of his field goals — including 29 from 50 or more yards and an all- time record five from 60 or more yards — in just less than two and a half years. Since Notre Dame's kicking di- saster Nov. 1 at Boston College, Irish fans have understandably wondered if Freeman can ask the men's or (No. 1-ranked) women's soccer teams if they have anyone with a particularly strong leg. There is prec- edent for this at the college level. Most notably, Vanderbilt goalkeeper Sarah Fuller became the first woman to play in a Power Five game in 2020 after CO- VID-19 wiped out most of the Com- modores' specialists in November 2020. However, in a post-House Settlement world, that is no longer possible. "It's an NCAA rule that before the season, you set your rosters at 105," Freeman said. "There's guys that you can declare grandfathered in that were previously on your roster, but once your rosters are set, you can't add anybody to your roster. And so that's why we can't do anything about that right now." For the remainder of the season, Notre Dame is stuck with redshirt senior Noah Burnette, true fresh- man Erik Schmidt and junior walk-on Marcello Diomede. But after Burnette and Diomede missed extra points and Schmidt shanked a 35-yard attempt in Chestnut Hill, Mass., all options for turning one of them into a capable kicker are on the table. Since August, Burnette has been locked in as Notre Dame's No. 1 kicker as long as he's been healthy. Freeman said that is no longer the case, and the Irish decided their kicker for Saturday's game against Navy during the week. "What's the plan of attack?" Freeman said. "That's what we spent a lot of time on in the past 48 hours. I want to know the plan to attack the mental and the physical side of kicking the football." 'IT'S MORE STARTING TO TREND TOWARD THE MENTAL SIDE' In the past, Freeman has attributed Notre Dame's kicking woes to Bur- nette's hip injury and technique is- sues that stemmed from that. But after Boston College, the Irish entered new territory. "As I evaluate some of the issues in our kicking game, it's both physical and mental," Freeman said. "But I think it's more starting to trend towards the men- tal side." Why? Because in practice, Burnette, Schmidt and Diomede have been fine. Rarely perfect, Freeman explained, but he hasn't seen anything out of the or- dinary at the Irish Athletic Center. But when they've faced the pressure of per- forming on Saturdays, everything has fallen apart. "There has to be a process of trans- lating what we're doing in prac- tice to the game," Freeman said. "And that's why I say a lot of it is mental." There are ways Freeman and company can simulate game day pressure in practice. He floated, with 100 percent sincerity, the i d ea o f s ta n d i n g b e h i n d t h e kickers and screaming at them while they kick. But he admit- ted that doesn't come close to the pressure of kicking in games, especially after they had missed earlier. That's what's so scary about the situation Notre Dame finds itself in: It's much easier to fix a technical problem than to help a kicker get out of his own head. "It's easy to say, 'Don't feel the pressure. Don't worry about the pressure,'" Freeman said. "I tell them, 'Who cares?' It's easy to say, but that's really hard to do. And we have to continue to equip them with tools that help them in that moment." Freeman also said he and Irish spe- cial teams coordinator Marty Biagi have been working with Dr. Joey Ra- maeker, the team's sports psychologist. He already meets with every specialist weekly, but his role will expand with Notre Dame looking to develop the "tools" to deal with pressure that Free- man discussed. "We need to do more and equip them with the right tools and practice the right tools, so they can utilize them in crucial moments," Freeman said. "It's one thing to hear different ideas of what you can do, but if you don't practice them and work at them, you can't use them. You can't use them when they matter the most. You have to really work at them." After Freeman's Nov. 3 press confer- ence, it's clear that the fourth-year head coach is heavily invested in solving the problem. Time will tell if he can do it before it's too late. ✦ All Options Are On The Table In A Kicking Crisis Staff writer Jack Soble has covered Notre Dame athletics for Blue & Gold Illustrated since August 2023. Contact him at Jack.Soble@on3.com. OFF THE DOME JACK SOBLE Redshirt senior Noah Burnette — a graduate transfer from North Carolina — has been Notre Dame's No. 1 kicker as long as he's been healthy, but that may change in the coming weeks. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER