Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM NOV. 15, 2025 29 J aiden Ausberry was style points personified against Navy. Playing a position con- cocted especially for him, with a shelf life of just one week, against offense he'd never seen before enrolling at Notre Dame and struggled with his first taste of it last season, the redshirt sopho- more linebacker played like his hair was on fire. And Navy felt every bit of it, as well as the precision Aus- berry was able to couple with that aggression, in a 49-10 College Football Playoff ré- sumé-enhancer for the 10th- ranked Irish. "Sometimes we get a lit- tle annoyed because it's the triple-option," Ausberry of- fered. "We have to stop playing regular football for a week. But we said, forget it, we're going to go out here, do what we've got to do, handle business." From Ausberry's standpoint, han- dling business meant playing a hybrid safety/linebacker/pass rusher role, where he moved around the defensive formation, causing havoc to the tune of 8 tackles with 2 stops for a loss, 1 sack and 1 forced fumble. His 84.8 film grade from Pro Foot- ball Focus against the Mids stands as his new career high. But what was most impressive about Ausberry, about an Irish defense that held the nation's No. 1 rushing team more than 100 yards below its season average, was its mindset. Too often in the pre-Marcus Free- man era, Notre Dame head coaches have treated Navy's schematic curveball like it's the monster under the bed that you've got to try to tiptoe past and hope and work to somehow survive. Freeman's approach has been to respect how different it is and how good Navy is at adapting and evolving it, but make the nightmare in that equation the Irish defense instead, and the unique pressures and looks that Notre Dame can bring. "I've seen defenses play 'fit ball,' and that's not my philosophy," Freeman said. "I want to play football. I want to make sure our guys are being aggressive. But we have to be sound, right? "I think that was just kind of a phi- losophy that I've come to from my years at Cincinnati to my years here, that just playing one defense versus the triple- option, I wasn't a huge fan. That's me. That's my opinion. "I want to still be aggressive and play football. I don't want our guys parallel and just playing at the just playing fit ball. Give them some different looks, be able to change up timing of the dive, QB and pitch phase. Again, I think keeping them off balance offensively is some- thing I believe in." To top it all off, the Irish out-Navy- ed Navy. They played penalty-free and turnover-free, won the time of posses- sion battle (30:37-29:23) and outrushed the Mids 249 to 206. And two long-term bugaboos, short- yardage plays and kicking, both blended in with the theme of a team that took a significant step forward in a context that wasn't easy to decipher. Notre Dame was a combined 9 of 12 on third and fourth downs. And fresh- man kicker Erik Schmidt, el- evated to No. 1 status, never had a chance to try a field goal because of all the Irish touch- downs, but he did nail all seven of his point-after tries. T h e c o m p e t i t i o n ta ke s a step up next week, when Notre Dame visits No. 24 Pittsburgh, which is coming off a bye week and suddenly in the thick of the ACC title race. The Fighting Irish defense will be tasked to completely flip-flopping philosophies and adapting to a pass-heavy offense. Might that be a struggle in practice this coming week? Freeman sure hopes so. " W h y d o yo u h a ve to s t r u g g l e ? " Fre e m a n s a i d . "Because you can't grow if you don't struggle. We can't get better if we go into a Tuesday practice and it's not uncomfortable. You're not getting better. "I tell them all the time. We can structure this thing however you want it. If you're not uncomfortable, we're not getting better. That's why you have to struggle. That's why you have to struggle. Whatever your routine is, your process is, it has to include struggle if you want to grow from." And the Irish players are bought into that formula. "I would say not even the coaches, but I feel like the players now, we all hold each other accountable," Ausberry said. "Somebody's always going to call you out. Nobody takes it personally, be- cause we all know that we're always try- ing to make each other better. "Everybody's trying to come to- gether to achieve one goal, and that's what a team has to do. So, I feel like everybody's been doing a great job, holding each other accountable, and taking it the right way, and using it to get better." ✦ Redshirt sophomore linebacker Jaiden Ausberry played like his hair was on fire against the Midshipmen, wreaking havoc on their triple-option attack. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER Irish's Style Points Start With Aggressive Mindset Eric Hansen covers Notre Dame athletics for On3, with a focus on Irish football. He can be reached on X @ EHansenND THE DEEP READ ERIC HANSEN