Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1541184
BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM NOV. 15, 2025 7 UNDER THE DOME BY TYLER HORKA A s of the first week of November, Notre Dame had a top-15 scoring offense in college football. A top-20 to- tal offense. The best running back in the country. Maybe the second best running back in the country. A redshirt freshman quarterback who has exceeded expecta- tions in his first year as a starter. And yet, it's what head coach Marcus Freeman says about that quarterback, CJ Carr, that can go for the entire side of the ball. "There's more." More out there for Carr. More out there for tailbacks Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price. More out there for a pass catching corps that has pulled more weight this season than in any other during the Freeman era. More out there for the Notre Dame offense as a whole. Fra n k ly, a tea m that averages 8.33 yards per play within the confines of a sin- gle game should not end up scoring only 25 points — against one of the worst teams in the nation, to boot. That was the average and output versus Boston College in Week 10. Moving the ball and scoring the ball are two different tasks. The latter comes down to a more finite level of execu- tion that has eluded Notre Dame far too many times this season, given the col- lection of talent it has offensively. The Boston College game had numer- ous examples. "The first drive had some positive plays, and decided to punt," Freeman said. "The second drive, again, had some positive momentum and got to a point where we had fourth down and we didn't convert. Then it took off. Like, we could have went four drives in a row with scoring. "We fumbled on the 5-yard line, but after that second series, you started to see, OK, now we're rolling. Now we know the different looks we're going to see defensively. There's only so much they can do. "It was really good, but we just didn't always finish, right? You score on the third series, you got the ball on the 5-yard line, the fourth series, and you fumble. We can't fumble. That's another score if you don't. We score on the fifth series. And then the series right before half was as good as we've done — like that two- minute execution — and to put ourselves in a situation where we can kick that field goal right before half and we miss it." Price was the one who fumbled, and it perhaps prevented Notre Dame from going with a look it hasn't thrown out there since September. The offseason came with the idea we'd see more two- tailback offensive sets from the Irish this season. That hasn't been the case despite, again, Notre Dame having the best running back duo in the country. Offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock probably didn't think he'd have to enact something he either doesn't think is of use or doesn't want to employ until the perfect time against a Boston College team with one win, but it was a one- score game for most of the 60 minutes. If it is of use, it could have served as a wake-up agent on a sleepy Saturday in Chestnut Hill. If there is another snoozer of a Sat- urday on the horizon, maybe Denbrock pulls it out of the bag. "There's so many different ideas and things that you can experiment with," Freeman said. "We're having a lot of success with what we're doing. We ex- perimented with that early in the sea- son. And if there comes a game that we think is going to give us an edge, we will try it. We just got to continue to do what we are doing better. " We ' r e g r e e d y people and we all want perfection, but wh a t we 're d o i n g right now is really, really good and we just got to continue to make it better. And again, we got to look for ways to enhance, too. If that's a way to give us an added edge, an added benefit, then we'll definitely consider that." That's basically the bottom line with this Notre Dame offense two-thirds of the way through the regular season. It's good, but it can be better. It can be en- hanced. Tuned up to a point of it being especially formidable. Every other team Boston College faced this season prior to going against Notre Dame scored more points than the 25 the Irish left with. That in and of itself should be an indicator that things have to get cleaned up, even if those 8.33 yards per play would be far and away the No. 1 average in the nation if it were a season-long figure. Twenty-five points per game would be 85th. And when it comes down to it, scor- ing is what matters most. ✦ UNDER THE DOME GREEDY PEOPLE The Notre Dame offense has been good and great at times, but the Irish want to be great all the time Notre Dame has something special brewing in offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock's second season of his third stint in South Bend, but there is even more out there for his Irish offense. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER