Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1541365
BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM NOV. 22, 2025 11 UNDER THE DOME "I would say we've got a little bit of a chip on our shoulder right now. A lot of people don't think we should be where we're at, and it's kind of a thing we wear. We're Notre Dame, and we're going to go out, play hard, play physical and play violent foot- ball." — Junior linebacker Drayk Bowen on how this team's personality is different from the 2024 Irish "You go eye test? I'm still saying they're top five. I be- lieve in the Irish. I'm just gonna die on the hill." — ESPN College GameDay host Rece Davis on Notre Dame "Kelly left to win a national championship, but it was Freeman who reached last year's national championship after two top-20 seasons. Freeman is [40-12] since being promoted to the job, and Notre Dame has upgraded the program infrastruc- ture in all kinds of ways. When Kelly left, people wondered whether Notre Dame had a ceiling in the modern game. Freeman showed that's not the case after all." — Chris Vannini of The Athletic on giving Notre Dame a regrade of A — after the original grade was just a B+ — for replacing Brian Kelly with Marcus Freeman in December 2021 "While Hannah Hidalgo was Notre Dame's best player in her first two seasons in South Bend, she was also surrounded by All-American-level players such as Sonia Citron and Olivia Miles. The Irish's ability to win didn't rest entirely on Hidalgo's shoulders. That is no longer the case. This edition of Notre Dame is unquestionably Hidalgo's team, and with that comes a big responsibility. The Irish won't succeed if she's not elite. "While bigger tests will come later, Hidalgo was exactly that in [Nov. 5's] 98-52 rout of Fairleigh Dick- inson. The 5-foot-6 junior set the pace, scoring 11 of Notre Dame's first 19 points on her way to a typical stat-stuffing 27 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals. All five starters scored in double figures, but Hidalgo is the engine driving Notre Dame's success." — ESPN's Charlie Crème, who listed the Irish as a No. 3 seed in his initial in-season bracketology projection — Eric Hansen GRAPHIC COURTESY ESPN Irish On Social Media THEY SAID IT THEY SAID IT "Pyne's run as the starting quarterback of the Fighting Irish, the goal he'd chased his whole life, lasted just 10 games. A four-loss season in Year 1 under Marcus Freeman wasn't the goal for a team with preseason top-five expectations. But Pyne did go 8-2 as a starter with victories over Clemson, North Carolina, Syracuse and BYU. "'I'm real proud of my time there,' Pyne said. 'I still root for Notre Dame and Coach Freeman, who was great to me. I'm still best friends with a lot of those guys. It's a great place. I loved it there.' "So why leave? By the end of the season, it was clear Freeman and [offensive coordina - tor Tommy] Rees wanted a transfer QB to push or replace Pyne and [Tyler] Buchner. Pyne was one semester away from graduating and hoped to become a captain in 2023, but he was informed there'd be a competition. He sensed the odds were stacked against him and exited before the bowl game to hunt for his next home." — Max Olson of ESPN in his story on four journeyman quarterbacks who have played at multiple schools, including former Irish signal-caller Drew Pyne (Notre Dame, Arizona State, Missouri and Bowling Green)