Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM NOV. 22, 2025 29 A t the edge of the Acrisure Stadium visitors' tunnel, Aamil Wagner delivered the line that would define Notre Dame's 37-15 win over Pitt. "These mother f------ don't respect us!" Wagner shouted. "These mother f------ don't re- spect you!" Wagner said during his pre- game speech to his offensive line brethren, but the redshirt junior right tackle's words represented the way Notre Dame felt about the game. More specifically, the way it felt about the opponent. When you heard that, you kind of knew what was about to happen to the Panthers. Seconds later, Wagner screamed the order of the day: "Don't wait to run through a mother f------'s face!" On the prior Monday, as you un- doubtedly know, Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi was asked whether he believed the Panthers' matchup with the Irish was a must-win game. He said it was "absolutely not," because it did not af- fect Pitt's chances to win the ACC. He added that Notre Dame "can put 100 up on us as long as we win the next two after that." Narduzzi made his position clear: This game wasn't important to him. Never mind that the Panthers could have made a case for an at-large bid to the College Football Playoff if they won out and finished 10-2 but missed the ACC championship game. Never mind that this is college football, where a rau- cous home environment with College GameDay in town is supposed to matter regardless of playoff implications. It was, on the other hand, incredibly important to the Irish. As the November schedule goes, this was by far Notre Dame's best chance to lose a game before the end of the regular season. Syracuse (has not won since Steve Angeli got hurt) and Stanford (is Stan- ford) are likely to be three-touchdown underdogs at least. For the next month, this was Notre Dame's Super Bowl. The Irish didn't need extra motiva- tion to come out firing in Pittsburgh. But oh boy, did the Narduzzi and the Panthers give it to them. "I feel like they didn't respect us," ju- nior running back Jeremiyah Love said. "They didn't really talk about how ag- gressive we were as a team. They didn't really talk about how much we were ba- sically just dominators. It was a little bit disrespectful. They had a lack of respect for us." Love said he couldn't care less, but others might not have shrugged it off as easily. In any case, Irish head coach Marcus Freeman thought his players handled their emotions the right way. "I was proud of the way our guys pre- pared, handled the excitement around this game and the hype around College GameDay being here," Freeman said. "They handled it the right way by using their energy to work." From the opening kickoff, the Irish were the aggressors. If the Panthers couldn't see that, they certainly felt it. Redshirt sophomore wide receiver Cataurus Hicks felt it when redshirt sophomore safety Adon Shluer delivered a crushing blow to his midsection and forced a third-down stop. True fresh- man quarterback Mason Heintschel felt it when redshirt junior defensive end Joshua Burnham dragged him to the ground on the next play. Red- shirt junior linebacker Kyle Louis felt it when redshirt senior safety Kavir Bains-Marquez fell into his legs after being spin-moved into the shadow realm by junior run- ning back Jeremiyah Love. The entire Pitt sideline felt it as they watched redshirt freshman safety Tae Johnson streak down the sideline with zero blue jer- seys in front of him on his way to a pick six. And at that point, there was no longer any doubt about who would leave Acrisure Sta- dium with a win. That remained true with six seconds left in the game, when Narduzzi — now down 37-9 — called timeout to set up a mean- ingless, final play on fourth-and-6. Why? Who knows. Maybe to give his team something to feel good about entering its two remaining games. You know, the ones that actually matter. His goal was to make the scoreboard look better, just like it was when he kicked a pathetic field goal from the Notre Dame 6-yard line to turn a 14-0 game into a 14-3 game. Pitt, now with redshirt sophomore quarterback Eli Holstein in the game, made that final play count. Holstein found sophomore tight end Malachi Thomas for a touchdown and with that, the game came to an end. When it did, Freeman briskly walked toward the Pitt sideline to shake hands with his counterpart. When he did, Narduzzi tried to say something to Freeman. Freeman shrugged him off, quickly heading back to his own sideline. "I just wanted to celebrate," Freeman said, smiling when he was asked the question. As for the timeout? "To each their own." Narduzzi runs his program his way. So does Freeman. The outcome of this game reflected that. ✦ Over Before It Began 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 The team led by Marcus Freeman treated this game like it mattered. The team led by Pat Narduzzi did not. PHOTO BY FRANK HYATT