Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM NOV. 22, 2025 37 GAME PREVIEW: SYRACUSE efficiency rating, and junior Jordan Faison plus red- shirt seniors Malachi Fields and Will Pauling pro- duce game in and game out. They've helped Carr average 10.1 yards per pass attempt through nine games, which is the best figure in the FBS. He's the only qualified quarterback in double digits. And he's going against the No. 125 passing defense in the nation as of games played through Week 11. Syracuse has allowed at least 300 passing yards in three of 10 games. Georgia Tech is a good team this season, but the Yellow Jackets endured a stretch in ACC play in which they didn't rack up big passing numbers. That actually started with just 189 yards against Temple. Then less than 250 in a trio of con- ference games … and 304 against Syracuse. Notre Dame doesn't necessarily need a get-right game for its passing attack. There has been so much that's gone right for it from the start of the season all the way through November. But even Steph Curry needs some layups every once in a while. Shooting a bunch of threes gets tiring. Syracuse's pass defense presents the layup op- portunity. Advantage: Notre Dame SPECIAL TEAMS Wintry conditions and all, Notre Dame found something in the kicking game against Navy. It had been a rough go of things up until then, with the preceding game against Boston College being a low point — three different kickers missing at least one kick, two of them being extra points. True fresh- man Erik Schmidt was one of them, but he was given the label of kicker No. 1 ahead of the game against the Midshipmen, and Notre Dame got meticulous about making sure his routine included everything it needed for him to produce. And, sure enough, he knocked all seven of his extra points confidently through the uprights with rain and snow falling all over him, the ball and everything else inside Notre Dame Stadium. He was also 8 of 8 on touchbacks. He's in the right headspace now, which is so important for kickers. Schmidt has found himself, and Price is a threat to take back a kick for a touchdown in any given game. Coordinator Marty Biagi has an endless bag of tricks to pull from in the punting game. Redshirt senior James Rendell has turned into a punting weapon in his own right in his second season at Notre Dame — he's averaging 44.5 yards per punt and has the ability to both boot one long and pin one near the goal line. Given all that, it's tough to say Notre Dame doesn't have a special teams advantage against anybody. Syracuse does have a punter in redshirt senior Jack Stonehouse averaging 47.7 yards per punt, though, and placekicker Tripp Woody is a perfect 21 of 21 on extra points and 10 of 11 on field goals. Fresh- man Tylik Hill can get loose in the kick return game, averaging 21.8 yards per bring back, but he has not scored. Nobody at Syracuse has, on kickoffs or punts. Notre Dame with another edge here. Advantage: Notre Dame COACHING It's been a tale of two seasons for Fran Brown at Syracuse in taking over for Dino Babers. He went 10-3 in year one to post the Orange's second 10- win season since 2002, but Syracuse is 3-7 a year later. Much of that can be attributed to losing a starting quarterback for the season, sure, but there has to be some way to turn to a backup and not let things completely spiral out of control. That has not been done by the Orange this season. Notre Dame, meanwhile, has continued its up- ward trajectory in the fourth year of the Marcus Freeman era. Sure, the Irish have one more regu- lar-season loss through nine games than they did in Freeman's third year. But the defeats came by a combined total of four points against two ranked teams, one of which is a top-five, undefeated foe in Texas A&M. Since going down to the Aggies in Week 3 to fall to 0-2, Notre Dame has been the world beater it was in 2024 to get all the way to the national championship game. Frankly, Freeman and Brown are in two totally different points in their head coaching careers, even though Freeman has only two more years of experience over his counterpart. Freeman's been one win away from the pinnacle of the sport while Brown is scratching and clawing for any win he can get. He's going to have to do an awful lot to get one against Freeman in his home venue. Advantage: Notre Dame OFFENSE Pos. No. Name Ht. Wt. Yr. QB 10 Rickie Collins 6-3 210 R-So. or 11 Luke Carney 6-2 205 Fr. or 13 Joseph Filardi 6-1 195 Fr. RB 6 Yasin Willis 6-1 235 So. or 24 Will Nixon 5-11 205 R-Sr. TE 89 Dan Villari 6-4 245 R-Sr. 0 David Clement 6-6 260 Jr. WR 12 Justus Ross-Simmons 6-3 210 Sr. 18 Emanuel Ross 6-2 202 R-Fr. WR 15 Darrell Gill Jr. 6-3 190 Jr. 3 Jaylan Hornsby 6-3 215 R-Fr. WR 2 Johntay Cook 6-0 198 Jr. 7 Darien Williams 6-0 185 Fr. LT 75 Trevion Mack 6-6 320 R-So. 60 Naquil Betrand 6-6 320 R-So. LG 69 TJ Ferguson 6-4 320 R-Sr. 76 Byron Washington 6-7 400 Fr. C 51 Austin Collins 6-3 305 R-Sr. 73 Josh Miller 6-4 320 R-So. RG 78 Joe Cruz 6-5 315 R-Jr. 55 Zach Rice 6-5 320 R-Jr. RT 57 Da'Metrius Weatherspoon 6-7 330 R-Jr. 77 Kam Pringle 6-8 335 R-Fr. DEFENSE Pos. No. Name Ht. Wt. Yr. DE 11 Denis Jaquez Jr. 6-4 265 Sr. or 94 Kevin Jobity 6-4 300 Sr. DT 4 Dion Wilson Jr. 6-5 305 R-Sr. 99 Elijah Fuentes-Cundiff 6-4 295 R-Sr. or 7 Chris Thomas 6-6 315 R-Sr. DT 91 George Rooks 6-5 295 R-Sr. or 94 Kevin Jobity 6-4 300 Sr. JACK 8 David Reese 6-2 250 R-Sr. 18 David Omopariola 6-3 260 R-So. LB 13 Gary Bryant III 6-1 228 R-Jr. 6 James Heard 6-2 230 R-So. LB 5 Antoine Deslauriers 6-1 235 Fr. 12 Anwar Sparrow 6-1 223 R-Jr. SAM 82 Jamie Tremble 6-4 222 So. CB 1 Demetres Samuel Jr. 6-1 195 Fr. 32 Greg Delaine 6-0 180 R-Jr. S 23 Devin Grant 6-4 205 Sr. 19 Cornell Perry 6-1 187 R-So. S 29 Berry Buxton III 6-2 212 R-Sr. 24 Ibn McDaniels 6-3 205 R-Fr. S 2 Duce Chestnut 6-0 195 R-Sr. 0 Braheem Long Jr. 6-0 185 So. CB 16 Chris Peal 6-1 200 R-So. 10 Davien Kerr 6-1 190 So. SPECIAL TEAMS Pos. No. Name Ht. Wt. Yr. PK 47 Tripp Woody 5-9 190 R-Fr. 98 Jadyn Oh 6-1 180 R-So. P 41 Jack Stonehouse 6-1 215 R-Sr. 96 Mateja Pavlovich 6-2 220 Fr. LS 21 Fran Brown Jr. (FG) 5-11 220 R-So. 61 Ethan Stangle (P) 6-1 220 R-Jr. H 41 Jack Stonehouse 6-1 215 R-Sr. PR 10 Davien Kerr 6-1 190 So. 1 Demetres Samuel Jr. 6-1 195 Fr. KR 39 Tylik Hill 5-9 205 Fr. 24 Will Nixon 5-11 205 R-Sr. SYRACUSE ORANGE TWO-DEEP DEPTH CHART DEPTH CHART