Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM NOV. 29, 2025 29 T he nitpicking could wait until Sun- day for Notre Dame football head coach Marcus Freeman. Moments after a 70-7 decimation of Syracuse in No. 9 Notre Dame's final home game on the 2025 regular season schedule, the coach who likes to challenge everything didn't have much in mind just yet. "I gotta go and evaluate it," Free- man said after the game. "Obviously, the score shows a dominant victory, right? But that doesn't always mean you played perfect, or it doesn't always mean you played horribly if you win in a close game." Whatever Freeman finds to identify areas for improvement likely won't be mentioned in any discussion of Notre Dame's College Football Playoff worthi- ness when the CFP committee releases its latest rankings Nov. 25. Notre Dame naysayers will have to look somewhere other than the most recent outcome to find holes in the 9-2 Irish's résumé. When committee members might have been watching Notre Dame with a microscope, the Irish looked relatively flawless. The Irish led 21-0 just 5:17 into the game without their offense contribut- ing a single play. Redshirt senior safety Jalen Stroman, who replaced redshirt freshman Tae Johnson in the start- ing lineup due to Johnson's midweek hand injury, returned an interception 44 yards to start Notre Dame's scor- ing. Then Stroman deflected a Syracuse punt, which junior safety Luke Talich returned 22 yards for a touchdown. Then sophomore cornerback Leonard Moore returned an interception for a 46-yard touchdown. "I haven't been a part of a game like that," Freeman said. "I don't know if I've ever seen a game like that — 21 points on the board, and the offense hasn't been on the field." The offense carried its weight when it finally got the chance to contribute against Syracuse (3-8). Junior running back Jeremiyah Love ripped off a 45- yard touchdown run on Notre Dame's second play from scrimmage. Redshirt junior running back Jadarian Price scampered for a 58-yard touchdown on Notre Dame's fifth play. Redshirt se- nior wide receiver Will Pauling caught a 6-yard touchdown pass from redshirt freshman quarterback CJ Carr on Notre Dame's 11th play. Love gave Notre Dame its eventual 49-0 halftime lead with a 14-yard touchdown on the offense's 15th play of the game. Love was still waiting for the right time to hit the Heisman Trophy pose following a touchdown, but the Irish found another opportunity for him when he ran away from Syracuse for a 68-yard touchdown on the third play of the second half. "The previous two touchdowns, I didn't feel like they were good enough for that celebration, but it was already set in my mind I was going to do it," Love said. "Happened to break a long one in. What better way to celebrate than breaking off for a long one and hit- ting the little Heisman pose?" Love finished with 171 rushing yards and a career-high 3 touchdowns on just 8 carries. If he scored another touch- down, the Notre Dame Stadium pro- duction crew might have needed to dig deeper into the playlist of love-themed songs to celebrate his performance. Freeman wanted his team to soak in the last guaranteed game in Notre Dame Stadium this season. The Irish honored their seniors in a pregame ceremony then put together a performance that allowed practically anyone healthy and not trying to preserve redshirt eligibility the chance to take the field. "We gotta celebrate this victory," Freeman said. "We'll get to work the next day. We're going to dissect it. We're going to find ways to improve. But if you don't celebrate — if it's 70-7 or 10-7, if you don't enjoy that, it's a miserable life. Because they put a lot of work into this. And it's never going to be perfect, even if you win 70-7." Perfect isn't necessary when the big- gest question about the final outcome in the fourth quarter was whether or not the team Notre Dame last scored 70- plus points against still fields a football program. Unfortunately, Haskell, which lost 73-0 to Notre Dame on Oct. 8, 1932, suspended its football program in 2015. Notre Dame will quickly turn its focus to Stanford (4-7) to close out its regular season and make one final case for its CFP fate. The Irish likely can't do better than what they did to Syracuse against a Cardinal team looking for back-to-back rivalry wins in its home stadium follow- ing a 31-10 win over Cal. But that won't stop Freeman from pushing his team to get even closer to its potential. "They played really, really well," Free- man said of the Irish. "But I still think there's more. "I'll find reasons to make sure our guys understand that there's more out there. It wasn't perfect. It wasn't per- fect. And we need to make sure that we attack those things and enhance the things we're doing well. "But it was a really pretty good per- formance. It was." No one can argue that. ✦ Junior safety Luke Talich returned a blocked punt 22 yards for a touchdown to stake the Irish to a 14‑0 lead less than three minutes into the game. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER Notre Dame Leaves No Doubt In Syracuse Blowout Tyler James has been covering Notre Dame athletics since 2011. He can be reached on X @ TJamesND FIRST AND LAST TYLER JAMES