Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1541687
26 DECEMBER 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED The Irish have a plethora of preeminent players. When Love needed to go to the locker room to get what ended up being bruised ribs looked at, the Fighting Irish scored immediately on the very drive he was injured on thanks to 42 yards from scrimmage and a touchdown from redshirt junior tailback Jadarian Price, Love's "backup." The Irish scored on an 84-yard fake punt on their next possession because of course they did. Marty Bi- agi's gonna Marty Biagi. Chaos gonna kill. But on the next drive after that, Love still wasn't ready to return so Notre Dame went to sophomore Aneyas Williams in the first half of a game for the first time all season. And man, did he ever pay off his opportunity. Williams touched the ball on six of seven plays and ac- counted for 48 yards and a touchdown. Essentially, nearly a spitting image of what Price provided. Or what Love would have given had he been healthy and in his usual RB1 role. Notre Dame's got at least three RB1s. It's more than their talent and production that speaks volumes, though; it's the sacrifices they make to ensure everyone gets some shine for the betterment of the team. Williams has embraced "we over me" as well as anyone. "He practices and works and em- braces his role," Freeman said. "Then all of a sudden, when he gets a bigger one, he maximizes it. That doesn't happen by chance. It's because he works his tail off and is preparing for that opportunity even though he doesn't know when it's going to present itself." It presented itself in the second half after Love came back into the game but was pulled from it again because of time and score. Notre Dame decided to keep Love and Price on the sideline with a probable College Football Playoff game on the horizon, and all Williams did with his extra touches was take one of them for a 51-yard touchdown. It was his fifth of the season ... on just 24 carries. Williams is someone who could have eight times as many rushing attempts anywhere else in the country. He's that good. But he's been content to remain at Notre Dame and wait his turn. Per- manently, his turn at the top spot in the rotation could come in 2026. For now, he's a clear RB3, but again — he plays like an RB1. And Notre Dame is so much better for it. "Aneyas is the type of guy who is al- ways prepared," Love said. "You obvi- ously see that when he goes out there and breaks off touchdowns whenever he gets his opportunity. I'm really proud of Aneyas. I kind of think of him as like my young guy. I think we're the same BIG PLAYS (25 YARDS OR MORE) Notre Dame • 4-9 ND16 Burnham pass to Talich for 84 yards and a touchdown • 1-10 STAN38 Carr pass to Williams for 25 yards to STAN13 • 1-10 ND23 Carr pass to Faison for 54 yards to STAN23 • 3-3 ND49 Williams rush for 51 yards and a touchdown Stanford • 1-10 STAN29 Brown pass to Roush for 27 yards to ND44 • 3-7 ND41 Brown pass to High for 32 yards to ND9 • 3-8 ND40 Mirer rush for 30 yards to ND10 Sophomore Aneyas Williams ripped off a 51-yard touchdown run versus the Cardinal and now has 5 touchdowns on just 24 car- ries this season. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL MISCELLANEOUS NOTES • With the victory, Notre Dame now leads the all-time series with Stanford 25-14. The Irish are 10-9 in true road games against the Cardinal, and head coach Marcus Freeman has won three of his four matchups with them. • The kickoff time of 10:40 p.m. ET. The last time Notre Dame kicked off that late was in 1991, when they had 11 p.m. ET kickoff times both at Stanford and at Hawai'i. • The Fighting Irish improved to 14-1 when both junior running back Jeremiyah Love and redshirt junior running back Jadarian Price both score a touchdown in the same game. • With his 2 passing scores against Stanford, Redshirt freshman quarterback CJ Carr fin- ished the regular season with 24 touchdown strikes, tying Sam Hartman and DeShone Kizer for the most passing touchdowns in their first 12 career Notre Dame starts since 1966. STANFORD VS. NOTRE DAME QUARTER-BY-QUARTER COMPARISON Stanford 1st Qtr. 2nd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 4th Qtr. 1st Half 2nd Half Total Time of Possession 2:48 9:11 9:33 7:53 11:59 17:26 29:25 Third-Down Conversions 0-2 2-6 1-6 5-5 2-8 6-11 8-19 Fourth-Down Conversions 0-0 1-2 2-2 0-0 1-2 2-2 3-4 Average Field Position STAN-23 STAN-26 STAN-21 STAN-14 STAN-25 STAN-18 STAN-22 Notre Dame 1st Qtr. 2nd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 4th Qtr. 1st Half 2nd Half Final Time of Possession 12:14 5:49 5:27 7:07 18:01 12:34 30:35 Third-Down Conversions 2-5 5-6 0-2 4-5 7-11 4-7 11-18 Fourth-Down Conversions 3-3 0-0 0-0 0-0 3-3 0-0 3-3 Average Field Position ND-29 ND-41 ND-30 ND-29 ND-35 ND-29 ND-33 PLAY CHART (NO. OF PLAYS) Yards STAN ND Nega ve 3 5 0-5 49 35 6-9 5 17 10-19 8 11 20-29 2 1 30-39 2 0 40-49 0 0 50 or more 0 3 RED ZONE EFFICIENCY (INSIDE 20-YARD LINE) No Poss. TD FG Score Stanford 2 2 0 0 Notre Dame 6 5 0 1