Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM MARCH 2026 23 Consider last year's starting nickel, Alabama grad transfer DeVonta Smith, played just 37 of a possible 142 defensive snaps — largely due to injury — in Notre Dame's early season losses to Miami and Texas A&M. In those two defeats that kept the Irish out of the College Football Playoff (well, and some rankings shenanigans, too), opposing slot receivers Malachi Toney of Miami and Texas A&M's Mario Craver combined for 13 receptions for 289 yards and 2 touchdowns. And Toney and the Hurricanes come to Notre Dame Stadium Nov. 7. SORTING OUT THE 'HOW' AND THE 'WHO' ELEMENTS TO IMPROVE THE PASS RUSH Notre Dame finished a more-than- respectable 16th nationally in sacks at 2.83 per game, but it took a while for the Irish to find the right formula. After the first two games, the Irish were tied with San Jose State at 131st out of 134 FBS teams in that statistical category. Miami and Texas A&M also happened to be two of the better offensive lines the Irish faced. And if you throw Southern Cal into the mix, the Irish had 3 sacks for 16 yards combined in their three big- gest games and 31 for 209 against the other nine teams. Marrying fronts to coverages is some- thing new D-line coach Charlie Par- tridge has expertise in, so that's a bonus. But does Notre Dame want to get more sacks out of its defensive line and be less reliant on blitzes from the linebackers and secondary? And beyond returning sack leader Boubacar Traore (6.5 for 50 yards), who steps forward on the right side of the line at end, in the interior and from the re- serve ranks in a defensive line rotation? So, the biggest questions to answer in this regard are both schematic and personnel-driven. WORKING AROUND MISSING PIECES TO CONTINUE DEVELOPING THE OFFENSIVE LINE For an offensive line with Joe Moore Award potential and aspirations, the most realistic spring scenario is that two starters will be out — center Ashton Craig (ACL surgery) and guard/tackle Charles Jagusah, the latter still dealing with persistent aftershocks from last summer's UTV accident that resulted in a broken left humerus. So, spring isn't about conclusions and building chemistry as much as it is fig- uring out who the best three options beyond those two are, while also build- ing out alternative scenarios in case one or both have an unexpected extension in their recovery timelines. The answers that can be fetched dur- ing spring include confirming a shift from right guard to right tackle for Guerby Lambert is the right move, what left tackle Anthonie Knapp's best posi- tion is if not left tackle, and who the most likely starter will be at one of the vacated guard spots — redshirt fresh- man Will Black or one of the redshirt juniors, Sullivan Absher or Chris Terek? Also, where might fast-ascending redshirt freshman tackle Matty Augus- tine fit in? INSTALLING AND TINKERING WITH MIKE DENBROCK'S IRISH OFFENSE, VERSION 3.0 The exam-week practices back in De- cember served two purposes. One was a symbolic flipping of the season calendar from 2025 to 2026 after the CFP snub. The second was pragmatic, and that was to start laying the groundwork for offen- sive coordinator Mike Denbrock's vision for improving upon the nation's No. 2 scoring offense in '25. Quarterback CJ Carr now shares that vision and can help with the teaching process in the spring as he continues to develop his own game individually. There are plenty of new faces and play- ers in elevated and expanded roles to take that all in this spring. Experimentation comes along with that, but that wouldn't preclude some meaningful installation. And then the Irish could be that much further along in summer and August training camp with an incumbent start- ing QB for the first time since the 2020 season. FIRST STAGE OF SELF-SCOUT TO ADDRESS MOST FIXES BEFORE THE GAMES START Notre Dame learned some valu- able lessons in its 27-24 loss at Miami to open the season and its 41-40 loss to Texas A&M in the encore. The Irish were able to apply those over the bal- ance of the season. Freeman's goal going forward is to learn more of those lessons in August, especially with the likelihood of having a playoff-caliber opponent or two early on the schedule in 2027 and beyond. "Yeah, we've taken a deep dive into everything we've done in the offseason, from strength and conditioning, from mental performance, from how we prac- tice," Freeman said last month. "And again, how do we tailor our process to produce a better result to start the season? "And that's my job. I've had a long conversation with [Notre Dame deputy athletics director for football] Ron Pow- lus about who we'll play Week 1 as we look forward to the future. "There's a certain cost to being inde- pendent. Some of that is you're going to have to play a challenging opponent to open a season. It's my job to make sure we're ready. And as you look at last year, I don't care what the score was, we weren't prepared to go out and win that game. We didn't win it. "So, I've really self-evaluated — and the entire program — how can we tweak certain things to hopefully produce a better outcome Week 1? … We have to make sure we're intentional about, 'OK, maybe this little tweak will help us have a better output as we get ready for the start of the season.' And so, we have made some slight changes. I'm sure we'll go over it later at a later point." ✦ 2026 S P R I N G F O O T B A L L O V E R V I E W The Fighting Irish will aim to take their offense to the next level with the return of starting quar- terback CJ Carr. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER