Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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26 SEPT. 12, 2026 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 1. Notre Dame's best players played like its best players When the Irish partook in the Lambeau Leap, Adon Shuler led the way. The senior safety was first among Notre Dame players to sprint toward the student section, jump- ing into the first row and celebrating with fans who made the trek from South Bend to Green Bay, Wis. Senior linebacker Drayk Bowen was the first one by his side. Before long, a row of teammates joined them. "Me and Drayk, we talked about it beforehand," Shuler said. "We was like, 'We jumpin' as soon as we can.'" It was a fitting end to a night in which Shuler, Bowen and junior cornerback Leonard Moore very much led the way for Notre Dame. You want your best players to play like your best players, and the three of them were phenomenal against Wis- consin. Contrary to head coach Luke Fickell's early week rhetoric, the Badgers targeted Moore just 3 times. They completed 1 pass for 3 yards. Moore also picked up 4 defensive stops and nearly came down with a miraculous one-handed interception on one of the few times Wisconsin tried him. Bowen led the Irish with 9 tackles, including a tackle for loss and a team-leading 5 defensive stops (tackles that result in a failure for the of- fense). Shuler had 7 tackles and 4 stops. They were both constantly around the football, especially moments late in the second quarter and early in the third that swung the game. Shuler's performance came less than a week after his father, Don, passed away at age 47. His emotions, he said, were high. To not only play, but to play the way he did, showed what an incredible person and player Adon Shuler is. "Definitely have a heavy heart," Shuler said. "But throughout the week, just having the support of my teammates, the staff, everybody in the build- ing, it's really a blessing to have them." 2. Adjustments in the run game paid off Many will question Notre Dame offensive co- ordinator Mike Denbrock's insistence on running the football. The thing is, he didn't really have a choice. The Badgers played quarters coverage with two- high safety looks, and they did it pretty much the entire game. If the Irish can't run the ball against a six-man box, they have bigger problems than beating Wisconsin. For two quarters, they couldn't. Then came the halftime adjustments. "I think we have some really good coaches that said, 'Hey, this is how they're playing us. Let's try this or that,'" Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said. "It might not be that much different to the eye, but versus certain looks, we wanted to be able to do different things." It's more complicated than this, but one thing the Irish definitely changed was their formation. They ran their zone concepts out of the pistol more in the second half, rather than the shotgun. It worked, and they should stick with it moving forward. 3. Sullivan Absher made a difference at right guard After spending all offseason as the presumed starter at right guard, Absher gave way to junior Styles Prescod at the eleventh hour. Prescod started, but Absher replaced him for the second half. The difference was noticeable. Absher generated much more movement at the line of scrimmage than his predecessor. Outside factors contributed to that, such as improved play from those around him (Notre Dame's tackles were much better in the second half) and wear and tear catching up to Wisconsin's defensive line. But Absher did more than enough to get the first shot next week against Rice. 4. You think it's on the scouting report … That Notre Dame's defensive backs will bite on double moves? The Irish secondary is aggressive by nature. They get their hands in passing lanes and break on short routes for interceptions. Take sophomore Michigan transfer Jayden Sanders, who broke up back-to- back passes on the first two plays of the second quarter to force a Wisconsin punt. Unfortunately for Sanders — and to the Badgers' credit — they went right back at him on their en- suing possession. This time, they had senior wide receiver Malachi Coleman run a hook-and-go, and he bit on it hook, line and sinker. The result was Wisconsin's only touchdown of the evening. Freeman would prefer that doesn't happen, but he acknowledged that due to the way Notre Dame plays defense, it can. "If they know you're in man over and over and over, they did a good job on some man beaters and we had bad eyes," Freeman said. "And those are things that we continuously get because we play a lot of man." It's a reminder that for the Irish to play as ag- gressively as they do, they have to be smart about when they take chances. Sanders, who played an otherwise terrific game, learned that the hard way. 5. Party like it's Oct. 11, 2025 That was the date of Notre Dame's last made field goal, until the matchup with Wisconsin. The kicking game returned with a bang. Junior Purdue transfer Spencer Porath's 52-yard boot in the first quarter was right down the mid- dle. It didn't clear the uprights by much, but it cleared them by more than enough. His 26-yard field goal was also good, solving both the long and short kicking problems that persisted for the Irish last year. Notre Dame should not need a reliable kicking game to win most of its regular-season games. It will absolutely need one to win in the College Foot- ball Playoff. Porath's debut was a heck of a start. FIVE THOUGHTS BY JACK SOBLE Senior safety Adon Shuler (No. 8) — whose father, Don, passed away at age 47 less than a week earlier — notched 7 tackles in the win over Wisconsin. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER