Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM SEPT. 12, 2026 27 JAMES FLANIGAN KNOWS HIS SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY NEEDS TO EVOLVE INTO BUSINESS AS USUAL James Flanigan had a touchdown dance of sorts ready for what turned out to be a sentimental journey against Wisconsin. Well, actually it was more like a fist pump, as Notre Dame quar- terback CJ Carr described it. "That was cool, super cool," Carr said of the sophomore tight end and Irish teammate scoring the first touchdown of the season for No. 4 Notre Dame in its eventual 41-13 season-opening subdu- ing of Wisconsin, in Flanigan's home- town, no less. The 3-yard touchdown grab from Carr put the Irish up 10-3 late in the first quarter. Flanigan's first career catch came earlier in the first quarter — a 7-yarder for a first down — when the Badgers were threatening to leave ac- tual doubt about Irish head coach Mar- cus Freeman's offseason quest to make Notre Dame a better early-season team. His inspiration for having a touch- down celebration in his pocket was fu- eled by Irish assistant tight ends coach Harris Bivin, who in a light moment of a film session deemed Notre Dame's sparse exclamation points after touch- downs "lame" and challenged the room to be better. Flanigan, ahead of his first career start and fifth career game, revisited a high- light reel of his father — former Irish All-American defensive tackle Jim Fla- nigan Jr. — and suddenly saw the cool- ness in the way his dad punctuated a big play after previously making fun of it. "It's kind of become my thing, I guess," he said. "And it's just super fun." So was playing for the first time on the same field — iconic Lambeau Field — where his father and grandpa, Jim Sr., had played as members of the Green Bay Packers. And having roughly 60 family and friends in attendance among the sellout crowd of 75,939 cheering him on. "I think what my plan for it was pre- game warm-ups, go out on the field, soak it all in," Flanigan said. "If I see family, say hi, wave to them. And then once we run out of the tunnel after warm-ups, it's all business from there. And after the first play, I really just tend to lock in and just focus on playing football." It took Notre Dame, though, un- til after taking a shaky 13-10 lead into halftime to really get down to the busi- ness of flexing the team it was thought to be when so many national pundits were picking the Irish to win their first national title since 1988. And that was back when Jim Flanigan Jr. was being re- cruited by then-Irish coach Lou Holtz. For James Flanigan, and tight end sidekick Cooper Flanagan, business as usual moving forward needs to look like what the Irish did in the running game in the fourth quarter after neither team could concoct a run longer than 8 yards through three quarters. At that point, the Irish were aver- aging 2.3 yards a carry and were being outrushed 70-45. The tight end duo, and an offen- sive line that swapped out first-time starter Styles Prescod at guard for Sul- livan Absher at halftime, got physical and helped the Irish dominate the run game, 66 yards to minus-3 in the final 15 minutes of the game. "I think we were just beating Notre Dame," Flanigan said of the early strug- gles. "That's how Coach Freeman tells it. Like, having penalties — it was a little sloppy. But in the second half we came out, and we knew we could dominate this game. We just had to not beat Notre Dame. And we got confidence in that." Which in the long term is the sweet- est sentiment of all to come out of the season opener. — Eric Hansen IRISH RUNNING BACKS MAKE IMPACT AS PASS CATCHERS Before Notre Dame's running backs finally found some consistency on the ground in the second half of a 41-13 vic- tory over Wisconsin, they became valu- able parts of Notre Dame's passing game. Junior quarterback CJ Carr connected with junior Aneyas Williams for an 11- yard reception and sophomore Nolan James Jr. for a 28-yard reception on the opening drive of the second half, which helped set the tone for the remainder of the season opener at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis. Notre Dame marched down the field with a nine-play, 70-yard touchdown drive that Williams capped with a 3-yard touchdown run. Carr, who completed 2 passes for 18 yards to running backs in the first half, and the Irish offense believed Wiscon- sin's defense was susceptible to short throws to the running backs based on film study. "We saw on tape all year that check- WISCONSIN GAME NOTES BY ERIC HANSEN AND TYLER JAMES Flanigan scored his first career touchdown for the Irish in his hometown of Green Bay on the field his father (Jim Jr.) and grandfather (Jim Sr.) played on for the Packers. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER