Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM SEPT. 12, 2026 31 T he best thing that happened to the fourth-ranked Notre Dame foot- ball team Sept. 6 won't inspire an updated mantra or fit conveniently in a tweet or sound bite. Not that some people won't try. But for Irish coach Marcus Freeman, a late-arriving 41-13 beatdown of Wis- consin at Lambeau Field in his fifth sea- son opener was a referendum of all the energy, all the thought, all the sweat equity he and his team put into chang- ing a flaw in the early-season template. The miscalculation for those who ex- pected a November version of the Irish to appear in the program's 13th Shamrock Se- ries game — and the first one to ever open a season — was that what Freeman was concocting with all his offseason retooling wasn't a November version of the Irish. What Freeman wanted was the best pos- sible September version. One that could grow into the national title contender it's purported to be by learning from the rough edges Wisconsin exposed, particularly in a competitive first half that saw Notre Dame build a wobbly 13-10 lead. "I think the biggest thing was the ability to just let go of what [the play- ers] thought this game was going to be like and focus on the moment," Freeman said of the words he shared at halftime that helped ignite a 28-3 surge on the scoreboard in the second half. "As I re- minded them, 'Whatever you thought going into this game, it was going to be, let it go.' It will be a struggle. "And one, it's because I know a Luke Fickell-coached team. I know the fire they had coming into this matchup, it was going to be a challenge. They're a good team. Well coached. And I think we just had to really focus on execution." And forget about invincibility. For now. Leaving no doubt isn't an event, and cer- tainly not one that's going to be vindicated by Notre Dame's September schedule. It's a process, a way of life. And ongoing. The proof of its existence that showed up in Notre Dame's first game played on Wisconsin soil — or unfrozen tundra, as it were — was in the Irish team's resil- ience. Senior safety and captain Adon Shuler lost his father, Don, earlier in the week at age 47. Quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli then had to deal with the Friday death of his dad, David. The Irish lost two starting defensive players for the second half and maybe longer. Both defensive tackle Jason Onye and safety Brauntae Johnson left Green Bay wearing protective boots. Quarterback CJ Carr, meanwhile, didn't amass Heisman-esque numbers, but he did flash Heisman-esque poise in completing 19 of 29 passes for 239 yards with 2 touchdowns. "Excellent. Excellent," Freeman said of the first incumbent starter at quar- terback for the Irish since Ian Book in 2020. "The things that probably the naked eye doesn't see, again, is what impresses me the most. The ability to check plays, the ability to keep our offense out of negative situations. It might be a 3-yard run, but if he didn't check it, it would have been a 2-yard loss. Our wideouts did a really good job today, but there were a couple of balls we've got to catch in tough situations. "He played excellent, man. He is a leader. He's smart. He's prepared. He's a coach on the field. He kept our offense in good situations. And so, I mean, this was a great start for his junior year." There were unexpected standouts as well who rose to the occasion — Colorado transfer cornerback DJ McKinney, who fended off a depth chart challenge from Michigan transfer Jayden Sanders — get- ting his first interception in an Irish uni- form and returning it 55 yards for 1 score. There was senior right offensive guard Sullivan Absher, taking over in the second half for first-time starter Styles Prescod and helping set a more physical tone. And here was senior Kahanu Kia, a sel- dom-used linebacker but oft-used spe- cial teamer both last year and this season. The Hawaii native is six years removed from high school and missed three years at Notre Dame, two serving a Mormon mis- sion and one recovering from an ACL tear. His recovery of a muffed Wiscon- sin kickoff return set up the first career touchdown for sophomore tight end and Green Bay native James Flanigan late in the first quarter. Flanigan's 3-yard touchdown catch from Carr put the Irish up 10-3. The win over the Badgers improved Freeman's record in Games 1 and 2 com- bined to a still modest 4-5. He's a com- bined 40-6 in the games that follow dur- ing what will be his fifth full season. But he saw enough in an admittedly flawed debut that the program redesign this offseason was worth the investment. "I felt like it did before the game," Free- man said of the payoff. "It was intentional to make sure that I didn't wait til the out- come of the game to say, 'We are an el- evated football team.' I've got a lot of data back in terms of how much meeting time we had this year, the increase from last year, how much practice time, the over- all yardage and load, the recovery of our guys in terms of using science to tell us how fresh they are with jumps and things. "The data is what told me that this is an elevated football team. We practiced more. We met more. They were more ready, physically, for this game in terms of the explosion of their jumps. That's what I really wanted to base it off of. And I'm going to go back and watch it and see, but it's going to be hard not to believe we weren't an elevated football team, regard- less of the outcome of the game." ✦ Head coach Marcus Freeman saw enough in an admittedly flawed debut that the program rede- sign this offseason was worth the investment. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER Notre Dame's Offseason Makeover Remains On Track Eric Hansen covers Notre Dame athletics for On3, with a focus on Irish football. He can be reached on X @ EHansenND THE DEEP READ ERIC HANSEN