Notre Dame Faces High Expectations As Irish Eye First Title Since 1988

As Notre Dame football coach Marcus Freeman stood in front of his team last December, he didn’t hide his disappointment or confusion. The College Football Playoff selection committee had just denied the Irish a spot in the field, giving the final at-large berth to Miami, a team that had been ranked behind Notre Dame in each of the five previous polls. Freeman twice told the players “it doesn’t make sense” and added he felt "awful” for them because “I don’t have the answer right now.”

On Sunday, Notre Dame returns to action, facing Wisconsin at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisc., the start of what the Irish hope will be a special year. Really, though, the preparation began nearly 40 weeks ago with the abrupt ending to Notre Dame’s 2025 season.

“Keep it,” Freeman told his players that day. “Keep the pain, man.”

They have done just that and enter with the highest expectations of any Notre Dame team in the past two decades, perhaps longer. The Irish are No. 4 in the Associated Press poll, their highest preseason ranking since they were second in 2006.

Back then, Notre Dame was coming off a 9-3 season and No. 9 final ranking in coach Charlie Weis’s first year. The Irish returned quarterback Brady Quinn, running back Darius Walker, receiver Jeff Samardzija, safety Tom Zbikowski, linebacker Maurice Crum and other starters. But they went 10-3, with each of their losses coming by at least 20 points: at home to Michigan in the third game, on the road at USC in the regular season finale and to LSU in the Sugar Bowl.

Notre Dame Has Heisman Hopeful In Quarterback CJ Carr

This season, the Irish have several starters back, including CJ Carr, who is Notre Dame’s best quarterback since Quinn. Carr completed 66.6% of his passes for 2,741 yards, 24 touchdowns and six interceptions. He was third in the nation with 9.4 yards per attempt, fourth with 14.1 yards per completion and fifth with a 168.1 passer rating. Carr is a favorite to win the Heisman Trophy, which would be the first time the Irish have had the Heisman winner since receiver Tim Brown in 1987.

Notre Dame should rely more on Carr’s passing this season because running backs Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price are in the NFL. Love gained 1,372 yards on 199 carries and ran for 18 touchdowns last season, while Price had 674 rushing yards on 113 attempts and 11 touchdowns. They were each first round picks in April’s draft.

Junior Aneyas Williams, who ran for 224 yards on 24 carries and scored five touchdowns last season, is now the starter, while sophomore backup Nolan James Jr. will also likely get plenty of attempts. They could also make a mark in the passing game, as the Irish primarily have unproven receivers and tight ends.

Senior receiver Jordan Faison, who led the Irish with 49 receptions last season, is back, but the only other returners with more than three catches a year ago are Micah Gilbert (nine) and Jaden Greathouse (four). Notre Dame added two transfer receivers from Ohio State in Mylan Graham and Quincy Porter, who were highly touted recruits in the high school classes of 2024 and 2025, respectively. But neither player made much of an impact with the Buckeyes, with Graham catching six passes and Porter four last season. In addition, Porter underwent surgery on his left patellar tendon in January, missed spring practices and recently had another minor procedure, so he will miss some time.

At tight end, Notre Dame’s depth chart released on Monday has the starter listed as Cooper Flanagan or James Flanigan, both of whom are 6-foot-6 and about 255 pounds but don’t have much experience. Flanagan has caught a total of five passes in his first three seasons and missed nearly all of last season after tearing an Achilles tendon against Georgia in the CFP quarterfinals in January 2025. Flanigan, a sophomore, only played in four games and didn’t catch a pass as a freshman.

The line is one area on the offense where Notre Dame has experience, with Anthonie Knapp, Guerby Lambert, Joe Otting, Ashton Craig and Sullivan Absher each playing more than 300 snaps last season. Knapp (left guard), Craig (center) and Lambert (right tackle) are listed as starters, while Absher is competing with Styles Prescod at right guard and Otting is serving as Craig’s backup. Will Black, a five-star recruit two years ago who played in just three games last year, is starting at left tackle.

Leonard Moore Leads Notre Dame’s Veteran Defense

Notre Dame’s defense, meanwhile, is why so many people are predicting the Irish could make a deep CFP run. Cornerback Leonard Moore, a unanimous All-American last season, is a preseason first team Associated Press All-American, while linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa and safety Tae Johnson made the second team.

Viliamu-Asa, who sustained a torn anterior cruciate ligament in Notre Dame’s 70-7 victory over Syracuse in November, returned to practice this summer and is expected to play on Sunday. Still, the Irish don’t have to push him too much, as linebackers Drayk Bowen, Jaiden Ausberry and Jaylen Sneed are veterans who ranked among the top eight in tackles last season, as did Viliamu-Asa.

The Irish also return safety Adon Shuler, who was second on the team with 53 tackles, and defensive lineman Boubacar Traore, who led Notre Dame with 10 tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks. And they added depth in the transfer portal with the signings of defensive linemen Francis Brewu (Pittsburgh), Tionne Gray (Oregon) and Keon Keeley (Alabama) and cornerbacks DJ McKinney (Colorado) and Jayden Sanders (Michigan). Notre Dame was No. 11 in the transfer portal rankings, per 247Sports, even though the Irish added only seven transfers, far fewer than any of the top 10 schools.

Notre Dame benefits from having an easy start to the season, as its first six games are against unranked opponents. The Irish then face No. 14 BYU on the road. Three weeks later, the Irish host No. 7 Miami, the team Notre Dame lost to 27-24 in last season’s opener. The CFP selection committee pointed to that victory as the reason why it chose Miami over Notre Dame even though the Irish were ranked higher than the Hurricanes throughout November and December and won its final 10 games. Notre Dame’s only other opponent ranked in the preseason top 25 is No. 19 SMU, which it faces on Senior Day at home on Nov. 21.

Notre Dame Seeks CFP Berth After 2025 Snub

Shortly after Notre Dame missed out on the CFP last season, athletics director Pete Bevacqua didn’t mince words.

“My feelings and the feelings here are just shock and, really, an absolute sense of sadness for our student-athletes,” he told Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports. “Overwhelming shock and sadness, like a collective feeling that we were all just punched in the stomach.”

This season, the Irish don’t want to have to rely on getting the final spot, and they shouldn’t have to, as a new rule assures Notre Dame will have a spot in the 12-team field if it finishes in the top 10. The Irish were No. 11 in last year’s final ranking, but they missed out because the last two spots went to the fourth- and fifth-highest ranked conference champions, which were guaranteed places.

With Carr back, so many returners on defense and a manageable schedule, Notre Dame is considered among the most likely teams to make the CFP. In fact, 13 of 31 reporters and editors at The Athletic selected Notre Dame as their preseason national champion pick, by far the most of any team. Ohio State and Oregon were next with five apiece.

This is the seventh time in the past eight seasons Notre Dame has been in the AP’s preseason top 10. During that stretch, Notre Dame has won at least nine games each season, including going a school-record 14-2 two years ago and advancing to the CFP title game. Still, no Irish team has faced these expectations in a long time, perhaps back to the early 1990s when Lou Holtz was the coach. Holtz was the last man to lead the Irish to a national title in 1988. Nearly 40 years later, Freeman is looking to do the same. He’s kept the pain.