Category: Irish Game Day

#22 ‘Notre Dame’ Fighting Irish (1-2) vs. Arkansas Razorbacks (2-2)
Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, AR
Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025, 11 a.m. CT
ABC, Sirius XM 129, ‘Notre Dame’ Football Radio
[PDF 86pp] ‘Notre Dame’ game notes

The Fighting Irish road game with Arkansas at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville is scheduled for 11 a.m. local time — 12 noon ET, 11 CT, 10 MT, 9 PT, Saturday, Sept. 27. [click here for ‘Notre Dame’ media game notes, an 86-page PDF]

ABC is broadcasting the game on live national television.

‘Notre Dame’ Football Radio offers the game on Sirius XM 129, various radio affiliates and live streaming audio.

Among others, ABC Sports’ cable affiliate ESPN will offer a live online “gamecast” showing play-by-play and cumulative stats, accompanied by a live box score.

In his initial “bird’s eye view” early in the week, Marcus Freeman said Arkansas had a top-5 offense and a solid defense.

That would seem to promise a weakness-on-strength match-up challenging a still rebuilding Irish defense, with a few key injuries in the secondary.

Particularly concerning is big dual-threat Arkansas quarterback Taylen Green, who leads the country in total offense. Green threw for 325 yards and ran for 53 last week against Memphis.

If Arkansas can get its offense rolling, that might mean a “track meet” with an increasingly explosive Irish offense trying to outpace the Razorbacks with scoring.

Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price are increasingly regarded as the best running back tandem in college football, and both are looking more and more like NFL running backs, combining flash, speed and true tailback moves with aggressive running into the teeth of opposing defenses keying on them.

Fourth-semester rookie quarterback CJ Carr is being used more judiciously, only throwing four passes in the first half against Purdue yet also looking sharp throwing deep.

On the other hand, some commentators have cautioned against a back-and-forth scoring fest on the road in front of a rabid crowd, and that the Arkansas defense, itself “trying to find its feet” has proven itself soft against the run, something that a power running game like ‘Notre Dame’s’ should exploit to gain control of the game flow.

The 2025 Irish arguably have shown themselves to be a “diamond in the rough” work-in progress, with flashes of championship-caliber play mixed in with lapses, inconsistency or, on defense, surrendering big plays.

The Irish quality of play has grown by leaps and bounds each game, with the flashes of brilliance becoming more common, as the lapses persist, yet show improvement.

Marcus Freeman has shown himself to be the right man at the helm, voicing a sense of tireless diligence, drawing on the best of a vintage Notre Dame ethos, calling for ownership and acceptance of responsibility, accountability, and thoughtful, excellence-driven steadfast effort and improvement.

Even amidst the potpourri of extremes, the Irish have played well enough to have tight game with a highly ranked Miami (Fla.) on the road in Everglades-type weather, and to actually beat a somewhat highly-ranked Texas A&M on the field, even if the record books show a close loss, due to SEC officials blowing the game in its final moments.

Last week, of course, the Irish throttled a good, rebuilding Purdue team under a new successful coach, winning 56-30 and outgaining the Boilermakers 537 yards to 379.  The Irish pulled their starters at the end of the third quarter leading 56-23.

Yet the main thrust has been a game-by-game ramping up. The season is reminiscent of a game that starts slow but promises to crescendo with a furious rally, with the question being whether a team fighting from behind has enough time left to pull it off.

The Irish defense, reloading, and recently coping with injuries to key defensive backs Leonard Moore and DeVonta Smith, also lost one of the best assistant coaches in college football when defensive coordinator Al Golden jumped to the NFL.

Marcus Freeman indicated that new defensive coordinator Chris Ash was making the right play calls, and that his focus was on helping teach and coach the players to develop and carry out their execution the way they needed to.

An immediate question will be the secondary, with reshufflings of replacements that includes a freshman, covering and tackling well, and giving up fewer big plays.  The overall defense, however, is a work in progress that still needs to ramp and gel.

Yet it is not a static black box in some kind of mediocre inertia.  The defense is highly talented, mostly plays hard, and is stepping up to make great plays.  The issue is to keep progressing towards a more competitive level of play.

Freeman has said he is not taking over defensive play-calling, which apparently is similar to past play-calling and, in Freeman’s view, sound.  Yet apparently it has not blitzed as often as in recent years.  It will be interesting to see how all that is balanced with Arkansas having a big passing quarterback who also can run well.

Arkansas has a big line of scrimmage, although not necessarily much bigger than any power conference team, except for a few behemoths.  Yet, as with past opponents like that, the issue will be how that is countered by strength, technique and athleticism, combined with what is good size for the Irish as well.

Unlike last week’s game with Purdue, with its two-hour storm delay, this week’s game in Fayetteville appears to have favorable weather, with sunny skies and temperatures in the mid- to upper-70s.

After throttling Purdue 56-30 on Saturday, the Fighting Irish merely hold steady at #21 in the Coaches Poll and jump only two spots to #22 in the AP.

Nevertheless, the Irish (1-2) are the only team with a losing record ranked at all.

Indeed, they are ranked ahead of multiple 4-0 or 3-0 undefeated teams, as well as a team that is 3-1.  Multiple additional undefeated teams also linger below them in the “also receiving votes” category.

As expected, strength of schedule already is ebbing and flowing as the season progresses. Three Irish opponents are now ranked.  Another two are “knocking on the door” in the “also receiving votes” category of one of the polls.

Both the Irish and their opponents are in boldface below.

(* Texas A&M wins include one where the winning touchdown in the final seconds was essentially the result of cheating, when, on the Aggies’ last offensive play of the game, an Aggie offensive lineman tackled a pass rusher from behind as he was barreling towards the quarterback; but an SEC officiating crew ignored the penalty and did not throw a flag; without the cheating and/or the non-call, the Aggies likely would be 2-1)

‘Notre Dame’ may be heavy favorites against Purdue, yet, aside from sitting at 0-2, the Irish might literally have storms on the horizon when they take on the Boilermakers.

The latest forecast warns of a better-than-even chance of thunderstorms rolling in during the second half.

The Irish already have a need for faster starts and sustained momentum, and the prospect of lightning-related game stoppage should add to that urgency.

Winless ‘Notre Dame’ might be the first 0-2 team nationally ranked since 1988, but unranked Purdue has a better record at 2-1, with wins over Southern Illinois and Ball State, followed by a 16-point loss to now-#25 Southern Cal.

Last week against the Trojans, the Boilermakers gave up only one second-half touchdown.  And after trailing 17-3 at the half, Purdue made it 20-10 late in the third quarter before finally losing 33-17.

Against a Purdue team with that kind of all-day tenacity against a ranked opponent, the Irish cannot afford to take their time with a slow start, and then get into a possible lightning delay with the score still close, emboldening Purdue visions of an upset.

Against Southern Cal, Purdue showed that they are capable of moving the ball early, even while also being prone to interceptions.

While passing for more than 300 yards against a now-ranked Southern Cal, Purdue also gave up three interceptions, including an early interception when they were third-and-goal on the Southern Cal 3-yard-line on just their second possession.

After a 72-yard-drive, a touchdown rather than an interception would have given the Boilermakers an early 7-3 lead. Either way, it sounds like Purdue is capable of a strong start.

Indeed, on their very next possession, they drove 56 yards to the Southern Call 22, only to settle for a field goal, making it 10-3 a third of the way into the second quarter.

Overall, outgained 460 yards to 357, Purdue still only gave up two touchdowns in the second quarter and another touchdown in the third quarter.  While Southern Call had six scoring drives, only half managed to reach the end zone, with the other half limited to field goals.

On the ground Purdue allowed the Trojans a respectable 4.5 yards per carry for 178 yards total rushing, with no Southern Cal running back reaching 100 yards. But one Southern Cal running back averaged 7.5 yards per carry.

So if the Irish are at least competent with their blocking and running, they should be able to sustain drives and score efficiently, and the potentially electrifying Irish running backs might be able to gash the Boilermaker defense here and there.

Both Southern Cal touchdowns were on the ground. While the Trojans threw for 282 yards on 17/28 (61%) passing, the Purdue passing defense did not gave up a touchdown through the air.  But neither did they snag an interception.

Hopefully that will not change against an Irish quarterback still learning “on the job,” who has had at least one jaw-dropping bad decision and bad throw in each game thus far.

Yet, with the passing game should be there for the Irish, to whatever extent, with some decent play-calling and competent execution, opened up by some steady success with the running game.

The Purdue rushing attack was fairly weak against Southern Cal, totaling only 52 yards at an anemic 1.9 yards per carry.

However their leading rusher, senior Devin Mockobee, did roll up 45 yards at 3.8 yards per carry, which might be enough to plug into the overall flow of a drive here and there, especially with a potent passing attack.

In Purdue’s second drive that went to the Southern Cal 3-yard-line, Mockobee had a 17-yard run and a 2-yard run, with a 4-yard run added by back-up quarterback Malachi Singleton, a transfer from Arkansas with running ability. Singleton apparently made a very brief appearance in a drive led mostly by Purdue’s 6-4 junior quarterback Ryan Browne, listed as a sophomore despite three years of stats.

Against a now-ranked Southern Cal, Browner threw for 305 yards on 24/39 (62%) passing.  However, Browne also threw 3 interceptions to only 1 passing touchdown.

The Irish defensive secondary was highly touted coming into the season.  But after two games, their passing defense is 114th out of 136 teams in Div. I-A/FBS  in terms of passing yards surrendered, giving up 283 yards per game.

As with some of the other units, the secondary has had some uneven play, including periodic issues with coverage or tackling. That included a long touchdown run-after-catch  by Texas A&M that featured non-tackles by a cluster of two Irish defenders, along with a baffling half-hearted “tackle” by yet a third defender that was more of a light torso tap with a shoulder pad. (As an aside, that tackle stood in stark contrast to a later, massive, full textbook-tackle takedown by Irish linebacker Drayk Bowen. So the Irish do have some defenders who know how to tackle.)

Even worse for the Irish secondary, their injury report lists their best defensive back, preseason All-American cornerback Leonard Moore, as questionable for Purdue after an ankle injury against Texas A&M.