CFB: Notre Dame Fighting Irish Week 3 Preview
By Stiofán Mac Fhilib
After a dramatic comeback but subsequent eventual loss in a close, prime-time Sunday night game in Miami in week 1, Notre Dame had a week off to lick their wounds. Now another prime-time match-up with Texas A&M awaits.
Looking Back at Last Week
A fortnight ago, the Irish headed to South Florida in search of their first win in seven trips to face the Hurricanes. It was a night to remember for the home side, but a strange defeat for a Marcus Freeman-led Notre Dame team.
Miami (FL) head coach, Mario Cristobal, a former Offensive Lineman himself, is as much an adherent of the ‘OL and DL-driven program’ philosophy as his ND counterpart. And in Hard Rock Stadium, for the best part of almost three quarters, Miami dominated the Irish in a manner Notre Dame fans are much more used to seeing from their own team.
The Hurricanes had no difficulty winning handily on both lines of scrimmage. Both ND’s OTs struggled against likely the best DE tandem they’ll face, in the regular season at least. And the interior of the Irish DL was too often pushed back way too easily.
Credit the Hurricanes’ OC with a game plan that saw Carson Beck release his passes on average after under 2.5 seconds, making it a long night for the Notre Dame pass rush. And, of course, even when they almost did get home, and pressurised the Georgia transfer, his overthrown pass in the red zone was brilliantly caught one-handed by another SEC transfer, CJ Daniels from LSU.
Last season, the Irish prided themselves on winning ‘the middle eight’ – the four minutes either side of half-time. Against the Hurricanes, they most emphatically lost the ‘middle twelve’: Miami scored on drives lasting 5:09 and 7:37 to end the second quarter and start the third.
On the positive side, however, after watching a host of first-time QBs struggle to varying degrees on the opening Saturday of the season, Notre Dame fans can be delighted at the potential that redshirt freshman CJ Carr demonstrated. He dragged the Irish back from a 14-point deficit, throwing his second TD then running in for another to tie the game with just over three minutes remaining.
ND’s inability to halt the final Miami drive that led to the game-winning FG cost them a valuable Top Ten road victory. But if Marcus Freeman can successfully address the OL issues and the surprising passivity on defense, then Carr’s performance should give Irish fans legitimate hope that all the Notre Dame pre-season goals still remain attainable as they come off their first bye week.
The Week Ahead
#16 Texas A&M Aggies (Notre Dame Stadium); 7.30pm EDT; 12.30am IST/BST
This will be the seventh meeting all-time between the Aggies and the Fighting Irish. Notre Dame holds a 4-2 series lead but lost the only previous match-up in South Bend between the two teams, 10-24 in Bob Davie’s penultimate 2000 season. Curiously, that game was part of a home-and-home series where the road team won on each occasion. ND fans will be hoping history does not repeat itself on Saturday night.
Mike Elko, in his second season as head coach, brings his team north after a pair of straightforward victories over UTSA and Utah State. He has one of the most talented rosters the Irish will face in 2025, but will need significantly more production out of them than in the corresponding fixture last year.
Redshirt sophomore QB Marcel Reed will present a different challenge from that faced by the Irish when Conner Weigman was under center in College Station. Reed started eight games for the Aggies in 2024 and rushed for 7 TDs in addition to his 15-6 TD-INT ratio as a passer. Expect LB, Jaylon Sneed, to be often tasked with spying on Reed, and for ND to continue to play more zone coverage than last season.
The Irish will try to stop the run and force Reed into passing situations, but doing so will require better play from the DL against another very large OL. A&M have a stable of impressive RBs, led by Le’Vonn Moss, though the injury their best lineman, LT, Trey Zuhn, suffered last weekend could be a weakness the likes of Boubacar Traore may exploit.
They have one of the fastest WR rooms Notre Dame will face. NC State transfer, KC Concepcion, Mario Craver, who came from Mississippi State, and converted CB, Terry Bussey, all pose a threat, and not always just as pure receivers.
On defense the Aggies return plenty of relative experience. However, for a coach with a background on that side of the ball and a stellar reputation as a DC, last season’s unit did not meet expectations, especially after the fabled 2022 recruitment class.
DE Cashius Howell had three sacks on consecutive plays against Utah State, and he and TJ Searcy will be a formidable test for the Irish OTs, who struggled in Miami. LB, Taurean York, a captain and freshman All-American in 2023, is their best player at that position. A usually reliable tackler, ND fans will remember one of his rare misses: on Jadarian Price’s TD run in College Station.
Their defensive backfield is good, though not great, against the pass, but it had issues with tackling last season that have already bled into this campaign. It’s no secret that Mike Denbrock will want to see Love and Price get significantly more carries this weekend, and after watching how UTSA were able to run on the Aggies in Week 1, they will need to be a lot stiffer in run defense in South Bend, or it will be a very long evening indeed.
Game Prediction
Notre Dame 27-17 Texas A&M
Another close-fought game between the teams will see the Irish run game finally wear down the visitors in the second half. Notre Dame lost the turnover battle in Miami – they will win it en route to an important bounce-back victory.
Where to Watch
Sky Sports NFL (Channel 412 on Sky) coverage starts at 12.30am IST/BST
NBC (in the USA)
Playoff Picture
After a blockbuster week 1 that left LSU, Ohio State, Miami and Florida State very well placed with huge out-of-conference wins on their résumés, week 2 was a quieter affair with the leading college football playoff contenders all holding serve.
This weekend, the focus will be on the SEC, which has gotten off to an excellent start in matchups outside the conference. Now it’s time for some conference play, and Georgia at Tennessee, Florida at LSU and Vanderbilt at South Carolina will all be important indicators of where the SEC rankings may end up in November.
And keep an eye on South Florida at Miami. Should the visitors manage an upset, to go with their opening wins over Boise State and at Florida, then the Bulls would undoubtedly have the inside track for the G5 guaranteed playoff spot.
STIOFÁN MAC FHILIB
COLLEGE FOOTBALL ANALYST
A VERY LONG-DISTANCE SUBWAY ALUMNUS OF NOTRE DAME, COUNTY ANTRIM-BASED STIOFÁN HAS BEEN A FAN OF THE FIGHTING IRISH SINCE 2000. FOLLOW HIM ON TWITTER @SMACFHILIB.