Notre Dame Fighting Irish: Mid-Season Review

As #2 Notre Dame took the field last Saturday evening, in front of 65,179 fans and over 10m TV viewers, the tantalising prospect of being ranked #1 for the first time since January 2013 was within touching distance. But on a day where the #1, #5, #6 and #7 teams had already gone down, sometimes you just know the college football gods may have other ideas. 

By half-time, Boubacar Traore, Notre Dame’s best pass rusher, had been ejected on the game’s opening drive, CJ Carr had overthrown a wide-open Jordan Faison who was about to run unchallenged into the end zone for the TD, and Carr had then bizarrely fumbled and lost an attempted spike in the final seconds of the second quarter inside the BYU 5. With the Irish trailing 21-10, it was clear that this was not going to be a straightforward evening for Marcus Freeman and co. 

And whilst the second half saw improvement from Notre Dame, they ultimately fell short on an evening where there was no shortage of blame to go round. Let’s start with that which no coach can control – the gentlemen in striped shirts. 

With the Irish trying to get lined up inside the BYU 10 at the end of the first half for what would ultimately be a botched attempted spike, assorted Cougars defenders threw themselves to the ground in and around the ball. Once was cheeky. But the multiple repetitions ought to have drawn a delay of game flag. Which would have removed the need to even try a spike. Had the Irish kicked a chip shot FG there, then a FG rather than a TD would have sufficed on the final drive of the game. 

And, of course, speaking of said drive, it ended with a fairly obvious missed Defensive Pass Interference call on Jaden Greathouse as he tried to snare yet another fade throw. More pertinently, it also finished with one second still left on the clock. A kind of ‘anti-Western Michigan’, if you will. And yes, the fact that Michigan benefitted, and Notre Dame lost out, to the season’s two most egregious official clock mismanagement fiascos is not something that helps Irish fans sleep comfortably at night! 

All that said, it would be shortsighted in the extreme to simply blame defeat on the Zebras. For whilst the game was statistically very close in terms of first downs, total yards, and penalties, there was a clear gulf between the coaching, intensity and execution of both teams. 

Notre Dame were outcoached when BYU were on offense and the Cougars’ defense wanted it more and played harder. Only the Irish special teams emerged with any credit, courtesy of a trio of FGs and a vital stop on an inexplicable fake punt call. The ND defense literally wasn’t ready too often, and was far too easily susceptible to misdirection, even though it was obvious that would be a point of emphasis for BYU, along with trick plays. 

On offense the most obvious question is why the game plan only allows for Jonaz Walton to carry the ball five times. And by the seventh game of the season, how do the Irish only have three WRs they seem to trust? The ND offense and defense both had chances to close the game out late in the fourth quarter – neither side of the ball could. 

There were a handful of crumbs for the Irish to take some comfort with. Jaden Greathouse was back to his 2024 playoff form. And unlike the collapse at Miami in 2017, this team showed some guts to overcome a double-digit HT deficit. For all that went wrong when they played a C- game, they still almost won – a testament to the respective talent levels – but that will count for even less in the playoffs, should they get there. In the end, however, it was another coulda/shoulda game that the Irish lost.