If you have followed me long enough over the years, you already know that I don’t put too much stock into what Notre Dame football presents us each spring. I know it’s exciting to get a glimpse at next season, and to begin putting our hopes into one individual or another, but the version of the football we see in spring is vastly different than what we get in the fall.
So, having said that, the Blue-Gold Game wasn’t much of what fans had hoped for on Saturday — and that’s fine.
Much of what went on
during the game was because of how it was formatted and who was playing. Marcus Freeman is completely entitled to run his football practices any way he wishes, and make no mistake about it, the game was ultimately a glorified practice.
In this practice, the defense clearly won the day despite the “score” that was on the scoreboard. CJ Carr struggled a bit, but any big takeaways from what went down isn’t just wrong — it’s comical. Carr isn’t some new QB ready to take the reins, he’s a seasoned vet now, and one that was pretty outstanding in 2025. I’ve already seen a handful of overreactions to his play on Saturday and immediately I labeled them as random casuals.
Overall offensively, the young wide receivers played well. Devin Fitzgerald looks like a player that will press for playing time in the rotation this fall, and Mylan Graham looked like a legit starter as well. It’s hard to gauge much of anything in the running game with how it was laid out, but Jonaz Walton showed some nice ability to get upfield between the tackles.
On the defensive side of the ball, Jayden Sanders really stood out at cornerback with a couple of pass deflections. The new defensive line situation was encouraging as well with freshman Rodney Dunham playing well along with Keon Keeley. Again, despite the score, the defense pretty much won the day in my opinion.
The real winner of the game, however, was kicker Spencer Porath. If we need to take everything from the spring game with a grain of salt — Spencer Porath is sodium free. Notre Dame has a kicker, and we can breathe a little easier.
It was… a practice, and I’m totally good with that. Notre Dame is working toward putting together a championship team in 2026, and Saturday was just another checkpoint along the way. So yeah, let’s overanalyze a practice — that makes perfect sense.
It was a chance for Notre Dame fans to see most of the 2026 team, which is a team that is comprised of more than 1/3 of new players. I advise you to watch the game again and focus on three or four players.
Analyze that.
