Notre Dame football’s 2025-26 season opener didn’t end the way most fans were hoping for. The game turned out to be much more competitive through the stretch than what we had to bear through in the beginning but ultimately Miami (FL) came out on top, 27-24.
One of my big takeaways from the game/stats is: “There’s a whole lotta new out there.” The transfer activity at the quarterback position over the last few seasons has sucked a lot of roster attention but ND had an incredibly talented core group
that were fixtures of the program. And this is our first season in a long time with so many new parts of both the Irish team and coaching staff. Given that it’s also the first game of the season, let’s try and do a causal, non-judgmental stroll through the stats tables.
The Passing Context
Notre Dame started redshirt freshman CJ Carr against Miami’s Carson Beck who is entering his sixth season of college quarterback play. Even with that big difference, the passing stats for each team weren’t as night and day as you’d expect.
The high-level stats:
- Notre Dame finished -1 in completed passes, with Beck logging 20 and Carr completing 19.
- Notre Dame also finished -1 in attempted passes. CJ Carr got off 30 attempts, compared with Beck’s 31.
- And the two QBs were almost identical in terms of passing accuracy, although the Hurricanes finished +1.2%. Beck completed 64.5% of his passes while Carr completed 63.3% of his passes.
- The two quarterbacks matched each other in the touchdown pass area, and ended the game with 2 TDs a-piece.
- The biggest difference between the two quarterbacks was overall passing yardage. The Irish had a +16 passing yard edge, with CJ Carr tacking on 221 yards through the air in his big-time debut. Beck walked away with 205 passing yards.
The Rushing Context
The ground game is where we saw the biggest difference between the two teams on Sunday night. Miami (FL) finished the game with +10 rushing attempts. The Irish logged 28 rush attempts and the Hurricane’s stat was 38. And Miami (FL) finished with +26 rushing yards, putting up 119 compared with Notre Dame’s 93 yards on the ground.
Granted, neither team blew us away with their rushing efficiency. Notre Dame’s group averaged 3.3 yards per rush attempt while Miami (FL) got an average of 3.1 yards per rush attempt. And again, the two teams matched each other when it came to turning rushes into points. They tacked on one rushing touchdown a-piece.
The Overall Offense Context
By the stats, Miami (FL) had the definitively better offensive day. They had a chance to get off 11 more offensive plays than Notre Dame and edged them out in terms of total offensive yards, 324 to 314. With their fewer plays called, the Irish had a more efficient offensive day, though. They averaged 5.4 yards per play, compared with 4.7 for the Hurricanes.
The Penalty/Turnover Context
Miami (FL) finished with six penalties and Notre Dame ended the game with five penalties. The actual yardage hit was harder for the Hurricanes. Penalties inflicted 51 yards of damage for Miami (FL) while flags pushed the Irish back 30 yards.
It was a bad showing for Notre Dame in the turnover category. They finished -2 with an early Malachi Fields fumble and CJ Carr interception. While they didn’t feel super disastrous for me in the moments, you can’t help but imagine the what-ifs given how close the rest of the stats ended up being.
The Rushers
The commentators made for damn sure that we were not going to forget Riley Leonard ran the football a lot. And while CJ Carr did prove himself to be a pretty competent rusher, I really hope for fans’ sakes that the TV people find another way what looks like is going to be a decent amount of designed QB runs.
Carr finished the game with 11 carries for 16 yards and one touchdown.
Jeremiyah Love got going late but tallied up ten carries for 33 yard, translating to 3.3 yards per carry. Jadarian Price had big moments in the middle of the game to give the offense some much needed momentum. He finished the season opener with 6 carries for 45 yards, translating to 7.5 yards per carry.
The Receivers
One of the brightest spots of the game for me was seeing CJ Carr have the ability to get the ball in the hands of a variety of receivers.
Tight end Eli Raridon and wide receiver Jordan Faison led the group with five catches a-piece. Raridon turned those catches into 97 yards and Faison finished with 33 yards. Jeremiyah Love played a decent size role in the game’s late passing attack and logged four receptions for 26 yards.
Malachi Fields had a very big outing in his Notre Dame debut. He brought down three catches for 48 yards, with only Eli Raridon posting more production.
The Defenders
It wasn’t the type of defensive game we’ve gotten used to seeing from Marcus Freeman teams. But they’re missing a lot of key players, particularly in the secondary. Not to mention Al Golden’s exit to the NFL.
And they were facing off against a quarterback with five seasons of high-level SEC experience a well as a 17-year old standout receiving talent in Malachi Toney who is going to be giving a lot of teams fits.
Transfer safety Jalen Stroman led the Irish’s defense with six solo tackles and nine combined tackles. Linebacker Drayk Bowen had two solo tackles and eight combined tackles.
Defensive lineman Boubacar Traore was the Irish’s biggest threat upfront. He finished the game with three solo tackles, six combined tackles, one tackle for loss and one sack.
