SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — No. 3 Notre Dame has emerged as a model of consistency in this ever-changing college football world.
The storied program has won 15 straight games, all by double digits, putting the Fighting Irish (5-0) on the cusp of making history again.
Army set the Football Bowl Subdivision record for most consecutive double-digit win margins with 21 from 1944-46. Miami is second at 17 from 2000 to 2001. Notre Dame can move within one of
the Hurricanes when its hosts struggling Stanford on Saturday.
Defensive end Boubacar Traore thinks it's all about keeping it simple.
“We’ve been practicing at a very high level, and I feel like as long as we keep the same mindset every day — just coming into practice and looking to get better, looking to build confidence through our practice — it will allow us to keep playing the way we’re playing,” he said. “We’ve got to worry about right now.”
Notre Dame’s streak began with a seemingly mundane 56-30 rout of in-state rival Purdue on Sept. 20, 2025. Since then, the Irish have beaten all comers — Arkansas, Boise State, Southern California, Pittsburgh, Wisconsin and most recently North Carolina.
The 27-10 win in Week 3 over Michigan State broke the school record for consecutive double-digit victories (12) set by Knute Rockne's teams across the 1921 and 1922 seasons. And if Notre Dame extends the longest active streak in the Football Bowl Subdivision, it could tie Miami's mark next week at No. 8 Brigham Young.
Stanford (2-3), meanwhile, hopes to ditch its own streak — 13 consecutive road losses, which is tied for the longest active streak with Ball State. The Cardinal extended that streak with Saturday's 57-3 loss at Wake Forest — the program's most lopsided loss since 1954.
“If we could play our road games here at Stanford Stadium, that would help,” first-year coach Tavita Pritchard said this week. “That would be a start because then we wouldn’t have to change time zones. We wouldn’t have to get on a plane. There would be none of those things.”
Notre Dame’s 37-26 victory at rainy North Carolina on Saturday proved more challenging than many of the other victories in a streak which the Irish have outscored opponents by nearly 20 points a game. But that may mean more to Notre Dame than just another rout.
Coach Marcus Freeman compared that 11-point victory to an 11-point win over Ohio University when he played for Ohio State in 2008.
“Coach (Jim Tressel) would always say he wanted that,” Freeman said about tough games. “It’s so that at some point when you’re in a tough one-score game, that your guys have been there before. They understand that there’s no need to panic, right? We’ve been down, we’ve been in close ball games, and it’s going to come down to execution."
One of Stanford's problems has been making the arduous journey needed to play ACC football. The Cardinal routinely travel from the West Coast to the Eastern time zone.
Yet Pritchard believes Stanford is doing everything possible when dealing with five-hour flights.
“How do we, as kind of on the player side, how do we keep the focus on what’s important?,” he said. “They, the players, don’t control the time zone change, or where we play, or the noise in the stadium, or the fans. How do we continue to harden them against the things that otherwise are outside of our control, and get them to play and focus in those situations where we have to?”
Freeman has a linebacker’s steely demeanor on the sidelines, but he admits to being anxious when quarterback C.J. Carr runs. Carr has 12 carries for 28 yards and three scores this season.
Freeman went so far that at one point, he instructed Carr to slide instead of taking a shot to the ribs.
“I’m uncomfortable every time he takes off and runs, just because, it’s like no different than your own son,” Freeman said. “You don’t want to see him get hurt. You don’t want to see any players get hurt, but especially your quarterback. I’m not going to be able to slow him down.”
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