This Saturday another edition of the Blue-Gold Game kicks off inside Notre Dame Stadium. It’s the 94th edition and if you’re near campus this weekend it’s a good opportunity to experience the stadium and enjoy some shopping at Hammes Bookstore without being overwhelmed by a normal college football Saturday home crowd. Tickets can be purchased HERE for $10 with general admission style so you can sit wherever you find space. If you’re so inclined, the spring game will finish, you can grab a quick snack, and head over to Arlotta where the men’s lacrosse team faces Virginia at 5:00 PM ET.
2025 Blue–Gold Game
Notre Dame Stadium
South Bend, Indiana
Date: Saturday, April 12, 2025
Time: 2:00 PM ET
TV: Peacock
Like the past several years, the spring game will be absent from the NBC lineup and instead streamed on the Peacock platform. The ad-supported subscription is $7.99 per month while the ad-free price is currently $13.99 per month. A reminder that the 2024 documentary Here Come the Irish is also on Peacock and gave us 8 episodes following last year’s journey to the National Championship Game, so there’s some extra value if you were looking for it.
Injury Report
WR Will Pauling (foot)
WR Micah Gilbert (hand)
TE Cooper Flanagan (Achilles)
OL Billy Schrauth (ankle)
OL Ashton Craig (knee)
OL Anthonie Knapp (ankle)
OL Guerby Lambert (shoulder)
OL Chris Terek (foot/shoulder)
DE Jordan Botelho (knee)
DE Boubacar Traore (knee)
DT Davion Dixon (pectoral)
LB Kahanu Kia (knee)
CB Chance Tucker (knee)
S Jalen Stroman (collarbone)
This has been a good spring for a Notre Dame program that needed to get healthy and not suffer more injuries, until the recent news of an injury on the offensive line added a bit more pain. Most of the people listed above are out, out and won’t dress while a few (Pauling, Schrauth, Knapp, Stroman) have been working their way back and taking it slowly. The new injuries are redshirt freshman receiver Micah Gilbert breaking his hand a couple weeks ago and a recent shoulder injury that required surgery for Guerby Lambert.
I’m not expecting any of these players to play in the game on Saturday.
Spring Game Roster
QB: #18 Steve Angeli, #8 Kenny Minchey, #13 CJ Carr, #12 Blake Hebert
RB: #4 Jeremiyah Love, #20 Jadarian Price, #3 Gi’Bran Payne, #22 Aneyas Williams, #21 Kedren Young, #23 Nolan James
WR: #1 Jaden Greathouse, #11 KK Smith, #19 Logan Saldate, #17 Cam Williams, #16 Elijah Burress, #81 Scrap Richardson, #83 Jerome Bettis, Jr.
*Not expecting #5 Jordan Faison to dress as he prepares for the lacrosse game that evening.
TE: #9 Eli Raridon, #85 Jack Larsen, #84 Kevin Bauman
IOL: #56 Charles Jagusah, #64 Joe Otting, #75 Sullivan Absher, #77 Peter Jones, #52 Devan Houstan, #57 Cam Herron
Lots of eyes were going to be on Lambert until injury.
OT: #59 Aamil Wagner, #71 Styles Prescod, #78 Owen Strebig, #58 Matty Augustine
DE: #40 Josh Burnham, #44 Junior Tuihalamaka, #30 Bryce Young, #10 Loghan Thomas, #42 Cole Mullins
DT: #97 Gabriel Rubio, #47 Jason Onye, #41 Donovan Hinish, #93 Jared Dawson, #56 Elijah Hughes, #93 Armel Mukam, #59 Sean Sevillano, #17 Brenan Vernon
LB: #34 Drayk Bowen, #27 Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa, #3 Jaylen Sneed, #4 Jaiden Ausberry, #25 Preston Zinter, #19 Madden Faraimo, #35 Teddy Rezac, #36 Bodie Kahoun
Ausberry adding weight is a good sign for linebacker depth.
CB: #2 Leonard Moore, #29 Christian Gray, #0 Devonta Smith, #21 Karson Hobbs, #20 Cree Thomas
S: #21 Adon Shuler, #28 Luke Talich, #23 Kennedy Urlacher, #16 Tae Johnson, #31 Taebron Bennie-Powell, #11 JaDon Blair, #22 Ethan Long
9 Things to Watch
Quarterback Freak Out
Well, it’s time. Get ready to overreact to everything the quarterbacks do on Saturday and sustain us with arguments about leading the offense for the 2025 season. I’m curious if we’ll see an inordinate amount of running plays due to the lack of depth at receiver, although it’s highly likely the running backs are used a ton in the passing game on Saturday.
If you’re Angeli, you can’t play bad in this game. He can look okay and show enough poise within the offense that fans will overlook any lack of wow plays. Both Minchey and Carr have to look very good to make a move towards the starting job in the fall, at least in terms of perception from outside the coaching staff. That’s all I’m looking for really–does any quarterback look emphatically better in this controlled scrimmage and how much will that matter long-term?
Kedren Young, New Thunder
This running back room is deep and early enrolled freshman Nolan James is here already and probably thinking when he’ll be able to get some carries. Don’t worry Nolan, the 2nd half of this game will be your time to shine!
Young is the biggest running back on the roster.
Most of these players are known commodities but I’m curious to see the development of redshirt freshman Kedren Young. He took a very clear backseat to classmate Aneyas Williams last year and now they are on differing eligibility tracks. Still, we saw Young feature in a few games last year–and while it was in mop-up duty against poor competition–he looked big and quick with a 5+ yards per carry average in each contest. He’s now up to a hulking 235 pounds and I hope we see him get a lot of playing time on Saturday.
Two S’s & Cam
This game will be the perfect opportunity for a few receivers to announce themselves as ready to be part of the rotation in 2025, and maybe have a larger impact.
KK Smith is the oldest of the bunch, now a rising sophomore who dealt with a shoulder injury as a freshman and a collarbone injury late last year. He’s got a Will Fuller-esque body type and we’ve heard good things about his talent level but he needs to stay healthy and contribute.
Logan Saldate had a really quiet freshman season and is one of the least well-known players on the roster. Let’s get to know him better.
Injuries are never cool but without Gilbert on the field now classmate Cam Williams has a big opportunity and should be drinking from the fire hose so to speak in terms of practice reps. He was a big recruit, has shown he’s comfortable with the media on the Notre Dame YouTube channel, and it would be nice if he makes a big jump as he finishes up his second spring practice with the Irish.
Things Will Be Tight
I’m not sure we’ll see the tight ends get a lot of work during the Blue-Gold Game. Cooper Flanagan is out with an Achilles, Arkansas transfer Ty Washington hasn’t arrived yet, and freshman James Flanigan also won’t arrive until the summer session. We might actually see walk-ons Henry Garrity and Justin Fisher quite a bit on Saturday.
I’ll keep an eye on rising redshirt freshman Jack Larsen as he should be used quite a bit. At 6’3″ and 250 pounds he’s not your prototypical Notre Dame tight end. Can he develop into a pass-catcher or is he just an old school blocker-type?
Re-shuffle Again
Even with several transfers this off-season the offensive line remains stocked with talent and experience to the point that some tough decisions are going to be made before the season kicks off in Miami. Now, Guerby Lambert suffered a shoulder injury and had surgery, further complicating matters and possibly re-shuffling things.
Things will probably pretty rough for this weekend where only Aamil Wagner and Charles Jagusah would be projected starters and experienced lineman available–plus Jagusah rolled an ankle in last Saturday’s jersey scrimmage and Wagner has been rested quite a bit. That practice also showed the defense will probably perform pretty well against this offensive line which doesn’t bode well for the quarterbacks and offense as a whole.
Interior Athleticism
Funny how the interior defensive line was looked at skeptically across the roster but on Saturday we might see plenty of playmaking and a situation that could begin to look quite favorably once fall rolls around. Jason Onye is back with the team and is a welcome addition after missing a large chunk of the 2024 season. We have a pair of new transfers in Jared Dawson and Elijah Hughes who will see their debut in the spring game. The previously highly thought of Armel Mukam is working his way back from injury and could surprise, too.
Rover No More
This has been a trend with the defense for a while and it was accelerated last year when Jack Kiser was moved from Rover to weak-side linebacker for his final season with the Irish. For guys like Jaylen Sneed and Jaiden Ausberry this is their future, as well. The open practice on Saturday looked to show the defense is moving forward with Drayk Bowen once again as the Mike backed up by KVA with Sneed and Ausberry filling out the depth chart next to them on the inside. It’s a very exciting depth chart.
Young is Now
We’re missing a pair of impact players in Botelho and Boubacar who bring a ton of playmaking to the edge with their pass rushing abilities. We know Junior Tuihalamaka and Josh Burnham are steady veterans and Loghan Thomas might be a nice player ready to develop some more. Be on the lookout for Cole Mullins to get plenty of time on the edge in the Blue-Gold Game, despite being an undersized interior player he was getting reps on the edge this past Saturday mostly due to a lack of depth.
However, Bryce Young continues to receive rave reviews and as a rising sophomore might already be a top 5 defender on this team.
Next Gen Secondary
We could see a really young and fun secondary on Saturday. Virginia Tech safety transfer Jalen Stroman is recovering from off-season collarbone surgery and nickel corner transfer Davonte Smith from Alabama was held out of Saturday’s practice. Without Smith on the field, sophomore Karson Hobbs was practicing at nickel alongside redshirt sophomore Ben Minich.
Earlier in spring practice, Luke Talich looked to be making a move at safety however recent reporting from Saturday’s scrimmage suggests redshirt freshman Tae Johnson could be a name to watch in the secondary. He was co-starting alongside Adon Shuler and also seeing time at corner and nickel. In other words, Johnson has a ton of positional flexibility and could be on his way to reaching his immense ceiling as a recruit.
