In the first installment of this series we saw a potential All-American in the season opener, a feisty athletic playmaker from A&M, and a scary (in a bad way for them) situation in a rebuilding Purdue for their quarterback position. In the next 3 games of the season the Irish embark on an interesting schedule featuring a very-first visit to Fayetteville and a first meeting against Boise State before a return to the regularly schedule ACC programming.

BOLD denotes returning starter

Game #4 Arkansas

Taylen Green, 5th-Year Senior
KJ Jackson, Redshirt Freshman
Grayson Wilson, Freshman

While Notre Dame plays Boise State in the 5th game of the season, they’ll face a former Boise State quarterback now at Arkansas first. Rising 5th-year signal caller Taylen Green started 22 games with the Broncos before transferring over to the Razorbacks last year as the program finally moved on from the KJ Jefferson era. Green has been productive in college and is coming off 3,756 total yards (3rd best in the SEC) which nearly toppled Ryan Mallett’s single-season record at Arkansas. Green is particularly effective as a runner with 1,628 yards on the ground and 27 scores in his career.

Green is a certified weapon. 

KJ Jackson was a solid low 4-star recruit from Montgomery, Alabama who participated in the Elite 11 and threw 4 passes in the 2024 opener before taking a redshirt. The Hogs didn’t reach into the transfer portal this off-season. Filling out their depth chart is true freshman Grayson Wilson who comes from the Little Rock suburb of Maumelle and was a mid 3-star prospect.

THREAT LEVEL – 7.2/10

The easy blurb for Arkansas is that Taylen Green is among the most underrated quarterbacks in the country heading into 2025. He might not stay that way if he improves. The Razorbacks open with 2 relatively easy games (Alabama A&M and Arkansas State) then will face a tough stretch of road games at Ole Miss and Memphis leading right into Notre Dame’s visit to the Natural State.

Game #5 Boise State

Maddux Madsen, Redshirt Junior
Max Cutforth, Redshirt Sophomore
Kaleb Annett, Redshirt Freshman
Jack Benson, Redshirt Sophomore
Zeke Martinez, Freshman

Last off-season, Boise State scored what was believed to be one of the biggest transfer portal wins of the year. After spending one season at USC watching Caleb Williams grow into the no. 1 overall NFL pick and not unseating Miller Moss as the backup, former 5-star Malachi Nelson transferred out to Boise. However, Nelson lost the quarterback competition to then redshirt sophomore Maddux Madsen* who backed up the aforementioned Jaylen Green in 2023 and today Malachi Nelson is at UTEP.

*Checks notes, and yup, he’s from Utah with that name. 

Listed very generously at 5’10” the smaller Madsen had a nice 2024 throwing for just over 3,000 yards with 23 touchdown passes and just 6 interceptions on the way to the playoffs. Although, he did throw 3 interceptions against Penn State in the post-season and had a lowly 81.83 passer rating against Oregon earlier in the season despite a near-upset in Eugene.

One of these players isn’t on the team in 2025.

Max Cutforth was a lowly 2-star prospect from in-state Idaho while Kaleb Annett was signed last year from Newport Beach, California. The program brought in JUCO transfer Jack Benson from Citrus College and another in-state recruit as Zeke Martinez completes the depth chart as a low 3-star prospect.

THREAT LEVEL: 6.2/10

Boise State made the playoffs as the G5 entrant but was ranked “only” 12th on offense according to FEI last year–and that was with Heisman finalist Ashton Jeanty having one of the top seasons from a running back in the history of the sport. Madsen’s lack of size is always going to make things difficult for the Broncos and he’ll have to adjust big time in 2025 without Jeanty. However, he’s a quality quarterback and Boise has a pretty easy run in on the season leading up to the Irish game in South Bend. There’s a high probability that they’re 4-0 when the Notre Dame game comes around.

Game #6 NC State

CJ Bailey, Sophomore
Lex Thomas, Redshirt Sophomore
Will Wilson, Freshman

NC State scored a big win in the transfer portal last year grabbing Grayson McCall from Coastal Carolina but things went south quickly for the former Chanticleer quarterback. He was banged up early in the season then suffered a terrible concussion that ultimately led to his mid-season retirement from football. McCall is now an analyst back at Coastal Carolina.

True freshman CJ Bailey initially won the backup job from Lex Thomas and thus started the remainder of the 2024 season after McCall left the field. He was a solid player, especially for a true freshman. At 6’6″ and a slight frame, Bailey has added a lot of weight coming into 2025.

Bailey has added 20 pounds this off-season. 

The Wolfpack signed Will Wilson out of South Carolina as their quarterback from the 2025 class. He’s 6’1″ and a lot more solidly built at nearly 230 pounds.

THREAT LEVEL – 4.8/10

Being forced to start a true freshman is never ideal and the NC State offense looked the part struggling to score against nearly every opponent with a pulse. Like Bailey, the offense was pretty young overall and will hold some promise for the future. Beyond that, there isn’t much to be scared about with this quarterback and offense right now. However, the Wolfpack could be 6-0 when facing the Irish. They have a pretty manageable early ACC slate (Virginia, Wake Forest, Duke, Virginia Tech) surrounded by East Carolina and Campbell.