With the score sitting at 21-0, in the gameday Discord channel I joked Notre Dame should cover the spread in the first quarter. Wishes do come true this Holiday season, I guess. On an overcast afternoon in South Bend, the visiting Syracuse Orange showed they did not belong on the same field as the Fighting Irish resulting in an embarrassing 70-7 loss for one of the nation’s most struggling football programs. I’m not sure we’ll classify what transpired as ‘fun’ but it was another obstacle passed on the way to the post-season. For the finale, Notre Dame will travel to California to face Stanford.
Here’s the review of Notre Dame’s 9th straight victory:
QUARTERBACK: C+
It was a light day of work for CJ Carr who exited the game mid-way through the 3rd quarter after a mere 9 pass attempts. In truth, there was probably more bad that good, hey he only threw for 49 yards! He wasn’t able to connect on a couple deeper throws, way very high on an incompletion to Eli Raridon, and took an ugly sack. It matters not, though.
Kenny Minchey was really casual out there, his playing style is so calm and his jimmies are never rustled. He did try a pass downfield and then settled into some check down work to finish the game. We’ll mention his 59 rushing yards, of course. Watching the team win by such a large margin with only 67 (okay say it) passing yards is wild.
RUNNING BACK: A+
We’ll have to check the record books but 339 non-sack rushing yards on only 23 carries is absurd, that’s hard to do on easy mode in a video game! The Irish almost averaged 15 yards per rush! And that includes some late Nolan James runs that didn’t do a whole lot.
At this point, the Jeremiyah Love Heisman Campaign really just needs some highlights, and he came through again. Three more touchdowns, including highlight reel runs from 45 and 68 yards, respectively. It doesn’t hurt that he struck the Heisman pose, either. Get this man to New York City, please.
WIDE RECEIVER: B
Co-leading receiver on the team Leo Scheidler, just like we all predicted. At least we got Malachi Fields his 1 reception to continue his streak for 38 straight games. The offense went pretty deep into the depth chart (catches by Micah Gilbert and Cam Williams) but not as many played as I would’ve thought, probably preserving redshirts and such to give opportunity to others.
Plus, the Irish only ran 39 offensive plays! What in the world was even this game??
TIGHT END: B
Raridon can’t step out of bounds if he doesn’t make any catches.
OFFENSIVE LINE: A
Any time the offense averages over 10 yards per play there was good things going on up front. We won’t disparage the Syracuse defense (why kick someone while their down?) but there were some massive holes to run through, particularly for both Love and Price in the first half.
DEFENSIVE LINE: A+
A full 8 tackles for loss from the defensive line against Syracuse, great job. Also, three sacks from this group. I didn’t think it was really that necessary for Notre Dame to bring that much pressure but they did and the line was creating a whole lot of opportunities for the entire defense. Especially early on, Syracuse could get no breathing room.
The Orange had 11 yards on their first 6 offensive series, all in the 1st quarter!
LINEBACKER: A+
Somehow, Syracuse ended up with 112 rushing yards. However, it was a garbage time fest of numbers. Orange running back Will Nixon was stuffed on his first 6 carries of the game, just absurd.
We’ll await news of a potential injury to KVA–he came out for the 2nd half in street clothes and was shown on camera not in the greatest of moods. Freeman didn’t provide an update after the game during his press conference.
SECONDARY: A+
We nearly had a triple pick six game, if not for a roughing the passer penalty call on Donovan Hinish. At that point, 3rd team safety Ethan Long had intercepted Joe Filardi and scored. Eight plays later, Long picked Filardi off again and this time the play stood.
This was an embarrassment of riches game for the Irish secondary. Filardi started the game 3 of 10 for 12 yards and a pair of pick sixes.
Jalen Stroman’s season hasn’t gone like he planned after transferring over from Virginia Tech. Today, it must have been super fun though.
NOTES:
Was the worst part of this game not attempting and getting to practice any field goals?? Erik Schmidt did get to kick (and made!) 10 PAT’s although I’m not sure a single one went through the middle portion of the posts. I’d estimate he can only make anything from inside about 28 yards right now. #analysis
For the record books, Notre Dame was +7.6 in yards per play in this game. I scoured the cfbstats.com and Notre Dame didn’t go over 10 yards per play on offense going back to 2016. The 2.58 YPP allowed for the defense is also the lowest in that time frame, although there were a few games (like Tennessee State in 2023 at 2.69 YPP) that came close.
In case you missed it, NBC decided to go with a Wicked themed graphics package to show off Notre Dame’s defensive improvement this year under Chris Ash:
Ashaba haunts the dreams of any offense.
Even if you take away the 1st quarter pick sixes and blocked punt touchdown, this was still a 49-7 victory in which Notre Dame had zero explosive passing plays. That’s just so wild. The Irish rushed for THREE HUNDRED EIGHTEEN yards on just 10 carries.
Another crazy stat (there are so many from this game) includes just 4 conversions for Notre Dame.
Okay, another: Syracuse ran 41 more plays than Notre Dame but lost by 63 points.
As you’d expect, the Syracuse boards are pretty upset with Fran Brown and this program. It’s crazy to think about where they were last year compared to this year. He’s a very good recruiter (they’re 25th in the current team rankings for 2026) and has done well in the portal but the roster that was on the field in South Bend on Saturday looked pretty dreadful. This is a type of season where things could turn really sour and roster management becomes a huge problem. He signed a 5-year deal worth about $20 million a couple years ago and probably gets 2 more seasons to turn things around but in the grand scheme of major college football he’s an easy head coach to buy out and replace.
At least his jacket was cool.
I was curious to see how many separate 9-game winning streaks we’ve seen at Notre Dame. It’s a lot, although the early years of the program give us a bunch. Here’s the full list:
1901-02
1908-09
1912-14
1915-16
1919-21
1921-22
1923-25
1929-31
1934-35
1937-38
1943
1946-48
1949-50
1952-53
1954-55
1964
1970
1973-74
1977
1988-89 (school record 23 in a row)
1992-93
2001-02
2012
2017-18
2019-20
2024-25
2025
There may be a handful more from the past if they didn’t allow ties for such a long time in college football.
I’m not on preview duty for next weekend but I’ll be awfully curious to see how Notre Dame comes in to a super late kickoff against a Stanford team that stinks, but probably doesn’t come close to the struggle bus of this Syracuse team. A possible let down could happen, especially if things across the country break in Notre Dame’s favor. Plus, remember there are a ton of games prior to Saturday (I’ve got 4 games on the preliminary week 14 picks article from Friday alone) and the urge to rest some key players–if a modest lead is built–might be strong in Palo Alto.
Good morning, America and 18 Stripes!
First, a genuine thanks to Andy, for a good Reaction. Especially that pic of J-Love showing instant nostalgia at his last “lights at the start of the 4th quarter in the Stadium” moment. I have to think that no matter how his pro career might go, even if with all the success we’ll wish him, he won’t ever have a similar moment.
Second, love all his J-Love highlights; I’ll never ever forget being down in the South end zone vs Indiana watching him tearing down the field coming right towards me, with his flu and bad knee and all.
Next, I have to like the way having a CFP allows the kind of improvement that HCMF seems so good at fostering. The players all seem to have bought into the one play at a time and delayed gratification mantras, and what’s special is it seems to be attached to a certain contemporary version of, dare I say, the Notre Dame Spirit.
Example 1, J-Love’s interview with McAfee et al, besides showing his remarkable emotional growth, is probably the only CF player interview lately where the player mentions academic classes, several times and in a meaningful way.
Example 2, Stroman’s exciting moments, and how excited his teammates were for him.
I’ll save Stanford Palo Alto reflections for later!
I’m really glad you mentioned J. Love’s interview with McAfee et al. I was struck by his reference to classes (twice) as well. I don’t recall another interview with a college player where classes got mentioned as part of the student’s life (I’m sure it’s happened at some point, but I’ve just not seen it)..
When I was at ND (which I think wasn’t that far behind your time, More Noise), I recall having a major exam the week before we played USC, and having two different starters (Tom Clements and Wayne Bullock) in my class. They took the exam along with the rest of us. We beat USC and went on to win the National Championship that year (’73-’74) and yet, our players did classes.
It’s one of the things that makes ND so special. When we, as students and alumni, cheer on the Irish, we’re cheering for folks who are right there in class with us (or were there), experiencing the same things.
Amen, Cubsfan,
In ’66, another Natty year, I also recall being in a big astronomy exam (that was the mandatory science class for us non-sciency students) with the three top DL (all of whom went on to have NFL careers). The week of the Oklahoma game (at Norman) who were ranked in the top 10.
Gotta say they looked… intense! But all of them passed, and we won (38-0 if I recall!)
I am sure all of our younger ND grad site-mates will have similar stories. HCMF seems all in with that aspect in recruiting.
Clements to Demmerle! Memorable for sure.
Speaking of Jeremiyah, he is getting more Heisman love. Was +1800 prior to the Syracuse game, is right around +600 in the odds now.
Is it…happening?
Feels there could be a wave to catch. Needs a few good highlights out of Palo Alto, with maybe a pass reception or even a highlight lead block that gets on media.