Notre Dame Football Preview 2026: Win it All or Don't, Irish

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Everyone lost when Notre Dame didn't get into the College Football Playoff last season.

The 2025 team was better than the banged-up version that lost to Ohio State in the National Championship.

Nice job, college football. Now you made Notre Dame mad, and now Marcus Freeman and his loaded Irish team are about to go on a revenge tour that might last a long, long time.

Notre Dame Has Everything In Place to Win the National Championship

Yes, Notre Dame lost to Miami.

And absolutely no one remembered a thing about that game – it was 24-24 on the road late in the season opener, and the Irish lost in the final moments on a 47-yard field goal. 

(Notre Dame was hardly dominated by the Hurricanes, as some tried to suggest in a feeble attempt to excuse the CFP's process meltdown.)

Yes, Notre Dame lost to Texas A&M a week later.

And it was forgotten how the Irish were one fourth down stop and/or a flubbed extra point away from winning that.

Yes, those were the two biggest games of the season, but the losses were by a combined four points.

It made up for it by winning each of its last ten games by double-digits, played ten Power Four teams, destroyed eventual Mountain West champion Boise State, sunk a Navy team that won 11 games, beat USC by ten, and …

No, Notre Dame, as a program and athletic department, didn't exactly handle the snubbing with a good-natured "We'll get 'em next time" joie de vivre.

But now there's a fire lit under the entire Irish football world that has the exact same feel of Ohio State's existential desperation going into its national title-winning 2024 season.

Freeman and company went on a recruiting trail warpath.

The Irish are beyond loaded with superstar recruits for years to come – it only seems like they're signing every single top target they're going after.

But that's for the near future. In the meantime, Notre Dame is loaded with veterans, has built up a frightening stockpile of depth, and now the pressure is on.

There's no being nice about this. It's College Football Playoff National Championship or Bust for the Irish.

They have the talent, they have the schedule – seriously, more on that later – and they have the hottest head coach in the game at any level not named Cignetti.

Win it all or don't, Notre Dame.

– 2026 Notre Dame Schedule Analysis

Notre Dame Quick Hits

• Head Coach: Marcus Freeman (6th year: 43-12)
• Best Case / Worst Case: Win the national championship/Don't win the national championship
• Key Player: CJ Carr, QB Soph.
• 2025 Record: 10-2
• Biggest Question: With so much talent and experience, can the Irish handle all of the high expectations?

Notre Dame Key 2025 Stats

• Rushing Yards: Notre Dame 2,441, Opponents 1,201
• Fumbles: Notre Dame 12 (lost 4), Opponents 9 (lost 2)
• First Quarter Scoring: Notre Dame 132, Opponents 27

Offense

Offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock has almost everything in place to do even more.

The Irish finished last season 12th in the nation in total offense, second behind North Texas in scoring offense, averaging 42 points per game, and were totally dominant each and every week.

Now there's a little bit of a tweak to make, but the offense is loaded.

What’s Working

CJ Carr. There was a time not all that long ago when some doorknob – uhhhhh, yeah, hand raised – questioned Notre Dame for not going big in the transfer portal for a quarterback.

(To be fair, Georgia-to-Miami transfer Carson Beck did beat Carr and Notre Dame.)

And then Carr showed off the talent and upside to at least be in the discussion for the No. 1 overall pick in the 2027 NFL Draft.

He was everything the Irish could've asked for, hitting 67% of his throws for 2,741 yards and 24 touchdowns and six picks, averaging a whopping 9.4 yards per attempt.

The coaching staff made sure Carr has weapons. Leading receiver Jordan Faison is back after a 49-catch season, but the stars are coming in through the portal.

This is more about how jaw-dropping Ohio State's receiving room is, but it's still amazing for the Irish to land former Buckeye talents Quincy Porter and Mylan Graham.

The offensive line is full of next-level talent. It was part of the silver lining of all the injuries to the 2024 Irish offensive line – the front five was developed.

This year's line is deep and talented with tackles Anthonie Knapp and Guerby Lambert around a nasty interior.

What Needs Work

The running backs. No, you don't simply replace one of the better 1-2 rushing punches in college football history.

Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price went in the first round in the NFL Draft for a reason.

Those two combined for over 2,000 yards and 29 touchdowns, not including the five receiving scores and all Price did as a returner.

With that said, No. 3 back Aneyas Williams averaged 9.3 yards per carry on his 224 yards. He's back, along with the super-promising 215-pound Nolan James.

There's a big, big problem if Carr goes down. The Irish lost backup Kenny Minchey to Kentucky.

Blake Hebert and true freshman Noah Grubbs have a world of upside, but there's a massive issue if 13 gets hurt.

Back to the running game. The offense will rely more on Carr throwing it, but the new main backs will still receive plenty of work.

Notre Dame was 10-0 when running for over 140 yards, and 0-2 when it didn't.

The 2024 Irish went 2-2 when they didn't get to 140 yards, and 12-0 when they did.

(By the way, over recent history going back to early in the Brian Kelly era, bad things happen for Notre Dame when it doesn't run the ball at least 30 times.)

Player to Watch

Cooper Flanagan, TE Sr.
Tight ends have been a huge deal in the Irish offense over the last several years, and this year it has to replace the big plays on the 32 grabs from Eli Raridon.

Flanagan has the size and skills to be the next great Notre Dame tight end – he has five career catches, and three touchdowns – but he's coming off a torn Achilles injury.  

Defense

Chris Ash came in to take over Marcus Freeman's run defense, and after a rocky start, things turned out okay.

The Irish allowed 313 yards and 17.6 points per game. They generated a strong pass rush and shut most teams down cold in the second halves of games.

Talent and depth-wise, this should be the best defense yet in the Freeman era – at least that's where the expectations will be set.

What’s Working

Experience. In the current day and age of early departures for the NFL Draft and an always active transfer portal, it's not easy for top programs to keep around a ton of talent, much less a group that stays together for a few seasons.

The Irish have nine projected starters who were, at least, major factors in last year's rotation, and they filled in the possible gaps with established, high-end transfers.

The linebacking corps is a killer. It might not be the best in the nation, but it's not far off with the combination of Drayk Bowen, Jaiden Ausberry, Kyngston Viliamu-Asa, and Jayden Sneed having been through the wars.

These four upperclassmen combined for 201 tackles last year – they've seen it all.

The transfers made a great situation better. As is, this shaped up to be among the better defenses in college football.

Now add elite tackles Francis Brewu (Pitt), Keon Keeley (Alabama) and Tionne Gray (Oregon), and No. 1-caliber corners DJ McKinney (Colorado)  and Jayden Sanders (Michigan), and … boom.

What Needs Work

There's a wee bit of a PROVE IT factor here. Again, the Irish defense is loaded with talent and experience, but Texas A&M ripped Ash's D to shreds early last year, USC came up with close to 400 yards of total offense, and helped by some amazing catches, Carson Beck and Miami moved when it absolutely had to.

Fumble recoveries. There wasn't an issue with total takeaways with 21 interceptions, but the defense came up with just two more fumble recoveries than you did.

The 2024 defense jumped on 14 of them – that was a massive deal in tight wins over Louisville and Georgia.

More of a steady pass rush would be nice. The Irish cranked up the pressure against Syracuse, and jumped all over Boston College, but it managed just one sack in the losses to Miami and Texas A&M, and was missing a bit too often at times.

Player to Watch

Drayk Bowen, LB Sr.
The heart-and-soul type for the defense over the last few years, he followed up a 78-tackle season with a team-high 67 stops with 3.5 sacks. 

No, he's not flashy, but he'll sit in the middle of the linebacking corps and eat up everything that comes his way.

Keys to the Season

• Do as much as possible to replace the running production of Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price.
• Keep CJ Carr healthy and free to fire away.
• Get something out of the kicking game.

Player Who Needs To Shine

Aneyas Williams, RB Jr.
He won't have to do it all alone – remember, Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price kept each other fresh. 

Williams will get the first crack as the most experienced back on the roster, averaging 7.6 yards per carry on his 443 yards with seven touchdowns over the last two years. 

Biggest Concern

The placekicking.
Marcus Freeman has the magic touch in every way – except when it comes to placekicker.

The Irish went 15-of-27 on field goals in 2024, including five straight misses over the last three games of the regular season.

In came Noah Burnette last year to fix the glitch. He hit five of his first six tries, and then suffered a hip injury.

Notre Dame didn't have a made field goal over the final six games of the season – current punter Erik Schmidt missed all three of his tries, but was great on extra points – and Freeman just stopped trying. This changed the aggressiveness of the offense.

Now it's up to Spencer Porath to come through. In two years at Purdue, he made all 41 of his extra points and went 22-of-28 on field goals.

Biggest Game

Miami, November 7
The trip to Provo to BYU is a potential bear trap – but … come on.

There's a real chance it's 8-0 Notre Dame hosting 8-0 Miami in early November in a revenge of all revenge games.

This could be even bigger than the legendary 1988 Catholics vs. … nah. Let's just call this the potential game of the college football season between the last two national title runners-up.

Transfer Portal

Notre Dame did the transfer portal like an elite program.

It has so much talent coming in from the recruiting classes, and there are so many good players in place, that the losses weren't all that big.

Just about everyone of note who left took off to another Power Four program.

When it came to filling the holes, the Irish got the elite of the elite.

Best Signing

Tionne Gray, DT (Oregon)
Pitt defensive tackle Francis Brewu will likely get more work early on, and he'll be the splashier interior presence with his quickness into the backfield, but the Irish needed a Coke machine to sit on the inside.

The 6-5, 330-pound Gray has NFL size and upside. He's a potential anchor for the Irish defense.

Biggest Loss

Kenny Minchey, QB (Kentucky)
This coaching staff knows what it's doing when it comes to talent evaluation, but it would've been really, really nice to have kept Minchey around as an insurance policy.

Other Names to Know

• DJ McKinney, CB (Colorado)
• Francis Brewu, DT (Pitt)
• Quincy Porter, WR (Ohio State)

CFN Season Prediction

It's a much, much harder schedule than it looks on paper, but to kick the straight facts – and blowing off that five-win Rice was a bowl fill-in – none of the first six games are against a team that was bowl eligible.

Again, that seems like a breeze, but this will be a much different Wisconsin team than last year to start the season, and five of the first six games are against Power Four programs.

If Notre Dame really is national title good, though, it should rip through the start of the season, with maybe a little resistance from the Badgers or at North Carolina.

And then comes the problem – at BYU.

CFN Prediction: 11-1

If you're not of a certain age, Google Ty Detmer 1990 vs Miami, or Taysom Hill vs Texas to get a glimpse of how dangerous it is to play massive games in Provo.

There's a run of four games away from South Bend in five dates between the end of September and Halloween, and then comes the ACC stretch the Irish have to own – Miami, Boston College, SMU, before closing out at Syracuse.

There will be a loss in a fantastic fight somewhere – seriously, watch out for BYU – but that should be it.

Going 10-2 puts it in the hands of the judges again; 11-1 makes it a lock to get into the College Football Playoff.

Here's your chance, Notre Dame. Go win it on the field.

Related: Notre Dame Football 2026 Schedule: Full Breakdown and Season Outlook

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