Notre Dame’s run game will need to be better to reach high expectations

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At a glance, Notre Dame may have opened the season as many would’ve expected. The Fighting Irish beat Wisconsin 41-13, quarterback CJ Carr put together a solid stat line and the defense played like a dominant unit.

But the game was not that simple. The Fighting Irish were up just 13-10 at halftime and looked out of sync on the offensive side of the ball. The glaring issue after 30 minutes was the production out of the backfield.

One of Notre Dame’s strengths under head coach Marcus Freeman has routinely been the run game, but in the first half, that run game was almost nonexistent. The Fighting Irish had just 29 rushing yards at halftime and until the fourth quarter, their longest rush was five yards. The run game eventually got going but for this team to be a national championship contender, the rushing attack needs to be consistent through four quarters.

“There were moments in the game tonight that they showed to be the backs we expected,” Freeman said. “I don’t expect to replace [Jeremiyah] Love and [Jadarian Price] with just one guy. It’s going to be a committee and it’s going to be keeping guys fresh. Continuing to let them run and continuing to let them try and wear down the defense. I’m confident not just because of today, but because of what I have seen over fall camp and spring ball.”

“There’s a lot of confidence and they will continue to work and the evidence will show in the future,” Freeman added.

The run game struggles can be prefaced yet again by pointing out that it lost Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price to the NFL. Love rushed for more than 1,000 yards in 2024 and 2025, accumulating 1,372 rushing yards and 18 rushing touchdowns last year. Price racked up 674 rushing yards and 11 rushing touchdowns. That’s more than 2,000 rushing yards and 29 touchdowns gone from the backfield.

The first man up to replace them was Aneyas Williams, a 5-foot-10, 210-pound junior who played sparingly the last two seasons, but flashed when he did. Williams rushed for 219 yards and two touchdowns on 34 carries in 2024, then 224 yards and five touchdowns on 24 carries last season.

The bruising back got the start Sunday night, but it took him a little while to get going. He saw a lot of volume early in the game with five rushes on the first two drives, but his longest rush of those was for five yards. It was the same story through the second quarter as the Fighting Irish rotated in Kedron Young and Nolan James Jr.

At halftime, Notre Dame had just 29 rushing yards on 16 carries. It held a 13-10 lead but the offense as a whole looked out of sync. The Fighting Irish’s lone touchdown came after a muffed punt when they started at Wisconsin’s 13-yard line.

The running backs started to find their form out of the locker room. Williams and James Jr. helped lead Notre Dame down the field, with James Jr. recording 35 receiving yards on the drive and Williams scoring a three-yard touchdown.

“I thought the coaches made some really good adjustments for the run game,” Freeman said. “Our backs were hitting the holes and the angles they needed to hit. We challenged them at halftime; we gotta run. Stop trying to look for certain things. See your aiming point and go and the accumulation of those three things really helped us.”

The run game was also playing behind a reshaped offensive line. Sophomore Will Black made his first career start at left tackle. Anthonie Knapp moved to left guard after he played left tackle the last two years. Styles Prescod started at right guard after he didn’t start at all last year either.

Wisconsin got consistent pressure on the group that was clearly working through first-game adjustments. The Badgers prevented the big plays on the ground that made the Fighting Irish so dangerous last year. The offensive line is a largely young group that should improve with more reps, which should assist the run game.

Williams scored his second touchdown of the day on Notre Dame’s opening drive of the fourth quarter. He popped runs for 12 and 16 yards on the drive, finally unlocking some big-play ability out of the backfield. That score pretty much put the game out of reach at 34-13, and the Fighting Irish relied more on the ground game to burn the clock. James Jr. added the final touchdown on a 28-yard reception to close the book on Wisconsin.

The final stat line for the running backs did not end up being too bad. Williams finished with 90 yards and two scores on 20 carries and James Jr. had 67 receiving yards and a receiving touchdown out of the backfield. Overall, Notre Dame had 111 rushing yards and averaged 3.5 yards per carry.

The first game is always a challenge as teams work out issues with new personnel and that was no different with Notre Dame’s backfield. Still, the first-half issues were concerning and it showed as the Fighting Irish struggled to maintain drives against Wisconsin without a strong run game.

Williams and James Jr. both displayed flashes of electric abilities, especially in the second half, that ease those concerns. Now they just have to sustain it and find a little more consistency.

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