Getting To Know The Enemy: 6Qs About The Notre Dame Fighting Irish

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With the smaller MAC schools portion of the season behind us, we are moving forward to play teams that have their own SB Nation sites (UCLA, which is on our schedule, and USC do not have their own sites). Henceforth, in addition to Mike’s weekly opponent previews, I will also be collaborating with a writer from that week’s opponent’s site to bring you a little Q&A. This week, Patrick Sullivan from One Foot Down took some time to answer some questions for us on his Notre Dame squad. Let’s see what he had to say.

TOC: After winning the final 10 games of 2025, Notre Dame came into this season ranked #4.  What were your predictions for 2026 before week 1 kicked off?  What did you say ND’s record would be?  Would they make the playoffs?  If yes, how far did you see them going?

PS: The hype for this Fighting Irish squad got pretty deafening over the offseason, which I totally understand given the situation: a team that probably should have been in the Playoff last year returns the vast majority of their elite defense, their extremely promising quarterback, and their head coach and all three coordinators. They also have a VERY easy regular season road with just a few real tests lined up with @BYU, Miami at home, and SMU at home serving as the only Playoff-contender opponents on the schedule.

It wasn’t just ND fans and beat writers hyping this team, as the Irish became a very trendy choice amongst national media personalities when it came time for each of them to make their preseason prediction for this year’s champion. 

And that, of course, drove the pessimist I am at heart into extreme fits of anxiety. I was born in 1991, so my earliest memories of Notre Dame football are the Bob Davie years. And so in my lifetime of memories, Notre Dame has only ever been good when they weren’t necessarily expected to be THAT good (e.g. 2005, 2012, 2017, 2020, 2024), and it feels like whenever they got lots of preseason hype as a true national title contender, they ended up at least somewhat disappointing (e.g. 2006). I love Notre Dame football with all my heart, but the relationship has felt like I’m Charlie Brown, the program is Lucy, and an actual national title is the football she continues to pull every time I start to believe this year is different.

So all offseason, I had high expectations for this team for all the objective reasons I mentioned earlier, but that overconfidence and my experience as an Irish fan ultimately led me to more than half-expect the Irish to come out this year and fail miserably, because we can never truly have nice things. We all saw the hype Clemson and Penn State had heading into the 2025 season, and how that turned out — what if that happens to ND this year?

I’m starting to ramble and spiral here, but I guess what I’m trying to say is I came into this season expecting the Irish to AT BARE MINIMUM make the Playoff, because the schedule is easy and with their returning talent, there’s no excuse not to do so. And if we’re being honest, I’d call a Playoff appearance without at least one postseason win a failure — my expectations would be to make the semifinals, and then we will just have to see based on matchups, injuries, etc. But even just typing that out has me worried that I’ve jinxed this team to lose to Syracuse or something, and end up back in contention for the Pop Tarts Bowl. Hold me, I’m Irish.

TOC: Back to 2025 a moment, what were your thoughts on Marcus Freeman electing not to play in a bowl game after not being invited to the CFP?  Through 4 full seasons as head coach, what are your impressions of Freeman?  What are his strengths and weaknesses?

PS: I personally think too much was made of it, especially by fans of other teams and media who felt personally offended by the decision. Why does anyone else care if Notre Dame plays in a bowl game or not? The story is that the players talked with their captains and the captains made the call, and Marcus and the administration supported them 100% in that decision. They said with the disappointment of not making the Playoff and with all the guys who’d be sitting out for draft/injury purposes in a bowl game (guys who would’ve played in a Playoff situation), they felt it wouldn’t be the same team as who they were all of 2025, and so they didn’t want to play a bowl. 

I’m choosing to believe all of that is true, and I appreciate that Freeman and AD Pete Bevacqua and everyone else at ND supported the team in the decision, even with the blowback it caused. Yeah, of course I wish I got to see that team play one more time and hopefully devour a sentient Pop Tart on the field after the game, but I’m not on the team and so I respect whatever they wanted to do. It really isn’t that deep, playing or not playing in a bowl.

Freeman is absolutely fantastic as a head coach. I think he’s wildly likable and a hard worker and has been humble enough to admit when he has made mistakes as he was learning/developing on the job as a first time head coach. I think he’s an excellent motivator, great at building relationships and recruiting and selling Notre Dame in the right way, and has done SO much in getting the program up to speed with the modern game when it comes to NIL spending, Transfer Portal usage, state-of-the-art facilities, etc. — while still emphasizing the academics and culture of Notre Dame. 

The bar was low with his predecessors being Brian Kelly, Charlie Weis, and Tyrone Willingham (GOOD LORD, that’s a rough stretch), but he really seems like the first coach ND has had in my lifetime who actually seems like he could win a national championship, as evidenced by their run in 2024 where they beat IU, Georgia, and Penn State and fought tooth-and-nail to come back against a better Ohio State team. Unlike Brian Kelly, Freeman has shown he can beat really good teams in big-time postseason situations. I think he’s close to actually giving the Irish that “Return to Glory” that’s been teased and proven so wrong over the last ~40 years (here I go again, letting myself believe).

When it comes to weaknesses, I think he has struggled with getting the team to play well when they’re in a place of comfort — after a big win or with a lot of hype surrounding them, they seem to get complacent and come out flat, like against Northern Illinois in 2024 or in the first two games last season (or even in the first half against Wisconsin this year). This adds to my anxiety about all the preseason hype in my answer to Question 1 — I worry about how his team will deal with that praise. Once their backs are against the wall (post-NIU in 2024, post-Texas A&M last year), he’s great at getting the team to destroy people. But they need to not lose focus when it isn’t that do-or-die situation — hopefully this “leave no doubt” chip on their shoulders from not making the Playoff last year is enough to keep them focused, but we will see!

TOC: Notre Dame saw 2 running backs selected in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft, including 3rd pick Jeremiyah Love who also finished 3rd in the Heisman.  Aneyas Williams is the main RB this year.  Tell us about his game.  Does he remind you of either of last year’s two draftees?  Is he a future pro?

PS: He does not remind me of Love or Jadarian Price in the slightest, unfortunately. And that’s not to say that Aneyas Williams is a bad running back or can’t do some really nice things, but those two were just a couple levels different in terms of speed, strength, playmaking ability, etc. The Notre Dame offense is still trying to find itself after losing those guys and everything they brought to the table.

Williams is a solid college running back who probably doesn’t have much of a future as a pro — maybe he’ll have a few years hanging around in a 3rd down back or reserve role. He’s not super fast and is built like a bowling ball, which makes him somewhat tough to bring down but not overly so, as we saw in his struggles against Rice last week. He’s a good receiver, a good pass protector, and will usually get you a couple positive yards rather than lose many. He does a lot right, and there’s a reason he was trusted as a true freshman to play in plenty of key moments in the 2024 run to the title game. But he also isn’t much of a big-play threat (he’s had some long TD runs but basically all of them came in garbage time against opposing teams’ backups), which makes him a lot less exciting than the two guys who just left.

A lot of ND fans, through just two games with Williams at RB1, are already calling for his backup, Nolan James, to take over and for true freshman RB3 Jonaz Walton to see more time (an extreme overreaction to 2 games, but I get it somewhat). James has shown a lot of really nice things and great ability as a receiver early this year, while Walton does not run like a freshman and will probably see his role expand as the season progresses. 

But ultimately it’s going to be more of a committee running the ball with Williams involved plenty, which is good because he can really help this offense (his performance in the second half against Wisconsin can serve as Exhibit A there). Irish fans are just struggling to get used to living how most of the other teams across the nation live -having some very solid backs who are NOT future first round picks. MSU won’t necessarily have it easy stopping these guys on Saturday, but the Spartans timed this game well coming the year after Love and Price left — the ND running game is manageable from a defensive standpoint, assuming the d-line doesn’t get absolutely bulldozed by the Irish offensive line.

TOC: Tell us about Notre Dame’s defense.  What is the Irish’s base formation?  Which level is the best position group?  If you had to pick one player on that side of the ball for MSU fans to be aware of, who would you select?

PS: Let me caveat this response by saying I’m not a massive X’s and O’s guy, so some of this is going to be pretty basic — my apologies in advance. But the Irish run a lot of nickel, as far as I understand — a 4-2-5 formation where that nickel position has been integral to the defense’s success and along with some really strong corner and safety play has led to the Irish finishing 1st in the country in passer rating allowed in both 2023 and 2024, and 9th in 2025. They play a lot more man coverage than most defenses do, and they like to bring some pressure at times, especially sending a speedy linebacker like Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa or Jaylen Sneed off the edge, to limit how long the DBs have to cover in man and to allow them to make some opportunistic plays on rushed throws. This has worked incredibly well the last few years with this group forcing lots of turnovers, and besides a small blip coming from new defensive coordinator Chris Ash getting up to speed against two Playoff teams early in 2025 after the Irish lost Al Golden to the NFL, the system has continued to look strong with the transition of leadership.

The best position group has to be the secondary, but I want to give a quick shout-out to the linebackers, who are also probably a top 5-10 group in the country. Viliamu-Asa may be the top LB in college football when healthy (he just made his return from a late 2025 ACL tear and looked great in the snaps he played against Rice’s option offense), Drayk Bowen is a tackling machine and 2-time captain, and Sneed and Jaiden Ausberry are fast, ferocious guys who make plenty of plays themselves. That group would be the best position group on most defenses.

This 2026 DB crew for the Irish looks pretty darn elite, though. Leonard Moore is the best corner in the country, and if a QB/WR can beat him for a big play, that is a VERY impressive accomplishment, but something to try at your own risk (7 interceptions in 2024 and 2025). Safety Adon Shuler is an absolute missile and 2-time captain at the back of the defense, and Colorado transfer DJ McKinney looks very solid at the other CB spot, already supplying a 55-yard pick-six to break open the Wisconsin game in week 1. Christian Gray at nickel is a multi-year starter at corner with a penchantfor big plays (also a penchant for getting burned occasionally in man coverage, though, which is why McKinney took over his corner spot). Safety Brauntae Johnson was getting tons of preseason All-American hype, but he injured his foot in the opener against Wisconsin and won’t be playing this weekend — instead, Luke Talich steps in as another very experienced, long, and athletic guy to keep the secondary humming (although he isn’t quite the athlete Johnson is). The young reserves are all 4 and 5-star guys who look like they’ll be really good eventually, so there’s talent waiting in reserve if needed, even if it’s not super-experienced talent.

The easy answer for one player to be aware of is Leonard Moore, so I may exclude him here (especially because MSU probably won’t test him much, so you may not be that aware of him for a lot of this game). Instead, I’d probably say Shuler or Viliamu-Asa are the big names to be aware of and that Spartan fans will likely quickly BECOME aware of as they see them flying around the field with their hair on fire. One other potential name to know about: Pro Football Hall of Famer Bryant Young has a large adult son, Bryce Young, who’s really starting to come into his own at defensive end and may be in the backfield a few times on Saturday night.

TOC: Notre Dame is favored by 29.5 points.  What would need to go wrong for Notre Dame in order for Michigan State to come in and pull off the upset?

PS: CJ Carr and Leonard Moore not playing would really help MSU, but barring major injuries/illnesses/absences, I’d say if the Spartans can completely shut down the running game and also get TONS of pressure on Carr, it could really impact this ND offense that’s still somewhat finding its identity without Love and Price. The wideouts are good but certainly not great, and so if they have very little time to create separation and MSU can pressure Carr into forcing some throws downfield to try to make something happen, there could be opportunity for turnovers/forcing punts.

Then, I would say the big thing for MSU’s offense is to eat up clock with the ground game as much as possible, and then to target non-Leonard Moore DBs in one-on-one coverage through the air. That secondary is great, but there’s still some vulnerability there, especially as you get some of the rotational guys coming in for a series (e.g. Wisconsin burning reserve corner Jayden Sanders with a double-move for a TD in Week 1).

TOC: Predict the final score.

PS: I’m a little skeptical ND will cover this spread, even if Freeman’s teams often do take care of business in that regard. I think MSU plays pretty tough in Pat Fitzgerald’s first big test as Michigan State’s coach, but the Irish defense forces a couple turnovers and CJ Carr and Jordan Faison put together some nice moments on offense to pull away in the second half and win comfortably.

Give me Notre Dame 37, Michigan State 17

TOC would like to thank Patrick for his help on this article.

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