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Notre Dame is expected to have one of the nation's best defenses in 2026, and the unit gets a chance to start the season off on a strong note against the Wisconsin Badgers. The Irish square off against Wisconsin on Sunday night inside Lambeau Field. Notre Dame defensive coordinator Chris Ash will look to get his unit off to a much stronger start this season as the Irish look to begin the season how it finished the 2025 campaign.

It's a strength vs. weakness matchup on paper, but Wisconsin hit the portal hard to improve on this side of the ball as it heads into year two of the Jeff Grimes era on offense. Notre Dame will have to be ready for a Badger offense that looks different than what we saw from the unit in 2025.

Let's take a look at how Notre Dame stacks up on defense against the Badger offense.

NOTRE DAME RUN DEFENSE vs WISCONSIN

Advantage: Notre Dame

Wisconsin has one of the wildest stats I've seen in recent seasons. Badger head coach Luke Fickell has gone 16-21 in his three full seasons in charge of the program. In those games, the Badgers have rushed for at least 150 yards in 15 games and under 150 yards in 21 games. In the 15 games where the Badgers rushed for over 150 yards they were 15-0. In the 21 games where they went for under 150 yards they were 1-20. That's quite the landmark, but a deeper dive into the numbers shows the Badgers were well below 150 yards in those losses, especially in 2025. Wisconsin struggled running the football last season, ranking 116th in rush yards per game and racked up just six gains of 20 yards or more all season.

The addition of quarterback Colton Joseph (Old Dominion) and running back Abu Sama III (Iowa State) out of the portal were steps to fix their run game struggles. Joseph rushed for 1,007 yards (6.4 YPC) and 13 touchdowns, including 179 yards and two scores against Indiana. Joseph was the only player to go for over 100 yards against the Hoosiers in the regular season. Sama racked up 732 yards (5.3 YPC) and five scores for the Cyclones last season. If the offensive line can hold up this duo should help significantly improve the Badger ground game.

Notre Dame made huge strides shutting down the run last season. Notre Dame dropped over 30 yards per game off its 2024 average and put forth its best rush defense performance since 2012. Notre Dame ranked in the Top 10 nationally in yards allowed per attempt, fewest touchdowns allowed and fewest runs of 20 yards or more. The Irish held six of its 12 opponents to less than 100 yards on the ground last season, and another (Boise State) went just for 100 yards. Only two opponents all season topped 150 yards.

Returning its entire linebacker corps, its starting safeties, its top two edge players and the addition of three talented portal defensive lineman should provide the defense with even more run stopping prowess. Notre Dame has a deep interior rotation that begins with talented returners Jason Onye and Armel Mukam, who had a breakout offseason. The addition of Francis Brewu (Pittsburgh) and Tionne Gray (Oregon) gave the Irish two of the run interior run defenders out of the portal. Notre Dame is expected to be even more stout against the run in year two under Ash.

NOTRE DAME PASS DEFENSE vs WISCONSIN

Advantage: Notre Dame

There was some give and take with Ash improving the run defense, and that was the Irish taking a bit of a step back statistically defending the pass. That was especially true early in the season as the defenders worked on being more proficient playing run defense. Notre Dame ranked in the Top 5 nationally in fewest passing yards allowed per game in 2023 and 2024, and the defense ranked in the Top 10 in yards allowed per attempt in those seasons. Last season, Notre Dame fell all the way to 56th nationally in passing yards allowed and dropped to 19th in yards allowed per attempt. The 11.1 yards per completion (51st) was also a bit of a problem area. Notre Dame did well limiting the really big plays, but there were too many intermediate gains that were allowed, especially in third-down situations and early in the season.

The good news is that Notre Dame was still extremely disruptive defending the pass, which is also part of the give and take. Ash is okay giving up more yards, but the disruptive numbers need to remain strong, and they were. Notre Dame's season-long passing numbers were due in large part to a brutal start. Notre Dame gave up 289.3 yards per game through the air in the first three games and also allowed 8.1 yards per attempt and 14.0 yards per completion. Over the final nine games, the Irish defense gave up just 188.1 passing yards per game, 5.5 yards per attempt and 10.1 yards per completion. Those numbers would have ranked 24th, fourth and 6th nationally if they could have held those numbers for an entire season.

Now that the defense has a full season under Ash behind them, the hope is that consistency in defending the pass will improve and the defense can look more like what we saw over the final nine games. Doing that while maintaining the high level of disruptions would be huge for the defense. Notre Dame ranked 4th in passes defensed per game last season and were fourth in total interceptions, and the return of star safeties Adon Shuler and Brauntae Johnson, as well as elite cornerback Leonard Moore should allow that to happen.

Wisconsin had a brutal pass offense in 2025, ranking outside the Top 100 in all but one of the pass categories shown above. The only one they didn't rank outside the Top 100 was sacks allowed per game, and they ranked 97th in that department. Joseph should provide a big boost to the run game, and if he can do that it should take some of the pressure off the pass game, but he'll need to continue showing improvement in that area. He'll be working with a relatively new and inexperienced group of pass catchers, which will be led by Eugene Hilton Jr. (8 catches, 91 yards) and Chris Brooks Jr. (11 catches, 121 yards).

NOTRE DAME SCORING DEFENSE vs WISCONSIN

Advantage: Notre Dame

Wisconsin had the nation's worst offense last season, and it wasn't all that close when looking at Power 4 teams. The Badgers ranked last, or second to last, in points per game, yards per game, yards per play and gains of 30 yards or more. Joseph is just part of the fix for that. Grimes will need need to figure out a way to get far better play from the offensive line, which comes into this matchup against Notre Dame banged up. The Badgers will likely be without two starters, which makes the matchup against the deep and talented Notre Dame line a dangerous one.

Notre Dame needs to kick off the 2026 season on a strong note defensively. With the experience, high-end talent and depth of talent that Notre Dame returns there is no reason this group shouldn't dominate. Wisconsin will be improved offensively, but they should still be well below where Notre Dame is right now. The Irish defense should be able to control action, which will need to quickly adjust to an offense that will feature some new wrinkles with Joseph under center.

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