What Happened the Last Time Notre Dame Played North Carolina?
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Another week, another look back at the last time Notre Dame played one of its 2026 opponents. Week 5 brings us to a team we saw a ton of in the early part of this decade (three years in a row from 2020-22), a perennially hyped squad that the Irish routinely poured cold water on. Four years, a new coach and a whole lot of drama later, the Irish will again make their way to the land of tobacco, pulled pork and moonshine for their first #goacc road trip of the year. What happened the last time they made that trip? Let’s find out.
Week 5: North Carolina Tar Heels
Last matchup: September 24, 2022 – Notre Dame 45, North Carolina 32
The first road win of the Marcus Freeman era! And not at all a certain one for a Notre Dame team that had gotten off to a ghastly 1-2 start, with losses to Ohio State and Marshall and an equally ugly W over Cal in week 3. The Irish took on a Carolina team that was not nearly as hyped as it had been the previous two years and had a lot of question marks, but had still started off 3-0 and had a dynamic offense led by an emerging star quarterbaack in Drake Maye. A likely shootout loomed, and a struggling Irish offense helmed by Drew Pyne had not shown an ability to keep up with Mack Brown’s stable of playmakers.
Those fears turned out to be overblown, as the offense found its stride through successful execution of a few core tenets:
- Get the ball to Michael Mayer
- RTDB BABY
It took a few possessions, but once Notre Dame’s machine got going it didn’t stop. Led by an offensive line that finally got in sync, the Irish moved the ball with impressive balance, leading with a punishing running attack while also mixing in effective deception through the air in one of Tommy Rees’ best-called games. After falling behind 7-0 in the first quarter, the Irish outscored the Heels 38-13 in the middle periods. While the Heels continued fighting in the 4th, Notre Dame’s defense did enough to limit the likes of Maye and Josh Downs to a handful of big plays and kept them from ever really threatening.
Big numbers abounded in this one as the Irish offense generated one long drive after another. Pyne threw for 289 yards and three touchdowns, with Mayer proving an invaluable security blanket to the young quarterback. The tight end brought in seven targets for 88 yards and a score and seemed to be constantly moving the chains on third down. Those crucial catches gave Pyne more opportunities to spread the ball around on subsequent series, and he ultimately delivered one of his best performances in an Irish uniform.
On the ground, this was Audric Estime’s breakout game as the big fella ran for 134 yards and two touchdowns. Even those numbers don’t do justice to his performance, as the bulldozing sophomore produced some truly graphic game tape. Estime constantly bullied would-be tacklers, regularly dragging gaggles of Tar Heels for extra yards. Chris Tyree and Logan Diggs were also each utilized effectively (80 yards and one touchdown for Tyree, 50 yards for Diggs to go with 65 and a touchdown through the air), and this was the first game where we really saw the three-headed monster backfield we had been promised in the offseason. A couple other footnotes from this one:
- A young Rylie Mills was already making his presence felt – the future Super Bowl LX champion notched two sacks.
- I am always amazed by the longevity of Jack Kiser’s impact at Notre Dame, as the linebacker who would ultimately play two more excellent seasons for the Irish led the team in tackles in the partial absence of J.D. Bertrand.
- Absurdly effective run defense throughout here, as the Irish held a Heels offense that included Maye and Omarion Hampton to only 66 yards on the ground.
This year Notre Dame takes on the Heels at nearly the same point in the season, and again in Chapel Hill – let’s hope for a repeat performance against the team I am now informed calls itself the Fighting Jordon Hudsons. Highlights below:
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