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They say it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. Notre Dame rode that mantra, among others, to massive success in 2024, overcoming an early loss to Northern Illinois en route to a 13-game win streak and the National Championship game.
In 2025, however, the message seemingly reversed.
Two losses. Four points. One postseason outcome that slipped out of Notre Dame’s control prior to the autumnal equinox. Long before the end of August arrived, Irish fans knew how critical the two-game stretch would be. It started with a Sunday night standalone showdown in South Florida, where Notre Dame had won just six months earlier in the Orange Bowl. But the Irish hadn’t beaten their Week One opponent, Miami, there since 1977.
Ranked No. 6 nationally, Notre Dame would have to bring it against a Miami team that marched through the College Football Playoff as the No. 10 seed. Experienced Georgia transfer quarterback, Carson Beck, elevated the ceiling of the Hurricane offense. Their edge in the trenches was well-documented. Offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock and the Irish would have to strike a balance between competing in a massive game and easing in new starting quarterback CJ Carr.
Notre Dame struggled massively to get going, preceding a pair of three-and-outs with a fumble deep in Irish territory. The Irish were fortunate to keep the game scoreless via Miami’s botched field goal operation, but they couldn’t keep the ‘Canes off the board on the next drive, as Beck hit freshman wideout Malachi Toney for a 28-yard score.
Carr, who worked with a simplified playbook all night, unleashed his potential for the game-tying touchdown. On a third-and-goal play from the Miami 7, the freshman rolled back some 20 yards behind the pocket, twisting and turning before finding classmate Micah Gilbert in the end zone.
The Irish didn’t get the ball back with a chance to score, though, as Miami owned the middle third of the game. With a dozen seconds to play in the first half, Notre Dame nearly broke that stretch with an interception, but CJ Daniels flew in front of Irish sophomore safety Adon Shuler to snag Beck’s floating ball one-handed for the touchdown. Miami returned for the second half to go 75 yards in 12 plays on the opening drive and score again. Halfway through the third quarter, Notre Dame trailed 21-7 and needed to change momentum in a hurry.
The visitors did exactly that by way of their defense, holding the Hurricanes to 15 total yards across their next four drives. That allowed the Irish to tie the game at 24, starting with a touchdown grab by junior wideout Jordan Faison. Carr threw a crucial interception that set up a Miami field goal on the following drive, but he responded not long after by running in the tying score from
7 yards out, earning the praise of his head coach in the process.
“He’s a gamer, man,” Marcus Freeman said of Carr postgame. “He performs when the lights are on... It’s just the start for him.”
He’d be saddled with a loss, though, as Miami made all the winning plays in the final 3:21, kicking the go-ahead field goal from 47 before pass-rushing the Irish out of Hard Rock Stadium. Still, for Coach Freeman, processing a close loss in a huge game on the
road meant taking some positives.
“It was a top-ten fight... come down to a 3-point game against a hell of a football team,” Freeman said. “Our guys [have] got really a confidence to build off of... We’ve gotta build on the things that we did do well, and we’ve gotta fix with urgency the things that we didn’t do so well.”
Whatever the Irish lacked on offense in Miami was certainly rectified during the ensuing bye week. The defense, on the other hand, became a glaring issue. How glaring? Notre Dame gave up 41 points and allowed a 200-yard receiver in its next big game — a home game — against No. 16 Texas A&M.
Freeman said all that needed to be said about the defense postgame.
“It’s not good enough.”
Defense and special teams were making plays early, though, helping the Irish to a 17-7 lead early in the second quarter. Just like in the massive 2022 upset of Clemson, Notre Dame opened the scoring on a blocked punt, one that freshman safety Tae Johnson took the house for his spark to a breakout season. Some cracks showed when Texas A&M tied the game on a poorly-defended 86-yard touchdown pass, but the Irish recovered by following junior running back Jadarian Price’s touchdown run with a pick by sophomore
cornerback Leonard Moore.
Whatever goodwill Notre Dame had built up collapsed in the first half’s final 14 minutes, as Texas A&M compiled three consecutive touchdown drives to build a 28-24 edge. The only pushback came from junior running back Jeremiyah Love, who turned a one-handed grab into a 36-yard score.
The Irish defense buckled back down for the most part in the second half, and Notre Dame retook the lead on Price’s second touchdown run of the night. With 2:53 to play in regulation, as Love crossed the goal line again to put the Irish up 40-34, Notre Dame had done all it needed to be in a position to win.
That’s when the unraveling began.
A dropped snap on the extra point put a hush over Notre Dame Stadium, which had been jumping after Love’s touchdown. Everyone, it seemed, held the same thought: we just unlocked a road to losing the game.
But Notre Dame’s defense lived for these moments. Forget the 34 points already on the board; put the home crowd on your back and go win the game.
Instead, A&M advanced downfield in a hurry, Mario Craver catching a 37-yard ball to clear 200 receiving yards as the Aggies reached the Irish 37 prior to the two-minute timeout. It took quarterback Marcel Reed and company getting to the 10 before Notre Dame finally stiffened up.
After two incompletions, the game came down to a fourth- and-goal at the 11, a play that sealed the fate of Notre Dame’s season given how the rest of the college football world played out.
A badly missed holding call on the middle of A&M’s offensive line. A Reed rollout to the left. A one-on-one touchdown catch by Nate Boerkircher. An Aggie lead with 13 seconds remaining. And a feeling all too familiar to Irish fans who had experienced the heartbreak of Ohio State less than two years earlier.
Before screaming “0-2!” to his team as he preached facing the facts and moving forward, Freeman displayed urgency
in his postgame presser.
“We’ve gotta get better. We’ve gotta get better,” he reiterated. “We’ve gotta get back to work, and that’s what
you can control.”
“The future’s uncertain. I don’t know what the Playoff number and all those – it doesn’t matter. We’ve gotta focus on getting better and getting ready for next week.”
Of course, Notre Dame controlled the controllable as well as it could have the rest of the way. But as you’ll come to read later, that uncertain future carried the day – and the year.