Now that the awards have been handed out, the college football playoffs have begun and players are now starting to declare for the NFL Draft or the transfer portal, it's time to close the book on the 2025 season for Notre Dame. This season, we saw some greatness, some good, some bad and some down right ugly football at times. Before we can officially move onto the offseason, it's time to recap this regular season by breaking it down into four separate quarters. First up, the fateful first quarter of Notre Dame's regular season. 

Miami Hurricanes - L 27-24 

The expectations were at an all-time high for the 6th-ranked Fighting Irish heading down to Miami Gardens to take on the 10th-ranked Hurricanes. Notre Dame was breaking in a first time starter at quarterback, redshirt freshman CJ Carr, while Miami was relying on SEC veteran quarterback Carson Beck to lead their team to victory. The Irish were coming off of a deep playoff run in 2024 and an appearance in the national title game. 

Running back Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price headlined the offensive fire power while the defense was under new management with Chris Ash taking over the play calling duties. The defense was unable to make stops in crucial moments while the offense took too long to get going. Despite a 17-point 4th quarter comeback, the Irish fell short in their season opener to Miami. The offensive line played one of their worst games to date, and the Ash era on defense was off to a shaky start. 

Texas A&M - L 41-40

After an early bye week, the Irish looked to bounce back after their loss to Miami in week one with a resounding victory at home over the then-ranked No. 16 Texas A&M Aggies. Notre Dame dropped to No. 8 in the AP Poll after starting the season 0-1. Home openers under head coach Marcus Freeman hadn't been too kind to the Irish and Saturday September 13 was no exception. Despite jumping out to a 24-14 lead mid way through the second quarter, the Irish went into halftime trailing the Aggies 28-24. 

From then on, it was a close, back and forth battle under the lights; it was a 31-31 ball game heading into the 4th quarter. Notre Dame took a 40-34 lead after botching the hold on the extra point with 2:53 left on the clock. Unfortunately, after another abysmal drive from the defense, the Irish fell to the Aggies 41-40 after quarterback Marcel Reed led a 13-play, 74 yard drive to take the lead with 13 second left to go. Notre Dame fell to 1-3 in home openers since 2022 in one of their worst defensive showings at home in almost a decade. 

Purdue - W 56-30 

It wasn't until their third game of the regular season the Irish put their first 'W' in the win column, but it didn't come without some sort of drama. The Irish hosted in-state rival Purdue on September 20 inside of Notre Dame Stadium. The Irish allowed 23 first half points to a Boilermaker offense that had no business gashing the more talented Notre Dame defense. Thankfully, after a weather delay, Price retuned a kickoff 100 yards for a score which broke the game open. 

Notre Dame's defense held Purdue out of the end zone for almost the entire second half until Purdue's final drive of the game. The Irish offense was rolling and Carr put up another stellar performance passing for 223 yards and completed 10 of his 12 pass attempts. Price finished the afternoon with four total touchdowns while Love added another two on the ground and recorded his first 100-yard rushing performance of the season. Explosive plays were the name of the game for Notre Dame's offense in the first quarter.  

Hind sight is always 20/20 and knowing what we know now, Notre Dame's playoff fate was likely decided in the first quarter of the regular season after going 0-2 against Miami and Texas A&M. The rest of the regular season was one for this history books, and that's not being hyperbolic. But the unfortunate mishaps that led to the Irish losing to two eventual playoff teams by a combined four points kept them from earning back to back playoff spots. Success in the first quarter next season will be extremely crucial. 

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