Notre Dame's offense is firing on all cylinders, racking up points and big plays. Can this potent attack finally bring home a championship?
The goal of any college football team is to be the last one standing at the end of the season, hoisting up the National Championship trophy. For Notre Dame, they've gone without a title since 1988, but have had some close encounters. Head coach Marcus Freeman is heading into his 5th year at the helm and is looking to bring home the 12th national title to South Bend.
In order to do that, there are some key areas of focus this program will have to hone in on during the 2026 season. Some areas are closer than others; certain areas of focus are up to par based on the 2025 season while others need significant improvement if the Irish wish to close the gap. An explosive, high scoring offense is key to winning a championship and the Notre Dame offense is well on its way to closing that gap.
This past season, they finished the year ranked 2nd in the country averaging 42.0 points per game, the most in a season since 1912. In 2024, the Ohio State Buckeyes finished 12th in points per game (35.7), Michigan finished 14th in 2023 (35.9) and Georgia finished in the Top 10 in 2022 and 2021 when they won the national title. In 2020, Alabama finished ranked 2nd in the country averaging 48.5 points per game.
The LSU Tigers, with their historic offense in 2019, finished No. 1 averaging 48.4 points per game. Clemson averaged 44.3 points per game in 2018 when they won the title while Alabama finished ranked 15th in 2017 when they won averaging 37.1 points per game. On top of ranking amongst the highest in the country in points per game average, these teams were also extremely efficient and explosive.
This past season, Notre Dame finished No. 2 in the country in yards per play at 7.32 which is a program record recently set by the 2015 offense; that offense was also led by offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock. They also finished 5th in the country in plays of 30 yards or longer from scrimmage (40) . This is another common trend we've seen from previous National Championship winners.
In 2024, Ohio State finished the year ranked 3rd in yards per play (6.95) and 12th in the country in plays of 30 yards or longer (36). In 2022, Georgia ranked 4th in the country in yards per play with 7.17 and had 34 plays of 30 yards or longer which ranked 20th in the country. The Dogs ranked 8th in the country in plays of 30 yards or longer in 2021 and averaged 6.98 yards per play which ranked 4th in the country.
This data is consistent with Alabama in 2020 who averaged 7.8 yards per play and had 40 plays of 30 yards or longer. LSU in 2019 averaged 7.89 yards per play and had 53 plays of 30 yards or longer. Obviously, there are always outliers; Michigan in 2023 ranked 35th in the country in yards per play (6.21) and 77th in the country in plays of 30 yards or longer (24). But what did they have? A generational defense that ranked 1st in the country in points allowed.
Notre Dame is getting close to where they need to be, but losing players like Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price to the draft, who were certified home run threats, makes that task slightly more challenging. Thankfully, they have returning quarterback CJ Carr and a host of talent at the receiver position. Running back Aneyas Williams has also put him home run hitting ability on display the last two season.
The Irish are close to putting it all together; this season, they missed the playoffs by four points which cost them two losses. A lack of explosive plays and points scored against Miami sealed their fate in the season opener. I'm fully confident we will see waves of points and explosive plays against some of the inferior opponents on their schedule in 2026, but the post season is where this will count.
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