Notre Dame is now past the half-way point in the 2025 season, and there has been some significant growth on both sides of the ball for the Irish. They're currently riding a four-game winning streak propelled by a high-powered offense and significant defensive growth. One of the brightest spots for this Notre Dame team has been the performance of redshirt freshman quarterback CJ Carr who is putting himself in a prime position to be a Freshman All-American by the end of the season.
There were some concerns around the quarterback situation in South Bend going from a veteran like Riley Leonard who transferred in from Duke to a redshirt freshman, but their similarities, combined with Carr's natural God-given ability has put a lot of those concerns to rest.
"There’s some similarities," Freeman answered when asked about the similarities between Carr and Leonard. "But they’re also different people. Both have a burning desire to win. They both hate losing. Both have a unique ability to make those around them better. Skill-sets might be a little bit different but their makeup is similar; they have similar traits. That’s why they're both really successful."
Carr has completed 66.5% of his passes, thrown for 1,622 yards, 13 touchdowns and only three interceptions in the first six games of his collegiate career. Saturday night, he'll be tested once again on a big stage, but his competitiveness will not be in question.
Fourth-Down Aggressiveness
Notre Dame is 3 of 8 on fourth-down in the last three games against Arkansas, Boise State and NC State. Two of their three conversions on fourth-down were successful fake punts, one on a Tyler Buchner run against NC State and another being a Jordan Faison pass to Malachi Fields against Arkansas. Last season, in 16 games, Notre Dame was No. 22 in the country in fourth-down attempts with 30 and converted on 22 of them. This season, they've attempted 14 fourth-down conversions and were successful on five of them which ranks No. 121 in the country.
The offense stalled out on fourth down twice against Boise State and twice against NC State with all four times coming on the opponent's side of the 50-yard line. The play calling, at times, has been questionable, but going away from their aggressiveness on fourth-down would go against Marcus Freeman's identity.
"Going for it on fourth down is something that I have conviction of doing in certain situations," Freeman stated. "Some we’ll determine based off our kicker and some is based off analytics. We’ve got to continue to gain conviction in our offense. That’s why we spend some time talking about our short-yardage plan and goal-line situations because we have to improve. I don’t want to lose confidence in going for it on fourth-down. It’s something I believe in given the right situation. I don’t want to pull back. I want to enhance our plan so that we have a better percentage of converting."
The Firing Of James Franklin
The coaching carousel is alive and well this football season. We've seen various head coaches let go from their positions this season, but none more shocking than Penn State's decision to move away from their head coach James Franklin Sunday afternoon. Franklin was 104-45 in his 12 years in Happy Valley, but the performance of the team this season compounded with the expectations they failed to meet lead to his termination.
Very few people, outside of other college coaches, can understand and empathize with a collegiate coach being let go. But at the end of the day, this is a results-driven profession and this day and age of college football is limiting the field of grace for several different coaches across the country. That being said, nobody wants to see another person fired from their job because of the impact it has across the board.
"I have a lot of respect for any coach, but what he's done for college football has been tremendous," Freeman said about Franklin. "You never want to see somebody fired. As a head coach, you're going to be okay. You feel awful for the people that come and join you that are going to be out of a job too. There's a lot of people affected; a lot of families affected. If Pete [Bevacqua] said, ‘Marcus, you're gone’ tomorrow' it stinks because I love what I do and I love coaching these young people, but I'm going to be okay. But you feel awful for the people that have joined your program, and their families that don't have a job at the end of the year. That's what's challenging about that."
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