It took a few games, but the Notre Dame ground game has been a strength of the offense in 2025. After rushing for just 229 yards and 3.4 yards per carry in the first two games the Irish ground game began to take off. Heading into its matchup against Boston College, the Notre Dame ground game should be able to keep rolling.

The breakout started with a 254-yard, 5.9 per carry average in the 56-30 win over Purdue. Notre Dame racked up 210 yards (5.3 YPC) and 200 yards (6.5 YPC) in wins over Arkansas (56-13) and Boise State (28-7). Notre Dame struggled against NC State, rushing for 143 yards and 3.7 yards per carry, but that appears to be a blip on the radar.

Notre Dame followed its down performance against NC State with a dominant performance against USC. The Irish racked up 306 yards (7.0 YPC) in the 34-24 win over USC, with Jeremiyah Love ripping the Trojans up with a career-best 228 yards while averaging 9.5 yards per carry. Jadarian Price added 87 more yards and 6.7 yards per carry in the win over the Trojans.

Love and Price are quite the dynamic duo. They have combined or 1,267 rushing yards his season while averaging 6.3 yards per carry. Love leads the Irish with 758 yards while Price leads the offense with a 6.7 yards per carry average to go with 509 yards. Love has reached the end zone nine times on the ground while Price has scored eight times on the ground this season.

A key ingredient to the ground game has been the performance of the offensive line. It got off to a rough start, but outside of the NC State game the unit has been strong in the run game. Of course, the unit will not look the same when it takes on Boston College. Starting center Ashton Craig went down with a season-ending injury in the win over NC State. Left guard Billy Schrauth was lost with a knee injury in the win over USC. 

This will be the first game with the new-look line. Joe Otting performed well at center against USC, but now Sullivan Absher gets inserted into the starting lineup at left guard. How well this duo can assimilate with the other starters will go a long towards determining if the line can perform well enough for the run game to continue playing dominant football. Absher and Otting will need to step up and mature in a hurry. Their inexperience could be an issue, but the good news is both players have the talent to allow the line to continue playing at a high level.

Boston College has struggled to stop opposing ground games this season. The Eagles rank 101st in rushing yards allowed per game and 105th in in yards allowed per carry. More concerning for Boston College is the fact it hasn't even played good rush defenses this season. Only two of Boston College's seven FBS opponents rank inside the Top 100 in rushing yards per game, and none rank higher than 60th. 

Ironically, Connecticut has the best yards per carry average on the Eagle schedule so far, and they held the Husky offense to just 93 yards and 3.4 yards per carry. But Clemson and its 113th ranked rush offense went for 226 yards (5.3 YPC), Stanford and its 131st-ranked rush offense went for 213 yards (5.8 YPC), and Louisville and its 79th-ranked rush offense went for 317 yards (10.2 YPC) last weekend.

If the Notre Dame offensive line can come together quick the Irish should be able to put together another dominant rushing performance.

———————

Become a premium Irish Breakdown member, which grants you access to all of our premium content and our premium message board! Click on the link below for more.

BECOME A MEMBER

Be sure to stay locked into Irish Breakdown all the time!

Join the Irish Breakdown community!
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown YouTube channel
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown podcast on iTunes
Follow me on Twitter: @CoachD178
Like and follow Irish Breakdown on Facebook

Sign up for the FREE Irish Breakdown daily newsletter