SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Notre Dame didn’t need a dramatic finish Saturday. It needed to keep stacking wins, keep the scoreboard moving and keep the season pointed toward the same place it has been aimed since the start.
The No. 5 Irish did exactly that in a 41-7 rout of Boston College, a game that was already tilting Notre Dame’s way while Marcus Freeman was speaking to NBC at halftime.
Behind him, the Notre Dame Stadium video board was running a trailer for “Here Come The Irish,” the program’s in-house docuseries set to release next month. The clip opened with an ESPN voice cutting right to the point: “Everyone is going to remember Notre Dame did not get into the College Football Playoff” last season.
Notre Dame clearly remembers too.
With SMU and Syracuse left on the regular-season slate, the Irish are in position to finish the job and find out where they land next, presumably in the CFP. Against Boston College, they looked every bit like a team trying to remove any doubt.
The defense set the tone and hardly let Boston College breathe. The Eagles’ only rushing touchdown came from Bo MacCormack III, who became the answer to a trivia question after his 3-yard score early in the third quarter.
It was the first rushing touchdown Notre Dame had allowed all season, coming on the 289th carry the defense faced. The Irish had already given up four rushing touchdowns to quarterbacks before that point.
That was the lone real crack. Boston College managed only 136 yards of offense and finished with minus-10 yards in the second quarter, a stretch that included Boubacar Traore’s strip-sack and Jaylen Sneed’s recovery in the end zone. Traore, once a Boston College verbal commitment, is now looking like a potential All-American for Notre Dame.
The Eagles were never built to be a serious stress test for this defense. Their offense runs through quarterback Mason McKenzie, a Division II transfer who leads the team in both passing and rushing.
Even so, Notre Dame made life miserable. If not for CJ Carr’s interception and Jordan Faison’s fumbled punt return in the second quarter, Boston College would not have run a play in Notre Dame territory until the fourth quarter.
It also looked like a continuation of last week, when defensive coordinator Chris Ash leaned into a more aggressive approach than some of the more reactive game plans Notre Dame had used earlier this season. The Irish finished with only two sacks, but McKenzie rarely had time to settle in. Notre Dame did it without defensive tackles Francis Brewu and Jason Onye, both of whom had been questionable after knee injuries against Navy before being scratched.
On offense, Carr’s day was solid, but not the kind of performance that changes the Heisman conversation. After his best outing of the season against Miami, he went 20-of-28 for 217 yards, two touchdowns and one interception - his second pick of the year.
That’s a good afternoon. It just wasn’t the sort of box score that tends to sway voters.
And maybe that’s fine.
As Boston College defensive back KP Price threw Carr to the turf early in the fourth quarter, it was fair to ask why Notre Dame was still leaving its quarterback in the game at all. Freeman had already pulled the rest of the offensive starters, including the linemen protecting the projected first-round pick. Another touchdown against a struggling ACC opponent probably wasn’t going to move the needle much anyway.
Carr still has a shot to reach New York, where he’d likely be sitting alongside presumptive favorite Jeremiah Smith. The Ohio State receiver had 11 catches for 117 yards and a touchdown against Northwestern on Saturday, pushing his season totals to 69 receptions, 1,200 yards and 14 touchdowns. He has six 100-yard games and has gone over 200 yards twice.
Carr, meanwhile, has only one 300-yard passing game this season. Fernando Mendoza also had just one 300-yard game last year for Indiana, but unless Carr puts together something eye-popping over the final stretch, Notre Dame’s first Heisman winner since Tim Brown in 1987 still feels like a long shot.
That doesn’t really change the bigger picture. Carr is trying to be Notre Dame’s first national championship-winning quarterback since Tony Rice.
The other issue hanging over the Irish is the schedule, and it’s not helping. Boston College offered little resistance, Wisconsin lost to Maryland, and Wake Forest handled SMU. When the Mustangs come to Notre Dame next weekend, they’ll arrive unranked and no longer carrying the kind of national weight they once did.
That leaves Notre Dame with just two ranked opponents on the regular-season resume: Miami and BYU. It also wouldn’t be a surprise if eight Irish opponents finish with losing records.
That matters only in the sense that it could make the climb to No. 4 in the final rankings tougher, and that’s the spot Notre Dame would need for a first-round bye. Win the last two games and the Irish should at least secure a first-round home game, which is the same kind of launch point they used on their run to the national championship game two years ago.
There’s also an argument that a first-round game might be preferable. Notre Dame won’t have to play on conference championship weekend, so a bye would mean a five-week layoff before the playoffs begin.
A first-round game would still leave a three-week break before postseason play. Teams that played in the first round of the past two CFPs are 7-1 in the quarterfinals, with Alabama’s loss to Indiana last year in the Rose Bowl the only exception.
For now, Notre Dame looks safely headed to the postseason. But as the schedule continues to lose its shine, Saturday was also a reminder of how valuable that win over Miami really was.
In Other News...
Boston College Fans Witnessed A Notre Dame Moment Bigger Than The Game
Dan Hicks had become such a steady presence on Notre Dame broadcasts that his absence was impossible to miss during Saturdays home game against Boston College. Jason Benetti stepped in on NBC and handled play-by-play in Hicks place, a notable change for a booth that Irish fans have associated with Hicks since 2013, when he became the lead voice for Notre Dame home games.
The moment carried extra weight because Hicks died unexpectedly at 64 following an acute illness, ending a long NBC career that stretched back to 1992. Benetti paid tribute to Hicks during the broadcast, turning what might have been a routine substitution into something more reflective, and a reminder that sometimes the most memorable part of a game day has little to do with the scoreboard. [Read more 🡒]
Notre Dames Defense Has One Worry Fans Cant Ignore After BYU
Notre Dames defense looked like two different units in its first two major tests, and the contrast was hard to miss. Against Miami, the Irish got the kind of quarterback pressure defensive coordinator Chris Ash wants from his group, and that disruption helped tilt the game their way. It was the cleaner version of the plan, the one that showed how effective the front can be when it gets home and forces the issue.
BYU, though, made the conversation a little more complicated. The pressure did not show up as consistently, and head coach Marcus Freeman pointed to execution and control as the areas that needed attention during that game. The bigger question now is whether Ash keeps leaning on the same aggressive approach or adjusts it as Notre Dame moves deeper into the schedule, because the answer could shape how steady this defense looks from here. [Read more 🡒]
Boston College Faces A Brutal Notre Dame Test With Plenty At Stake
Boston College heads into South Bend carrying the burden of a two-game losing streak, and the challenge waiting there is about as steep as it gets in November. The Eagles are 4-5 and trying to steady themselves against a No. 3 Notre Dame team that has won two straight and has been one of the sports most consistent contenders this season.
For the Irish, this is the kind of late-season matchup that can keep the playoff conversation moving in the right direction, especially with the regular season winding down and the margin for error shrinking. Boston College will bring its captains, recent results and roster into a setting where Notre Dame has every reason to protect its standing, but the bigger question is whether the Eagles can turn a difficult trip into something more than just another test. [Read more 🡒]