Through seven games, Notre Dame’s run defense has done exactly what the best defenses are supposed to do: erase the ground game and force everything else to beat them.
The numbers jump out immediately. The Irish are giving up just 67.3 rushing yards per game, good for third in the country, and that comes against a schedule that includes a BYU team that managed 121 yards on the ground. That was the first opponent to clear the 100-yard mark against Notre Dame’s front, and even then it had to grind for every inch.
There’s a strong recent pattern behind why that matters. The source point here is simple: rushing defense keeps showing up in the profile of national champions.
Indiana finished 2025 allowing 77.2 rushing yards per game and ended the year ranked second nationally. Ohio State was third in 2024 at 87.6.
Michigan checked in at sixth in 2023 with 90.0 allowed. Georgia owned the top spot in 2022 at 77.0 per game and gave up only seven rushing touchdowns in 15 games, then followed that with a No. 2 finish the next season at 78.9 per game while allowing just three rushing touchdowns all year.
Notre Dame is sitting in that same neighborhood, and in some ways ahead of it. The Irish have given up an average of 67.8 rushing yards per game against P5 opponents so far in 2026. They’ve allowed only three rushing touchdowns in seven games, including two on the ground by BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier last weekend.
There’s another layer to what the Irish have done: they’ve consistently dragged opponents to their lowest rushing totals of the season. Wisconsin, Rice, Purdue and BYU all hit season lows against Notre Dame. BYU was the first team the Irish faced that got past 77 rushing yards, but even that outing was still the Cougars’ lowest total of the year when measured by both yards and yards per carry.
That doesn’t mean the job is finished. There are clear areas that still need to tighten up, especially against a quarterback like Bachmeier. The interior defensive line has to keep generating push, the edge players have to keep sealing the perimeter, and the secondary has to play with more physicality than it did last Saturday.
Still, amid all the negativity that’s bound to follow this team this week, Notre Dame has at least one part of its profile that belongs in the championship conversation. The run defense is one of them. If the Irish can keep that standard intact the rest of the way, they’ll be in strong shape on that side of the ball.
In Other News...
Notre Dame Has An Offensive Issue Bigger Games Keep Exposing
The loss to BYU did more than end Notre Dames 16-game winning streak. It laid bare an offensive problem the Irish had been able to mask for much of the season: too many drives have stalled when the game tightens, and third down has become the clearest place where that shows up.
Notre Dames third-down conversion rate sits at No. 39 nationally, which is respectable on paper but not nearly enough for the kind of games the Irish are now playing. Earlier in the year, superior talent could cover for some of those empty possessions, but against a similarly skilled opponent, the inability to stay on the field became impossible to ignore. [Read more 🡒]
Boubacar Traore Is Giving Notre Dame Fans One Big Reason To Watch
Boubacar Traore has become one of the more obvious defensive bright spots for Notre Dame this fall, and On3s midseason All-American first team nod only reinforced how much of an impact he has made. The junior edge rusher has stood out for more than the usual box-score stuff, with his sacks and quarterback pressures helping give the Irish a real presence off the edge while the rest of the defense works to settle in around him.
Anthonie Knapp also landed on On3s second team, giving Notre Dame another notable midseason recognition, but Traores selection feels like the one that really captures what has been happening on defense. The only concern for Irish fans is that Traores recent early exit raised a fresh question around his availability, and with no other Notre Dame players on the list, the spotlight on him feels even brighter as the season moves forward. [Read more 🡒]
Notre Dame Has A Receiver Problem Fans Didn't Expect
Notre Dames wide receiver usage has become one of the more curious subplots of the season, because the rotation has stayed remarkably tight even as the games have stacked up. In recent outings, only three or four pass-catchers have been getting the overwhelming share of the snaps, with the staff leaning heavily on a small core while the rest of the room has barely seen the field. That approach has shown up in the numbers from both BYU and North Carolina, where the workload distribution has been hard to miss.
The most striking part is not just who is playing, but who is not. Jaden Greathouse, Jordan Faison and Micah Gilbert have handled the bulk of the action, while other receivers have been left with minimal opportunities, raising obvious questions about whether this is a deliberate matchup-driven plan or something closer to a depth chart that has already started to harden. Miami looms next, and that should be the next checkpoint for a receiver group that suddenly has a lot more scrutiny on it than most fans expected. [Read more 🡒]