Notre Dame’s path to another win over Boston College starts with its defense setting the tone early and staying on the gas.
The Irish are 8-1 and coming off their biggest win of the season, maybe the biggest regular-season victory of the Marcus Freeman era in South Bend. Now they turn around and host the Eagles with a chance to strengthen their College Football Playoff case. On paper, Notre Dame has the clear edge in talent and production, but that advantage only turns into a comfortable afternoon if the defense handles four jobs: stay sharp, choke off the run, make Mason McKenzie uncomfortable and create turnovers.
The first piece is focus. It would be unrealistic to expect Notre Dame to bring the exact same edge it showed against Miami, because that kind of stage and energy can’t be duplicated.
Still, the Irish can’t afford to drift into a flat performance just because the opponent is Boston College. That responsibility starts with Chris Ash, who can help keep this defense locked in by calling a game that lets it attack.
Notre Dame is at its best when the front can fire downhill, the secondary can play aggressively and the whole unit isn’t stuck in a passive shell against a mobile quarterback. The players have to match that approach with physical, disciplined football, while avoiding the kind of penalty mistakes that showed up in last year’s game against Boston College.
From there, the run defense has to do the heavy lifting. Boston College ranks 113th in passing offense, 114th in passer rating, 97th in yards per pass attempt and 120th in completion rate.
The Eagles have thrown 10 touchdown passes and been intercepted nine times. That makes the formula pretty clear: take away the ground game and force BC into the air, where it has struggled all season.
The numbers back that up. In Boston College’s four wins, it has averaged 209.5 rushing yards per game and gone over 150 yards on the ground in three of them.
In its five losses, the Eagles have averaged just 131 rushing yards per game and have not once averaged more than 5.0 yards per carry. Notre Dame’s run defense has been excellent, ranking 10th nationally in yards per carry allowed at 87.1 and 11th in yards per attempt at 2.87.
If the Irish control the line of scrimmage, Boston College should have a hard time moving the ball at all.
The biggest individual threat is McKenzie, and Notre Dame has to make sure he doesn’t turn the game into a scramble drill. He leads Boston College with 676 rushing yards and is tied for the team lead with five rushing touchdowns.
He has topped 100 yards on the ground twice and has three other games with more than 70. When he gets loose, he can also hurt defenses with his arm, whether that means escaping the pocket or climbing it to find a throw.
That’s why Ash can’t repeat the more passive approach Notre Dame has used at times against mobile quarterbacks, especially not after the BYU loss. The Irish need to attack McKenzie, not wait on him. If Notre Dame’s front can get after him and overwhelm a below average BC line, the result should be sacks, hits, hurried throws and a defense that controls the game.
The final piece is finishing plays. McKenzie has been intercepted eight times on 229 passes this season, and he was picked off 11 times in 2025 at Saginaw Valley State.
Boston College has also fumbled 12 times this year. If Notre Dame’s defense is aggressive, those chances should come.
And if the Irish turn them into takeaways, they can hand their offense short fields and put this game away quickly.
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 🡒]