If you are anything like me, you are still questioning what happened with Notre Dame’s offense in its loss on Sunday to Miami.
The Irish decided to throw quarterback CJ Carr into the fire in his first start of his collegiate career, seven of the first eight plays, which ended up going to 35 total yards and a turnover. It was two series of short passes, which the Hurricanes picked up on quickly, which led to wide receiver Malachi Fields fumbling his first tough in the Blue and Gold.
Not leaning on the run game with star Jeremiyah Love is still confusing, and as CollegeFootballNews.com’s Pete Fuitak pointed out, when Notre Dame has 28 or fewer rushes under head coach Marcus Freeman they lose, and they fell just short with 27. More touches should have gone to the backs, as Jadarian Price looked great with 45-yard on 6 carries. Sure, Love wasn’t nearly as efficient, but when the Irish ran plays for him, it was all too obvious.
Third-string running back Aneyas Williams did play, but he didn’t touch the ball. With such a deep and talent room, Notre Dame should have leaned on its best offense players, but instead chose to try and give CJ Carr the keys right away.
While it’s just a few days following the game, in our first look at the 2025 team, did not have the same look as when we last saw them on the field. There is still time to correct this, and they’ll have until Sep. 9th until they can try and get this bad taste out of their mouth’s.
Hopefully offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock and Freeman see the mistake they made and correct it. The easiest option is to have Carr run less, spreading those carries out to the backs. He took some big hits too, and protecting him is a good idea.
The good news is that this isn’t something that can’t be fixed, and the coaches shouldn’t take all the blame as well. The offensive line didn’t play up to its normal standards, and if these two small things can get corrected, Notre Dame can quickly turn around and show the country they are much better than they showed against Miami.
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This article originally appeared on Fighting Irish Wire: If Notre Dame hits this mark, they win, but it didn’t and came up just short vs. Miami
Reporting by Michael Chen , Fighting Irish Wire / Fighting Irish Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
