Notre Dame Fighting Irish 2025 College Football Preview
Posted August 6, 2025
2024 Recap
Record – 14-2
ATS – 12-4
Things got off to a rocky start as the Irish were victims of the biggest upset of the 2024 season when Northern Illinois came into South Bend and SHOCKED the WORLD. Everybody and their grandma was shoveling dirt on Notre Dame’s grave, but NOT SO FAST MY FRIEND! Notre Dame kept getting better and didn’t lose another regular season game whilst outscoring their opponents in the last seven games by a combined margin of 316-100. The Irish made a great run in the CFP defeating Indiana, mighty Georgia, and Penn St, but they hit the end of the road against the JUGGERNAUT Buckeyes in the Championship Game (L 34-23). They didn’t win it all but it was a very successful season for Notre Dame football.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish 2025 Outlook
OFFENSE
The Irish were very efficient on offense LY (36 PPG, #10) whilst maintaining impeccable balance (201 YPG rush, 198 YPG pass) thanks to the clutch play of QB Riley Leonard (21-8 TD to INT; 906 rush, 17 TD). Notre Dame will be rolling with a freshman QB in CJ Carr who’s never thrown a pass in FBS play and he’ll need some time to get comfortable despite being a very talented specimen. The best news on offense is the return of superstar RB Jeremiyah Love (1,125, 6.9!, 17 TD) along with #2 RB Jadarian Price (746, 6.2, 7 TD) and that means Carr will be able to settle into the offense and not have to put the team on his shoulders, much like Riley Leonard had to do at times in 2024. Notre Dame will miss NFL-bound TE Mitchell Evans but they’ve got a very underrated WR trio in Jaden Greathouse (592, 14.1, 4 TD), Virginia transfer Malachi Fields (808, 5 TD), and Wisconsin transfer Will Pauling (837, 6 TD in 2023). The offensive line looks very solid but note that projected starting guard Charles Jagusah could miss the entire season due to injury. It’ll definitely help to have a pair of solid anchors in center Ashton Craig and LT Anthonie Knapp.
DEFENSE
Notre Dame played elite defense for the 2nd consecutive season and allowed a mere 15.5 PPG (#4) and 307 YPG (#11), and they also achieved impressive PENETRATION (40 sacks, #14). The Irish will miss DTs Rylie Mills and Howard Cross on the inside but they’re still very deep up front with doods like DE Bryce Young (6-7 freak) and DT Jared Dawson part of the mix. Sophomore DE Boubacar Traore had three sacks LY in limited duty (injury) and don’t be surprised if he does serious damage in 2025. Leading tackler LB Jack Kiser will be missed but they retain three of their top-four LBs from LY including #3 tackler Drayk Bowen, and the secondary will be fine despite losing star safety Xavier Watts (10 PBU, 6 INT). Impact players on the back end include safety Adon Shuler, CB Christian Gray (9 PBU, 3 INT), and ROLL TIDE transfer CB DeVonta Smith who was fantastic as the nickel back / “Husky” in 2024 (421 snaps, 0 TD allowed!).
SPECIAL TEAMS
The kicking game won’t be an issue with the return of punter James Rendell (40.2) and the addition of PK Noah Burnette from UNC (15/21 FG LY, 19/20 FG in 2023) but they’ll need to find new primary return men.
Schedule Analysis
Overall – WHOA, NELLIE. How does an opening game at YOUR Miami Hurricanes sound? That’s definitely must-watch TV and a tough game for the Irish. The rest of the schedule is very manageable and almost all of their tough are at home in South Bend (Texas A&M, Boise St, USC).
Potential ATS Trouble Spot – Purdue (Sept 20)
Purdue will be HOT GARBAGE this season but the Irish will be laying a TON of points in this game and they’ll be coming off the yuuuge game with Texas A&M and looking ahead to the road tilt at WOO PIG. Recall that Purdue got rolled up and smoked by the Irish last year (L 66-7) which was the biggest slaughter in Purdue program history. It’ll be tempting but we don’t anticipate laying the big lumber with Notre Dame in this game.
Season Win Total
Market consensus – August 6
Over 10.5 +120
Under 10.5 -150
MEGALOCKS says:
No leanage.
The opening week test at Miami is very likely to determine the outcome in this market and that game is a coin toss in our opinion. If you feel good about Notre Dame and they handle business they’ll probably be on the way to a 11-1 or 12-0 regular season. On the other hand, if you really like the Canes in the opener then taking the ‘under’ in this market could make some sense. Too close of a call for our tastes, yo.
MEGAmazing Tidbits
Head coach Marcus Freeman has been in BEAST MODE vs Vegas as he’s got an impossibly impossible 28-14-1 ATS record (66.7%) which is pretty impressive when you consider that everyone and their DONKEY is looking to back the Irish on a weekly basis. You would think it’d be tough to make money backing Coach Freeman, but here we are.
The legendary CATHOLICS vs CONVICTS **** game in 1988 was won by Notre Dame 31-30 and it propelled them to a National Championship. They took care of West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl (W 34-21) to finish at 12-0. Some experts estimate that 99.7% of the global population was understandably cheering for Miami in that game. A sad day for humanity, but that’s how it goes sometimes.
**** Fact check – Yes, Karen. That’s how the game was coined by Notre Dame students. Calm down.
MEGALOCKS Forecast:
Buckle up as this promises to be another fantastic edition of Notre Dame football. There’s obviously an element of the unknown at the quarterback position but CJ Carr has a great supporting cast to help GIT-R-DONE. The defense will be somewhere between “really good” and “elite” whilst the schedule really lightens up after the first two games. We’ll call for ten or eleven wins and fully expect to see the Irish in the 2025 College Football Playoff.
Cheer, Cheer for Old Notre Dame!