The Miami Hurricanes and Notre Dame Fighting Irish will face off at Hard Rock Stadium in a primetime matchup in Week One of the 2025 season.
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Miami Hurricanes open the 2025 season in a Week One showdown at Hard Rock Stadium. Notre Dame finished the 2024 season in 2025, as in they played in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game against eventual champion Ohio State.
The Buckeyes took care of business against ND, but the Irish certainly put up a fight at times in a 34-23 final. ND finished the season 14-2 with loses to OSU and unranked Northern Illinois. The Irish faced eight ranked opponents over their 16 game run.
In ‘25, ND clearly opens with a road trip against Miami; while also facing USC, Texas A&M, and Boise State at home. Head coach Marcus Freeman is 33-10 as the Irish head coach including a loss in the Fiesta Bowl to end the 2021 season.
The Irish signed the 12th best prep class in college football this off-season, and only five portal transfers to their two-deep on both sides. That means Freeman intends to go with his development over someone else’s in ‘25. LB Madden Faraimo was the prize recruit for ND.
ND’s Preseason Overall SP+ is 6th in FBS while their ST’s are a lowly 106th after some kicking issues in ‘24.
The Lean ‘Canes Business Model
Problem: The Irish had issues in ‘24 with downfield passing and placekicking. QB Riley Leonard averaged only 7.1 yards per pass attempt and Jaden Greathouse averaged only 14.1 yards per catch. PK Mitch Jeter missed eight FG’s a year ago.
Solution: Freeman is going to roll with RS Freshman QB CJ Carr. Carr has no experience in college football but was a highly regarded recruit out of high school. ND also added UVA’s Malachi Fields (14.7 ypc and five TD’s) as a potential deep threat WR.
On special teams, UNC transfer kicker Noah Burnette (34-for-41 in two seasons) looks to fix the issues there.
Unique Value Proposition: I mean say what you want but it’s Notre Dame. I’ve been to a game and sat in the shadows of Touchdown Jesus. It’s not exactly my ideal town to live in but a game at ND should be on every CFB fan’s bucket list. Their UVP is history and tradition, and even some modern success.
Key Metric: ND still finished the 2024 season 10th in FBS in scoring offense with 36.1 PPG. It wasn’t scoring that was the issue until the playoff when they needed more big plays and less ground-and-pound from Leonard. Yards per pass attempt will be a huge metric for the Irish in ‘25.
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Competitive Advantage: RB Jeremiyah Love and a stingy defense. Love averaged 6.9 yards per carry with 17 TD’s a year ago. Love’s ability to control the clock will help Carr adjust to the pace of major college football. Of course Freeman is a DC by nature and the Irish were 5th overall in points allowed per game with 15.5.
The Achievers
When it comes to High Achievers that’s ND in a nutshell. They’re functioning at a high level coming off of a season where the Irish finished 2nd in the country. They retained a ton of talent, added a few pieces, and look ready for another run at the playoff. They’re on the Michigan Wolverines 2023 route of adding a couple of pieces and hoping to get over the hump that way versus the wholesale changes Miami has made.
The Low Achievers for ND to avoid are the unranked opponents on their own schedule. But half-joking aside, the low end of the conference the Irish are most aligned with (The ACC) just play really bland brands of football. When you can out talent people you can win that way (Michigan ‘23). But ND ran into the OSU buzzsaw and saw where rubber meets the road on 90’s offenses.
The Offense
The preseason SP+ for ND on offense is 10th. That’s pretty good considering they lost their QB and the SP+ values returning production. However, ND returns Greathouse and Love, as well as nearly a two-deep of offensive linemen with major playing experience in big games.
For a look at CJ Carr the most you’ll see is from the Notre Dame Blue and Gold game from the spring of 2025. Carr drops some absolute dimes in the scrimmage. However, he knew he couldn’t be hit and scrimmages usually lean towards the offense when QB’s are off limits.
For a schematic play that I really like: I’m a big fan of the slide RPO inside the +5 yard line. Whether ran with a TE, FB, or slot WR- it’s a really effective play to manipulate the DE either away from the run or to use him for an easy throw to the TE. Elijah Arroyo and Cam Ward ran this to perfection at times for Miami in ‘24.
Above– You can see a diagram of a similarly drawn up concept, although from the pistol. They’re reading the play side overhang player (Edge type).
Above– The two main defenders that have to be manipulated here are the overhang and the DE. They’ll block the overhang and read the DE on this version of the slide RPO.
Above– You can see the overhang being blocked here by a TE, while the DE is being read by the QB.
Above– The DE bit on the run so the QB pulled and throws the easy slide route to the slot that was in motion.
The Slide RPO is dangerous against undisciplined teams that don’t play their role. Against an option play: someone has to take the dive (RB on the inside run), the Q (play your boot responsibility) and the pitch man (the slot running the slide route).
The Defense
The defensive preseason SP+ for the Irish is 8th in the country. ND returns Christian Gray (nine PBU’s) and Jaylen Snead. The defense did lose Rylie Mills, Howard Cross III, and Xavier Watts to the NFL.
After getting burned a few times by OSU (and who hasn’t?!) ND brought in Alabama transfer nickel DeVonta Smith who logged five PBU’s last season. The defense should never be a drastic issue with Freeman as the head coach in South Bend.
We’re going to look at best on best when it comes to the Irish defense. This is ND versus Ohio State from the CFBPO Championship Game. One thing that stood out was how badly ND fell for the play-action look even with Jeremiah Smith being in the backfield.
Above– When you have the ground game that OSU could put up with two second round NFL Draft picks at running back the play-action pass game is highly effective.
Above– Look at the linebackers when they finally realize it’s 1- a pass and 2- it’s Smith wide open. The brakes can only be hit and the re-acceleration can only happen so quickly.
Above– Wiiiiiide open spaaaaces oooooo room to make the big mistake.
Miami needs to get the run game going against ND in the battle of the bullies (see: below). Carson Beck isn’t the creator and magician that Cam Ward is. And that’s okay. But Beck is a QB that needs a strong run game in order to get going and work his PA game.
2025 Prediction
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The Canyonero Keys to Victory for the ‘Canes this season over ND is to win the battle of bully ball. Cristobal fancies himself a tough guy with a tough team but Miami can’t get out muscled like they have against Georgia Tech by Notre Dame, at home, in a primetime type of national showdown. It would be really bad for the brand.
Way too early prediction: Notre Dame by 3. Much like Mario Cristobal, Freeman has stumbled against unranked opponents as the ND head coach. The Irish have lost unforgivable games to Marshall and NIU but always seem to bounce back for the big showdowns.
The ‘25 ND regular season is fairly weak and sets up well for them to make a run at perfection, I see them finishing 12-0. ND’s SP+ Strength of Schedule is 44th in FBS.