Notre Dame Dominates Boise State: Key Takeaways from Irish Blowout Win

Notre Dame improved to 3-2 with its 28-7 victory over Boise State on Saturday, in a game that remained relatively close on the scoreboard despite not being played too evenly.

The Irish now get to turn the page and prepare for North Carolina State before a heavyweight matchup with USC, but Saturday made clear that, despite improvements being made, progress still needs to be made in almost all areas.

Here are a handful of immediate takeaways following Notre Dame's win over the Broncos.

Notre Dame Not Playing to Potential

IRISH WIN IN GREEN ☘️#GoIrish☘️ | @Gatorade pic.twitter.com/8nxaSGxQR9
— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) October 4, 2025

What's clear as day after Saturday is that Notre Dame didn't play to its potential. It's not fair to expect a team of 18–22-year-olds to play their best every week, but having as many mental lapses and general shortcomings as Notre Dame did on Saturday is unacceptable.

This isn't a knock on Boise State as the Broncos have as proud of program as there is in the Group of Six, but you play against your own abilities and expectations as well as the opponent, and Notre Dame fell well short of that standard Saturday. Had it not been for several of them, Notre Dame wins this game by 35 or more points, but instead walks away with a 28-7 win (and cover) to move to 3-2.

With opponents Notre Dame will be favored heavily over in the weeks to come; hammering out details and playing to expectations will be increasingly important.

Notre Dame Still Dominated Everywhere - Except the Scoreboard

Notre Dame controlled the game from the early onset, but the score remained close because of mental errors. The final stats show Notre Dame with a 389-315 advantage in total yardage, but for much of the afternoon, it was closer to a 2:1 margin for the Irish. Couple in four forced turnovers (all interceptions), and the domination shows further, despite the "only" three-score victory.

Notre Dame Penalty Issues

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freema — Oct 4, 2025; South Bend, Indiana, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman talks to an official during the first half at Notre Dame Stadium. | Michael Caterina-Imagn Images

A clean brand of football it was not for Notre Dame on Saturday as the laundry was all over the field throughout the day. Notre Dame wound up with 11 penalties for 112 yards after being penalized seven times for 60 yards in the first half alone. None was more costly than a false start at the one yard line that wound up costing the Irish an early touchdown.

On the note of officiating, I sent a text to Jeff Feyerer of our site during the game that simply said: " I don't know what the (retracted explitive) a personal foul is anymore". I get protecting players and nobody is against that but the late hit call out of bounds coupled with the roughing the passer on Jason Onye that negated an interception were beyond suspect.

More Early Wildcat Issues for Irish

Notre Dame went back to the Wildcat on offense twice on Saturday and it couldn't have ended worse. The first was on the Boise State goal line and resulted in a false start on third and goal. After Eli Raridon caught a pass to get back down to the one, Notre Dame again went to the Wildcat with Jeremiyah Love, only to be stuffed at the goal line and kept off the scoreboard.

I'm not going to go as far as to say the Wildcat has to be done away with, but it's shown limited returns to date.

Notre Dame Dominates Line of Scrimmage

Notre Dame again handled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball Saturday. It starts with the defense that created significant pressure on Boise State quarterback Maddux Madsen regularly, but applied to the run game as well. Notre Dame held the Broncos to just 100 total rushing yards on the day, and just 2.9 per attempt. For the Irish, 200 yards were totaled by ground, 6.5 yards per attempt as Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price combined for 186 of those and two scores.

Survive and Advance

On a day that Penn State wound up losing to previously winless UCLA and Texas lost at Florida, Notre Dame played perhaps a B-type of game and walked away a 28-7 victor. It's not the finished product Notre Dame needs to have or level it needs to be to play for anything of consequence at season's end, but it was another step in the right direction on a day a pair of top 10 teams fell to teams that were a combined 1-7 coming in.