Notre Dame Football: America Will Judge the Irish Early In 2025

It will be another big early part of the season for Notre Dame, and it will be where all perceptions are formed.

Notre Dame running back Jadarian Price celebrates scoring a touchdown during a NCAA college football game between Notre Dame and Stanford at Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024, in South Bend. | MICHAEL CLUBB/SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Notre Dame's early schedule will test new-look Irish

Coming off a fantastically entertaining 2024 CFP campaign, Notre Dame will be under the national spotlight early and often to start 2025. A road opener at Miami, followed by a week off, and then a visit from Texas A&M will set the narrative tone for how Notre Dame will be perceived by much of the nation.

Were the Irish a one-hit wonder last year, or do they have CFP staying power? Certainly, Notre Dame has the talent to win these first two brand-name battles, but there are still some questions that need to be answered.

How will Notre Dame's Chris Ash-led defense perform early in the year? And what about the new Irish signal caller yet to be officially named, handling these early-season big game moments?

1️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ days until we kick off the season back in Miami #GoIrish☘️ pic.twitter.com/lSVGkfWXQG

— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) May 23, 2025

Over-reactions will dominate the narrative

Early-season results are often blown very much out of proportion. Football fans and media members from coast to coast wait all summer for the regular season to begin. All of that pent-up football energy will translate into some declarations being made after just a couple of weeks that end up not holding throughout the long CFB season.

Notre Dame 2024 was a perfect example of this. After the week two loss to NIU, the Irish were essentially written off as a playoff contender for much of the rest of the regular season. What did they do? Just kept getting better and winning, forcing a narrative shift.

It's certainly possible that there are some early growing pains for Notre Dame's new starting QB and the defense that will have to be sorted out early in the year.

But I am very confident that the 2025 Irish team will get stronger as the season moves along, and that counting them out should they falter early would be a huge mistake folks shouldn't make in back to back years.

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