Notre Dame's Season Will Be Defined Against Texas A&M on Saturday

College football is a wild sport, isn't it?

In the NFL, your season and playoff hopes can be alive for over half of the year if you are playing decently. Sometimes, even going just above .500 gets you into the playoffs (see the Steelers, every single season).

However, in college football, one loss can ruin everything, and two losses can sink a season before it has even truly begun. Notre Dame has its back against the wall Saturday evening when it hosts Texas A&M in an absolute must-win game in every sense.

It is generally not wise to schedule your two biggest games of the season as the first two games on the schedule, especially with a brand new quarterback in redshirt freshman CJ Carr, but here we are.

Notre Dame, while playing not at its best, fought valiantly and just came up short two weeks ago in Miami. Can it forge ahead and defeat Texas A&M to keep its season and playoff hopes alive? They are going to have to.

Especially coming off of a national championship game run, there are no moral victories in a season that doesn't include making the college football playoff, and that is what the Fighting Irish are staring straight in the eyes right now.

Sure, you could argue that Notre Dame could lose this game and then go on to rip off 10 in a row and sneak into the playoff at 10-2, but that just isn't realistic.

Also, are we going to have faith in a team to go on a 10-game tear after losing the first two? I don't think so. Handling business at home against a good, but beatable A&M team is a MUCH better path.

𝙂𝙖𝙢𝙚 𝙒𝙚𝙚𝙠

🆚 Texas A&M
📍 South Bend, Indiana
📅 Saturday, Sept. 13
🕢 7:30 PM ET
📺 NBC | Peacock#GoIrish☘️ | @tirerack pic.twitter.com/WwL3pyRpnc
— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) September 8, 2025

It won't be easy to defeat A&M, but Marcus Freeman teams have shown an ability to win when their backs are against the wall and when people are counting them out. Freeman would be the first to tell you that Miami played the better game in week one, but also that Notre Dame did not play near its best.

You can expect that he drilled that into his team through the bye week and this last week leading up to Saturday against the Aggies. If I know Freeman and the team/staff he has put together, expect the Fighting Irish to come out flying around and pissed off.

Expect a fast start from Notre Dame that involves a fast-paced offense and getting pressure on Texas A&M quarterback Marcel Reed early and often.

Notre Dame has an opportunity to make a statement here and get into the easier part of the schedule with its CFP hopes still alive and comfortably in the top-10 of the AP poll.