Notre Dame vs Texas A&M: Expert Predictions for Saturday Showdown

Notre Dame (0-1) opens the 2025 home portion of the schedule with arguably its biggest home game of the year as No. 16 Texas A&M (2-0) comes to South Bend.

A win calms almost all storms for the time being while a loss for Notre Dame would put a major dent in College Football Playoff hopes as the team tries to build off last year’s national championship appearance.

Can Notre Dame beat the Aggies for the second year in a row or will Texas A&M plant the SEC flag on Notre Dame Stadium’s 50-yard line?

Here’s what the staff at Notre Dame On SI sees happening.

Pankti Parmar (0-0): Notre Dame: 29 Texas A&M: 26

Mike Elko will try every trick that Miami did to exploit all of Notre Dame’s weaknesses, which were on full display in Week 1. Notre Dame’s bruised offense will need to step up and establish a consistent passing game and have decent pass protection at the least. Marcus Freeman’s safest route to executing this will be utilizing Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price early in the game — and keep their fingers crossed that at least one of them has a massive night.

After a bye week, I believe the squad should have a better rushing attack (it was 3.3 yards per carry vs. Miami) and an even better pass protection. Pressurizing freshman QB Carr was not the top thing on Freeman’s list, but it will be exactly that type of day for Carr. The night will be a tussle on the scoreboard, and the Fighting Irish will put just enough to win.

Jackson Langendorf (0-1): Notre Dame 27, Texas A&M 17

Notre Dame’s offensive line wasn’t nearly as stout as expected in Week One (quarterback CJ Carr was sacked three times). Facing a Texas A&M defensive line that has totaled 12 sacks in two games, the Fighting Irish must find a way to protect Carr, while creating a push up front for running backs Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price. Expect them to do just that, along with putting together an excellent defensive performance en route to a comfortable victory.

Nathan Erbach (0-1): Notre Dame 30 Texas A&M 17

I don’t really have a good feel for this game with Notre Dame coming off a loss and a bye. What I do know is that a lot of Notre Dame’s proven talent didn’t play well against Miami and that shouldn’t be a trend. I also know that CJ Carr looked like a player that is fully capable of running the offense. Overall, the Irish are at home and I believe they are a better football team by a decently wide margin. We should come away from this game feeling much better about the team as a whole.

Mason Plummer (0-1): Notre Dame 27, Texas A&M 21.

Marcus Freeman Notre Dame teams win when they have their backs against the wall and that doesn’t change Saturday night. This is a must-win for the Fighting Irish and it will be ROWDY in Notre Dame Stadium. The bye week allowed time to fix the mistakes from Miami and Notre Dame pulls this one off with a late touchdown to win it.

John Kennedy (0-1): Notre Dame 27, Texas A&M 24

Marcus Freeman Irish teams have a history of bouncing back. That's what we will see this weekend. I expect the Irish run game to get going behind Love and Price while Denbrock opens up the pass game for CJ Carr more than it was against Miami. Defensively, with some slight scheme tweaks and personnel changes, the defense will look much more like what Irish fans have come to expect. It won’t be easy, but the Irish get the win.

Jeff Feyerer (0-1): Notre Dame 38, Texas A&M 17

The O-Line didn’t play well. The D-Line didn’t play well. There was a bye week. I think they get it fixed. And when it comes down to it, the Irish are back home ready to avenge a performance in Miami that showed that although they weren’t at their best, they absolutely can still go and win a National Championship.

This Texas A&M group is very talented and experienced, returning 15 starters from last year. Marcel Reed is more of a threat than Connor Weigman could think to be, but where I believe the game will be won will be the Irish offensive line against a Aggie defensive line that lost Nic Scourton, Shemar Stewart and Shemar Turner to the NFL Draft. I think they’ll get Jeremiyah Love involved early, but don’t be surprised if Jadarian Price has a huge game on the ground and the Irish rush for over 200 yards total.

Pete Fiutak (1-0): Notre Dame 30, Texas A&M 16

Everyone seemingly needed a tune-up - how dumb do you have to be to start your season in Miami Gardens, or Tallahassee, or Columbus? - but you could see it. Notre Dame needed a half, and then it started to look the part. Now with two weeks off, and everyone rested and ready, THIS will look like the Irish team that’s about to roll to another massive season.

It’ll get Jeremiyah Love the ball early - HE’S NOT USED AS A 25-CARRY BACK; if I have to hear one more misguided college football media type whine about the Miami game workload … - the lines will play better, and all will be right with the world.

Nick Shepkowski (0-1): Notre Dame 24, Texas A&M 23

The good news is that I’m feeling better than I did about this game at the start of the week. The bad news is it’s still not great. Texas A&M might not be as good on both lines as Miami is but its still difficult to deal with up front on both sides. The point spread on this one seems a bit off to me. This feels like one of those “just get out alive” type games for Notre Dame, something CJ Carr gets it to do in the final seconds of his second career start.