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What they’re saying about Notre Dame’s 27-24 loss against Miami

Singer headshotby: Mike Singer09/01/25MikeTSinger
marcus freeman on3 fp miami postgame
Aug 31, 2025; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman reacts after the after the game against the Miami Hurricanes at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Notre Dame rallied late to tie the game at 24-24 with just 3:21 left in the contest, but Miami knocked through a 47-yard field to take the lead with a minute remaining, and the Irish had zero timeouts left to use. CJ Carr and the Fighting Irish fell short in the thrilling contest, but there were plenty of positives to take away, and all of Notre Dame’s goals are still ahead of them.

In this article, we’ll take a look around at what the media is saying about the Fighting Irish’s setback against the Hurricanes including Blue & Gold’s Mike Singer, Eric Hansen and Bob Morton giving their instant reaction to the game in a YouTube live show. You can watch the replay of the show in the video player below.

Postgame reaction show with Singer, Hansen and Morton

Jack Soble, Blue & Gold: Five Thoughts—Losing line of scrimmage leads list of red flags in Notre Dame loss to Miami

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — With Notre Dame down to its last breath, Miami defensive ends Rueben Bain and Akheem Mesidor met at the quarterback.

On the next play, they met there again.

Bain and Mesidor combined for back-to-back sacks (redshirt freshman quarterback CJ Carr was flagged for intentional grounding on the first one, but for all intents and purposes, it was a sack), ending Notre Dame’s attempt at a game-tying field goal drive. Irish head coach Marcus Freeman said afterward that he expects his defensive line to dominate its opposition. Bain, Mesidor and the Hurricanes’ front four dominated Notre Dame.

“The effort was there,” Freeman said. “I guess you’ve gotta give credit to their team.”

The Irish were not strong as they expected to be in the run game, either. And defensively, the Hurricanes had their number up front, too. Miami moved the line of scrimmage significantly more than Notre Dame, particularly up the middle. The ballyhooed Irish defensive tackles were often overmatched. Up until the third quarter, the pass rush was virtually nonexistent. 

Miami is one of the top teams in college football in the trenches. But Notre Dame expects to be on that short list, too. Decisively losing the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball is a red flag for the Irish.

Here are four more thoughts on Notre Dame’s 27-24 loss to Miami.

Eric Hansen, Blue & Gold: Inside the numbers — and the moxie — of CJ Carr’s first Notre Dame start

Maybe the most amusing part of CJ Carr’s first postmortem as a Notre Dame starting quarterback was how apparently unfamiliar he is with the art of the word salad.

And how technical and precise the redshirt freshman was when it came to X’s and O’s.

Which his game — not just his words — eventually reflected in a 27-24 loss for No. 6 Notre Dame at No. 10 Miami in his starting debut on Sunday night in a downpour and 91 percent humidity.

“We had a three-by-one set with two ends to the field,” Carr said of a quasi-miraculous seven-yard strike to redshirt freshman Micah Gilbert that goes down as the first college TD pass of his career. “They were playing some sort of middle-field open coverage.”

History will say, in plain English, that it was a 7-yard pass. But both Carr, in eluding a relentless rush, and the ball traveled much farther.

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Tyler Horka, Blue & Gold: Notre Dame comeback falls short at Miami despite late heroics from QB CJ Carr

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Anyone who counted Notre Dame out of Sunday’s season opener at Miami clearly didn’t care to recall what happened on the very field the Fighting Irish played on eight months prior.

They just refuse to lay down at Hard Rock Stadium.

This result, though, wasn’t the same as the previous one. Essentially, the exact opposite; Miami beat Notre Dame, 27-24, the same score by which the Irish defeated Penn State in the Orange Bowl to punch a ticket to the national championship game. The stakes were much lower this time around, but the circumstances felt eerily familiar.

Once trialing by double digits, Notre Dame clawed all the way back to tie the game at 24 points apiece late in the fourth quarter. Riley Leonard had a lot to do with it in January. On the final day of August, the comeback was complements of his successor — redshirt freshman CJ Carr.

Making his debut as a starter, Carr completed 18-of-28 pass attempts for 209 yards with 2 touchdowns and 1 interception. His first TD pass was a Houdini-act type of play of epic proportions. He nearly stepped foot on the 30-yard line on a play that was snapped from the seven. He worked himself free enough — by way of running all over the place with defensive linemen in hot pursuit — to fire a touchdown toss to fellow redshirt freshman Micah Gilbert.

Then Carr perfectly played a run-pass-option for an easy flick to junior wide receiver Jordan Faison to bring Notre Dame within a touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter.

He didn’t lay down.

“He’s a gamer, man,” Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said. “He performs when the lights are on.”

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Andy Staples, On3: College Football Playoff Prediction—Bracketology shake-up after Week 1

10. Notre Dame: The Fighting Irish nearly clawed their way back at Miami, and it seems the coaching staff remembered Jeremiyah Love was on the team in the second half. End of game intentional grounding aside — a situation that was hopeless anyway because it wasn’t blocked well — C.J. Carr looked quite poised for a first-time starter. He’s only going to get better. Notre Dame lost to Northern Illinois last year and still made the CFP. There is no shame in losing to Miami, but the Irish do need to beat Texas A&M on Sept. 13.

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Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman

Opening statement from postgame press conference:

“So, obviously disappointing with the outcome. It was a top ten fight. Like, come down to a three-point game versus a hell of a football team. Our guys got a lot to — really, the confidence to build off of. There’s obviously a lot out there that we didn’t do well, but there are some things we did do well. And we got to build on the things that we did well, and we got to fix with urgency the things we didn’t do so well. 

“It’s the first game of the year versus a heck of an opponent. We obviously got a new quarterback starting, and we got to do things to try to help him kind of figure his way out. And defensively, we got to be better in crucial parts of the game. 

“I think in crucial parts, they actually did play well. It’s the parts that maybe, the normal situation. We weren’t as, really, as high performing as I would like in that situation. So, we’ll take it — we’ll get back to work. Look at ways to fix it and utilize this bye week and get ready for our next opponent, [Texas] A&M.”

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Miami head coach Mario Cristobal

Opening statement from postgame press conference:

“I want to thank everyone who came out tonight and made that place electric. It was really a different level of impact for us and our players. They were all about it and that is what college football is all about. Our student section was jammed up and there was so many alumni. This game is for everybody. I got to see coach Jimmy Johnson. I am proud of this team. The resiliency and complementary football. There was a couple of hiccups, but overall it was an awesome night.”

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