Notre Dame opponents who made the EA Sports College Football 25 top 100
The EA Sports College Football 25 top 100 is out just a few days before the release of the video game next week. Four Notre Dame Fighting Irish players made the list.
A lot has been made of Notre Dame having what is, on paper, an easy schedule in 2024. EA Sports leaned into that narrative by only including seven players from the 12 teams Notre Dame is set to face this season on its collection of the top 100 players in college football.
Here are those players and their ratings.
Notre Dame’s 2024 opponents in EA Sports College Football’s top 25
| Player | Team | Overall | Rank | Speed | Acceleration | Strength | Awareness | Jumping |
| S Jonas Sanker | Virginia | 92 | 39 | 90 | 91 | 77 | 92 | 88 |
| CB Quincy Riley | Louisville | 92 | 40 | 92 | 86 | 59 | 89 | 95 |
| C Jonah Monheim | USC | 92 | 41 | 70 | 82 | 87 | 94 | 80 |
| DE Ashton Gillotte | Louisville | 90 | 72 | 84 | 93 | 87 | 91 | 88 |
| S Dillon Theineman | Purdue | 90 | 83 | 90 | 92 | 72 | 85 | 87 |
| DE Patrick Payton | Florida State | 90 | 87 | 85 | 92 | 77 | 89 | 89 |
| DE Nic Scourton | Texas A&M | 90 | 88 | 82 | 87 | 87 | 91 | 79 |
The most reassuring theme for Notre Dame fans carried all the way through by those seven players? Only one of them plays offense, and he’s a center. Notre Dame does not have to worry about facing one of the best quarterbacks in college football, for instance. There isn’t a wide receiver or running back on the schedule that is going to get his no matter what.
Of course, a player being left off of EA’s list doesn’t mean he can’t pop off. There are still some players on the offensive side of the ball Notre Dame needs to worry about. Blue & Gold did a thorough job of outlining who they are by compiling an all-opponent team earlier this week.
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Still, it’s nice knowing there isn’t a QB like Caleb Williams on the slate. Notre Dame tripped him up into the worst outing of his college career last fall, but you can’t bank on doing something like that every time you face a player of his caliber. And you can’t bet on putting the clamps on a wideout like Marvin Harrison Jr. every time you play someone like him either.
This year, it’s going to be more about the Notre Dame offensive line blocking edge rushers like Gillotte, Payton and Scourton. It’s going to be about Riley Leonard keeping the ball away from hawks like Sanker, Riley and Theineman. The best individual Notre Dame opponents of 2024 are on the defensive side of the ball. That was made clear by EA Sports today.
