GREEN BAY — Notre Dame spent nine months preaching, “Leave No Doubt.”
From the time the 2025 College Football Playoff committee snubbed the Irish on Dec. 7 until kickoff of Sunday night’s game against Wisconsin at Lambeau Field, it was the mantra. The No. 4 Irish repeated it as they embarked on an early offseason without a bowl game and as they fielded questions about how they were handling incredibly high expectations for the 2026 season.
Then on Sunday, in front of 75,939 fans — about half in Badgers red and the other half in Irish navy — they left a little doubt. In the first half, at least.
Notre Dame had issues in all three phases early in the game. A blocked punt. Only 29 rushing yards and 1.8 yards per carry in the first half. An easy touchdown given up on defense. They went into halftime with a three-point lead against a Wisconsin team coming off a 4-8 season in 2025.
Coach Marcus Freeman went into the locker room and told his players they needed to let go of their preconceptions about what the game would look like — because this Wisconsin team was going to be a challenge.
The Irish responded with a dominant second half in a 41-13 victory. The offense picked up. The defense scored a touchdown and held the Badgers to a field goal. The Irish celebrated at the end with a line of players doing Lambeau Leaps into the student section. And Notre Dame looked like a team capable of following its offseason mantra.
“It’s human nature, when maybe you look at somebody else’s record last year and everybody has expectations on what you should be this year, to think, ‘This is how this game should go,’” Freeman said. “I don’t know how they thought it would go, but I wanted to make sure at halftime they knew that it was going to be a battle and a struggle, and I told them that all week. And sometimes you don’t believe it till you’re in it.”
Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr completed 19 of 29 passes for 239 yards and two touchdowns. He said he could tell near the end of the first half, “We’re going to be just fine.”
With the Irish leading 13-10 to open the third quarter, the offense marched 70 yards in nine plays and scored on Aneyas Williams’ 3-yard run. Running back Nolan James Jr. had a 7-yard run — the longest to that point — and a 28-yard catch on the drive.
Then cornerback DJ McKinney, who transferred from Colorado in the offseason, made the defense’s biggest play. He picked off a Colton Joseph pass and returned it 55 yards for a touchdown and a 27-10 lead.
The Irish cruised from there, with Williams scoring on a 5-yard run in the fourth quarter and James adding a 28-yard catch from Carr after the two-minute warning.
“We got a battle in the first half,” Carr said, “and we were really excited coming around the second half because (Freeman) talks about, ‘There’s nothing great that comes from something that’s easy.’ And so we knew it was going to be a struggle, and that’s what we wanted and ended up finishing really strong.”
The second half didn’t answer all of the questions, however.
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The main curiosity entering the season was how the offense would fare without running backs Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price, who were first-round NFL draft picks in April. Love was a transcendent player who made breathtaking plays nearly every week, and he finished third in Heisman Trophy voting. He and Price combined for more than 2,000 yards and 29 touchdowns on the ground in 2025.
Their absence was acutely felt in the first half, but the Irish got better. They finished with 111 rushing yards on 3.5 yards per carry. Williams had 20 carries for 90 yards, and James had seven carries for 19 yards and four catches for 67 yards.
“I thought the coaches made some really good adjustments for the run game, and then our backs, they were hitting holes,” Freeman said. “They were hitting the angles that we needed them to hit. And we challenged them a little bit at halftime: ‘You’ve got to run, man. Stop trying to look for certain things.’”
Freeman said there were moments when the running backs showed what the Irish expected, and he has confidence in them because of what he saw in training camp.
“I don’t expect to replace J-Love and JD with just one guy or two guys,” Freeman said. “It’s going to be by committee. It’s going to be keeping guys fresh and continue to let them run and try to wear down the defense.”
Lambeau Field was the ninth venue to host a Shamrock Series game, joining AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas; the Alamodome in San Antonio; Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas; FedEx Field in Landover, Md.; Fenway Park in Boston; Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis; Yankee Stadium in New York; and Soldier Field in Chicago.
Freeman said he showed his team the last time the Irish played Wisconsin, in 2021 at Soldier Field. In that game, also a 41-13 Notre Dame win, the teams were tied at 10 heading into the fourth quarter before a furious Irish surge.
Notre Dame — which played the second half without injured safety Brauntae Johnson and defensive lineman Jason Onye — needed a big second half again Sunday thanks to the rough start.
The first drive began with a false start and ended with Carr taking a sack and fumbling. The Irish recovered, but Wisconsin’s Liam Danitz blocked the ensuing punt. The Badgers capitalized with Gavin Lahm’s 27-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead.
Notre Dame responded with a 52-yard field goal by new kicker Spencer Porath, who transferred from Purdue.
Wisconsin returner Harrison Bortolotti muffed the ensuing kickoff, and Notre Dame’s Kahanu Kia recovered at the Badgers 13-yard line. An unnecessary roughness penalty on Wisconsin gave Notre Dame first-and-goal at the 6.
Two plays later, Carr hit James Flanigan for a 3-yard touchdown and a 10-3 lead. Flanigan is from Green Bay, and his father and grandfather — both named Jim Flanigan — played for the Packers. His father also played defensive tackle for the Chicago Bears from 1994-2000.
Wisconsin tied it at 10-10 on Joseph’s 28-yard touchdown pass to Malachi Coleman, who beat cornerback Jayden Sanders to get wide open in the end zone. Joseph, a transfer from Old Dominion, completed 19 of 30 passes for 217 yards and a touchdown and was sacked twice.
Porath hit a 26-yard field goal to put Notre Dame back on top 13-10 with 8:53 to play in the first half, but the Irish didn’t score again in the half.
The second half, however, was enough to set off a big celebration at Lambeau Field, including the players jumping up to sit on the edge of the student section.
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“Me and Drayk (Bowen), we talked about it beforehand,” safety Adon Shuler said. “We were like, ‘Yeah, we’re jumping as soon as we can.’ It was great to see it and be with the student section and the people.”