The 2025 season should once again be a fun one for the Notre Dame football team after they had a near-perfect 2024 season. However, there is always room for improvement. Like, maybe not losing to a team like Northern Illinois early on in the season? Notre Dame took a beating from the media with that loss, but managed to overcome it with delivering a fantastic season up until the National Championship game.
The Irish have a bit of a challenge with their 2025 schedule that will kickoff live from Miami on August 31st at 7:30PM EST as they face the Hurricanes from Miami. They will get a first look at quarterback Carson Beck, who transferred to Miami from Georgia.
While fans should be excited to see how Marcus Freeman can keep taking this program to the next level, there’s no doubt that the team will have it’s a fair share of scares throughout the season based on the opponents they have.
First 2 Notre Dame football opponents could be immediate threats
Carter Bahns from CBS Sports recently listed multiple teams who could very well make their college football playoff debuts in 2025, with two of them facing Notre Dame in the regular season. Bahns listed the Miami Hurricanes and Texas A&M Aggies as those two teams, in which both of them face off against Notre Dame in the first two weeks of the season.
In regards to the Hurricanes, Bahns wrote:
The propensity to surrender explosive plays was the primary factor that kept Miami out of last year's playoff, but transfer portal pickups and a switch in coordinators indicate a brighter future is on the horizon for the Hurricanes defense. Suddenly, the bigger questions reside on the offensive side of the ball. Prized quarterback pickup Carson Beck is cleared to throw and continues to progress on his way back from elbow surgery, and if he rekindles the success he found two years ago, the aerial attack will again be playoff-caliber.
Bahns also felt as though Texas A&M controlled its own playoff fate late into the season and might have learned a valuable lesson in 2024:
"If the Aggies prevent a November letdown in 2025, it will be because Marcel Reed excels under center with a reconstructed wideout room that features elite transfer KC Concepcion and rising former five-star recruit Terry Bussey. Expectations have regularly been greater than reality at Texas A&M, and this could be the time to buy low before Mike Elko sparks the elusive breakthrough."
The Notre Dame football team has its hands full with two tough opponents right off the bat to open up the season. The good news is that they can get Miami and Texas A&M out of the way early on. However, all of us should know that neither Miami or Texas A&M have the talent that Notre Dame has. I’m not saying they don’t have any, just not as much as the Irish.