PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY MARISSA PANETHIERE | PHOTOS BY JONATHAN KARR, MEGHAN LANGE AND GRAY NOCJAR
History of the matchup: ND vs. Ohio State
By TYLER REIDY Sports Editor
Don’t take three consecutive seasons of Notre Dame-Ohio State games for granted. It’s never happened before.
Despite their close proximity in neighboring Midwestern states and shared status as massive college football brands, the Irish and Buckeyes have met only eight times previously. Matchup number nine will trump all others, taking place in Atlanta at next Monday’s national championship game.
Both programs share sizable pieces of the college football royalty pie. Notre Dame’s football program began in 1887, Ohio State’s in 1890. The Irish have captured 11 national titles and produced seven Heismans, the Buckeyes totaling eight and seven, respectively.
However, despite Notre Dame’s slight advantage in program accolades, Ohio State has inarguably been better in recent years, both against the Irish and in the college football landscape. The Buckeyes have won six straight games against Notre Dame, with the Irish winless in the all-time series since 1936. This year marks Ohio State’s sixth College Football Playoff appearance to Notre Dame’s third, and the Buckeyes have won two national championships since the Irish last claimed one.
Here’s how the first eight contests between these two college football powerhouses played out.
Nov. 2, 1935: Notre Dame 18, Ohio State 13
Fittingly, the series began with a matchup of unbeaten teams before World War II. Second-year head coaches Elmer Layden of Notre Dame and Francis Schmidt of Ohio State went head-to head in Columbus in front of 81,000. Neither team had allowed more than seven points in a game all season, and Ohio State had put up 85 against Drake three weeks prior.
Notre Dame started the day quite poorly, throwing two interceptions that turned into Buckeye touchdowns, opening up a 13-0 halftime lead for Ohio State. As the second half began, so did the Andy Pilney show. Before going on to a short professional baseball career, the halfback put the Irish on his back, sparking the offense with a lengthy punt return before throwing for a score of his own.
Still, Notre Dame trailed
by a point in the final two minutes, but Pilney had one more heroic effort in store.
On a 30-yard run that put the Irish in scoring range, he suffered a leg injury that cut his season short. Notre Dame would keep moving, though, as Bill Shakespeare, the Bard of Staten Island, hooked up with Wayne Millner for the game-winning touchdown.
Ohio State would win its final three games of the season, shutting out Michigan, while the Irish finished 7-1-1 with a home loss to Northwestern the following week.
Oct. 31, 1936: Ohio State 2, Notre Dame 7
Imagine this. On Monday night, Notre Dame is driving down the field in the final minutes of the national championship game, trailing by five. The Irish need a touchdown in a firstand-goal, so Riley Leonard throws back-to-back balls to the end zone that Ohio State knocks down. Instead of the Irish getting to try again on third down, the Buckeyes get the football on a touchback and close out the game.
That’s what happened to Ohio State on a rainy, windy October day in South Bend 89 years ago. The college football rulebook of the timeback called for a touchback on consecutive incompletions in the end zone, dropping the Buckeyes to 2-3. They would win their final three games of the season but keep the pain of two heartbreaks against the Irish, who ended the year 6-2-1.
Sept. 30, 1995: No. 15
Notre Dame 26, No. 7
Ohio State 45
At long last, the series returned with a home-andhome set in the final two years of the Lou Holtz era. Notre Dame, having taken an upset loss to Northwestern in the season opener, came off a blowout of 13th-ranked Texas. Ohio State was unbeaten, wielding a threeheaded offensive monster with quarterback Bobby Hoying, running back Eddie George (who would score 23 touchdowns in 1995) and wide receiver Terry Glenn.
Despite an early 17-7 lead for the Irish, Ohio State’s offensive arsenal predictably overwhelmed Notre Dame. Hoying found Glenn for an 82-yard house call, and George did the rest with 207 rushing yards and two scores. After the 31-point second half, Ohio State would remain unbeaten up until a trip to Ann Arbor at the end of the regular season — some things never
change. The Buckeyes would lose in the Citrus Bowl, while the Irish finished out the regular season without another loss before falling short in the Orange Bowl.
Sept. 28, 1996: No. 4
Ohio State 29, No. 5 Notre Dame 16
Despite losing the big three, Ohio State still averaged 71 points per contest in two games heading into this top-five clash in South Bend. Notre Dame had started 3-0, once again defeating a top-15 Texas team — this time on the road — ahead of September’s final game.
The Buckeyes approached this matchup without a topfive win in 11 years, but they showed up ready to go. Ohio State put up points quickly on the road, building a 22-7 halftime lead. That was more than enough for the defense, the strength of 1996 Ohio State, to hold the Irish down. Notre Dame again struggled to stop the run, in this instance against Pepe Pearson, who roamed for 179 rushing yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Jan. 2, 2006: No. 4 Ohio State 34, No. 5 Notre Dame 20
A year before Ohio State went to its first of two consecutive BCS Championships, and two years before Notre Dame hit rock bottom with a 3-9 season, the Fiesta Bowl pitted the Buckeyes against the Irish. Ohio State had finished 10-2 after early losses to Texas and Penn State, while Notre Dame carried the same record with home setbacks against Michigan State and USC.
Two great quarterbacks — Brady Quinn for Notre Dame and Troy Smith, the next year’s Heisman, for Ohio State — squared off for this one in Arizona. Can we talk about their pass-catchers, though? Quinn worked with 13-year Major League pitcher Jeff Samardzija, while Smith threw to Ted Ginn Jr. and Santonio Holmes, who combined for 23 NFL seasons and more than 11,000 receiving yards.
Unfortunately for the Irish, the Buckeye weapons once more had their way, with Ginn piling up 240 scrimmage yards and scoring twice. Factor in another 136 rushing yards from Antonio Pittman, and Ohio State outgained Notre Dame by a 617-348 in total yardage.
Jan. 1, 2016: No. 7 Ohio State 44, No. 8 Notre Dame 28
The only meeting between
Brian Kelly and Urban Meyer put Notre Dame and Ohio State back together in the Fiesta Bowl. In year two of the College Football Playoff, both teams had positioned themselves to qualify with two weeks left in November but took excruciating losses — Ohio State to Michigan State, Notre Dame to Stanford.
The Buckeyes once again rode their starpower to a New Year’s Six victory, scoring 28 points in the first half alone. Ezekiel Elliott, the legend of the previous season’s national championship run, tore up the Irish for 149 rushing yards and four touchdowns in his final collegiate game. The story of this Irish loss — strong offense brought down by a porous defense — was a sign of things to come for Notre Dame’s debacle season in 2016.
Sept. 3, 2022: No. 5 Notre Dame 10, No. 2 Ohio State 21
What a way for Marcus Freeman to begin his first season as a head coach, let alone the Notre Dame head coach. The former Ohio State linebacker returned to his alma mater for a top-five, primetime showdown in Week One of 2022. Entering the year with a loaded offensive crew that featured C.J. Stroud throwing to Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka, the Buckeyes were favored by an obscene 16 and a half points.
Notre Dame hung around early with Tyler Buchner making his first career start at quarterback. Audric Estime scored in his first game as the top Irish running back, giving the visitors a 10-7 halftime lead that would hold until the third quarter’s late stages. That’s when Stroud found Xavier Johnson for a 24-yard score that would stand up as the game-winner. Even with another Buckeye touchdown going on the board in the fourth, Notre Dame held Ohio State 23 points below its eventual season-long scoring average.
Despite their second of four straight losses to Michigan, the Buckeyes would slide into the playoff and lose a midnight heartbreaker in the Peach Bowl as 2022 turned to 2023. Most folks in South Bend couldn’t wait for the new year after home losses to Marshall and Stanford put Notre Dame at .500 halfway through the season. Thankfully for them, the Irish rallied with a November upset of No. 4
Clemson and a Gator Bowl defeat of South Carolina.
Sept. 23, 2023: No. 6 Ohio State 17, No. 9 Notre Dame 14
You really wonder what winning this game might have done for the Irish. This was, by any definition you choose, a college football classic. College Gameday’s return to Notre Dame kicked off what was a clear, sunny day. The Irish debuted their new green jerseys that majestically opposed the Ohio State scarlet. And the primetime game itself lived up to expectations, too.
Both teams entered the night unbeaten, and for 59 minutes and 59 seconds, the right to stay that way remained up for grabs. Both offenses missed out on key opportunities in the first half, and Ohio State went into halftime up 3-0. That would quickly stretch to 10 on a 61-yard touchdown sprint by TreVeyon Henderson.
But the Irish came back. First, running back Gi’Bran Payne bulldogged his way over the goal line from a yard out, losing his helmet but gaining six points. Then, midway through the fourth quarter, quarterback Sam Hartman led Notre Dame on a go-ahead drive, hitting wideout Rico Flores for a two-yard score. Down four points Ohio State marched for an answer, but the Irish denied them on a red-zone fourth down with less than five minutes remaining. Notre Dame needed three first downs on the ensuing drive to end the game, but it got only two, punting the football back to the Buckeyes with 86 seconds left.
Quarterback Kyle McCord, whom Buckeye fans would eventually run out of town after missing the CFP, had his signature Ohio State moment on the final drive. He completed passes to convert on a third-and-10, then a fourth-and-7, then a thirdand-19. The Buckeyed would end up a yard away from the goal line, firing one incompletion before Chip Trayanum punched in the deciding touchdown. After the game, fans discovered that Notre Dame was short a defensive player on the Trayanum score, tying the bow on a disastrous finish to the game.
Two weeks later, Notre Dame’s playoff hopes would officially cave with a loss at Louisville, and the Irish would eventually finish 10-3 with a Sun Bowl victory.
Contact Tyler Reidy at treidy3@nd.edu
Link Trail connects ND to South Bend
$11.5 million collaboration enhances connectivity, safety and development for South Bend area
By HENRY JAGODZINSKI News Writer
The Link Trail, an approximately one-and-a-half mile multimodal path connecting the University of Notre Dame to downtown South Bend, opened in November. The trail includes sections of city-owned Notre Dame Avenue, South Bend Avenue, Hill Street and LaSalle Avenue. The project was not paid for by the city alone, however. Project costs, which totaled $11.5 million, were split between the City of South Bend, Visit South Bend Mishawaka (VSBM) and the University of Notre Dame, each contributing equally.
Jeff Jarnecke, executive director of VSBM, said the organization was not only
see TRAIL PAGE 4
Danjuma Gibson discusses his new book on civil rights activists
By SOLEDAD CASTELLANOS News Writer
In honor of upcoming Martin Luther King Jr. Day, tri-campus students and faculty gathered Wednesday evening to listen to Danjuma Gibson speak on his most recent book “Through the Eyes of Titans.”
The public lecture in Holy Cross’s Driscoll Auditorium was co-sponsored by Saint Mary’s College’s Division for Inclusion and Equity and Holy Cross College.
Gibson is a professor of pastoral theology, care and counseling at Calvin Theological Seminary and a practicing psychotherapist in Grand Rapids, Michigan. With the question “demythologizing the work of freedom and the beloved community: and what are we prepared to do?” displayed
see MLK PAGE 3
By ISABEL TORRES News Writer
Elijah Jones from Alumni Hall was elected to serve as judicial council president at Wednesday’s student senate meeting. He will replace Hunter Brooke, who resigned in December to avoid impeachment.
After a 28-page bill of impeachment was circulated to senators, alleging misconduct and unethical conduct, Brooke resigned from his role as judicial council president on Dec. 11, avoiding what would have been his second impeachment hearing before the senate. Jones will leave his current position as student union historian to fill the new
see SENATE PAGE 4
HENRY JAGODZINSKI |The Observer
The Link Trail, complete with a grade-separated median between itself and the road, connects the University of Notre Dame and downtown South Bend. This project was funded by the University of Notre Dame, Visit South Bend Mishawaka (VSBM) and the City of South Bend.
SOLEDAD CASTELLANOS| The Observer
Dr. Danjuma Gibson gives a public lecture in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day and discusses his book “Through the Eyes of Titans.” The lecture was co-sponsored by Saint Mary’s and Holy Cross College.
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‘Home Under the Dome’ promotes wellness
By AREZO KARIMI News Writer
By inviting students to decorate vases and pick out dorm plants, Wednesday afternoon’s “Home Under the Dome” event aimed to help students transform their living spaces into a home away from home. The event was part of the McDonald Center for Student Well-being’s ongoing Wednesday sessions, created to make student spaces more comfortable, personal and welcoming. By providing resources and activities that will encourage students to invest in their living environments, the center hopes to enhance the overall wellbeing of the Notre Dame student body.
Joey Quinones, rector of the Fisher community in Zahm Hall, explained the intention behind the event.
“Studies show that living in a place where one has invested time in, whether through decorating, adding living things like plants or displaying pictures of loved ones, helps make the space feel more personal and
MLK
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
behind him, Gibson opened the discussion with a series of videos that depicted the voice of MLK in what he described as a commercial myth.
He then acknowledged that certain figures such as MLK are granted hero status in today’s society. He contrasted this notion of hero status to the “traumatized reality” of the experiences of the King family after MLK’s assassination in April of 1968, a reality shared amongst many prominent civil rights figures of the period.
Gibson urged the audience to remember that although remarkable, “commercialized ideal figures” were simply just people who chose to do the right thing. These figures, including MLK but also Ida B. Wells, Fannie Lou Hamer and Benjamin Elijah Mays, are the focus of his book.
After reading these figures’ autobiographical works in order to humanize them with a psychological lens, he concluded that “they do what a lot of people don’t like to do; work through the inner pain.”
He emphasized the importance of discerning the mythological from reality of the lives of which his
homey,” he said. The event featured various stations, each designed to engage students in activities that promote a sense of belonging and comfort. These stations included picking your own living plant, making your own vase, a coloring and decorating station and a personal wellness
work focused on, speaking of intergenerational trauma and suppression of emotion, especially within a religious context.
Gibson explained how he came to see what he calls racial imagination as “a representation of an intergenerational, socialization of the individual and collective psyche, sometimes consciously, but more often operating at a deeply unconscious level.”
Further explaining this term, he said, “Nonwhite skin becomes the instantaneous visual marker to believe and experience not normal. Darker skin hue becomes the immediate marker for someone to think, not normal.”
When asked what tools the tri-campus would need in order to engage with the racial imagination of today’s political climate, Dr. Gibson said the tri-campus would have to look to each other.
“Violence, inequality and racial injustice is a thorough point in American history that is as American as apple pie. No one is coming to save us, we are all we have. I am living for my daughter to have a better place to live,” he said. “It’s a journey, and it requires doing that work with the person that’s next to you. And I say in my last chapter, I have resisted the temptation to provide some type of
station with items like chapsticks, earplugs and hand warmers. Hot chocolate was served throughout the event.
“Leaving Notre Dame for home during winter break, all my plants died. Since I love plants, I needed a replacement, which is why I am here,” said Eno Ennin, a
grand answer, because I’m not smart enough for that: you are.”
When asked what brought her to the event, attendee and Saint Mary’s sophomore Ella Eitniear said she was cleaning out her emails when she found the event flyer.
”Post-election has been pretty rough, and there’s been a growing sense of helplessness and hopelessness, so I kind of was interested in looking at how we can enact justice, especially now,” she said.
junior majoring in aerospace engineering. “I like having plants in my space because it’s nice to have something to come back to after a long day of classes and take care of. They also help make the air clean too.”
Emma Borgie, a junior studying mechanical engineering, shared that she
“I think that change will take generations and that’s a fact, but I don’t think that should stop us from doing work today,” Saint Mary’s senior Caroline Dutton added. “Like Dr. Gibson said, if we mythologize the past, it absolves us of taking action and steps that might require courage and be difficult today.”
Dr. Gibson concluded his lecture by pointing his audience to what he sees as the work ahead.
“We must seek to recover
came with Ennin to “check out the event and possibly get some greenery for my room.” Laughing while decorating their vases, both Ennin and Borgie explained that their time at the event was worthwhile, as it allowed them to spend time together and provided new plants.
Sara Ghyselinck, rector of Johnson Family Hall, emphasized the importance of greenery in living spaces. “Having green in your space is one of the greatest things you can do for your mental health, making your room a safe and homey space,” she said.
Ghyselinck also encouraged students to explore McWell Center’s other available resources, such as their happy lights for gloomy winter days and the massage chair room. She explained that these resources are designed to support students’ mental and emotional wellbeing by providing a variety of tools to help them cope with the stresses of academic life.
Contact Arezo Karimi at akarimi2@nd.edu
the voices of black and brown figures to see what that reveals to us and find courage to work through disappointment, find purpose, and see what love looks like,” he said. “It would take generations to reverse the racial imagination of everyday experience, but we must fall back on our own genius when we de-idealize those we hold so highly.”
Contact Soledad Castellanos at scastellanows01@saintmarys.edu
AREZO KARIMI | The Observer
Students explored various stations at the “Home Under the Dome” event, which included vase decorating, take-home plants and hot chocolate, all aimed at fostering comfort and well-being across campus.
SOLEDAD CASTELLANOS | The Observer
Students from the tri-campus community come together to listen to Dr. Danjuma Gibson during his public lecture, hosted at Holy Cross College in Driscoll Auditorium, in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
eager to connect tourists to downtown, but also to attract students and faculty at Notre Dame to the shops and restaurants in the city center.
“I think folks were almost taken aback that [downtown] was much closer to the University … than what people thought,” Jarnecke said.
Jarnecke said that in addition to promoting foot traffic to downtown during Notre Dame football games, the project is already encouraging development, mentioning that Corby’s Irish Pub decided to expand because of the trail’s construction.
The new path is fully grade-separated from traffic. There was previously a painted bike lane on Notre Dame Avenue, but the new trail provides a significantly higher degree of safety and comfort.
“From an infrastructure point of view, and from a pedestrian and cyclist experience, these bike lanes are not ideal, and having a
grade separated trail is really the gold standard for bike infrastructure,” said Tim Corcoran, the director of planning and community resources for South Bend.
The trail adds to a growing bike network in the city, which consists of over 85 miles of routes. The city is also in the process of developing a new bicycle infrastructure master plan.
According to Corcoran, the vision for a connection between campus and the heart of the city was laid out in the Northeast Neighborhood Plan, adopted in October 2022.
However, it was Visit South Bend Mishawaka that approached the University and the city to accelerate the project.
Corcoran estimated the trail project would not have moved forward as quickly without the momentum added by the two additional partners.
“I think we’re all just grateful that there was a really, really strong alignment between all the parties involved to be able to move this project forward faster
to create what I think is one of the best bike infrastructure projects in the country and a really strong and great asset for South Bend and Notre Dame communities,” Corcoran said.
Tim Sexton, associate vice president for public affairs at Notre Dame, said the University jumped on board when it was presented with the opportunity.
“Once conversations about the trail began, there was much enthusiasm conveyed by the city of South Bend, the University of Notre Dame and VSBM to make this happen. With references made in the 2033 Strategic Framework of engaging with the region, the trial became a way to physically demonstrate our commitment to that end,” Sexton wrote in a statement.
The strategic framework emphasized the importance of Notre Dame’s relationship with the South Bend community, stating, “It is now clearer than ever before that for Notre Dame to thrive, the South Bend region must also prosper. And a more prosperous South Bend strengthens Notre Dame.”
Will ND be ‘Cultivating Hope’ this year?
Observer Staff Report
In a campus-wide email released on Wednesday morning, University President Fr. Robert Dowd introduced “Cultivating Hope” as the theme for the 2025–26 Notre Dame Forum. Inspired by Pope Francis’ declaration of 2025 as a Jubilee themed “Pilgrims of Hope,” the forum will explore how hope can be nurtured in a world often marked by adversity.
Dowd emphasized the
relevance of hope to Notre Dame’s mission, referencing the Congregation of Holy Cross’ motto, “The Cross, Our Only Hope,” and its commitment to education as a “work of resurrection.”
The forum will build on the 2024–25 theme “What Do We Owe Each Other?” by delving into the ideas of hope across disciplines and communities.
Acknowledging the global challenges of war, social injustices and violence, Dowd
called for unity and faith in addressing these issues. He expressed gratitude for this year’s thought-provoking forum events and encouraged faculty, staff and students to begin planning initiatives related to the new theme.
Dowd extended prayers for the Notre Dame community and invited everyone to embrace the spirit of hope and love central to the University’s Catholic identity.
The Link trail was the largest-ever investment by Notre Dame in a transportation infrastructure project in South Bend. It was likewise an unprecedented investment for Visit South Bend Mishawaka, which contributed funds generated from the local innkeepers’ tax.
“It was certainly our largest foray to-date in terms of [infrastructure] projects,” Jarnecke said.
Providing funding for the project also gave VSBM and Notre Dame a seat at the table with regard to planning for the project.
“All of us had the ability to look at the designs, the layout, the vegetation, signage, things of that nature. It was truly a shared project,” Sexton said.
There were a number of logistical hurdles for the project. The city met with individual homeowners to address concerns about how the trail would impact sprinkler systems and driveways.
Corcoran said there were also unexpected delays as a result of the age of the streets.
“In an area that’s been a street for a hundred years, if
Senate
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
role.
The senate highlighted Jones’ strengths in civil communication, his compassion for his peers and his ability to take care of those in vulnerable situations.
“Elijah is one of the kindest and hardest working individuals, and he aids in making our class council move smoothly,” said Aleah Applin, the class of 2027 president.
“This was an easy decision,” said student body vice president Maeve Miller.
Senate members also stressed that his election served as a reminder of the significance of elected officials’ actions in conversational settings. They emphasized that the compassion of elected leaders is especially important, as
you find things underground that you didn’t know were there, whether it’s parts of old brick streets or even rails from where a tram line used to be, these things all can have some impact in terms of delaying a project,” Corcoran said.
The trail was slated to open by the start of the football season, but did not open in its entirety until early November. Some minor work, including wayfinding installation and vegetation planting is yet to be completed. All three groups expressed pride in the project, despite the postponement of the opening. An official ribbon-cutting will be held this spring.
“One thing we have heard time and time again is how appreciative the community is for this trail, and they’re grateful to all three partners for rolling up their sleeves and taking this on. This was not an easy project, but it’s one that’s going to provide great dividends to all of us.” Sexton said.
Contact Henry Jagodzinski at hjagodzi@nd.edu
they reflect the collective identity of the Notre Dame student body.
During general announcements, a member of the financial management board announced that the board had set aside 20% of their budget to aid with medical bills for students who fit certain financial criteria.
The Black Excellence Dinner was highlighted as upcoming events for the University were discussed. Members encouraged everyone to feel welcome to attend.
“It is to celebrate the community and through such honoring the efforts of Martin Luther King,” explained Kaza-Zack Kazirukanyo.
The meeting concluded after 22 minutes
Contact Isabel Torres at Itorres@ne.edu
GRAY NOCJAR |The Observer
University of Notre Dame President Fr. Robert Dowd waves as he walks into the Joyce Center for his inaugural address on Sept. 13, 2024. Fr. Dowd currently serves as the eighteenth president of the University.
ISABEL TORRES | The Observer
The senate elected a replacement for the recently-impeached former judicial council president Hunter Brooke, choosing Elijah Jones.
An appeal for empathy
“He fell again. He closed his eyes. He didn’t rise. He lay there for the length of the next day, lost in a delirium no one can even imagine, burning and burning.”
“The Devil’s Highway,” Luis Alberto Urrea Edgar Martinez was 16 years old when he fell in the Arizona desert, finally succumbing to exhaustion from walking in 100-degree heat for days without rest or water. His knees graced the sun-bleached sand as he grimaced toward the sky, unhurriedly accepting his fate in his final moments. His 1,500-mile journey had come to its conclusion, burning and burning in the arid Arizona desert.
The circumstances around Martinez’s death are far from novel. He left his small town, Cuautepec, Mexico, hoping to find better work to support his girlfriend, Claudia. He told her he would marry her after he came back in five years, with enough money made to build her a house. His love for her and his hope for his future kept him walking on his journey to the United States, but it wasn’t enough to keep him alive.
When I read this passage, I wondered if I would have made the same decisions as Martinez. Could I leave my life behind to embark on a potentially life-ending journey to support those I love? Could I risk spending my final moments, burning and burning in the hot sun, all for a dream of improving the lives of my loved ones?
While these remain as thoughts in my head, they are acted upon by countless individuals across the globe who are desperate for change. Year after year, thousands of people bravely traverse deadly terrain to chase a dream of hope, security and peace for themselves and their families. But we don’t see it
that way on the other side of the border.
We are told these people are “aliens” and “illegals,” grouping them in vast categories, melting their experiences into a faceless and characterdeprived mass. This language, used to describe people like Martinez, rids people of their personhood and individuality, essential characteristics that all humans are deserving of. Our political and social landscape has sensationalized the unique experiences of thousands of individuals for quick headlines or political points, making us apathetic to the lives of those around us. We turn away and look inward, absolving ourselves from the responsibility of recognizing these stories as unique and noteworthy.
We cannot continue to allow ourselves to mindlessly take part in this active dehumanization. We must re-humanize one another with the language we use and the stories we share. It has become far too easy to dissociate with the plight of other humans because we have artificially placed people in an “other” category. We must reframe our conversations and spaces to ascribe the rightful individuality and personhood to each person or group we speak of. We must no longer permit the existence of apathy in our personal and communal spaces. This is no simple task, but we can‘t let the lack of action curb our potential progress.
How? Get outside and connect with others. Our worlds can effortlessly become defined by personal desires and the often monotonous nature of daily life, making it essential to strive for connectivity. This means extending the boundaries of our communities — treating strangers with the same respect and dignity we would for those we know. Hold the door open a little longer for the person trailing
behind you. Strike up a conversation with the dining hall worker who welcomes you with a smile and a “thank you” every day. Volunteer in your local community, whether in South Bend or elsewhere, to bring about tangible change and offer joy where it’s needed. Get to know people, particularly those you see in a day-to-day manner but never interact with.
All it takes is one conversation to open your world to a viewpoint you would have never previously seen or recognized. By entrenching ourselves within our own community, it becomes significantly more challenging to disregard the needs of the greater community.
Martinez’s story escaped the heat of the desert because of the passionate efforts of those dedicated to preserving the humanity present in every individual. We have been granted the opportunity to be proactive in our approach, altering the conditions that make people so inattentive to their surroundings.
By being mindful of our language and deepening our ties with our community, we can forge the confines of our imagined borders to be accepting and respective of the experiences of all humans. Martinez was never able to build the house he dreamt of, but by engaging with each other through an empathic understanding, we can begin to assemble the home required to welcome all members of our local and global community.
With hope,
What the right move is for TikTok users
internet turned from Vine — an app of six-second comedy — to Musical.ly, a music and lip-syncing video platform that later was merged into TikTok.
Naasei Lynn class of 2027 Dec. 14, 2024
First, it was Vine. Now, it’s TikTok.
Exactly eight years ago, Vine shut down. With it, came its culture: entertaining six-second videos that felt invaluable. Now, TikTok will begin crashing in just two days, marking the end to countless viral videos, catchy sounds and out-of-pocket jokes.
Looking back to January 17, 2017, the internet was stupefied. There wasn’t a clear direction or app for content creation and doom-scrolling in a post-Vine world. The same looming experience is true for TikTok users looking for the next greatest app ahead of the ban taking effect on January 19.
The natural transition for the internet would be to make an alternative social media app, the new TikTok, but it seems unlikely that anything will immediately replace TikTok’s grasp on the internet. Rather, the internet will follow the pattern that occurred in 2017.
The pattern is this: internet youth redefine what content is most engaging, users then flood the internet landscape with attention-grabbing posts from a trendy, newly discovered app and piqued curiosities would catalyze the internet’s migration.
I believe that young media will follow the trend when users congregated on Musical.ly/ TikTok: a hot new app offering fresh, and possibly underground, content will catch our attention. However, there will be time before any app emerges as the internet’s playground for humor and culture.
This movement was exemplified when the
In June 2016, Musical.ly had nearly 90 million users. In May 2017, four months after the Vine ban, there were over 200 million Musical.ly users, according to Billboard. The period in between these jumps in downloads consisted mainly of Musical.ly videos being reuploaded to Snapchat and Instagram. In short, visibility and fresh content drove downloads.
At the time that Twitter shut down Vine, creators and users also pivoted to YouTube, where they could post nearly anything, similar to TikTok’s freedom to post and be seen. Despite this environment, people eventually flocked to a more focused TikTok algorithm. In its first few years, TikTok’s most popular videos were dances. That still didn’t deter YouTube and Vine users. They downloaded TikTok anyways.
According to Business of Apps, an informational and marketing website built to connect businesses, there were 150 million TikTok downloads in 2017, 807 million in 2018 and 1.5 billion in 2019.
Now, moving from TikTok means leaving videos spanning cooking, pop culture, humor, aesthetics, storytimes and dances among other genres. The loss simply feels too great for any existing app to fill (Instagram has the versatility but will always be seen as a photo-first social media app, not video-first).
To be clear, TikTok likely won’t (technically speaking) shut down — or be mysteriously removed from most of our phones — on January 19, according to NPR. It is more likely that the app
will have bugs, glitches and no new posts or updates, based on what government officials and TikTok executives told NPR. In short, it will be slowly phased out.
It is unclear at this time what President-elect Donald Trump would do for the app, if he chose to act.
TikTok users have been accustomed to curated algorithms, although at the expense of threats to data and information. Of course, those reasons among others have motivated officials to uphold the ban.
Naturally, creators have recommended substitute apps in place of TikTok: Lemon8, which has similar content styles and the same owners as TikTok, RedNote, an app described by USA Today as the “Chinese version of Instagram” and Instagram’s pre-existing “Reels” feature.
According to an Axios report, Lemon8 would face the same restrictions as TikTok on January 19 — the apps would lose new content and accessibility in the United States.
But for now, TikTok users, myself included, should take time to revel in its last few glitch-free moments, scroll through a few Reels, potentially explore alternative apps and wait for the new social media app to emerge.
Redmond (Reddy) Bernhold is a junior studying biochemistry and journalism. He originally hails from Minster, Ohio but calls Siegfried Hall his home on campus. When not writing, he explores South Bend coffee shops and thrift stores. You can contact Reddy at rbernho2@nd.edu.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
Redmond Bernhold Born Reddy
A wee bit of Irish Football history
During a late evening meeting in 1969 with the late legendary former President of the University of Notre Dame, Fr. Theodore M. Hesburgh, we discussed how the university would be able to support financially the explosion of 119 Black student applicants to Notre Dame. I was a Notre Dame sophomore at the time. I reported to Fr. Hesburgh, affectionately known as Fr. Ted, that our studentbased Recruitment Action Program (RAP), which Fr. Ted fully supported, had recruited the then largest applicant pool of Black students to our beloved University. At the meeting’s end, Fr. Ted produced the plan: he would ask the Notre Dame Board of Trustees to reverse the University’s 45-year ban on participation in post-season football games to obtain revenue for minority student financial aid. He succeeded. Though we lost to Texas in 1970 in the Cotton Bowl, the University obtained a pot of gold. (ND would defeat the Longhorns in the 1971 Cotton Bowl.)
Prior to 1970, Notre Dame had last played in a postseason football game in the 1925 Rose Bowl
game defeating Stanford. My memory of the reason for the four-decade plus ban on bowl games was that University leaders felt that such participation would interfere with student final exams. Conducting research on the rationale, there is mention that University leaders were concerned about amateurism, but I cannot recall that concern at the time of our meeting, unless it involved the final exams issue. I initiated RAP and travelled throughout the country recruiting Black students — with the help of other Notre Dame students such as Art McFarland, ’70, the first president of the Afro-American Society, and the late Mark Winings, ’71, the 1970-71 student body vice president. I became the first Black student body president of the University in 1970. I am also co-editor with the renowned journalist, Don Wycliff, ’69, of the book “Black Domers: African-American Students at Notre Dame in their Own Words.”
In the second edition of “Black Domers” (published by the University of Notre Dame Press), Fr. Hesburgh stated in the replicated foreword of our book: “Besides the addition of women, the most
dramatic change in the character of Notre Dame’s student body in my lifetime has been its growing racial and ethnic diversity.” In seeking that change, Fr. Hesburgh stated that such efforts “have been undertaken for the sake of justice.”
Fr. Ted, thank you for putting us in the position to be champions on our sports fields and courts, but more importantly, thank you for being a champion for increasing the racial and ethnic diversity of the Notre Dame student body. Yes, we have more work to do to enhance Notre Dame’s racial and ethnic diversity, but you gave us a jumpstart.
Fast forward to Jan. 20, 2025, and Notre Dame is playing in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game. What would Fr. Ted think of his Notre Dame student athletes playing in their fourth consecutive postseason football game in one year! Fr. Ted is extremely happy and proud. Go Irish!
David Krashna class of 1971 Jan. 12, 2025
Do you like us now?
In December of 2021, I posted my first college “photo dump” on Instagram: a collection of scenes from across campus, all adorned with a backdrop of fall foliage and of course, featuring several pictures of the golden dome. A friend from home commented: “WOW, do you go to Notre Dame?”
The remark immediately received dozens of likes from several other hometown friends. What they saw was a few pretty pictures of a wooded quad, a gilded edifice and a couple run-of-the-mill tailgates. What I saw was a lifetime’s worth of diligence and aspirations, a culmination of religious and cultural history and the pinnacle of academic and spiritual enlightenment amalgamating into one glorious university.
This past December, as I posted my final fall “photo dump” on Instagram, I almost hesitated to press submit. I could almost hear the sighs of my followers who, scrolling through yet another corpus of football images, might mutter to themselves, “WE GET IT, you go to Notre Dame!” As a senior, I still believe that this University is every bit as glorious as I dreamt it would be. But I also acknowledge how annoying this statement might seem to anyone who hasn’t drunk the Kool-aid, anyone who might just see us as a college made up of privileged kids who think their school is a thousand times better than yours. Even if it is a thousand times better, having this attitude is gravely detrimental to any outsiders.
There is a common mantra that “people love to hate Notre Dame.” But why is it people love to hate
us so much? Maybe it’s because we make it easy for them to hate us. We’ve done great things at this University, but we’ve also done it with a whole lot of elitism and exclusivity. In the words of Coach Lou Holtz, “We’re Notre Dame and they ain’t.” This statement is a rallying cry for all fans of the Fighting Irish, but it’s also a battering ram into the wedge that already exists between us and the rest of the world.
The thing about Notre Dame fans is that we just can’t shut up about Notre Dame: our prestige, our unparalleled ability to create community, to forge bonds that last a lifetime and trickle down to our children, who we will inevitably force to apply to Our Lady’s University as well. Outsiders ask us to quiet down and we claim that they just don’t get it, which only adds fuel to the flame. Our sense of superiority is among one of the many reasons why we are one of the most hated college football teams in the nation.
But over the break, I felt something shifting. I heard exponentially more people shout “Go Irish!” at me as I toted a ND sweatshirt. I attended a watch party in an Irish pub full of green-donned fans who marched around to give each other highfives after Riley Leonard’s touchdown. On Jan. 8, The Athletic posted their analysis of our football team’s rising success in an article entitled: “Is Notre Dame football likeable now?” Ralph D. Russo argues that much of the Fighting Irish’s increasing attractiveness can be attributed to the undeniably attractive Marcus Freeman. The program’s new coach is more than just a young stud with a good hairline: he’s engaging, empowering and inventive.
Maybe the rest of the school could learn a lesson or two from Coach. Freeman speaks plainly about his mistakes and has a sense of calm and cool transparency. He pays tribute to Our Lady’s University, but also applauds his opponents and the uniqueness of their programs. Freeman patched together a crew of transfer students who didn’t select Notre Dame as their first choice, but who now sport golden helmets. He is proud of his team, and yet, never degrades any less “elite” competitors.
Like Freeman, we must be cognizant of the way we speak about our school, especially in comparison with others, even if it really is (in my humble opinion) the best university in the world. Not everyone has the opportunity to go to Notre Dame and not everyone wants to! As our football team marches towards Monday as the amiable underdog, we should celebrate their successes. But, if we ever do want to become as “likeable” as Freeman, we need to be gracious towards those that don’t buy into the whole Notre Dame thing. Otherwise, we run the risk of being seen as the pretentious, elitist school many claim we are. Otherwise, we’ll continue to be hated on … but something tells me a lot of you may be okay with that, and that this attitude of “Notre Dame versus the world” is something to live for.
Gracie Eppler is a senior business analytics and English major from St. Louis, MO. Her top three things ever to exist are ‘70’s music, Nutella and Smith Studio 3, where she can be found dancing. You can reach her at geppler@nd.edu. The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
Gracie Eppler
The Soapbox
‘A COMPLETE UNKNOWN’
IS A POWERFUL AND BOLD PORTRAIT OF BOB DYLAN
By LUKE FOLEY Scene Writer
Music biopics have been facing increasing derision recently as many people have grown tired of their supposed generic structures and cliché story beats. And then you have some cinephiles who smugly claim the satirical “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story” killed the genre and that any attempt at a music biopic is now a fool’s errand. Nevertheless, I still enjoy the music biopic and believe it is a compelling format to recapitulate a musician’s career. So enter “A Complete Unknown,” a biopic about Bob Dylan directed by James Mangold and starring Timothée Chalamet. Mangold was once hailed as among the most reliable journeymen in Hollywood before directing the putrid “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” Despite that blunder, I still think he is a good director, so I’ve been excited to see how he would try to reinvigorate the biopic genre with this film. I’m also a big Bob Dylan fan, so I hoped the film would inspire young people to get into Dylan’s music more. And while I think Chalamet’s excellent performance and the deft presentation of his songs sufficiently accomplish that, the film is also a much more daring and unflattering portrayal of Dylan as a person than I thought it would be. But this equally awe-inspiring and damning examination of its central subject is what ultimately makes it a great biopic.
“A Complete Unknown” subverts many clichés of the biopic genre. Instead of doing a cradle-to-grave approach to Bob Dylan’s life. It only focuses on the first four years of his career, from his arrival in New York in 1961 to his infamous Newport
Folk Festival performance in 1965. Additionally, the film eschews the conventional biopic approach: facile deconstruction of the central subject’s motivations and goals. The film wisely understands that Bob Dylan defies such characterization and instead leans into painting him as the impenetrable enigma he truly was. From the moment he reaches New York, you get the sense of reality warping around him. He’s like a somnambulist being possessed by otherworldly talent, a talent that is a mystery to both himself and others. The film is all about the world’s futile efforts to get a hold of Dylan and the freewheeling artistry that took him wherever it wanted.
The final Newport Folk Festival scene is where the film’s thematic richness fully crystallizes and illustrates how Dylan’s artistry was untamable and isolating. He has an insatiable desire to subvert, rendering him incapable of maintaining relationships. By the end of the Newport Festival, he loses his friendships with Pete Seeger, Joan Baez and Sylvie Russo because his artistic antics have deeply hurt and betrayed them. And even after he achieves his goal of playing rock and roll music at the festival, reclaiming his artistic agency and causing ample outrage, he still seems melancholic and unfulfilled. It’s never enough for him. Just as quickly as he conquered folk music, he became bored with it. All the people’s lives he inspired with his folk music or the social change he called for in his own songs meant nothing to him. Dylan views people as mere targets of provocation. It’s a callous worldview solely focused on satiating his ever-evolving artistry that prevents him from having lasting fulfillment and relationships with others; it’s also what makes him so
brilliant and talented. It’s a boldly bittersweet and challenging conclusion about Bob Dylan that steers clear of simple hagiography.
Chalamet is exceptional as Bob Dylan. By the time he finishes singing “Song to Woody” in the film’s opening minutes, you forget you’re watching an impersonation. He fully inhabits Dylan’s cryptic nature and awkward charm. And his musical performances are shockingly fantastic; his imitation of Dylan’s unique singing style feels very natural. I also especially loved Norton’s performance as Pete Seeger. His palpable earnestness and tender adoration of Dylan provide much of the emotional weight of the final act as Norton strongly captures the devastation Seeger felt from Dylan’s betrayal of the folk movement.
“A Complete Unknown” will likely leave audiences more perplexed about Bob Dylan than they were before viewing the film; it might even leave them with a negative perception of him as a person. But that’s also what makes it such an excellent film. It compellingly presents his brilliant music with the help of an impressive performance by Chalamet while still honoring his enigmatic persona. He was an epochal yet transcendent figure whose artistry endlessly inspired and hurt the people who cared about him. Thus, Mangold has proved the music biopic is not dead; any film that can communicate such multitudes about its subject matter is a triumph.
Editor’s Note: This is an abridged version of the article. Read the full version online at www.ndsmcobserver.com.
Contact Luke Foley at lfoley2@nd.edu
‘Babygirl’ IS MORE DRAMATIC THAN ROMANTIC
By PETER MIKULSKI Scene Editor
Walking into “Babygirl,” I had a set of assumptions. First, I expected it to be fun but not great. Second, I knew that — no matter what — Nicole Kidman would be a pleasure to watch as she always is. Third, I predicted that it would essentially amount to a slightly more highbrow “Fifty Shades of Grey.” Fourth, I imagined that it would be so sexy that it would accidentally be funny.
The first three of these assumptions proved correct. The fourth, however, was completely wrong. In fact, the opposite proved to be true. There’s comically little sex in this movie, which is allegedly about sex — there’s a lot more talk about BDSM than actual BDSM!
“Babygirl” was indeed fun, but not quite great. Romy (Nicole Kidman) is our protagonist, a high-powered tech CEO. Antonio Banderas plays Jacob, her husband, whose smothering love she finds irksome. Ultimately, Romy is driven into the arms of Samuel (Harris Dickinson) — an intern at her company many years her junior.
Banderas deserves a lot of credit for making the dramatic dynamic of this love triangle work. At the beginning of the
movie, Romy has it all: an impressive job, a beautiful family, a stunning apartment, a seemingly abundant life. Why, then, throw it all away for an affair with a subordinate? Halina Reijn’s script and direction as well as Kidman’s acting offer some answers, but the reason I found most compelling lay in Banderas’s performance. Jacob appears loving. Nevertheless, the audience can detect frustration, resentment and impotence lurking beneath the surface.
I found Romy and Jacob’s two daughters wooden. They’re essentially set pieces for the main drama, comically unlike real adolescents. At one point, Isabel (the older daughter) has a birthday party — it looked more like B-roll from a medication commercial than any high school party I ever went to. Nora (the younger daughter) is ditzy and preoccupied with dance, and provides Reijn a chance to splice footage of her practicing the tarantella with scenes from Romy’s romance — it’s A24-core cinematography at its cheesiest.
Still, I liked Romy’s assistant and protege Esme (Sophie Wilde). In a smart bit of writing, Esme — who idolizes Romy as a role model for women in business — discovers Romy’s affair with Samuel and, rather than exposing it, cynically uses it to blackmail her into being a better feminist icon! It was a nice pot shot at HR ideology, a fable demonstrating that the
“girlboss” image can be just as oppressive as it is liberating. Dickinson didn’t wow me as Jacob. He’s charming, of course, but he didn’t sell me on his character. He shot for mystery and complexity and instead wound up with a performance that was vague and confused. A British actor, his American accent isn’t up to par either. He talks like he’s got peanut butter in his mouth.
It almost goes without saying that Kidman killed it as Romy. There’s a lot going on in Reijn’s script, and Kidman is able to capture a ton of it in her measured, numinous acting. She and Dickinson have romantic chemistry, but it’s not the stereotypical dynamic one expects from this sort of movie. It’s not particularly lovey-dovey, or even steamy, but it’s fun to watch in a unique way.
The end result is basically a spruced up “50 Shades of Grey.” In general, “Babygirl” is more restrained — i.e., less explicit — than its forerunner. There are also occasional allusions to “Eyes Wide Shut” for the Kubrick and Kidman fans. All in all, it is worth seeing for its fresh writing, interesting performances and sexual melodrama, but it probably won’t warrant a rewatch.
Contact Peter Mikulski at pmikulsk@nd.edu
Irish seek to build on statement win
By TYLER REIDY and HENRY LYTLE Sports Editor and Sports Writer
On Saturday, the Notre Dame men’s basketball team will battle Syracuse (8-9, 2-4 ACC) for a second time this season after defeating the Orange 69-64 at home on Dec. 7. The Irish (8-9, 2-4 ACC) will have the chance to win consecutive conference games for the first time since February 2024 in Upstate New York.
The new year in review
Entering the toughest part of ACC conference play, sophomore guard Markus Burton’s welltimed return from injury gave Notre Dame a fighting chance against three Elite Eight-finishing North Carolina schools. Despite the boost from last season’s ACC Rookie of the Year, the Irish lost all three of these games by close margins but bounced back against Boston College to bring the record to 8-9.
Without Burton, Notre Dame struggled mightily offensively in December. The six-foot, 190-pound sophomore exited the Nov. 26 matchup against Rutgers with a knee injury and returned on Jan. 4 at home against North Carolina. Bringing a spark off of the bench, Burton provided 23 points on 50% shooting from the field. The Irish battled back from a 12-point deficit early to bring the halftime lead down to just seven at 39-32.
Despite this explosive return, the Irish gave up 27 points to Tar Heel freshman Ian Jackson, 18 in the first half. Graduate guard Matt Allocco made two free throws to bring the lead to 73-70 with merely
14 seconds remaining. However, on defense, Allocco fouled Elliot Cadeau on a three-pointer, allowing the sophomore guard to complete the gut-wrenching four-point play and give the lead back to the Tar Heels at 74-73. With four seconds left, Burton raced down the floor and hoisted a desperation layup as time expired into contact that did not fall through the net. Despite holding the Tar Heels guards, RJ Davis and Cadeau, to just eight points and 10 points respectively, the critical mistake cost the Irish a chance in overtime.
Following the heartbreaking defeat on home court against a blue blood program, the Irish traveled to usually sunny, warm and hospitable North Carolina to take on NC State, then Duke. An unexpected turn in the weather brought a historic ice storm in Raleigh and Durham, and that coincided with more unexpected struggles offensively for Notre Dame against the Wolfpack. Leading 33-26 at halftime, the Irish looked back on track defensively. NC State battled back from as many as eight points down to close in on the Irish lead at the end of the game, led by Marcus Hill with 15 points and Jayden Taylor with 14. The Irish shot well at 44% from the field — and an impressive 42% from three-point range — but could not execute down the stretch when it mattered the most. The Irish failed to score in the last two minutes of the game, letting a 65-61 lead slip away to an underachieving Wolfpack team. A shooting foul on junior forward Tae Davis with 11 seconds remaining let Ben Middlebrooks, the only returning
member of last season’s Final Four team, sink the game-winning free throws to hand the Irish another disappointing loss. Notre Dame was next tasked with the best team on the schedule thus far in Duke at the historic and challenging Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Blue Devils started on fire led by freshman phenom Cooper Flagg, and the Irish fell quickly to a 14-0 deficit. Flagg scored 16 points in the first half and was impossible to guard all game. A miraculous buzzer-beater shot from sophomore guard Braeden Shrewsberry closed the lead to eight at halftime, which felt like a victory for Notre Dame.
The Irish struggled to match up against Duke’s size, especially 7-foot-2 center Khaman Maluach, who terrorized Notre Dame in the paint with 19 points and 10 rebounds. The Irish relied on threepoint shooting to keep them in the game and eventually closed the lead to five points at 79-74 with 34 seconds remaining. Shooting 58% from beyond the arc, the Irish scored to keep up with Duke but could not slow down the Blue Devil offense well enough to give themselves a chance and lost 86-78.
After the game, head coach Micah Shrewsberry said, “[The Blue Devils] took their foot off the gas. They missed some shots. Credit to our guys, who kept fighting.”
Duke coach Jon Scheyer said, “I think what [the Irish] are building is really good. They play modern basketball. They ran different actions on offense that we have not played against before.”
Cooper Flagg sealed the deal for the Blue Devils back on offense as
he knocked down another four free throws to put the game out of reach. The Blue Devil freshman set a new ACC record with 42 points and did not miss a single shot other than a free throw in the second half. One of the greatest single college basketball performances by a freshman shows the firepower and pedigree of a Duke program that the Irish aspire to emulate.
Looking for a rebound at home, the Irish took on Boston College for Video Game Night in Purcell Pavilion. The promise of a PlayStation 5 filled up the student section, which watched the Irish earn a much-needed victory against a struggling, now 9-8 Boston College team. Tae Davis led the way for the Irish with 26 points, one shy of his career high, on 9-for-14 from the field. After a Markus Burton jumper with 12:39 to play, the Irish would regain the lead and control the final stretch. Burton struggled at 5-for-15 from the field but added 20 points with nine free throws. A stark contrast from the previous Saturday’s game against Duke, when Notre Dame only scored three-pointers, it went 3-for-15 or 20% from beyond the arc on Monday, the worst performance of the season. Despite these metrics, the Irish earned a much-needed conference victory to regain some momentum.
“I am proud of our guys for keeping the faith. We haven’t gotten the results we wanted to, but they have never wavered. We buckled down and made plays when we needed to,” Micah Shrewsberry said after the game.
Saturday at Syracuse
Sitting at 8-9 overall, and 2-4
in conference play, Notre Dame heads to Syracuse to take on a struggling Orange team, who they have already beaten at home. Looking to get back on track, Notre Dame enters a much easier portion of conference play with ample opportunities to regain the winning record and turn the season back around. While Markus Burton’s return from injury did not lead to any miraculous upsets, it has helped refocus a team in desperate need of a boost in conference play.
Syracuse comes off a 24-point home loss to Louisville on Tuesday, but it did win ACC games against Georgia Tech and Boston College before that. The Orange have had a tough time keeping key players healthy recently, as topscoring guard J.J. Starling missed all of December — including what would have been his return to South Bend. He performed well upon returning two weeks ago, averaging just under 20 points per contest in his first three games back. However, he accumulated more turnovers (six) than points (four) on Tuesday, so Syrcause will have to get him back on track.
Right after Starling returned, forward Donnie Freeman, the team’s second-highest scorer, went down with a leg injury. He’s missed the last three games, so the Orange have leaned on Jyare Davis, who stepped up against the Irish during Starling’s absence, and double-double machine Eddie Lampkin Jr. Notre Dame and Syracuse will tip off at 4 p.m. on Saturday.
Contact Tyler Reidy at treidy3@nd.edu and Henry Lytle at hlytle@nd.edu
Belles fall short in battle against Olivet
By CLAIRE WATSON Sports Writer
Coming out of the break, the Saint Mary’s Belles battled Olivet in a tightly contested game but ultimately fell short, 54-52.
The Belles opened the scoring as freshman guard Ella Notaro scored on a layup, but Olivet quickly responded with a layup of their own to tie the score. After Olivet committed a shooting foul, Notaro sank two free throws to give Saint Mary’s the lead. However, Olivet responded with a surge, scoring two layups, two free throws and a three-pointer to pull ahead 11-4. Sophomore guard Kate Restovich added a layup for the Belles, but Olivet quickly responded with two points, extending their lead to 136. Notaro kept the momentum alive with a jump shot,
followed by a layup from Restovich, narrowing the gap to 13-10. Olivet scored the final points of the quarter to stay ahead 16-10.
Olivet opened the second quarter with two quick points, but the Belles responded immediately as junior guard Nicole Connolly sank a three-pointer, narrowing the score to 18-13. Olivet then went on a dominant 8-0 run, extending their lead to 26-13, before Connolly stopped the streak with another three-pointer to make it 26-16. After an Olivet layup, Connolly added a free throw to bring the score to 28-17, but Olivet quickly answered with another layup, maintaining their lead at 30-17. The teams traded baskets, with Restovich contributing two layups and senior forward Julia Schutz adding two of her own to close the gap to 30-25.
In the final seconds of the quarter, Olivet added a free throw to end the half ahead 31-25.
Heading into the third quarter, Olivet took the lead scoring three free throws bringing the score to 34-25 before senior guard Lauren Gumma made a three point jump shot, a layup and a free throw to make the score 34-31. Olivet continued to use their offensive advantage as they added on four more points for themselves but the Belles pushed back as sophomore Avery Schiesser added on a layup for her first points of the night and brought the score to 38-33. After a shooting foul was called on Saint Mary’s, Olivet added on another point for themselves but Schiesser
responded with another layup making the score 39-35. Olivet added two more points, but Restovich quickly answered with a layup for the Belles, narrowing the score to 41-36. After another layup from Olivet, the teams traded possessions before Notaro scored on a layup to close out the quarter, bringing the score to 43-38.
In a game that came down to the wire, the fourth quarter began with a strong push from Olivet, who scored four quick points to extend their lead. Schutz answered with a crucial three-pointer, narrowing the score to 47-41. Olivet countered with another four points, but after a shooting foul, Restovich sank two free throws to make it 51-43. Olivet
added a layup to their tally, but the Belles fought back. Schutz converted two free throws, Restovich nailed a threepointer and Notaro scored on a layup, bringing the Belles within striking distance at 5350. Olivet responded with two more points before Restovich added two free throws, but the Belles ultimately fell short, losing 54-52.
Restovich led the Belles offensively, finishing the game with 16 points, while Connolly anchored the defense with a team-high eight rebounds. The Belles now turn their focus to their upcoming matchup against Adrian on Jan. 18 at 1 p.m.
Contact Claire Watson at cwatson7@nd.edu
SUDOKU | THE MEPHAM GROUP
Happy Birthday: Size up situations, relationships, and your long-term plans. Listen to alternative offers and mix and match what works best for you. Distance yourself from negativity and those who use emotional manipulation to put demands or guilt on your shoulders. Use your intelligence, be creative, and embrace what excites you most. The choice is yours; live by your standards, and the results will far outweigh giving in to peer pressure. Your numbers are 9, 13, 26,33, 35, 42, 49.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): A tight-lipped attitude will help you exceed your expectations. Let what you do surprise others and put you on a pedestal. Use intelligence to outsmart anyone trying to manipulate or make you look bad. Quick reactions will compromise your integrity and your position. A methodical attitude will help you outshine competitors.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Take control and create sustainable opportunities. Hide until you have completed all the details and are prepared to present. Offering to help someone prematurely will result in providing more than you can afford. Put more time and effort into positive changes at home, and build your dream from the ground up.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Inch your way into whatever you want to pursue. Haste makes waste and will be difficult to replenish. Participate in events that offer insight into lifestyle changes that allow you to expand your imagination and pay attention to how you look and feel. A minimalist attitude will ward off indulgence.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Get ready to take flight. You’ll accomplish plenty if organized and equipped to conquer. Set a budget and a time guide, start a dialogue with loved ones, share the experience, and get ready to enjoy the ride. Romance is on the rise, and selfimprovement will pay off.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Think big, get involved, do your part to improve your life experiences. Refrain from letting what others do daunt you. Instead, align yourself with those with shared interests and forge ahead. Life is short, and satisfying your needs is up to you. A physical challenge will raise your enthusiasm and expectations.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Let your passion rise to the surface and be open and honest regarding your feelings, aspirations, and long-term goals. Sign up for events or attend social invites, and you’ll gain insight into how to tap into what’s new and exciting. Romance, happiness, and personal growth are in the stars.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): An open mind will lead to new beginnings. Dig deep, search for answers, and consider how to harness personal growth and a lifestyle that satisfies your needs. Monitor and rid yourself of tedious people and pastimes holding you hostage. Love it or leave it.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Mental or physical journeys will broaden your awareness of what’s possible. A disciplined attitude will help you manufacture what’s required to bring about positive change. Developing something you enjoy doing will point you in an exciting professional direction. Do whatever it takes to turn your talent into a cash cow.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Square off and get ready to stand your ground and fight for your rights. Refrain from letting anyone outmaneuver you mentally or physically. Think standing up and focus on reflexes you can count on to carry you to the finish line. Opportunity begins with you and reasonable expectations.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): High energy and channeling your every move to get the desired results will pay off financially. You’ve got your finger on the pulse of what’s trending, and presenting your game plan will draw positive attention. Positive change is within reach, and networking will help connect you to the right people.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): You may think forcing a change may help you get your way quickly, but underestimating whoever you are dealing with will cost you time and money. Rethink your strategy, review details explicitly, and leave no room for error. Slow, methodical moves are your ideal passage forward. Focus and inch forward.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Draw on the talent around you. Listen, formulate your plan, and cap your budget. Get out of the fast land and into the road that leaves no stone unturned. Opportunity begins with being inquisitive and checking out every option, regardless of how unconventional. Attend events that cater to creative thinking. Birthday Baby: You are intelligent, compassionate, and insightful. You are unique and generous.
| DAVID HOYT AND JEFF KNUREK
JUMBLE
Irish beat Georgia Tech, remain top of ACC
By BEN HICKS Sports Writer
Still riding a perfect 5-0 start to ACC play, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish women’s basketball team welcomed the student body back to Purcell Pavilion for Thursday evening’s clash with the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.
Having not lost since backto-back defeats in the Cayman Islands over Thanksgiving, the 14-2 Irish have held steady at No. 3 in the national ranking, while Georgia Tech sits at No. 17 following their 15-2 start to the campaign. Thursday would be Notre Dame’s sixth ranked matchup of the season, after previously collecting wins against No. 8 UConn and No. 4 Texas, as well as at No. 17 North Carolina and No. 3 USC.
After head coach Niele Ivey said Wednesday that she “anticipated” star sophomore guard Hannah Hidalgo would play, the Wooden Award frontrunner missed her second straight contest with an ankle injury. Despite the absence of Hidalgo’s nearly 26 points per night, the Irish were able to scratch out a narrow, 67-58 victory at Clemson on Sunday behind graduate forward Liatu King’s 23 points and 11 rebounds.
Thursday did mark the first start of the season for fan favorite Maddy Westbeld after returning from foot surgery. The graduate forward from Kettering, Ohio ranks 16th in scoring in program history and has also been named to the AllACC Second Team the prior two seasons.
“It was an incredible blessing to be out there playing again, and to be able to start in front of the home crowd was amazing,” Westbeld said postgame.
The Yellow Jackets would also be without one of their stars,
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as talented freshman Dani Carnegie missed her second straight game after suffering a hamstring injury in their double overtime loss to Virginia Tech. Coming off the bench, Carnegie has averaged 15.1 points per game on 42.1% shooting from beyond the arc, helping the Yellow Jackets to open with 15 straight wins prior to consecutive losses to the Hokies and at Louisville.
This one didn’t start much better for Georgia Tech, as it came up empty on its opening seven shots of the night, allowing Notre Dame to race out to a quick 9-0 advantage. Despite seven first quarter points from Westbeld, Georgia Tech battled back, and a Tonie Morgan triple at the horn cut the lead to 2016 after one. The junior guard from Tallahassee, Florida who was also named to the All-ACC Second Team last season scored 11 points in the opening frame.
The Irish started the second quarter in similar fashion as the first, as seven straight points from senior guard Sonia Citron punctuated a second 9-0 push, and the Irish went up 29-16 with Morgan watching from the sideline. The Jackets would punch back however, as an 8-0 run of their own prompted Ivey to burn her first timeout.
After freshman forward Kate Koval’s illegal screen negated Citron’s deep three at the conclusion of the half, Notre Dame entered the intermission holding just a 39-36 edge. Georgia Tech forced 14 first-half turnovers for Notre Dame, which matched the team average for the season. Sixth-year head coach Nell Fortner’s stout defense also limited star graduate guard Olivia Miles to just two points on 1-for-6 shooting over the first 20 minutes. Westbeld and Citron shouldered much of
the load for Ivey’s Irish, scoring 13 and 11 respectively, while Notre Dame also out-rebounded Georgia Tech 28-13.
The score was knotted at 39 apiece when junior guard Kara Dunn, who leads Georgia Tech with 16 points per game on the year, canned a triple on the opening possession of the second half. Dunn would score 10 points in the frame, but the Irish’s mix of matchup zone defense gave the Yellow Jackets fits to end the quarter. On the offensive end, key three pointers from Westbeld and junior guard Cassandre Prosper spearheaded an efficient charge which saw the Irish reclaim an 11-point lead heading into the fourth.
Ivey was proud of her group’s fight and effort amidst the Yellow Jackets’ run, saying, “We were resilient and came out with great energy in the third quarter.”
As a team, the Irish were 6-for-13 from distance on the night. “We’ve been putting on a clinic from three all season, so it felt good to be able to make some myself,” Westbeld added.
The final period went back and forth, but Georgia Tech was never able to shrink the lead to within single digits, and Notre Dame collected its 10th straight victory by an 8166 score. The Irish were led by four double-digit scorers: Citron with 21 (9-for-13 from the field), Westbeld with 20 (8for-11), Prosper with 15 (5-for7), and Miles with 13 (6-for-13).
Additionally, King hauled in 12 rebounds for her 14th doubledigit rebounding game on the campaign, which also lifted her over 1,000 total between her career at Pittsburgh and Notre Dame.
Speaking specifically on Prosper’s conference career high, Ivey said, “Cass was ready
to play and gave us great minutes on both ends of the court.”
The 81-66 triumph moved Notre Dame to 19-1 all-time against the Yellow Jackets, with the lone 82-67 defeat occurring on Dec. 13, 2020, in Ivey’s first ACC game as head coach.
The Yellow Jackets, who will host Clemson on Sunday following their third straight setback, were led by Dunn with 17 points and Morgan with 15.
The conference slate continues at home on Sunday when the SMU Mustangs travel to South Bend for the first ever ACC meeting between the two programs. The Irish will then embark on a three-game road trip with visits to Boston College, Virginia Tech and Louisville. Sunday night’s contest with SMU is set for a 6 p.m. tip-off on the ACC Network.
Contact Ben Hicks at bhicks2@nd.edu
Saints fall to Governors State in 81-59 defeat
By CLAIRE WATSON Sports Writer
Coming back from break, the Holy Cross men’s basketball team was thrown right back into the action as it faced off against the Governors State Jaguars on Wednesday, losing 81-59.
In a high-scoring first half, the Jaguars started off strong, scoring the first five points. Senior guard Justin O’Neal got the Saints on the board with a jump shot, and senior guard Nash Hostetler closed the gap with a layup that brought the score to 5-4. The Jaguars quickly responded with two more layups to bring the score to 9-4, but after a shooting foul, Hostetler added on two free throws to bring the score back within three.
Governors State responded with a layup, but Hostetler
followed by bringing the ball down the court and adding his own layup. The Jaguars answered with a layup of, and after a foul was called, they added a free throw to make the score 14-8. The Saints did not stop as sophomore guard Joey Garwood and O’Neal both tacked on layups to bring the score to 14-12, but the Jaguars were equally aggressive, putting in two three-point shots, a free throw and two layups to stay ahead at 25-12.
Garwood added a three-point shot, but that was quickly followed by two layups from the Jaguars to make the score 29-15.
Garwood continued to keep the ball rolling for the Saints, adding on another three-pointer, but the Jaguars responded with a three of their own to make the score 3218. Garwood continued to prove
his strong offense as he drained a third triple and added on a layup to bring the score to 32-23 before the Jaguars countered with two jump shots and a dunk, bringing the score to 38-23. Freshman forward Davide Brembilla scored his first three points of the night to bring the score to 38-26. The Jaguars responded, adding a layup, but the Saints pushed back with a threepoint shot from senior guard Phil Robles II, bringing the score to 40-29. The Jaguars added on five more points, but Garwood responded by scoring a jumpshot to finish the half with the Jaguars up 45-31.
Ahead in the second half, the Jaguars scored the first three points with a triple, making the score 48-31, but after a shooting foul was called, Robles added
on two free throws to bring the score to 48-33. The Jaguars quickly responded, adding eight more points for themselves, but Garwood hit another three-point shot to bring the score to 5636. After going back and forth, Governors State added on a layup, but O’Neal wasted no time to return the favor, adding on a jump shot to bring the score to 58-38.
The Jaguars added on four more points for themselves, but Garwood opposed with a layup to make the score 62-41. A three from the Jaguars made the score 65-41, but freshman forward Karl Birgisson sank a layup, and sophomore forward Aris Duni added a free throw to bring the score to 65-44.
After the Jaguars five straight points, junior Drew Adzia added
two free throws, Hostetler made two layups and a free throw and O’Neal contributed a layup to bring the score to 73-55. The Jaguars responded, putting in a free throw, but Hostetler put in a jump shot to bring the score to 74-57, The Jaguars then were able to add on two free throws, making the score 76-57. Senior forward Jordan Montrose added a layup, making the score 76-59, but a five-point run to close from the Jaguars clinched the 81-59 Governors State win.
Garwood led the team on offense, finishing with 21 points, while Duni totaled seven rebounds. The Saints will now look ahead to face Viterbo on Saturday, Jan. 18, starting at 4 p.m.
Contact Claire Watson at cwatson7@nd.edu
DECLAN LEE | THE OBSERVER
Senior guard Sonia Citron and graduate forwards Liatu King and Maddy Westbeld stare down a Georgia Tech player in Notre Dame’s 81-66 victory against the Yellow Jackets at the Joyce Center on Jan. 17, 2025.
Tennis teams prepare for weekend at home
By TYLER REIDY Sports Editor
This weekend, the Notre Dame men’s and women’s tennis teams will each play three matches on home court at Eck Tennis Pavilion. For head coach Ryan Sachire and the Irish men, the contests against Princeton, Yale and Saint Joseph’s will offer an opportunity to continue a 2-0 start. For Alison Silverio and the women’s squad, the weekend tilts against Ball State, Illinois and DePaul will open the spring season.
Men’s tennis
The Notre Dame men’s team jumped out to a dominant, 2-0 start at home on Sunday. The Irish blanked Duquesne, as 28th-ranked junior Sebastian Dominko, senior Yu Zhang, sophomore Chase Thompson, sophomore Kyran Magimay, freshman Peter Nad and senior Jameson Corsillo all swept their singles matches. Notre Dame also went
unbeaten in doubles play, with wins by the Dominko-Nad and Corsillo-Zhang pairings accounting for Notre Dame’s remaining point.
Later in the day, the Irish handled Western Michigan by a 6-1 score. Dominko, Magimay, Nad and Corsillo once again swept in singles play, while Thompson eked out a three-set defeat of Brogan Pierce. In doubles play, the Dominko-Nad and MagimayThompson duos each cruised to wins.
Notre Dame will first face Princeton at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. The Tigers have not played a game yet and will travel to Madison, Wisconsin, for a Sunday doubleheader after battling the Irish. Paul Inchauspe, the Ivy League Rookie of the Year and a unanimous First Team All-Ivy selection last season, leads the Tigers as the 19th-ranked singles player in the country. Princeton has three doubles teams ranked inside the nation’s top 115, headlined by Inchauspe and
Filippos Astreinidis at No. 51.
The Irish will take on Yale at noon on Sunday. The Bulldogs will start this season against back-toback ACC programs, as they’ll take on Virginia Tech in Philadelphia next Saturday. They enter this season coming off consecutive 12win seasons.
Vignesh Gogineni, a Second Team All-Ivy selection last year, stands alone for Yale in the national singles rankings at No. 91. His doubles pairing with Jason Shuler ranks 64th in the country, while Zhengqing Ji and Eric Li combine to rank 77th. Only Gogineni represented Yale at the NCAA Individual Championships this past fall, losing his first matchup.
Notre Dame will close the weekend against Saint Joseph’s at 5 p.m. on Sunday. Coming off a 7-17 campaign, their worst season in five years, the Hawks have also not yet played in the new year. They’ll travel to Northwestern and Illinois State before facing the Irish this weekend.
Women’s tennis
The Irish women will open their weekend and season against Ball State at 3 p.m. on Friday. The instate Cardinals took a nosedive last year, transitioning from three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances from 2021 through 2023 to a 7-15 record in 2024. When Ball State last reached the national postseason, Notre Dame knocked it out of the first round two seasons ago.
Slovenian Annika Planinsek could prove to be a tough matchup for the Irish. She finished as a First Team All-MAC selection last year and reached the Mid-American Conference Fall Championship a few months ago.
Notre Dame’s toughest matchup of the weekend will take place at 11 a.m. on Saturday against Illinois. The Fighting Illini come off back-to-back NCAA Tournament berths and will not have played on Friday. They’ll enter South Bend with some familiarity, having
competed in the Notre Dame Invite from Oct. 4-6.
In singles play, McKenna Schaefbauer and Violeta Martinez rank 109th and 111th, respectively, for Illinois. The Illini do not have a returning All-Big Ten player, but the conference did tab Schaefbauer on its Players to Watch List last week.
The women’s weekend will wrap up with a matchup against DePaul at 4 p.m. on Saturday. The Blue Demons competed at the FIU Invitational in Miami last weekend and went 17-8 last year. Hannah Smith, an AllBig East First Team selection in 2024, performed particularly well in Miami alongside Eva Goncharov.
This is an abridged version of the story. Read the full version online.
Contact Tyler Reidy at treidy3@nd.edu
National Championship: matchup preview
By ANNIKA HERKO Associate Sports Editor
The first year of the 12-team College Football Playoff has been full of surprises, nail-biting
moments and instant classics. There were few dull moments in this playoff — unless, of course, you were an Alabama fan. With ticket prices soaring to what one joking Notre Dame student
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described as “several kidneys,” it’s safe to say the excitement around the new playoff format is palpable. More games, more action and more opportunities to watch your team chase a national title.
This will be the ninth meeting of the two teams. Notre Dame won the first two, in 1935 and 1936, but Ohio State won the last six, including the heartbreaker in Notre Dame Stadium last year when the Irish only had 10 men on the field as Ohio State scored a touchdown leaving only one second on the clock.
But that was last year.
Both of these teams, especially Notre Dame, have grown significantly since that game and the Irish do not want to repeat past mistakes. But let’s recap how both of these teams arrived at this point.
Ohio State
The Buckeyes started the season 5-0, trouncing the likes of Akron, Marshall and Iowa. Their smallest margin of victory in that run of the season was 28 points against Iowa. And then, they went to Oregon. The Ducks were ranked third in the country before the game started, just one below Ohio State. In one of the most thrilling games of the season, Oregon secured a narrow one-point victory, thanks to a calculated decision by head coach Dan Lanning. Lanning deliberately sent 12 men onto the field to prevent Ohio State from executing a big-yardage play in the game’s final moments. The Buckeyes bounced back with five consecutive wins, including victories over top-five opponents Penn State and Indiana. However, rivalry week proved costly for Ohio State, as they fell to an unranked but fired-up Michigan team. The loss reignited debate over the ethics of planting flags on an opponent’s field — a celebration that Michigan used to punctuate their upset victory.
Nevertheless, Ohio State entered the playoff as the No. 8 seed, securing the final spot to host a home playoff game. On their road to the national championship, they dispatched Tennessee with ease, turned a highly anticipated rematch against Oregon into a one-sided affair and outlasted a talented Texas squad.
Ohio State’s defense has been dominant all season, allowing the fewest points (12.2 per game) and the fewest yards (251.1 per game) in the nation. They also rank third in team sacks, trailing only Boise State and Ole Miss.
Notre Dame
The Irish’s season was a tale of redemption. Notre Dame got off on the right foot, starting the season with a ranked win at Texas A&M. Fans were confident that this would finally be Notre Dame’s year before disaster struck the very next weekend, at the home opener. The loss to Northern Illinois was a devastating blow for the team and its fans. However, in hindsight, it may have been the spark the Irish needed. Dropping from No. 5 to No. 18 in the rankings, Notre Dame spent the rest of the season clawing their way back to the top. Since that setback on Sept. 7, the Irish have won 13 consecutive games, including playoff victories over Indiana, Georgia and Penn State. Notre Dame hasn’t claimed a national football title since 1988, but this season, it feels as though all the stars — and every one of our prayers — have finally aligned. Like everyone else, I am counting down the minutes until 7:30 p.m. on Monday.
Contact Annika Herko at aherko@nd.edu
By NOAH CAHILL Associate Sports Editor
In his third season as head coach of Notre Dame, Marcus Freeman has silenced the doubters. More than that, he has cemented himself in the upper echelon of college football coaches. The journey has been far from easy. Freeman began his tenure 0-3 after blowing a 28-point halftime lead to Oklahoma State in the Fiesta Bowl, losing the season opener on the road against Ohio State and, worst of all, suffering a devastating upset to Marshall in the home opener a week later. While the Irish would recover in his first season with a marquee win against then-No. 6 Clemson, they dropped another inexplicable game to a 3-9 Stanford team that same season. Freeman’s second year was also marred by poor performances, including a pair of lifeless defeats to Louisville and Clemson after a heartbreaking loss to Ohio State in the last second at home, a game infamously defined by its final play where the Irish defense lined up with only 10 players on the field. Returning a wealth of talent in the expanded 12-team playoff field, Freeman’s third season became playoff or bust, and with a light regular season schedule, even failing to host in the first round constituted a disappointment.
The Week 1 road opener against Texas A&M was shaping up to be the most important game of the season. Going into College Station in front of over 100,000 Aggie faithful, the Irish earned a program-defining win. The game felt like a culmination of Freeman’s growth as a coach, as he prepared his young offensive line to hold up against the ferocious A&M front, made all the right fourthdown decisions and willed his team to victory by mentally and physically outlasting the Aggies. Then, one week later, NIU happened. All of a sudden, with a tough test against thenNo. 15-ranked Louisville looming at the end of the month, Notre Dame went from being a projected 12-0 No. 5 seed to facing playoff elimination before October. Should they have lost that, some challenging discussions were on the horizon. But as he had done throughout his entire tenure, Freeman responded to adversity. After righting the ship with a demolition of Purdue the following week and a comfortable win against Miami (Ohio), Notre Dame ousted the Cardinals in
Marcus Freeman has arrived
a 31-24 thriller to stay alive. But the NIU loss meant they would have to be perfect for the rest of the season. It’s one thing to bounce back from a horrible loss, but it is another to sustain success and take care of business every single week. Freeman had not yet proven he could do that. With a manageable schedule, how would he handle success to get his team over the finish line?
His answer: a 10-game win streak outscoring opponents by a combined 314 points. In that span of games following the NIU loss, Notre Dame delivered the worst loss of the season to each team they played barring Virginia and USC. While the schedule was straightforward, the Irish did more than beat who was in front of them, they ran them off the field. After finishing the year 11-1, Notre Dame earned the No. 7 seed in the CFP playoff, matching up with No. 10 Indiana in the first round. The first postseason home game in college football history would be in Notre Dame Stadium. Before the playoff run began, Freeman signed an extension reportedly worth up to $9 million per year, putting him in the ballpark of the highestpaid coaches in the country. Notre Dame believed they had their guy. It was time for him to prove it on the biggest stage. He passed the first test with flying colors in a one-sided 27-17 win over the Hoosiers. A garbage time touchdown provided Indiana with some windowdressing, but the Irish dominated from start to finish. They moved on to face No. 2 seed SEC champion Georgia, one of the blue bloods of the sport. After the game was postponed a day, the Irish went into the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans and left with a comfortable 2310 win to punch a ticket to the CFP semifinal. I can confidently say this was the best game Freeman had coached up to that point. His team won in every phase of the game. Similar to the A&M game, he took a conservative, mistake-free approach to the offensive game plan, and pushed all the right buttons at the right times. The highlight was a drive that didn’t lead to any points but did manage to completely ice the game. Beginning on their own 9-yard line, the Irish offense put together a 12-play 41-yard drive that ate up seven minutes and 36 seconds of clock before pinning the Bulldogs deep down two scores with under a minute remaining. The drive was sparked by Freeman’s call to
run his offense back on the field on 4th and 2 on the Irish 18-yard line, drawing Georgia offsides and moving the chains. The defense, as they have all season, shut Georgia’s offense down. The standout unit, however, had to be special teams, highlighted by the Jayden Harrison kickoff return to open up the second half and put the Irish in the driver’s seat. But while Freeman was flawless in the Sugar Bowl win, he one-upped himself against Penn State a week later.
The 27-24 win over the Nittany Lions was the greatest of the Freeman era not only because it punched Notre Dame’s ticket to the national championship, but because it served as a testament to the culture he has built throughout the season. An Irish team depleted by injuries on both lines was being overpowered in the trenches. After playing his worst half of the season, Riley Leonard exited the game with a head injury, leaving backup Steve Angeli to lead a two-minute drill at the end of the half. Somehow only down 10-0, Notre Dame needed points. After putting together a few completions and miraculously recovering a lost fumble, Angeli and the Irish offense set Mitch Jeter up to knock in a 41yard field goal that cut the deficit to 10-3. Whatever Freeman said to his guys in that halftime locker room lit a fire under them. Receiving the ball to start the second half, they put together an emphatic eight-play 75-yard drive capped off by
another rushing touchdown for Riley Leonard, who returned to the game after going through concussion protocol. They would score again on their next drive to take a 17-10 lead. Penn State would respond with two touchdowns of their own, the second aided by a controversial pass interference call in the end zone that kept the drive alive. Once again, the Irish responded. Jaden Greathouse broke free for a 54-yard touchdown reception, and after Nittany Lions quarterback Drew Allar threw a terrible interception, the offense set Jeter up to kick the game-winning 41-yard field goal. Overcoming mountains of adversity, Freeman’s Notre Dame found a way once again. In the national championship, Freeman has the opportunity to avenge last season’s heartbreak against his alma mater. But win or lose this game, one that Notre Dame enters as heavy underdogs, he has proven his status as an elite coach. This goes beyond the in-game decisions, which from the 4th-down calls to the trick plays, have been managed brilliantly all season. Head coaches, especially those who don’t call plays as is the case with Freeman, are asked to be CEOs. Freeman has excelled in every aspect of that title. He brought in two outstanding coordinators in Mike Denbrock and Al Golden, both of whom have raised the ceiling of their respective units massively. He utilized the transfer portal to acquire talent in key roles. The
headline was undoubtedly Riley Leonard, but Rod Heard II has played meaningful snaps throughout the entire playoff run, Mitch Jeter, despite his midseason struggles, made the first CFP go-ahead field goal, Harrison returned the kick against Georgia and RJ Oben came up with the strip-sack in that same game that set up a Beaux Collins touchdown catch. While none of these players have been incredible in every game, they have made huge contributions in the biggest moments. Across the roster, the impact of Freeman’s incoming recruits is also evident. With young stars from Adon Shuler and Leonard Moore in the secondary to Bryce Young and Boubacar Traore on the defensive line, the depth of this Irish roster has been bolstered by recruiting classes that have already rivaled many of Brian Kelly’s best. Freeman’s success has coincided with a level of buy-in from new athletic director Pete Bevacqua that has been nonexistent for the past few decades of Irish football. Bevacqua has shown a genuine hunger to build the program back into one of the best and is putting his money where his mouth is. Within this rapidly growing infrastructure, Notre Dame could be on the cusp of something special. The Freeman era has begun in South Bend. It may prove to be a long and prosperous one.
Contact Noah Cahill at ncahill2@nd.edu
FREEMAN FEATURE
JONATHAN KARR | THE OBSERVER
Head coach Marcus Freeman extends a hand to junior running back Dylan Devezin before Notre Dame’s 23-10 victory against Georgia at the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 2, 2025 at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.
LEONARD FEATURE
Leonard prepares to leave it all on the field
By MATTHEW CROW Sports Writer
“Alright, let’s go get this thing done.”
That was the message that Notre Dame’s backup quarterback, junior Steve Angeli, delivered to the starter, senior Riley Leonard, at halftime of the College Football Playoff semifinal last Thursday night.
But at that point in time, not much had transpired in the first 30 minutes of Notre Dame’s Orange Bowl matchup with Penn State to inspire confidence that Leonard and the Irish would be able to make good on those words. Prior to halftime, Leonard had thrown for just 63 yards in addition to a costly interception, and the Nittany Lions jumped out to a two-possession lead while Notre Dame struggled to find any semblance of a rhythm offensively.
In fact, it was Angeli who provided the spark for the Irish after Leonard exited the game in the final minutes of the second quarter to be evaluated for a potential head injury after taking a big hit from Penn State defensive tackle Dvon J-Thomas as he released a pass. Coming off the bench cold in one of the Irish’s biggest games in recent memory, Angeli rose to the occasion, completing six of his seven pass attempts for 44 yards. He perfectly executied a two-minute drill that culminated with a badly needed 41-yard field goal from graduate kicker Mitch Jeter as time expired in the half to send Notre Dame into the locker room trailing 10-3 and, for the first time all night, with some semblance of momentum on its side.
Yet despite Leonard’s struggles, after confirming that his teammate was indeed healthy and would be ready to go for the most important half of Notre Dame’s season, the first thought that immediately entered Angeli’s mind was a sense of complete and utter belief that the Irish’s gutsy leader would be able to guide Notre Dame to victory.
And he was far from the only one on the Irish sideline who felt that way. Several hours later — after Leonard reentered the game in the second half to run for a touchdown, throw for another and make clutch play after clutch play down the stretch to lead the Irish to a historic 27-24 comeback win and a national title game berth while earning Orange Bowl Offensive MVP honors –Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman spoke about the fight put on display by his quarterback.
“You can’t [quantify Leonard’s value to the Irish] by stats, you can by heart. When it matters the most, Riley Leonard is going to put his body on the line for this program. And he does it over and over and over, and he finds a way to make a play when you need it the most,” Freeman said postgame. “We have the utmost confidence in him — no matter what happened the first half or what
happened the last play — on this play, when we need it the most, we know Riley’s going to get it done. He did it again tonight.”
In Leonard’s own words, late in the game, Freeman “just came over and told me he knew who I was and [that] the team believed in me … We have a resilient group. I knew it was time to go and execute.”
But where did this unwavering trust in Leonard come from? How did he gain the reputation among teammates and coaches as the ultimate gamer, someone with ice in his veins when the pressure’s at its peak and who is seemingly the physical embodiment of toughness in the clutch?
From the outside looking in, it’s not too obvious. Since arriving on campus in South Bend last spring after transferring from Duke, Leonard has presented himself to fans and media as understated and easygoing, someone who is rarely seen without a grin on his face and prefers to be out of the spotlight while deferring any and all praise and accolades to teammates whenever possible.
He wore a T-shirt emblazoned with a picture of star Irish sophomore running back Jeremiyah Love to his press conference after Notre Dame’s first-round playoff victory over Indiana, he can rarely make it through a single interview question about himself without bringing up the Irish offensive line or defense and he’s famously asked his mom to text him “You suck” before every game he’s played since high school as motivation and to remind him to keep a level head.
When being interviewed on the field after the win against Penn State, he said, “I shouldn’t be the one on the microphone right now, I didn’t do my part tonight but, heck, these guys did and they carried me throughout the entire game.” When the Irish bounced back emphatically from a shocking defeat against Northern Illinois with a 66-7 thrashing of Purdue, Leonard was asked when the last time was that he had this much fun on a football field and wryly responded with a laugh, “It wasn’t last week, probably two weeks ago.”
But don’t let his even-tempered and self-deprecating demeanor fool you, as it belies a steely competitor who’s proven himself to be tough as nails time and time again. After all, there’s a reason why Notre Dame pursued him so hard in the transfer portal last offseason, a reason why he was named a team captain in his first and only season with the Irish and a reason why Freeman has constantly referred to him as a “competitor” and someone that Notre Dame is “so grateful to have … here.”
Leonard is about as tough as they come as a quarterback and a leader, and if there’s one thing he’s never been understated about — from his first day on campus to the final week leading up to Monday night’s national championship
game — it’s why he chose to spend his final college season at Notre Dame, and what he believes he and his team are capable of.
“Throughout this whole offseason, everybody would ask me why I came to Notre Dame,” Leonard said after the Orange Bowl. “The truth is, I came here to win a national championship.”
For much of the season, though, that looked like less of a realistic goal and more like the longest of long shots.
Very little of the last year has gone according to plan for Leonard. He dealt with significant injuries during his junior season at Duke that forced him to miss several games as well as the entirety of spring practice at Notre Dame while he underwent three surgeries, making the already-difficult transition into a new school, program and offense even more challenging.
Once Leonard was finally healthy and the Irish’s 2024 season kicked off, things got off to an auspicious start, with a huge win on the road against Texas A&M. But just one week later — seemingly out of nowhere — everything fell apart on one fateful Saturday afternoon in South Bend. In Notre Dame’s home opener against Northern Illinois, Leonard tossed a pair of interceptions while the Irish struggled greatly on both sides of the ball, falling 16-14 in the final seconds against the fourtouchdown underdog Huskies.
In a matter of hours, it felt to many like Notre Dame’s season had — for all intents and purposes — ended. Leonard wrote in a recent message to Notre Dame fans in The Players’ Tribune that it was “the worst game of [his] whole life,” that he felt like he “let a lot of people down” and that he hoped he could “wake up and have this all be a nightmare.” There were widespread calls from fans for Leonard to be benched, and the loss was described as one of the most embarrassing in recent college football memory. Freeman said after the game that “this is as low as it gets.”
But while it’s easy to preach toughness when the sun is shining and things are going well, it’s in those dark moments where it can truly be seen. Prior to Notre Dame’s regular season finale against USC, Freeman reflected on Leonard’s response to the Irish’s loss to Northern Illinois.
“As a father, I would want someone to describe my children the way I view Riley Leonard,” Freeman said. “He is a great person. As a football player, he’s done nothing but continuously grow and get better … You realize a lot about a person’s character when they’re down and Riley is a competitor. He’s a fighter. He didn’t want anyone to feel bad for himself. He wanted to work. That’s what I’ve learned about Riley Leonard.”
And it’s what everyone who’s watched Notre Dame in the 13 games since that day has learned about him too. Leonard has
repeatedly given all the credit to Freeman and his teammates for never doubting him and helping him regain his confidence. And over the course of the fall that’s now stretched into the winter, he’s turned into one of the nation’s top dual-threat quarterbacks, accounting for 19 touchdowns through the air and another 16 on the ground while never shying away from a hit or opting not to battle for extra yards. Early in the season, Freeman urged his quarterback to make an effort to avoid hits and play with less of a reckless abandon but has seemingly given up on that plea in the later stages of the year. It’s simply part of Leonard’s DNA.
It’s fitting that his most indelible, memorable moment with the Irish — up to this point, at least — was not a moonshot dropped perfectly into the hands of a downfield receiver racing down the sideline or a frozen rope over the middle of the field that zipped through the defense before reaching its intended target in the end zone. He has made many plays like that over the course of the season, despite what his relatively pedestrian passing totals might suggest. Instead, it came in the final minutes of the Sugar Bowl quarterfinal win against Georgia. On a third and seven late in the fourth quarter with the Irish clinging to a two-possession lead, Leonard kept the ball on a designed keeper and escaped around the edge before wildly hurdling toward the sticks, absorbing a huge midair hit and landing on his head but picking up the needed yards with a somersault to effectively ice the game for Notre Dame.
“When you’re struggling in the passing game, you’ve got to put your body on the line and [do] whatever it takes to win, that’s what I tell these guys all the time,” Leonard said after the Sugar Bowl. “I try to lead by example and put my body out on the line, and that hopefully let’s these guys know how much I care about them, how much I care about this university.”
And after doing exactly what Angeli told him to do last Thursday — returning from injury in the second half to rally the Irish past Penn State and into the national championship game, where they’ll meet Ohio State — he’s just days away from having the chance to “go get this thing done” one final time and go down as an all-time legend in Notre Dame’s storied history.
“[Freeman] said ‘History is written by conquerors, and we’re holding the pen,’” Leonard said postgame about his head coach’s halftime speech during the Orange Bowl. “We decide how we want to write our history. I am a firm believer in, whether you think you can, or you can’t do something – you’re right. We believed that we could do it, and we went out there and did it.”
In a way, Leonard’s approach to the game — his toughness, grit, resiliency, relentless drive to win
and unwavering commitment to his teammates — exemplifies the spirit of this entire Irish team and the Notre Dame program under Freeman as a whole.
In the face of a seemingly unending stream of season-ending injuries to key players, a stunning upset loss at the hands of Northern Illinois that made them the laughing stock of college football and a loud and persistent narrative that Notre Dame is a program that simply can’t step up when the lights shine brightest, this Irish team — and its leader — have persevered time and time again and now find themselves playing on the final Monday of the season, with just one more obstacle standing between them and the ultimate goal.
“He’s a competitor, and competitors find a way to win. That’s what Riley does, that’s what this team does,” Freeman said about Leonard postgame after the Irish punched their ticket to the title game. “This is a bunch of competitors and [they] find a way. It’s an honor to be a part of it with them and I’m looking forward to this next one.”
Leonard — and the Irish — have now found a way to win 13 times in a row. And as for “this next one?” It could make Notre Dame national champions for the first time since 1988 and see this Irish team go down in history as the first team to win the new 12-team College Football Playoff. With Ohio State heading to Atlanta as heavy favorites, the odds are stacked against the Irish, but that’s been the case all season long, and they’re not prepared to let it stop them now.
“We’re done being afraid of anything — I know that much about this team. I know that, win or lose, we’re going to do it our way: We’re going to dare greatly,” Leonard wrote in The Players’ Tribune. “And maybe we’ll stumble again. Maybe we’ll come up short. But as long as our season is still alive, I can promise you, we’re going to try like heck to achieve greatness. If it’s there on that football field, we’ll find it.”
When everything’s on the line, all the chips are down and the fate of a season comes down to a single game, it’s never a bad bet to go with the toughest person and competitor on the field.
Luckily for the Irish, that guy will be wearing No. 13 for them on Monday night, strapping on his gold helmet one final time in a season that he’s called a “dream come true” as he prepares to lay it all out on the line for his Notre Dame teammates and do everything in his power to help lead them to glory.
“It doesn’t even feel real,” Leonard said after the Orange Bowl about the chance to play for a national championship. “To be here on this stage, we’re going to enjoy it, [but] we’ve got one more left.”
Contact Matthew Crow at mcrow@nd.edu
Beat picks: National Championship
By Observer Sports Staff
Noah Cahill
Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame have arrived on the big stage. After taking care of business at home against No. 10 seed Indiana, they slayed the Georgia giant in the Sugar Bowl before outlasting Penn State in a 27-24 Orange Bowl thriller. Freeman now faces his alma mater with an opportunity to avenge last season’s heartbreaking loss and bring Notre Dame its first national championship since 1988. While the Irish come in as significant underdogs, the game feels much different from the BCS title against Alabama and both recent CFP appearances, games where it became quickly evident that Notre Dame didn’t belong on the field.
After an inexplicable loss to rival Michigan in the final game of the season, the Buckeyes have been firing on all cylinders in the CFP. Coming in as the No. 8 seed, Ohio State decimated Tennessee 42-17 in Columbus and blitzed No. 1 seed Oregon in the following round, taking a 34-0 lead in the second quarter en route to a comfortable 41-21 victory in the Big Ten regular season rematch. In the semifinal, they defeated No. 4 Texas in a more competitive matchup to punch their ticket to the natty. Their defense, loaded with NFL talent at just about every position, has dominated all season. What makes their recent run so scary is the emergence of an explosive passing attack powered by a trio of elite wide receivers Carnell Tate, Emeka Egbuka and Jeremiah Smith.
The margin for error is slim for Notre Dame. The route to victory, as it has throughout the entire season and playoff run especially, begins on defense. Al Golden’s unit will not only have to corral the Buckeye offense but likely force a couple of turnovers in the process. Leading the country with 32 takeaways, it is more than pure chance that this team is capable of doing just that. Golden’s aggressive style of defense utilizes a variety of pressure packages while relying on sound man-to-man coverage on the back end. While the Buckeye receivers
will be tough matchups, the Irish, even without star cornerback Benjamin Morrison, have players to throw at them. Leonard Moore will likely have the Smith assignment with support over the top from one of the standout pairing of safeties in Xavier Watts and Adon Shuler. Jordan Clark should meet Egbuka in the slot, leaving Gray to face Tate one-onone. This Notre Dame defense will not be fazed. In two previous meetings, it held the likes of Jaxon SmithNjigba, Marvin Harrison Jr. and Egbuka at bay and will believe it can do that again.
The onus will fall on the offense to keep up, which is a bigger question mark for Notre Dame, particularly as it prepares to face arguably its toughest defensive test all season. During the playoff run, the group has done enough to eke out wins but still has been far from convincing. Key injuries on the offensive line and a bangedup Jeremiyah Love further complicate things for a rush-first Irish attack. After what appeared to be a season-ending pec tear, Charles Jagusah was called on to replace the injured Anthonie Knapp and is set to start at left tackle in this game. The return of Rocco Spindler is a welcome one, but time will tell if it is enough to hold up against the ferocious Buckeye front.
I do believe there is an intangible argument to make for Notre Dame. I am not typically one to refer to cliches like “teams of destiny,” but this Irish team under Freeman just seems to be different. Its ability to overcome countless injuries and setbacks and find a way to win is a testament to the culture he has built. On the other side, Ryan Day bears the brunt of an exasperated fanbase and the perceived pressure to prove his identity as a coach. In the event that Day gets bogged down by the surrounding narratives and repeats the coaching malpractice he made against Michigan, Notre Dame can win this game. With that being said, I think Ohio State’s talent is too much. The Irish defense keeps this game competitive, but their depleted offensive line will be a pivotal factor. I just don’t think they have enough offense to keep
up. The magical run will end here for Freeman.
Prediction: Ohio State 27, Notre Dame 17
Matthew Crow
After a grueling, 15-game season that’s stretched from August all the way to late January, it all comes down to this — Notre Dame and Ohio State for the national championship. The Irish and Buckeyes have had a lot of parallels this year. Both have seen standout play from a transfer quarterback and a dynamic running back duo but have reached this point on the back of elite defensive play, with the teams ranking first and second nationally in scoring defense. Both suffered a shocking regular season loss — Notre Dame against Northern Illinois, Ohio State against Michigan — but battled back to survive a CFP gauntlet that’s required them each to take down three teams ranked in the top eight nationally, meaning that outside of themselves, the Irish and Buckeyes are responsible for ending the seasons of essentially every top team in the nation, making this about as good of a title game matchup as you could hope for.
And finally, both reached this point thanks to a crucial, game-changing turnover in the closing stages of their respective semifinal games. Notre Dame cornerback Christian Gray came away with a huge interception that set up a gamewinning field goal from kicker Mitch Jeter to push the Irish past Penn State in the Orange Bowl, while Ohio State defensive lineman Jack Sawyer strip-sacked former college roommate Quinn Ewers before rumbling 83 yards to the end zone to seal the Cotton Bowl victory over Texas.
Notre Dame’s offense came alive in season-saving fashion with 24 second-half points against Penn State, but the Irish have struggled to consistently move the ball against top-tier opponents, having failed to reach 30 points in any of its three postseason games. It’s difficult to see that changing much as they prepare to face arguably the best defense in the nation.
For me, the first quarter will be critical in
determining the game’s outcome. The Irish have had a tendency to come out of the gates slow, and if the Buckeyes are able to build a big early lead, Notre Dame may not have the firepower to make up a multiple-possession deficit. Conversely, if the Irish defense is dialed in from the opening kickoff and can keep Ohio State out of the end zone on their opening few possessions, I see this one going down to the wire.
A key matchup in this one will be Notre Dame’s cornerbacks — Gray and Leonard Moore — against Ohio State’s dangerous receiving core, led by freshman superstar Jeremiah Smith. After the Irish secondary was somewhat exposed by USC’s passing attack in November to the tune of 360 yards and three touchdowns, I would have seen this as an area that the Buckeyes could exploit. But the Irish’s underclassman duo has been absolutely outstanding throughout the Playoff, most recently holding Penn State’s wide receivers without a single catch in the Orange Bowl, and a similar effort will give Notre Dame freedom to key in on stopping the run and sending pressure at Buckeyes quarterback Will Howard. Ohio State might be the deepest, most talented team in all of college football, but the Irish have looked like a team of destiny and one that simply refuses to lose during their 13-game tear since falling to Northern Illinois.
The Buckeyes got the better of the Irish during the regular season in each of the past two years, but on the biggest stage, the third time will be the charm for Notre Dame as it brings the national championship back to South Bend in a hard-fought, grindit-out slugfest on Monday night.
Prediction: Ohio State 17, Notre Dame 20
Tyler Reidy
In a dream matchup for storylines, it’s Ohio State and Notre Dame for the national championship. Can Ryan Day win it all while actively being demanded out of the head coach position in Columbus? Will Marcus Freeman continue to storied tradition of success for third-year Irish head coaches and take a team that lost
to Northern Illinois atop the summit of college football? Could Notre Dame beat Ohio State for the first time since 1936, or will the Buckeyes remain the superior Midwestern powerhouse?
I’ll start by noting that I don’t buy the 8.5-point spread for this game at all. Sure, if Ohio State does in the trenches what Penn State did to Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl’s second quarter for 60 minutes in Atlanta, the Irish won’t last very long. But I don’t think that’s what Vegas is looking at. In my mind, the large Buckeye favoring comes from the fact that Ohio State has the household names on offense and a more appealing CFP resume that features three double-digit wins, including two blowouts.
That doesn’t guarantee Ohio State’s going to play the way it looks on Monday night. The Buckeyes were rolling at the end of the regular season with top-five wins against Penn State and Indiana. Then, the heralded offense performed a disappearing act and scored 10 points in the Michigan loss. If you don’t think defensive coordinator Al Golden, who has schemed his way through injury after injury to key Irish defenders, can’t put the Buckeyes in a similar hex, you haven’t been watching. He already held Ohio State 23 points below its season average in 2022 and 13 below last year.
On the flip side, the Irish offense hasn’t done enough to pay off terrific defensive performances in the last two Ohio State games. I’m not fully convinced that it can this time around, especially with a shakeup on the offensive line, but I like where the passing game is trending. Riley Leonard threw for 223 yards against Penn State, his highest total in three months. Jaden Greathouse came out of the woodwork for a career-high 105 receiving yards, creating a second option next to the reliable Jordan Faison.
If Leonard can do what he has during this 13-game win streak — make winning plays by any means necessary — and his team gets back on track in the turnover battle, Notre Dame will claim its 12th national title.
Prediction: Ohio State 17, Notre Dame 24