HELLO offensive production!
There are less than two weeks left before the 2025-26 Irish football team suits up for the season opener!
And as I’ve been getting back into my completely irrational ND football fan mode I realized that this team will look very different from the squad we got to see take the field for a historic 16 times last season. CJ Carr being selected as the starting quarterback has been getting the most attention but let’s dig through the data crates to get a more comprehensive lay of the land.
Starting on the offensive side of the ball.
Data source: College Football Reference
Quarterbacks
Notre Dame will be entering the 2025-26 season with five quarterbacks on the roster. The group has a collective seven seasons and 22 games of experience under their belts. There is a marked lack of data to analyze the Notre Dame quarterback situation going into things. The group has an average of 4.4 games of experience per player but the stat is really misleading. Tyler Buchner has 17 games of career experience while the #2 in that area, Kenny Minchey, has four games of career experience.
Running Backs
The Irish have eight rostered running backs going into the 2025-26 season. The group has a collective 14 seasons and 134 games of experience. That translates to 16.7 games of career experience per running back, with the bulk of that being concentrated with three players.
- Jeremiyah Love: 2 seasons, 29 games
- Jadarian Price: 2 seasons, 29 games
- Jake Tafelski: 4 seasons, 32 games.
Notre Dame’s running backs are starting the season with a collective 3,734 yards from scrimmage that’s really only spread across Jeremiyah Love (1,824 yards) and Jadarian Price (1,093 yards). Aneyas Willams and Gi’Bran Payne don’t pop as much on the stats side but we’ve seen how impactful they can be in clutch situations.
Wide Receivers
The team is taking 15 wide receivers into the 2025-26 season. The group has a collective 20 seasons and 147 games of CFB experience. It’s one of the youngest positions on the roster, with only 9.8 games of experience per player.
- Malachi Fields, Transfer – Virginia: 4 seasons, 36 games
- Will Pauling, Transfer – Cincinnati (2), Wisconsin (2): 4 seasons, 36 games
- Jaden Greathouse: 2 seasons, 28 games
- Jordan Faison: 2 seasons, 20 games
The Irish’s wide receivers are starting the season with a collective 4,830 yards from scrimmage.
- Fields: 1,843 yards
- Pauling: 1,379 yards
- Greathouse: 860 yards
- Faison: 710 yards
It is another young/inexperienced wide receiver room but there’s definite potential.
Tight Ends
Notre Dame will enter the 2025-26 season with eight tight ends on the roster. The group has a collective 15 seasons and 117 games of experience. That translates to 14.6 games of experience per player.
- Eli Raridon: 3 seasons, 28 games
- Kevin Bauman: 4 seasons, 26 games
- Cooper Flanagan: 2 seasons, 26 games
- Ty Washington: 3 seasons, 21 games
The group is starting the season with only 514 yards from scrimmage. Ty Washington has logged 212 yards and Eli Raridon has 141 career yards from scrimmage.
The use of tight ends in Notre Dame’s offense has become less pronounced from a system standpoint and more dependent on individual talent for a while now. Given that, I think this position still has a ton of potential for outproducing what their past stats show.
Offensive Linemen
The Irish have 19 offensive linemen on the roster going into this season. The group has 18 seasons and 130 games of collective experience. It’s another particularly young and inexperienced group, with 6.8 games of experience per player.
- Billy Schrauth: 2 seasons, 25 games
- Aamil Wagner: 2 seasons, 23 games
- Sullivan Absher: 2 seasons, 17 games
- Anthonie Knapp: 1 season, 15 games
Category: General Sports
