A key to Fighting Irish success in 2026: can CJ Carr go from being very good (2025) to GREAT? (Photo: Chad Ryan/Fighting Irish Preview)
Notre Dame has heard enough about expectations.
For months, we’ve talked about the College Football Playoff. We’ve talked about CJ Carr’s Heisman chances. We’ve talked about how good this defense can be. We’ve talked about what Notre Dame could become.
Now we finally get to watch it.
That’s what makes Sunday night different.
The Irish don’t need another preseason prediction. They don’t need another ranking. They don’t need anyone to tell them they have enough talent to compete for a national championship.
They need to play football.
And that’s what matters most against Wisconsin. Not necessarily the final score. Not whether Carr throws four touchdown passes or the defense dominates every possession.
Sunday is our first chance to see what this team actually looks like when the football is kicked off and somebody on the other side is trying to beat them.
Carr has spent the offseason being mentioned among the top quarterbacks in the country. Now, in his second season as Notre Dame’s starter, he gets his first chance to justify some of that attention.
He doesn’t need to play a perfect game. He needs to look comfortable, make good decisions and take advantage of what Wisconsin gives him.
The same goes for the players around him.
Notre Dame lost Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price, so Sunday provides the first real look at the running back room without them. Aneyas Williams doesn’t have to become the next Love overnight. He needs to give Notre Dame a reliable presence in the backfield and show there is life after one of the best running back combinations in the country.
Then there’s the receiver room.
Jordan Faison returns after leading the Irish in receiving yards last season, while Jaden Greathouse, Mylan Graham and Micah Gilbert give Carr three more talented options. Notre Dame believes it has plenty of weapons. Sunday begins telling us how those weapons fit together.
That’s where preseason expectations stop meaning much.
A player can look great in August. A position group can have all the depth in the world on paper. But eventually, somebody has to win a one-on-one matchup on third down. Somebody has to make the catch with a defender closing in. Somebody has to make the block that keeps a drive alive.
That’s the part of football you can’t predict.
The same is true on defense. Notre Dame enters the season believing it can have one of the best units in the country. There is talent at every level, but now that talent has to translate when the game becomes real.
The Irish don’t have to be flawless against Wisconsin. They do need to play fast, communicate and make the Badgers work for everything they get.
Because ultimately, that’s the question hanging over the entire team:
Does Notre Dame look like a team capable of winning a national championship?
That’s the standard this season.
Notre Dame went 10-2 last year and was left outside the College Football Playoff. That disappointment has followed this team throughout an unusually long offseason. On Sunday night, none of it matters anymore.
Wisconsin is the first opponent. Lambeau Field is the setting. The expectations are enormous.
But this isn’t the game that determines whether Notre Dame wins a national championship. It’s one game.
What it can do is give us our first real evidence.
Maybe Notre Dame comes out looking every bit like one of the best teams in the country. Maybe there are rough edges that need to be cleaned up. There probably will be.
Either way, there will finally be something real to judge.
We’ve spent months talking about what Notre Dame is supposed to be.
Sunday night, we finally find out what the Irish are.