Kyngston Viliumu-Asa (27), and Adon Shuler (8) and Drayk Bowen in the background, made it a long day for Rice quarterback Jacurri Brown (11). (Photo: Joseph Weiser)
Total domination. Let me count the ways.
Notre Dame beat Rice 52–0 Saturday, and for a team favored by more than six touchdowns, the assignment was pretty simple: take care of business, take care of it early and leave no doubt.
Check. Check. And check.
The Irish scored 21 points in the first quarter and led 42–0 at halftime. There was no slow start, no allowing an overmatched opponent to hang around and absolutely no drama. In fact, it took all of 14 seconds for Notre Dame to make its intentions clear. Adon Shuler, in typical Adon Shuler fashion, delivered a hit with extreme prejudice and jarred the football loose. Boubacar Traore scooped it up and went 24 yards for a touchdown. That pretty much set the tone for the afternoon.
Notre Dame finished with 478 yards of offense and held Rice to 128. The Irish forced four turnovers, had eight tackles for loss and pitched a shutout. Rice managed seven first downs.
And there was another rather significant development: Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa was back. KVA saw his first action since suffering a torn ACL last season, and he didn’t exactly ease his way back into things. He had a couple of tackles for loss and looked like—well, he looked like Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa. For a Notre Dame defense already loaded with playmakers, adding a healthy KVA back into the mix gives future opponents something a little terrifying to think about.
That’s domination. And unlike the opener against Wisconsin, when Notre Dame took some time to get rolling, this one was over almost before everyone had settled into their seats.
Another box checked.
Carr was Carr
CJ Carr continues to make playing quarterback look remarkably easy. His afternoon was short because Notre Dame made it short. Carr completed 16 of 20 passes for 253 yards and four touchdowns. Put another way, Carr threw as many touchdown passes as he had incompletions.
His 39-yard touchdown strike to Micah Gilbert, through two defenders, was a thing of artistic gridiron beauty. No interceptions. No drama. Carr distributed the football, made the throws he needed to make and then gave way to the backups. Two games into the season, he looks completely in command of Mike Denbrock’s offense.
Finally, the rest of the receiver room
Jordan Faison was good against Wisconsin. Nobody else did much. That needed to change, and against Rice it did.
Faison remains the unquestioned leader of the room and caught four passes for 54 yards and two touchdowns, but this time he had plenty of company. Eight Notre Dame wide receivers caught at least two passes. There was even a Jaden Greathouse sighting—three catches for 41 yards. Gilbert made a terrific leaping touchdown catch in the end zone, the kind of play that can give a young receiver some confidence, and Jerome Bettis Jr. made some nice catches in the third quarter as Notre Dame continued to spread the football around.
That’s exactly what I wanted to see. Faison is WR1. There isn’t much question about that. But this offense becomes considerably more dangerous if Carr has Greathouse, Gilbert, Bettis and the rest of this talented receiver room consistently involved. Against Rice, Notre Dame didn’t just get those guys on the field. They got them the football.
Another box checked.
The backups got to play football
This mattered, too. Notre Dame didn’t need Carr taking snaps deep into the second half of a 52-point game. It needed Noah Grubbs taking snaps in Notre Dame Stadium.
Grubbs got plenty of work, completing seven of 11 passes for 78 yards. Teddy Jarrard got into the game as well, completing both of his passes. And it wasn’t just the quarterbacks. Young players throughout the roster got meaningful game reps. You never know which one of those guys Notre Dame is going to need in October or November, and Saturday gave them something you simply can’t duplicate on the practice field.
I’m still watching the running backs
If there was one box Notre Dame didn’t completely check, this is it. The running back room still needs to be sorted out.
Notre Dame ran for only 118 yards on 32 carries, a 3.7-yard average. That’s not good enough. Not even close. Teams that WIN national championships line up against Rice, impose their will and run the football. Three-point-seven yards per carry doesn’t meet that standard. Period.
For all the boxes Notre Dame checked Saturday, that’s the one that remains wide open. Aneyas Williams does a lot of things well. Nolan James brings something different, and Kedren Young remains intriguing. But the guy I keep coming back to is Jonaz Walton.
The true freshman led Notre Dame with 48 yards on eight carries, averaging six yards per attempt. Denbrock told us a couple of weeks ago that Walton has legitimate home-run capability. His pass protection remains a work in progress, and that’s a big deal when you’re protecting a quarterback like Carr. But I like the long-term potential here.
I’m not ready to hand Walton the job after eight carries against Rice, but I am ready to say I want to see more of him. Notre Dame has time to figure out this running back rotation, but eventually it has to. There will be games when Carr and the passing game aren’t going to be enough.
An old rivalry returns
Enough about Rice. Notre Dame and Michigan State haven’t played since 2017, which seems almost impossible considering how much history these two programs share.
Ara Parseghian and Duffy Daugherty. Bubba Smith and Terry Hanratty. Brady Quinn and Kirk Cousins. Great players, great teams and some unforgettable games. None bigger than 1966.
Sixty years ago, No. 1 Michigan State and No. 2 Notre Dame met in East Lansing in the Game of the Century. It ended 10–10, and Notre Dame went on to win the national championship. Memories of that game and that championship season came flooding back for me last weekend when members of the 1966 Notre Dame team were honored at Notre Dame Stadium. Among them was Terry Hanratty, my first favorite football player.
Seeing Hanratty and his teammates back in the stadium was a reminder of just how much history is attached to this rivalry—and how much Notre Dame-Michigan State meant to a generation of Irish fans.
And now it’s back.
Michigan State comes to Notre Dame Stadium with an old Irish nemesis running the Spartans. Pat Fitzgerald has beaten Notre Dame in this stadium twice—as a Northwestern player in 1995 and as Northwestern’s head coach in 2014. Now he’ll try it wearing Michigan State green.
The Megaphone Trophy. Saturday night. Notre Dame Stadium. An old rivalry renewed after nearly a decade.
And just like that, the season is rolling. Notre Dame is 2–0 and, for the most part, doing exactly what we expected this team to do. The expectations haven’t changed. This team was built to compete for a national championship, and through two weeks, the Irish have looked the part.
Just ask Rice, the latest victim of an Adon Shuler, CJ Carr and company systematic destruction.
Now Michigan State you are next up.