(Photo: AJ Houk/Fighting Irish Preview)
Notre Dame has won 14 consecutive football games by double digits.
Fourteen.
That’s not a hot streak. That’s not catching a few breaks. And it’s not merely an interesting Notre Dame statistic. It’s becoming college football history.
This Is Bigger Than a Winning Streak
The 14-game streak is the longest active double-digit winning streak in the FBS and the longest in Notre Dame history. But here’s the number that really gets my attention: Only six programs in the history of college football have ever put together a longer streak of double-digit victories than the one Notre Dame is riding right now.
Army owns the record at 21. Miami reached 17. Georgia and Texas got to 16. Oklahoma and Florida reached 15. Notre Dame is sitting at 14—and counting. Let that sink in for a minute. Saturday at Purdue was simply the latest example. 2026 NDFB at Purdue PG Notes 2026 NDFB at Purdue PG Notes
Notre Dame walked into Ross-Ade Stadium, led 35-0 at halftime and won 49-10. Game over. Drive home safely.
And after watching this happen week after week, maybe it’s time we stopped spending quite so much time looking for what’s wrong with this football team and appreciated what is happening right in front of us. Notre Dame isn’t just winning anymore. Notre Dame is pounding people.
The Irish have done it at home. They’ve done it on the road. They’ve done it against rivals and ranked teams. They’ve done it when the offense was humming and when it wasn’t particularly sharp. It hasn’t mattered much. They just keep winning. And they don’t merely beat you one way.
Notre Dame has now held five consecutive opponents under 100 yards rushing. Against Purdue, Bryce Young’s second sack forced a fumble that Drayk Bowen scooped up and took to the house. It was Notre Dame’s ninth forced turnover of the season; the Irish had entered the game with eight, already the most among Power Four teams. 2026 NDFB at Purdue PG Notes 2026 NDFB at Purdue PG Notes
Bowen’s touchdown was significant for another reason. It was Notre Dame’s 32nd non-offensive touchdown since 2021—more than any other team in the FBS. Thirty-two non-offensive touchdowns don’t happen by accident. They tell you something about the way Notre Dame plays football. The Irish create havoc. They get the football out. They pressure quarterbacks. They make plays on special teams. And when an opponent makes a mistake, Notre Dame has developed a habit of turning that mistake into points. 2026 NDFB at Purdue PG Notes
Then there’s this little gem from Saturday. In Notre Dame’s last two trips to Ross-Ade Stadium, the Irish have outscored Purdue 77-0 in the first half. That’s the most first-half points Notre Dame has ever scored on consecutive road trips to the same stadium. And Notre Dame has now scored at least 35 first-half points against Purdue in three straight meetings—another first in program history. 2026 NDFB at Purdue PG Notes
That’s not just beating somebody. That’s imposing your will on them. And that may be the biggest difference between Notre Dame football today and Notre Dame football not that long ago.
Nobody Really Wants to Play Notre Dame
For years, playing Notre Dame was one of the highlights of an opponent’s season. It still is. The Irish come to town and the stadium fills up. Everybody wears the school colors. The students arrive early. The opponent plays with its hair on fire because beating Notre Dame can still make a season.
But something has changed. Notre Dame has become the team nobody really wants to play. Because you might not just lose. You might get embarrassed.
Ask Syracuse after 70-7. Ask Rice after 52-0. Ask Arkansas after 56-13. Or just ask Purdue after looking at the scoreboard Saturday afternoon and seeing 35-0 before halftime.
And perhaps we’ve become a little numb to all of this. We talk about the offensive line. We wonder about the running game. We debate who should get the carries. We dissect CJ Carr. We worry about injuries and explosive plays and whether Notre Dame put somebody away quickly enough. That’s what we do, and those are legitimate questions. But every once in a while, it’s worth backing away from the microscope and looking at the whole thing.
Fourteen consecutive double-digit victories. The longest active streak in college football. Five consecutive opponents held under 100 yards rushing. Nine turnovers forced in four games. Thirty-two non-offensive touchdowns since 2021, more than anybody in the FBS.
This Is What a Program Looks Like
This has become one of the most imposing programs in college football. And somewhere in all of this, Marcus Freeman deserves an enormous amount of credit. Because this isn’t one great team anymore. It’s a program.
Freeman has assembled an exceptional coaching staff. These aren’t simply good recruiters or coaches with impressive résumés. They’re really good football coaches, and some of the best assistants in the country seem eager to work for Marcus Freeman.
Look at the evidence. Ja’Juan Seider left Penn State. Charlie Partridge left the NFL. Gino Guidugli left Wisconsin before he ever coached a game there. These were accomplished coaches with good jobs and other options. They chose Notre Dame—and they chose Freeman.
Seider explained his decision about as simply as possible: “It was Notre Dame. It was Marcus Freeman.”
Players leave and somebody else steps in. Coaches leave and Freeman finds another really good one. Standards are established, understood and enforced. That’s what a program looks like. And maybe we should listen to what they’re telling us.
Freeman’s players have been telling us much the same thing for years. They believe in him. They talk about his honesty, accountability, relationships and leadership. Early on, that was nice to hear. He was young. He was charismatic. He could recruit. His players loved him. But there were legitimate questions: Could he coach? Could he hire a staff? Could he develop players? Could he build a program capable of competing for championships year after year?
We have our answer.
And we’ve seen what Freeman’s leadership looks like in smaller moments, too. When Aneyas Williams and several teammates got carried away with a touchdown celebration earlier this season, Freeman didn’t shrug it off. He addressed it immediately and made it clear that wasn’t how Notre Dame was going to operate.
It wasn’t about one celebration penalty. It was about the standard. Set it. Demand it. Enforce it.
That’s what Freeman has done. Good players want to play here. Great assistant coaches want to work here. Players are being developed. Standards mean something. And the result is no longer simply a really good football team. It’s a program.
And now it’s on to Chapel Hill, where Bill Belichick and North Carolina will get their shot at stopping all of this. The Tar Heels will be fired up. Kenan Stadium will be fired up. And Notre Dame will once again arrive as one of the biggest games on somebody else’s schedule. That’s nothing new. When you’re Notre Dame, everybody wants a piece of you.
But there’s something very different about the Notre Dame team coming to Chapel Hill this time. The Irish arrive with 14 consecutive double-digit victories, a streak only six programs in college football history have ever surpassed.
Belichick has spent a lifetime trying to figure out how to stop great football teams. He’s got another one coming Saturday.
Respect the Irish because of their history. Fear them because of what they’ve become.