Notre Dame 2026: BYU Loss, Injuries and Miami Test

Mike, let's get into the team now, the 2026 Notre Dame team. You know, I watched them against UCF. Or I watched that BYU team, actually, that Randy fumbled the ball against UCF a little bit. And then Notre Dame goes up to Provo, and they end up getting beat by that team. And I saw them against Navy. Maybe looking ahead to the Miami game a little bit, what's been your takeaway so far on this Notre Dame team? Well, they obviously had two games circled going into the year. BYU and Miami, those are the tests, the true tests. I mean, Wisconsin's been a little bit better than expected, but they're still in a transition phase. Michigan State's rebuilding. They're going to be good in a year or two. But, no, the front part of the schedule did not have nearly enough juice. Carolina gave them a little scare. They were a point down. North Carolina was early in the second half. But that BYU loss really shook them. They had a full bye week after that to process it, to keep going through the film to figure out why For instance, C.J. Carr, who's so accurate, ordinarily was missing receivers by yards and not inches and overthrowing Jordan Faison in the end zone. Of course, the final drive, I mean, you've seen that last play plenty of times. That was not what you're looking for at a championship level. I mean, he had one option, basically. And, of course, one second left, supposedly. I don't know if even the Big 12 officiating said that, but all that's under the bridge. Navy, you're right. They had to be looking ahead in the first half, but you also have some issues on defense where the injuries have really piled up. There's two more this week that are questionable. Defensive tackles, Francis Brew, the Pitt transfer, Jason O'Neal, a sixth-year guy. They have depth at every position, but the injuries are cutting into that depth on defense, and it's something to watch.