Notre Dame has been pretty impressive so far in 2026.
The Irish are 6-0, ranked No. 2 in the country and have won every game by an average margin of 33 points. After last season’s College Football Playoff setback, Marcus Freeman’s team is on a revenge tour to win the program’s first national championship since 1988.
“You can tell they have a culture, they play hard, they are physical and they take a lot of pride in what they do.”
— Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman on BYU
“I thought they were a tough, talented football team, and that proves every week,” Freeman told reporters Monday during his weekly press briefing. “I like how, on offense, we found ways to move the ball, either efficiently or through explosive plays.
“…Defensively, I like the way they responded to adversity after the North Carolina game. They didn’t play as well as they wanted to, and the preparation week (for Stanford) was intense, and they played well on Saturday. I’m glad our team continued to improve.”
Next up on Notre Dame’s quest for perfection is Provo, Utah, where the Irish will face No. 8 BYU this Saturday in one of the most anticipated matchups of the entire college football season.
BYU has never played a top-10 game at home before. Notre Dame hasn’t played a ranked opponent in 331 days and last faced a top eight team on the road in 2022.
“You want to play against the best, and this is going to be, on paper, the best opponent we’re going to see yet,” Freeman said of BYU. “I think the approach that we probably have in every game is that the opponent is the best we’ve seen, but this one shows you with the record, it shows you with the ranking. So let’s play against the best on their home turf, right?”
“I love playing at home, but there’s something about going on the road when it’s us against everyone, and it makes you say, ‘OK, we have to do this thing together, okay?’ And I love it. (The players) love it because they’re competitors. We want to play against the best, and if it’s the best, let’s go for it. Let’s go.
Freeman praised the Cougars for their 28-4 record — and nine second-half wins — since the start of 2024, calling Kalani Sitake’s team a “great opponent.”
“You can tell they have a culture, they play hard, they’re physical and they take a lot of pride in what they do,” Freeman said.
“…They play very well at home, and they play well in the evening. It will be a big challenge for us.”
While Freeman praised receivers Legend Glasker and Kyler Kasper positively, as well as BYU’s defense as a whole, his main Cougars-related praise was directed at quarterback Bear Bachmeier, who is coming off a 300-yard passing and 100-yard rushing performance last week against Iowa State.
“They do some things schematically with the way they use their quarterback in the running game, which is going to challenge you on defense to be very intentional about how you call different things,” Freeman said. “You have to understand that the quarterback run is a factor in any game, and so we have to make sure we take that into account.
“But man, (Bachmeier) is the real deal, right? He’s big, like the guy who’s trying to run you over. He can throw, too, and that’s what makes him good.”
As is typically the case for East Coast and Midwest teams that come to Provo, adjusting to the higher altitude will be a factor Saturday for the Irish.
While it’s a topic Freeman and his team have discussed since the summer, he believes preparing to play at altitude isn’t too different from other unique settings.
“The most important thing is to re-emphasize the things we’ve already educated them on, and how you hydrate and fuel your body is even more crucial earlier, right?” Freeman said. “…They need to make sure they really focus on recovery after every play, how you take those deep breaths, and how you settle in and calm your breathing.
“…No matter what environment we play in, we have to educate our guys. If we go to Miami, it’s going to be hot and humid. What do we have to do? We have to hydrate ourselves earlier in the week. we have to fuel our bodies earlier in the week. So in every away game environment, we educate our guys.”
And Freeman will surely make his team aware of the rowdy atmosphere that awaits them at LaVell Edwards Stadium, the largest and most hostile road stadium the Irish will visit this season.
But rather than trying to survive the Provo crowd, Freeman hopes his players will use the noise as fuel to motivate them to thrive there.
“We have to have a good plan for crowd noise, we have to prepare for it, we have to make sure we’re ready for it. But your execution really dictates the (stadium) noise level,” Freeman said.
“…That’s what Notre Dame football does. We go to different places and there’s a big game, and that’s why we’re here. That’s why we choose to come to Notre Dame. We love it, I love it, they love it. That’s exactly why we’re at Notre Dame.”
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