PHOTO STORY: Notre Dame defense responds in second half to trample NC State 36-7

Published 4:21 pm Sunday, October 12, 2025

By Scott Hassinger

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — A big second-half performance from Notre Dame’s defense powered the No. 16-ranked Irish football team to a convincing 36-7 win Saturday over visiting North Carolina State.

It’s the fourth straight victory for Marcus Freeman’s Irish following two season-opening losses to Miami, Fla. and Texas A&M. The loss drops unranked North Carolina State to 4-3 overall.

“It’s obviously good to get up here in front of you after a victory. I’m proud of the way our guys prepared. It wasn’t perfect, but I probably say that every time I’m up here in front of you,” said Freeman during his post-game press conference afterwards.

“But we can enjoy this win while still knowing we didn’t play our best game. There are plays and situations we have to clean up. We’ll look at it and address it in practice and we get another opportunity in seven days to get back out there and compete.” 

Jeremiah Love’s two-yard TD run with 9:49 to go in the opening period gave the Irish a 7-0 lead at the end of the stanza. The Irish’ senior place-kicker Noah Burnette, a native of Raleigh, N.C., returned from injury to boot the first of three PATs. 

The Irish came up empty on another scoring bid with 3:15 left in the period. Notre Dame freshman quarterback C.J. Carr was sacked on fourth-down and one at the Wolfpack six-yard line. 

Carr addressed that situation following the game and how the Irish plan to iron out those kind of kinks.

“It’s just more repetition in practice and continuing to be more detailed on redzone stuff. I thought they (North Carolina State) played it well. We hurt ourselves with some penalties, but we’ll get it corrected and fixed,” Carr said.

North Carolina State tied the contest at 7-7 on CJ Bailey’s 45-yard TD toss to sophomore wide receiver Terrell Jackson with 13:58 left in the second quarter. Kanoah Vinesett added the PAT. 

Burnette’s 48-yard field goal with 0:23 left in the half sent Notre Dame into the locker room with a 10-7 lead. 

Sophomore K.K. Smith hauled in a 18-yard TD strike from Carr with 6:58 left in the third quarter, extending the Irish lead to 17-7 after Burnette’s PAT. 

A short time later, Carr delivered a 12-yard TD strike into the hands of senior Will Pauling with 2:46 left in the stanza and Burnette’s PAT boosted Notre Dame’s lead to 24-7 entering the fourth.

Burnette booted a 34-yard field goal with 12:48 left in the game that provided the Irish with a 27-7 advantage. 

Notre Dame’s defense pinned the Wolfpack’s offensive unit inside its own five-yard line to record a safety that made it 29-7 in favor of the  Irish with 9:37 left. 

Love’s one-yard scoring plunge and PAT by freshman kicker Erik Schmidt with 5:13 left capped off a 10-play 82-yard Irish scoring drive.

Notre Dame’s offense outgained North Carolina State 485-233, including a 342-182 edge in the air. 

Carr completed 19-of-31 passes for 342 yards and two TDs. His top two targets on the day were senior tight end Eli Raridon with seven receptions worth 109 yards and Pauling caught four passes for 105 yards and one TD. Smith had three receptions for 59 yards and one TD.

“With all the work we put on our running game, it’s great to see the rewards pay off with all of our tight ends. Eli, K.K. and Will are guys we can trust and go to consistently to make plays and they did that all day,” Carr said. 

Love ran 18 times for 86 of the 143 rushing yards that the Irish totaled in the contest. 

The Irish defense came away with three interceptions on the afternoon, including two big swipes in the fourth quarter by sophomores safety Adon Schuler and Karson Hobbs in the secondary. Sophomore Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa also had an interception. 

Freshman safety Tae Johnson and Drayk Bowen paced Notre Dame’s contain unit with seven tackles apiece, while Viliamu-Asa added six and Jaiden Ausberry and Boubacar Traore contributed four each. Traore also registered a pair of sacks. Schuler was named Irish Player of the Game.

“I was really proud of – listen, it was good in all three phases of the game. It was great to get Noah back. Our defense had two or three turnovers – I think three turnovers and a safety. We played lights out in the second half and a majority of the game,” Freeman said. 

“Offensively there’s some bad, but there’s some really good. We’ve got to clean up the bad and what the cause of the bad was and then we’ll continue to get back to work and be better.”

The Irish defense has now held opponents to just one score in eight of the last 10 quarters.

Bailey finished the day completing 17-of-30 passes for 186 yards with three interceptions. Anderson emerged as the Wolfpack’s top receiver with three catches for 57 yards and one TD. 

Notre Dame remains at home on Saturday to face USC at 7:30 p.m.

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