The spotlight shifts to South Bend on Saturday night as the Notre Dame Fighting Irish welcome Texas A&M in a primetime clash at Notre Dame Stadium. The Fighting Irish look to bounce back after a narrow loss to Miami, while the Aggies arrive unbeaten but untested.
History leans Notre Dame’s way, with a 4-2 edge in the all-time series and dominance across nearly every program metric. With two young quarterbacks starting, this game will come down to execution and which team can hold up better at the line of scrimmage.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs. Texas A&M Aggies
- Date: Saturday, Sept. 13th, 2025
- Game time: 7:30 p.m. ET
- Location: Notre Dame Stadium, South Bend, Indiana
- Predicted Weather at Kick: 72°F, Mostly Cloudy, 9 MPH Winds
- How To Watch: NBC or Fubo
Notre Dame vs. Texas A&M Head-to-Head Record
Notre Dame leads the all-time series over the Texas A&M Aggies 4-2, including a 23-13 win in week one last season. Using Winsipedia, we can check out how these teams have fared throughout their storied history. Both of them boast the largest margin of victory of 25 points, with Notre Dame holding the longest win streak of three straight wins.
Notre Dame dominates the all-time comparison, ranking fourth and third in all-time win percentage and national championships, whereas Texas A&M ranks 25th and 22nd. Notre Dame also sweeps in bowl games, bowl record, consensus All-Americans, Heisman winners, draft picks, and AP poll results. If Notre Dame wants to get yet another Heisman winner, it will likely be dependent on one of two players.
Two players have Heisman odds. 👀🏆 #GoIrish pic.twitter.com/UbeKv7cjSk
— Notre Dame Fighting Irish (@Insidetheirish) July 13, 2025
Notre Dame vs. Texas A&M Grades
PFSN College OFFi
- Texas A&M (82.8, B-)
- Notre Dame (80.7, B-)
PFSN College DEFi
- Texas A&M (85.0, B)
- Notre Dame (74.5, C)
PFSN College OLi
- Texas A&M (80.1, B-)
- Notre Dame (73.4, C)
PFSN College QBi
- Marcel Reed, Texas A&M (68.3, D)
- CJ Carr, Notre Dame (62.1, D-)
PFSN College RBi
- Le’Veon Moss, Texas A&M (73.3, C)
- Jeremiyah Love, Notre Dame (74.4, C)
PFSN College WRi
- KC Concepcion, Texas A&M (79.3, C+)
- Jordan Faison, Notre Dame, (72.3, C-)
PFSN College TEi
- Houston Thomas, Texas A&M (76.9, C)
- Eli Raridon, Notre Dame (79.4, C+)
PFSN College EDGEi
- Cashius Howell, Texas A&M (78.5, C+)
- Boubacar Traore, Notre Dame (78.1, C+)
PFSN College DTi
- Tyler Onyedim, Texas A&M (79.5, C+)
- Donovan Hinish, Notre Dame (74.2, C)
PFSN College LBi
- Scooby Williams, Texas A&M (77.3, C+)
- Drayk Bowen, Notre Dame (71.2, C-)
PFSN College CBi
- Will Lee III, Texas A&M (76.5, C)
- Christian Gray, Notre Dame (74.3, C)
PFSN College SAFi
- Marcus Ratcliffe, Texas A&M (85.0, B)
- Adon Shuler, Notre Dame (79.0, C+)
Notre Dame vs. Texas A&M Prediction
Notre Dame fans and analysts spent the entirety of the offseason wondering whether the young and inexperienced redshirt freshman, CJ Carr, would be ready for such a tough two games to start the season. If you had told me that he would be a bright spot and that our trenches were the biggest reason for losing against Miami, I would have looked at you like you were crazy.
There is no other way around it. According to TruMedia, Miami achieved a pressure rate of just 28.6% (90th of 136 FBS teams in week one), but that was because Notre Dame’s time to throw was 2.44 seconds (26th-fastest). The Fighting Irish came into the game with a scared and soft game plan, and it showed for the majority of the game.
That was arguably the most frustrating part. The offensive line held its own in the run game, but Notre Dame strayed away from using one of the most explosive running back duos in the country. Mike Denbrock had the right idea of getting Carr acclimated early, but you cannot throw screens and RPOs all game long and expect to win.
On the other side of the ball, Notre Dame finished 99th in defensive EPA (expected points added) per game, and this was once again a combination of trenches and play-calling. Starting with the defensive line, they ranked 126th in pressure rate at an abysmal 18.2%. As much as I’d like to admit Carson Beck balled out, it’s hard not to, with such clean and easy pockets.
Moving on to the play-calling, Notre Dame started the game by calling numerous soft zone coverages, which is tough for a corner to play when the pass rush has no juice. This led to several mishaps, and Notre Dame was finally able to stop the Miami true freshman wide receiver once we put Leonard Moore on him. In fact, Toney finished the game with six catches, 82 yards, five first downs, and a touchdown; none of which were against Moore.
All in all, for the usual strength of this team playing arguably their worst game of the Marcus Freeman era, the result of the game really wasn’t that bad. They lost on the road to a top ten team by just three points, and Carr had some really impressive plays.
Texas A&M is not at all battle-tested this year, beating UTSA and Utah State in their first two games. With the amount of turnover on the defensive line, Texas A&M has to be very excited about the emergence of Cashius Howell and how this defensive line has performed to date. They rank 25th in pressure rate at 39.5%, all while only blitzing at the 107th-highest rate in FBS.
Unfortunately for the Aggies, they have forced just one turnover this year on defense, albeit still early in the season. Nevertheless, this has brought their overall defense down to an 84th-best EPA, despite the strong pass rush. Will Lee III is a stud at corner but has been pretty average thus far and has a tough matchup against Jaden Greathouse, Jordan Faison, and Malachi Fields.
The biggest matchup of this game will be Marcel Reed and his offensive line versus the Notre Dame defensive line. Notre Dame faced Miami, which ranks second in pressure rate allowed, but the Aggies are no slouch either, ranking 23rd. A&M’s offensive line is even more impressive when you take into account their 2.92-second time to throw. Adjusting for that, Texas A&M ranks 15th in quick pressure rate allowed.
Last season, Notre Dame ranked 28th in defensive EPA against quarterback runs versus fourth against all other runs. They also ranked 56th in scrambling EPA allowed. While Reed is definitely known for his rushing ability, the team has actually been pretty bad this year, ranking 86th in offensive EPA among the 25 quarterback runs and 114th in scramble EPA.
Notre Dame ranked second when blitzing versus 15th when not last season as a defense, and they knew that with their man-heavy scheme. The same thing applied against Miami, going from 69th when blitzing to 102nd when not.
Defensively, A&M ranks 93rd against the run and 60th against the pass. This isn’t a relatively strong defense outside of their pass rush. If Notre Dame can stop trying to act different and play to their strengths schematically, it should win this game handily.
Prediction: Notre Dame 24, Texas A&M 10
