Notre Dame’s Playoff Hopes Vanish With Collapse Against Texas A&M

SOUTH BEND — If Notre Dame’s College Football Playoff hopes died Saturday night—which certainly seems likely—this was a hell of a way to go.

A botched hold. A fourth-and-11 touchdown surrendered. A game squandered. A season teetering on disappointment already.

Clinging to a 40–34 lead against Texas A&M with 19 seconds left, a bewildered Fighting Irish defense just had to make one stop on one last play. Just keep the Aggies out of the end zone from the 11-yard line, and this improbable shootout is over.

But quarterback Marcel Reed alertly found the only single-covered receiver on the field in tight end Nate Boerkircher, who ran a wheel route against Notre Dame linebacker Drayk Bowen. Boerkircher got inside position on Bowen and Reed put the ball on his body for six. It was the Nebraska transfer’s only catch of the night, just the 22nd of his five-year career—and his first touchdown since 2022, against North Dakota.

“Made a good throw, good catch,” Bowen said softly.

Then kicker Randy Bond added the crucial extra point, after Notre Dame left open the door of defeat when fifth-year utility player Tyler Buchner dropped the hold on an early PAT. And suddenly a program that went to the national championship game last season is now a stunned 0–2. 

Can they still make the playoff from here? In theory, yes. In practice, even at 10–2 it would be unlikely.

There are no currently ranked opponents remaining on Notre Dame’s schedule. The only unbeaten opponents left are NC State, USC and Navy—none of which might be considered landmark victories should the Irish beat them.

There is no conference title to win. There is no conference championship game to boost schedule quality. And while the defeats were by a total of four points against a pair of ranked opponents in Miami and A&M, good losses aren’t the golden ticket for the Golden Domers to crash the 12-team bracket.

“The future’s uncertain,” head coach Marcus Freeman said. “I don’t know what the playoff number is. It doesn’t matter. We’ve got to focus on getting better.”

Freeman is 33–12 as the Notre Dame coach, which is very good. But some of the losses have been nightmarish, especially here in Notre Dame Stadium.

Losing last year here to Northern Illinois defied belief, but it was overcome. Losing here to Marshall in 2022 was another forehead slapper, but Freeman was just two games into his first season. Losing here in 2023 to Ohio State with a second left—that was the worst, because the Irish went the final two plays with just 10 men on the field defensively.

But this one? It’s not far behind that Buckeye blunder. This one was once again snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, and once again left a home crowd streaming out with looks of disbelief on their faces.

The primary takeaway was a near-total defensive collapse from a program that has played extremely well on that side of the ball during Freeman’s tenure. This was the most points scored against a Freeman-coached Notre Dame team, and the most against the Irish since giving up 45 against Michigan in 2019.

The Aggies ripped huge holes in the Notre Dame secondary, clicking off one splash play after another all night. Reed, who is elusive and tough but not always pinpoint accurate, completed only 17 passes but they went for 360 yards. Receiver Mario Craver, a speed burner in the mold of Miami’s Malachi Toney, who hurt the Irish in the first game, had 207 receiving yards on seven catches. KC Concepcion had four catches for 82 yards. Running back Rueben Owens II caught one for 24.

If you peeked into Notre Dame Stadium on Sunday morning, there was probably still a wide-open Aggie wideout there somewhere.

Notre Dame was frequently two steps behind in coverage. It also frequently was two steps short of getting to Reed, who wasn’t sacked at all. That’s a bad combination.

“You’ve got to be very strategic, where rush and coverage work together,” Freeman said. “We have to get better at both, rush and coverage.”

The guy clearly under the most scrutiny is first-year defensive coordinator Chris Ash. He took over for Al Golden, a masterful DC who returned to the NFL after last season, and the drop-off by that unit has been considerable.

The 2024 Irish allowed 15.5 points per game, led the nation in takeaways with 33 and produced 40 sacks. The 2025 Irish are allowing 34 points per game, have one takeaway and one sack.

Whether it’s confusion, bad calls or players simply underperforming, this isn’t the Notre Dame defense of recent years. A unit that never seemed to lack speed on the back end or explosiveness in the pass rush last season looks deficient in both areas this season.

It certainly didn’t help when defensive captain Adon Shuler was ejected for targeting early in the fourth quarter, a controversial call that aided a tying A&M field goal drive. But even when Shuler was on the field, Notre Dame wasn’t generating stops.

“We didn’t execute our responsibilities,” said cornerback Leonard Moore, who played through a twisted ankle Saturday.

Fact is, nobody in college football took on two harder opening assignments than Notre Dame did this season. Playing Miami on the road and A&M here, with a new starting quarterback who had never thrown a collegiate pass, was asking for trouble. But the Irish must take the bad with the good when it comes to independent status and a national scheduling philosophy.

They don’t face a gauntlet like some Southeastern Conference teams that will face four, five or maybe even six ranked opponents in a row. They don’t have a Big Ten power trio of Ohio State, Penn State and Oregon to combat. And they don’t have the potential safety net of a conference title and automatic bid that can help erase early mistakes, the way Clemson did last year by winning the ACC and sneaking into the playoff.

So a lot needs to break right for Notre Dame to even have a shot at a playoff bid. Irish fans should root for mayhem elsewhere, with teams knocking each other off all over the Power 4 conferences. They should root for both NC State and USC to be undefeated when the Trojans visit South Bend in October. Throw in Navy in November, too. And then, of course, the Irish would need to win all of those games.

Anything less than 10–2 figures to have no chance. And even that might not be good enough. For now, a fourth-down, do-or-die pass looks like the breaking point for Notre Dame’s 2025 playoff hopes.

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