By Pete Sampson, Sam Khan Jr., Joe Rexrode and Justin Williams
No. 7 Notre Dame escaped No. 20 Texas A&M with a dramatic 23-13 win at Kyle Field on Saturday night.
After the teams traded field goals in a 6-6 first half, Notre Dame broke off a pair of touchdown runs in the second half, including Jeremiyah Love’s go-ahead 21-yarder with 1:54 left. The Fighting Irish added a late field goal to win by 10. Here are our initial takeaways from Notre Dame’s win in College Station:
Notre Dame already in strong Playoff position
If you want to go by ESPN Analytics and a graphic that flashed near the end of the broadcast, Notre Dame’s lowest likelihood of victory the rest of the way is 62 percent in the regular-season finale at USC.
The Fighting Irish should be favored to win all the rest of their games, which means this win at Texas A&M puts them in great shape to reach their ceiling in the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff — hosting a game in South Bend, perhaps as high as the No. 5 seed (remember, the four first-round byes go to conference champions).
Losses are possible, of course. Florida State and Louisville visit, and there’s a potentially tricky trip to Georgia Tech ahead. But the defense is elite, quarterback Riley Leonard was in control and that inexperienced offensive line came up big in the second half at Texas A&M. — Rexrode
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Irish run game comes through
On a night when offense was in short supply, Notre Dame’s run game came up clutch. The Irish ran for 198 yards on 34 carries (5.8 per attempt) and both of the team’s touchdowns. Notre Dame’s three longest gains came on the ground with runs of 47, 29, and 21 — with two of them finding the end zone, one each for Jadarian Price and Love.
Leonard struggled to move the ball though the air in his debut, but he banged his way to 63 rushing yards in the process. With a defense that held A&M under 250 yards of total offense, a couple big plays were enough for Notre Dame to pull out the win. — Williams
Leonard’s uneven debut not unexpected
It was easy to see what Notre Dame wanted to do with Leonard in his first start, it’s just that the Irish have a difficult time getting any of that done as the Irish offensive line labored, particularly on the left side. Leonard finished 18-of-30 for 158 yards, never threatening the Texas A&M secondary deep. He was also Notre Dame’s best run threat for long stretches of the game as before Love and Price broke through in the second half.
Offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock wanted anyone who would listen that the offense would be far from a finished product on Saturday night, which included a Duke transfer quarterback who hadn’t played in nearly 11 months — and was facing his former coach, Mike Elko, who was in his first game at Texas A&M. Leonard remains a developmental passer in terms of the seeing the entire field, although throwing short and hitting screens looked like a strength. Notre Dame needs to make that a mainstay moving forward. Same with the quarterback run game as Leonard has the size to punish linebackers and defensive backs on designed runs.
Overall, the first look at Leonard went about as expected. There’s plenty for Notre Dame to work with in the dual-threat quarterback. There’s also a lot of work that needs to get done for the Irish offense to match its defense. — Sampson
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After flashes of promise in his first two seasons — one of which was cut short by injury — there was a lot of anticipation for quarterback Weigman’s junior season. The former five-star recruit is fully healthy and entered the season as Texas A&M’s undisputed QB1.
But Weigman’s performance on Saturday was underwhelming for much of the night. He threw two first-half interceptions and finished 12-of-30 passing for just 100 yards.
Weigman looked unsettled at times, but it wasn’t helped by the offensive line, which had its hands full with a talented and experienced Notre Dame defensive front. Weigman’s first interception was partially the result of pressure: right guard TJ Shanahan was pushed back several yards by Notre Dame’s Rylie Mills, and when Weigman had to step up in the pocket, he had to shorten his stride as a result, which led to his throw sailing and getting picked off.
He didn’t get much support in the run game, either. The Aggies finished the game averaging just 3.8 yards per rush.
Getting acclimated to new coordinator Collin Klein’s offense may take some time, based on Saturday’s performance. The scheme doesn’t look like a natural fit for Weigman, so it may take patience until he gets more comfortable. — Khan
Is Texas A&M still an SEC dark horse?
After firing Jimbo Fisher in the midst of a 7-6 season last year, leading to significant changes in the program under new coach Mike Elko — from personnel to the daily infrastructure — there was no clear consensus on how the 2024 Aggies would fare. Another 8-4 type season would make sense, but given the talent level still on the roster and the manageable schedule, there were some pockets of optimism. The Aggies rank seventh in 247Sports’ team talent composite. And Texas A&M hosts every ranked team it plays this year and avoids Alabama, Georgia and Ole Miss on the schedule.
Because of those factors, the Aggies became a trendy pick to rise in the SEC and even be a dark horse College Football Playoff contender.
But Saturday’s performance shows there is a good bit of work to do to approach anything quite that lofty. Defensively, A&M is absolutely up to snuff and looks like it will have one of the better units in the SEC, if not the country.
But offensively, the Aggies have a long way to go to be considered anything close to Playoff-worthy or an SEC contender. The offensive line had issues with Notre Dame’s defensive front, both in protection and in the run game. The Aggies weren’t able to open holes consistently enough for the run game to get going and for them to control the clock, and the passing game was dormant.
This is a good Notre Dame team that the Aggies faced, so it’s tough to be too harsh in evaluations of a season opener under a new coaching staff, but it’s clear some patience will be required when it comes to Playoff or SEC title contention. — Khan
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(Photo: Jack Gorman / Getty Images)
