Freeman meets the coach who built him, and Fickell isn't ducking Moore

Freeman wants the Irish to feel Lambeau before it turns into just another game

Marcus Freeman spent this week talking about gratitude before he talked about game plans. "I do want them to take a minute in pregame to take it in and look around, because I am," he said of Sunday's Shamrock Series opener at Lambeau Field, adding that he expects "probably a 50-50 crowd" reminiscent of Notre Dame's 2021 trip to Soldier Field, per WNDU. It's a rare admission of sentiment from a coach whose depth chart this week carried no such softness — CJ Carr locked in at quarterback, Aneyas Williams leading a four-deep backfield replacing two departed NFL backs, and four captains named in Drayk Bowen, Carr, Adon Shuler and Jordan Faison, the first captain's patch of Carr's career.

The opponent is personal. Luke Fickell coached Freeman at Ohio State and later worked alongside him at Cincinnati, and a few years ago Fickell was himself a candidate for the job Freeman now holds, per UHND.com. Fickell isn't hiding from the assignment either — asked if Wisconsin would avoid targeting All-America corner Leonard Moore, he said flatly, "We've got to not think that we can't go that direction. I'm not saying he's not the best in the country," per ESPN. He needs the upset more than most Week 1 opponents will: Wisconsin is 16-21 since he arrived in 2023, with back-to-back losing seasons for the first time since 1991-92, and the Badgers answered with a portal overhaul that added more than 30 players, including Old Dominion transfer quarterback Colton Joseph, leaving them with just four returning starters and 59 percent returning production, per Sports Illustrated and Wisportsheroics.com.

Notre Dame's own injury picture, aggregated by Covers, isn't spotless either. Receiver Quincy Porter is out for Sunday with a knee injury, and linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa is questionable while working back from a torn ACL — a doubt, not a ruled-out, heading into the opener.

Last time out: a 5-game closing run ended last season at Stanford, 49-20

Notre Dame finished last season on November 30 with a 49-20 win at Stanford, capping a five-game closing stretch that also ran through Boston College (25-10), Navy (49-10), Pittsburgh (37-15) and a 70-7 rout of Syracuse. It was the most complete football the Irish played all year, and it sits behind Carr's name every time people talk about what he showed in his first year as a starter — 2,741 yards passing, 24 touchdowns, 6 interceptions.

None of it was enough to get Notre Dame into the playoff, which is exactly why Bowen's line has followed the team into camp: "You can't go 0-2 and expect to be in the playoffs. ... It left a not-great taste in everybody's mouth — as it should," he told Pete Nakos of On3. The record resets to 0-0 for 2026, and last season's finish is context for Sunday, not current form.

The post everyone's talking about isn't football at all

Notre Dame's own account posted something this week that had nothing to do with Wisconsin. "In honor of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, we remember Chad Carr and the laughter and happiness he brought into the world," the team wrote, tagging @13Cjcarr and @ND_HCTI. Chad was CJ Carr's younger brother, who died in November 2015 at age 5 after being diagnosed with DIPG, an inoperable brain stem cancer; the family turned the loss into the ChadTough Defeat DIPG Foundation, which has since funded pediatric cancer research nationally.

It's easy to lose that thread in a week built around depth charts and coaching reunions, but it's the thread that runs under Carr's whole Notre Dame career — grandson of Michigan legend Lloyd Carr, now a team captain and the starting quarterback carrying a playoff-hopeful program. The four captains Freeman named this week are leading a locker room for reasons that don't show up on a depth chart at all.

A 20.5-point number against a Badgers team that rebuilt almost everything

Notre Dame opened as a 20.5-point favorite for Sunday night vs. Wisconsin, with the total set at 47.5 — a modest number for a Notre Dame offense many expect to score often, which reads more like a bet on a slow start than a shootout. Wisconsin arrives at 0-0 off a 2025 finish that ended with a 17-7 loss at Minnesota, and with almost none of that roster back on defense behind edge rusher Sebastian Cheeks.

Whatever Sunday looks like, it's the first of two straight home dates to open the year — Rice comes to Notre Dame Stadium on September 12 as a much bigger favorite still to be set. For now, Lambeau Field gets the marquee: a Fighting Irish team ranked No. 4 nationally, a Wisconsin team fighting for its coach's job, and two men who coached together long before either had this much on the line.