Notre Dame is being talked about as a preseason top-5 team with a shot at a first-round bye. Rice just went 5-8 and rebuilt more than half its roster. This is exactly the kind of game that trips up a contender.
−Lost both lead backs, Love and Price, to NFL Draft
−Backup QB job still unsettled behind Carr
−Soft schedule raises real trap-game risk vs Rice
Notre Dame opens its home slate against Rice on Saturday, September 12, at 2:30 PM ET, sandwiched between a Shamrock Series showcase against Wisconsin and a Big Ten test against Michigan State. That scheduling spot matters. It's the kind of game a ranked team is supposed to win by 40 without thinking twice, which is precisely why it's the one worth watching for signs of a letdown.
CJ Carr enters his second year as the unquestioned starter after throwing for 2,741 yards and 24 touchdowns against just 6 picks in 2025, and the hype machine has responded: Phil Steele has Notre Dame No. 1 in his preseason poll, ESPN's FPI has them No. 3 nationally. But the backfield behind Carr got gutted. Jeremiyah Love went No. 3 overall in the NFL Draft and Jadarian Price went in Round 1, so whoever replaces that production is unproven at this level.
Rice, meanwhile, is mid-rebuild under second-year coach Scott Abell. The Owls finished 5-8 last season and snuck into the Armed Forces Bowl only because other bowl-eligible teams passed. Abell brought in Miami/UCF transfer Jacurri Brown to run the offense and has rebuilt the roster from the ground up, which means talent upgrades but almost no returning chemistry heading into September.
History offers Rice one flicker of hope. Notre Dame owns this series 5-0 dating back to 1915, including a 55-2 rout in the opener, but the Owls actually beat the Irish 10-3 back in 1974. It's ancient trivia at this point, not a real data point, but it's proof the gap has been bridged exactly once in over a century of trying.
The bigger story is what Notre Dame does with its own roster turnover. Six Irish players got drafted this spring, the third straight year with at least that many picks, and Marcus Freeman has been blunt about the standard, saying the goal is to win every single game. Talk like that puts a target on games exactly like this one — if Notre Dame is a true national title team, it should never sweat an opponent coming off a losing season and reshuffling its two-deep.
