College football has one of the quickest turnarounds in the sports world. Only 11 days after Notre Dame fell short in the National Championship game, the program has shifted its focus to next season. After hiring Chris Ash as their next defensive coordinator, the Irish have officially flipped the page to 2025. With that, they officially released the 2025 football schedule, with help from some furry friends.
Turns out you can teach an old dog about our new schedule
— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) January 31, 2025
Ourschedule has arrived
#GoIrish
pic.twitter.com/GhixuxCjDg
Shout out to the Notre Dame social team for coming up with a fun and creative way to release the schedule. Teams are always trying to one-up each other and make spectacles out of their schedule announcement. Sometimes, a simple video like this is the perfect way to announce who your opponents will be in the next season. Here are the most anticipated match-ups for Notre Dame in the 2025 season.
Week 1 @ Miami
The long-awaited revival of the Catholics vs Convicts rivalry. As any Irish fan knows, Miami was supposed to be on Notre Dame’s schedule in 2024. However, due to scheduling conflicts, the game was canceled and pushed to 2025. This marks the first time these two teams have faced each other since 2017 when Miami beat up Notre Dame 41-8.
Miami is coming off a 10-3 season, in which they just missed the playoffs due to a bad loss to Georiga Tech in Week 11. Now, although Miami is coming off a strong season, there are serious questions about how they’ll play in 2025. They’re losing several key pieces of the roster, including star quarterback Cam Ward. However, Miami can have repeat success if Georgia transfer Carson Beck can go back to the player he was in 2023. Then, the Hurricanes will be a tough opponent. However, we won’t know how Beck will perform until spring practices and the start of the season. For now, this match is more anticipated because of the history between the two schools.
Week 5 vs Boise State
When you’ve been playing football for as long as Notre Dame has, it’s rare to have any firsts. However, in 2025, the Irish will do something that has never been done before in its 138 years of play. It’s the first time the Fighting Irish will face off against Boise State. The Broncos will also be making some history themselves as this will be the first game they play in the state of Indiana.
Now the many first that will happen isn’t the only reason this is one of the most anticipated matchups. Boise State is coming off a Mountain West championship and a trip to the inaugural 12-team college football playoffs. Although they are losing face with the program Ashton Jeanty to the NFL draft, a lot of their starters are returning. They have seven players returning on offense and nine players coming back on defense. With all of these returning starters, the Broncos are once again favorites to win the Mountain West, and potentially make another trip to the playoffs. This will be one of Notre Dame’s earliest tests. Beating a potential playoff team will look good on their resume.
Week 7 vs USC
Regardless of what year it is, Notre Dame’s match-up against USC will always be one of the most anticipated matchups. Without question, the Trojans are the Irish biggest rivals. As important as rivalries with schools like Navy and Stanford are, they pale in comparison to the hatred between Notre Dame and USC.
Just look at how the match-up in 2024 went. Despite the struggles of USC, they gave the Irish their hardest fight of the season up to that point. These struggles from USC are also part of the reason this is such an interesting matchup. With the Trojans’ record getting worse every year under Lincoln Riley, there’s pressure on him to right the ship. Another losing season could see Riley lose his job. So, he needs a strong season and fast. He also needs quality wins to show USC and their fans he can still win the big game. A win against Notre Dame will make Riley look a lot better. Thus we can expect a very competitive game between the two sides.
Brian Germinaro is a sportswriter for Belly Up Sports. Follow him on Twitter/X for more sports coverage and Belly Up Sports for even more college football content. Feature image credit: Icon Sportswire.
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