By the Numbers: Notre Dame Football’s First Shutout Since 2022

The third ranked Fighting Irish needed just 14 seconds to take the lead and never gave it back on Saturday, shutting out Rice 52-0 in the home opener in front of a sellout crowd of 77,622. Captain Adon Shuler knocked the ball loose on the second play from scrimmage, Boubacar Traore scooped it and went 24 yards the other way, and the rest of the afternoon was housekeeping. It was Notre Dame’s first shutout since blanking Boston College in November of 2022.

CJ Carr was excellent. He went 16-of-20 for 253 yards and four touchdowns, opened the game with nine straight completions, and was on the bench before the third quarter ended. He also threw the ball downfield, which he did not do a week ago. Notre Dame went 5-of-8 for 163 yards on passes traveling 20 or more yards in the air, and all five completions were Carr’s, after the Irish went 0-for-3 for zero yards on those throws against Wisconsin.

Rice gained 120 yards. The Owls fumbled five times and lost four of them, and Notre Dame’s average starting field position in the first half was the Rice 47. This was a game decided by takeaways and short fields before the offense had to prove anything, and one good afternoon against an American Athletic Conference team that never crossed midfield in the first half doesn’t tell us whether this passing game can stress a real defense in November. It didn’t have to today though. Notre Dame dominated Rice in every aspect of the game for all sixty minutes.

Here’s how the numbers tell the story of Notre Dame’s second win of 2026.

Key Stats

0 – Points allowed. Notre Dame’s first shutout since November 19, 2022, a 44-0 win over Boston College.

14 – Seconds into the game when Notre Dame led 7-0. Shuler knocked it loose, Traore took it 24 yards, and only seven touchdowns in program history have come faster. Nobody had scored this quickly for the Irish since Brandon Joseph picked one off and scored seven seconds into the 2022 Syracuse game.

5 – Rice fumbles. Four of them lost. The Owls put it on the ground on each of their first two possessions. Notre Dame had three forced fumbles and four recoveries on the day.

21 – Points off turnovers for Notre Dame. Zero for Rice.

The Rice 47 – Notre Dame’s average starting field position in the first half. Six possessions, and on average they began in Rice territory. Rice’s average starting spot for the game was its own 23.

163 – Notre Dame’s yards on throws of 20 or more air yards, on 5-of-8 passing. All five completions were Carr’s. Against Wisconsin the Irish were 0-for-3 for zero yards on the same throws.

210 – Notre Dame’s air yards, out of 360 passing. That leaves 150 after the catch, or 42 percent. Last week the split was 98 air yards and 141 YAC, which was 59 percent.

120 – Rice’s total offense, on 46 plays. That’s 2.8 per play and seven first downs. Sixty-four rushing, 64 passing.

7-of-12 – Notre Dame’s third-down conversion rate. Against Wisconsin the Irish went 3-of-9 and opened 0-for-6.

8 – Tackles for loss, for 23 yards. Bryce Young had 2.5 of them and the only sack. Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa added 1.5.

42 – First-half points for Notre Dame, on 12:18 of possession. Rice held the ball for 17:42 in the first half and scored nothing.

3 – Quarterbacks who completed a pass for Notre Dame. Carr, Noah Grubbs (7-of-11, 78 yards), and Teddy Jarrard (2-of-2, 29 yards).

Milestones, Firsts, and Career Highs

Jordan Faison caught two touchdowns in the first quarter. A 25-yard strike and then an 11-yard screen he took to the house, the first multi-touchdown receiving game of his career. Only one other player in the Freeman era has scored twice in an opening quarter, Jeremiyah Love at Arkansas last September, and no Irish receiver had caught two in a first quarter since Chase Claypool did it against Navy in November 2019. Faison finished with four catches for 54 yards and 41 more on three punt returns.

Carr’s touchdown streak reached 14 games, a run he came into Saturday tied for fourth-longest among active FBS quarterbacks. Nine straight completions to start the game bettered his previous best, a five-in-a-row opening he managed twice last season against Boise State and NC State. Notre Dame’s first possession after halftime ended with Carr finding Cooper Flanagan from two yards out for score number four, matching the career high he set at Arkansas last September.

Traore’s fumble return was the second touchdown of his career. The first came on a 34-yard interception return against Purdue in September 2024. It was also Notre Dame’s first fumble returned for a score since 2024.

Jaiden Ausberry recovered the third fumble of his career on the possession right after Traore’s score. Notre Dame hadn’t forced and recovered a fumble on an opponent’s first two drives since a 2000 game against Navy.

Notre Dame’s streak of double-digit wins reached 12, going back to September 20, 2025. Nobody in the FBS has a longer active run, and it matches the program mark set in 1921-22.

Freeman has now coached 10 Notre Dame teams to 50 points, seven of those since the 2024 season began.

A lot of players got a first:

• Jonaz Walton – career appearance and career carry, and he led the team with 48 rushing yards
• Javian Osborne – career appearance and career carry
• Noah Grubbs and Teddy Jarrard – career appearance and career completions
• Mylan Graham – first reception in an Irish uniform
• Devin Fitzgerald – career reception
• Nolan James Jr. – career rushing touchdown (he scored two on the day)
• Dallas Golden – career punt return
• Rodney Dunham – career fumble recovery
• Ayden Pouncey – career appearance

Career highs: Micah Gilbert with 47 receiving yards, Jerome Bettis Jr. with two catches for 61, Elijah Burress with 33 receiving yards, Bryce Young with 2.5 tackles for loss, Rodney Dunham with three tackles.

Positive Trends

The takeaways were the game. Three forced fumbles, four recoveries, 21 points. Shuler, Luke Talich, and Kahanu Kia all forced one. Ausberry, Traore, Dunham, and Viliamu-Asa all came up with one. Rice never recovered from putting the ball on the ground on each of its first two possessions.

Field position did the rest. Three of Notre Dame’s six touchdown drives started in Rice territory and covered 38, 6, and 38 yards. The Irish averaged a start at the Rice 47 in the first half. Jordan Faison’s three punt returns went for 41 yards, including a 37-yarder.

The passing game went vertical. Five completions of 20-plus air yards for 163 yards and two scores, including Carr’s 56-yarder to Jerome Bettis Jr. and the 39-yard touchdown to Micah Gilbert. Notre Dame averaged 10.9 yards per attempt and 7.4 per play.

The run defense held up again. Rice ran 34 times for 64 yards, 1.9 per carry. That follows Wisconsin’s 31 carries for 67. Two opponents, 65 carries, 131 yards. Rice ran for more than 450 yards a week ago.

Depth got real snaps. Three quarterbacks, twelve different receivers caught passes, five backs carried it, and Rice was held scoreless in the fourth quarter with reserves on the field.

Negative Trends

There isn’t much here, and there’s no point manufacturing it.

The red-zone trip that got away. Notre Dame’s 12-play, 59-yard drive in the third quarter reached the Rice 9 and ended on downs when a fourth-and-4 throw fell incomplete. That was the only one of six red-zone chances that produced nothing.

The ground game still isn’t efficient. Notre Dame ran for 118 yards on 32 carries, 3.7 per attempt, after 111 on 32 the week before. Aneyas Williams went for 29 on nine carries. Through two games the Irish are averaging 3.6 a rush, and Saturday’s leading rusher was a player making his college debut.

Team Notes

• Attendance was 77,622, the 21st straight sellout and the 26th in Freeman’s last 28 home games.
• The Irish have never lost to Rice. They’re 6-0 in the series and 4-0 when the game has been played in South Bend.
• The programs hadn’t met since 2014. All six meetings have gone Notre Dame’s way: 55-2 at Houston in 1915, 28-0 at Rice in 1973, then home wins of 10-3 in 1974, 54-11 in 1988, 48-17 in 2014, and 52-0 on Saturday.
• Home openers have been reliable. The Irish are 110-21-5 in them, a .826 clip.
• Against current American Athletic Conference members, Notre Dame’s all-time mark is 142-23-5, or .849.
• There are Notre Dame ties throughout the Rice staff. Assistant offensive line coach Clay Davie is the son of Bob Davie, who followed Lou Holtz as Irish head coach from 1997 to 2001. Safeties coach Kerry Cooks has two Notre Dame stints on his resume, from 2010 to 2014 and again in 2020 and 2021.
• Preston Zinter, a Notre Dame graduate who played linebacker for the Irish from 2023 to 2025, is now on the Rice roster and has switched to tight end.

Final Word

A shutout is a shutout. Notre Dame has now held two opponents to 131 rushing yards on 65 carries, hasn’t turned the ball over in two games, and just put up 52 points while emptying the bench in the third quarter. The double-digit win streak is the longest in the country.

Carr was terrific. 16 completions on 20 throws, four touchdowns, nine completions in a row to start, and a willingness to push the ball downfield that wasn’t there at Lambeau. If you spent last week wondering whether this offense could throw past the sticks, Saturday was a better answer than the one you had.

It was also Rice. The Owls managed 120 yards, fumbled the ball away four times, and handed Notre Dame the ball in their own territory over and over. This was nothing more than the glorified tune up it was supposed to be. And that is a good thing.