Notre Dame football enters the 2026 college football season as one of the top national championship contenders, and for good reason.

Head coach Marcus Freeman and his staff have assembled a roster with tremendous talent and more depth than South Bend has seen in years. The combination of elite recruiting, coaching stability, and upside creates what looks like a championship recipe. But every roster has deficiencies, even the best ones, and the Fighting Irish are no exception.

If Notre Dame fails to reach its ceiling, it will likely be because of one or more of the factors below.

CJ Carr’s health and development

The biggest potential pitfall for the 2026 Notre Dame team is regression or unavailability from quarterback CJ Carr. On the injury front, football is a violent game, and accidents happen both in practice and on Saturdays. The problem for this roster is that while Carr is incredibly talented, the depth behind him remains a major question.

As of today, redshirt freshman Blake Hebert would likely serve as the primary backup, barring true freshmen Noah Grubbs or Teddy Jarrard unseating him. If Carr misses any stretch of time, particularly during the most important part of the schedule, how many people would feel confident that Hebert or either of those true freshmen could lead this team to a national title?

Beyond health, Carr needs to take a step forward. Notre Dame’s run game is expected to become more efficient compared to explosive, and the passing attack is projected to take a massive leap. Carr has a chance to be one of the best quarterbacks in college football, but he has to deliver on that potential for this offense to reach its upside.

The boundary receiver question

If Carr stays healthy and the offense clicks, the one potential hindrance that perhaps isn’t getting enough attention is whether Notre Dame has a true boundary receiver presence. There’s a chance the wide receiver room is a good unit even without someone ascending to a Malachi Fields-level player on the outside. But having that element in offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock’s system is a huge aspect to keep watching.

Quincy Porter, the former five-star recruit who transferred from Ohio State this offseason, is as talented a boundary receiver as Notre Dame has had in quite some time. Coming off a true freshman season where he did not play much, and also recovering from an injury, there is uncertainty about what to expect from Porter. People around the program are optimistic, but proven production at boundary receiver is a wild card right now.

Can Micah Gilbert take that step if Porter doesn’t? Talented for sure, but unproven.

Chris Ash’s defense against top competition

On the defensive side of the ball, it comes down first and foremost to the man designing everything: defensive coordinator Chris Ash. The last 9.5 games of the 2025 season were tremendous, and Notre Dame’s defense looked like one of the elites in college football. But when the Fighting Irish faced their best opponents, the results were not great.

Context matters. The Miami and Texas A&M games came in the first two weeks of a brand-new system. We can give Ash the benefit of the doubt. But the question remains: can his defense hold up against the best offenses Notre Dame will face?

I believe this defense can be elite, but it remains an open question whether the late-season improvement was a product of the system truly clicking or a softer stretch of the schedule.

Finding a second pass rusher

My biggest defensive question mark isn’t in the secondary or at linebacker, even with some injuries the program is working through on the second level. It’s whether Notre Dame can find a pass rusher who can serve as a complement to Boubacar Traore.

Everyone expects Traore to be one of the best pass rushers in college football, and I do as well. But last season, Notre Dame lacked a true secondary pass rushing threat. Drayk Bowen and Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa were the next-best sack producers, and both play off-ball linebacker.

Can Bryce Young, Keon Keeley, or Rodney Dunham take a step forward and provide that secondary rush upside? Or does it come from an interior defensive lineman?

Notre Dame is going to find itself in a game or two where it has to get after the quarterback, has to get home, has to close out a win. Whether anyone other than Traore can be trusted to do that is something to keep a close eye on as the season approaches.