Notre Dame football and head coach Marcus Freeman rolled the Purdue Boilermakers 49-10 on Saturday in West Lafayette, pushing the Fighting Irish to 4-0 on the 2026 college football season.

The dominant victory capped a September stretch that looks nothing like the early season struggles that have plagued Freeman’s tenure in South Bend. With quarterback CJ Carr leading the offense and playmakers littered across the defense, this Notre Dame team appears far more focused than what we have seen in years past.

Freeman’s early season track record

The beginnings of seasons have been tough for Freeman during his time at Notre Dame.

While he has accumulated a 48-12 overall record, the Fighting Irish were just 12-5 in late August and September games during his previous four seasons. That includes the 2022 season where they went 2-2, with the first two losses of that year coming to Ohio State and Marshall. The loss to the Thundering Herd remains one of the biggest upsets in Notre Dame history.

The 2023 version was much better as Notre Dame entered October with a 4-0 record, but they played just one Power Four opponent during that four-game sample in the NC State Wolfpack. Notre Dame would go 4-1 in late August and September of the 2024 season, and of course that one loss was to Northern Illinois, another of the biggest upsets in Notre Dame history in the obvious wrong direction.

Last season, the Fighting Irish went 2-2 in September, with losses to Miami and Texas A&M that ended up costing them a spot in last year’s college football playoff. Throughout this entire offseason, there has been a lot of talk directed at Freeman and his squad about starting fast and stopping the early season woes.

Why 2026 feels different

Some will want to discount Notre Dame’s 4-0 start while facing Wisconsin, Rice, Michigan State, and Purdue. That means three of Notre Dame’s four victories were against Power Four teams and Big Ten schools to boot. You can downplay who the Spartans and Boilermakers are, but that is an accomplishment for this Fighting Irish team.

To add context, the closest game of those four to start the year was a 27-10 victory over Michigan State.

A 17-point victory being your worst showing is pretty promising for the rest of the 2026 season. In total, Notre Dame outscored its four opponents by an average of 34 points per game. It was a decisive margin led by Carr and a Notre Dame defense with playmakers everywhere.

The road ahead for the No. 3 Fighting Irish

The five losses Notre Dame has suffered before the month of October under Freeman have included Ohio State, Marshall, Northern Illinois, Miami, and Texas A&M. We have seen two harsh realities in that five-game sample: losing to a few top-ranked teams and losing to a couple of teams that Notre Dame has no business losing to.

This faster start does not mean Notre Dame is made for the rest of the 2026 season.

Their championship expectations are still there and they are not changing anytime soon. The Fighting Irish are the No. 3 ranked team in college football for a reason. What Notre Dame does next will define them: how they navigate the rest of the regular season and how they potentially navigate a deep playoff run. All their hopes, dreams, and biggest goals are still very much in front of them.

For now, Freeman and this Notre Dame team have quieted the early season concerns that everyone has talked so much about over the last several months. Now it’s time to prove that this 2026 version of the Fighting Irish is truly different. This is certainly a very strong start.