Head coach Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame managed to extend their winning streak to six games on Saturday with their 25 to 10 victory over the Boston College Eagles. With their overall record now sitting at 6-2 on the team, the Fighting Irish are still alive for a playoff berth if they manage to win out. You won’t at the end of the day, so things could obviously be a lot worse.

While it’s true that a win is a win, Freeman and his staff can’t possibly feel great about the performance their team put together on Saturday. It was a game plagued by self-inflicted errors, even more missed opportunities, and a whole lot of frustration. You never want to make impulsive changes, especially after wins, but there are two things that the Irish should heavily considered following this contest.

Here are the changes that would help take Notre Dame to a whole other level heading down the stretch of the season.

Proper usage for Jeremiyah Love

Notre Dame has been blessed with two of the better running backs in all of college football. Everyone knew that Jeremiyah Love was a superstar heading into the 2025 college football season, but the national level probably didn’t know enough about Jadarian Price heading into the year. The latter is beginning to get the credit he deserves, putting together some tremendous games already this season.

Price had his worst game of the season to date against Boston College. The redshirt junior managed to rush for just 12 yards on nine carries, and also fumbled inside of the five-yard line, costing the team seven points potentially. It was the third fumble on the season for Price, an issue that he needs to remedy. The Texas native has been mostly very good for the Irish offense this year, but there is still a little bit of feast of famine to his game, exemplified by his fumbling issue and too many negative runs.

With how valuable Price is to this offense, he needs to touch the football between 10-15 times every game. One thing has become certain, however, especially in closer games, Love needs to be the running back to handle the high leverage situations. That includes short yardage and goal line, drives to try and flip momentum, and when the game is on the line. He’s your superstar and you need to treat him like one, especially with any big game on the horizon.

That critical error by Price didn’t cost you the game against Boston College. There is most likely, however, a game in the future where it could.

Kicking game solution

Here is the most basic analysis of all time: You stink at kicking the football right now, so start kicking the football as little as possible. Between the trio of Noah Burnette, Erik Schmidt, and Marcello Diomede, the Irish kickers made just 1-4 kicks on the game, and each specialist had a miss. That group left at least five points on the board, and against a good team, that could be the difference between winning and losing.

Any time this team is in “field goal range” in a manageable fourth down opportunity, go for it. Outside of blowout games, go for two regularly. You are missing out on too many points right now. Keep the football in the hands of CJ Carr right now, and try to steal some points when you can.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish News

Notre Dame’s biggest Achilles heels show up once again in ugly victory over Boston College, leaves doubt for CFB Playoff run

Notre Dame needs to find some answers, and quickly.

Ryan Roberts