Head coach Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame football are getting set for a huge home opening battle against the Texas A&M Aggies on Saturday night. The Fighting Irish have had a bye week to recover following their 27 to 24 loss to the Miami Hurricanes in week one. Although it was a close game on paper, the Irish did not turn in a very good performance. The team didn’t play anything close to its best football game two weekends ago.

It was an overall poor game by everyone, but the leadership was a part of the Notre Dame team that really let it down. The blame will always go to head coach Marcus Freeman for what happens between the lines, and it should. There was, however, a troubling amount of poor performances from the leadership of this football team. The captains did not play their best game down in Hard Rock Stadium, which was very troubling for Irish fans everywhere.

Here is how the Notre Dame captains performed during that contest.

WR Will Pauling 

After a lot of offseason hype, the former Wisconsin and Cincinnati transfer didn’t manage to haul in a single catch in the opener against Miami. His blocking was also underwhelming, particularly because of his lack of size on the perimeter. There wasn’t much of a focus to get involved, so there are probably much better days ahead. With how much Coach Freeman talked about him, however, there were higher expectations. 

OG Billy Schrauth 

Aside from center Ashton Craig, Schrauth was probably the best offensive lineman for Notre Dame. The starting left guard was far from perfect during the game against Miami, and he also had some struggles. Luckily for Schrauth, the rest of the offensive line was very poor, so not much attention was put onto him. Schrauth needs to be better moving forward. 

OT Aamil Wagner 

After being extremely consistent last season, Wagner is coming off his worst game in the blue and gold. Both Rueben Bain Jr. and Akheem Mesidor got the better of him consistently, and especially on the last drive. Wagner is going to have to find some answers, and fast. Cashius Howell is coming to town here soon, and he’s a talented pass rusher in his own right. 

DT Donovan Hinish 

At 6-2 and 277 pounds, Hinish is never going to be an impact player in the run game. He struggled mightily against the physical offensive line against Miami. The fact that Chris Ash didn’t allow him to slant and create movement up front was one of the biggest mysteries from the game against the Hurricanes. It was maddening. 

LB Drayk Bowen 

The 6-2, 234-pound inside linebacker ended the day with eight total tackles, but it was arguably Bowen’s worst game he has played for the Fighting Irish. For as physical as Bowen is, he played very tentatively in the run game. He had notably lost some weight this offseason to become more mobile, but it may have taken away the best part of his game, power at the point of contact. 

S Adon Shuler 

Shuler was tremendous as a first-year starter in 2024, but got off to a rough start in the opener. His lack of drive on the phenomenal catch by CJ Daniels is going to be talked about a lot, but Shuler just wasn’t impactful at all. He was mostly invisible, which nobody expected.

Notre Dame needs more

You’re only as strong as the leadership on your team. Quite simply, the Irish captains need to play a lot better moving forward. The revival of that group needs to happen against Texas A&M in their quest to make a legitimate playoff run again. Falling to 0-2 would be a really tough task to fight back from. The Notre Dame captains will determine if the team can turn things around, and get back to its winning ways.

Notre Dame is a younger football team when you really dissect it. Like any young player, they tend to look up to the older and more proven players on the roster, and typically thrive off of quality examples of exemplary play. If the Irish captains play well, there is a good chance that it trickles down to that younger talent. It starts from the top for this Notre Dame team.

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Ryan Roberts