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Teams / FBS Independents / Notre Dame
Index · this season
96
▲ Above its 5-year level +9
Career81since 1936
Peak971966
Last 587seasons
#1 nationally · 6-0 (0-0 conf)
Résumé #6
Schedule so far #29
Margin ±5 pts (tightens with games)
Why 96? →

Notre Dame Fighting Irish

FBS Independents · Notre Dame, IN · Notre Dame Stadium · Head coach Marcus Freeman
Rival
USC · also Stanford
Bitter rivalry
53-38-5 all time (96 meetings since 1926)
Notre Dame leads
Last: won 34-24 (2025) · Notre Dame has won 3 straight
Holds it
11 claimed national titles and 42 AP top-10 finishes since 1936Blue Blood7 Heisman winnersHeisman House262 NFL draft picks (top 10% of FBS)NFL Factory71.6% wins since 1936 (top 10% of FBS)Winning Tradition86 consensus All-AmericansAll-American Factory
Recognized national titles: 1988, 1977, 1973 (shared), 1966, 1949, 1947, 1946, 1943. Counted: AP poll champion, a coaches-poll champion, or the BCS / playoff title-game winner; a split year counts for both. The school claims 11.8national titles
Heisman Trophy winners7Heisman
Seasons finishing in the AP top 10 since 193642AP top-10
Consensus All-Americans since 193686All-Americans
NFL draft picks since 1967262NFL picks
Winning percentage since 193671.6%win pct
History since 1936 · football since 1893. Every season →
Chemistry
Chem 80: strong80
Chem 80: strong
80Foundation
Chem 81: strong
81Gel
gel counts 50% so far
▲ Above its norm +14Trending up
early · #1 of 138
HC year5
Ret. starters64%
QB yrs w/ OC2
View chemistry →
Team chemistryearly · #1 of 138 FBS teams
Chem 80: strongFoundation80+Chem 81: strongGel81=Chem 80: strongChem80Gel counts 50% so far (it grows as games are played, up to half)
Foundationwhat the program has built · moves over seasons
Foundation80Staff stability — Coach and coordinator tenure, staff who came along, assistant turnoverStaff stability72Roster continuity — Returning starters and the lineup's experienceRoster continuity90Unit cohesion — QB & coordinator, QB & receivers, offensive line, defense: how long each unit has played togetherUnit cohesion83Administration — Athletic director continuity and coach-AD alignmentAdministration56Investment — Commitment to football: its share of the department's spending and whether that is growing, plus spending and recruitingInvestment83Fan base — How passionate and loyal the fan base is: how often it sells out, and whether it sells out games that don't matterFan base84
ContinuityClimate
Continuity · who has played and coached togetherlive

Who has played and coached together, and for how long, ranked against every FBS team at the same point of the season.

▸Staff stability
Coach and coordinator tenure, staff who came along, assistant turnover
72
Staff cohesion72
HC year 5 · OC year 3 · DC year 2
Assistant turnover71
27% of on-field staff new this season (FBS average about 45%)
▸Roster continuity
Returning starters and the lineup's experience
90
Returning core99
64% of last season's starters · FBS median 32%
Experience82
16 career starts per starter · FBS median 12
▸Unit cohesion
QB & coordinator, QB & receivers, offensive line, defense: how long each unit has played together
83
QB & coordinator80
2 seasons together · same as 20% of FBS teams
QB & receivers85
8.0 games started together on average · FBS median 3.9
Line cohesion78
8.0 games per linemen pair · FBS median 5.2
Defensive cohesion90
7.9 games per defensive pair · FBS median 4.5
Climate · around the programlive

The administration, money and fans around the team: athletic director continuity, willingness to invest, and crowds.

▸Administration
Athletic director continuity and coach-AD alignment
56
AD continuity56
Pete Bevacqua · year 3 (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)
▸Investment
Commitment to football: its share of the department's spending and whether that is growing, plus spending and recruiting
83
Football's share84
38% of department spending goes to football
Investment trend76
+57% over three years
Football investment99
$93.3M on football (2024-25 federal report)
Recruiting spend80
$2.85M men's recruiting
Department resources94
$290M athletic department revenue
▸Fan base
How passionate and loyal the fan base is: how often it sells out, and whether it sells out games that don't matter
84
Sellouts83
sellout crowds (95%+ of capacity) at 43 of 51 home games (last 8 seasons)
Sells out anyway85
sellout crowds at 33 of 38 games that didn't matter: cupcakes, or a team expected to lose or having a losing season

Finances: U.S. Department of Education athletics disclosures, as reported by each school. Athletic directors: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Attendance: reported crowds vs stadium capacity.

Gelhow it is working right now · moves week to week
Gel81Playing above its parts — Results vs what its preseason projection expected, game by gamePlaying above its parts63Settled & sharp — A settled starting lineup and clean execution (penalties, turnovers) vs its own normalSettled & sharp86Alignment — Coaches and players telling the same story; the staff on one pageAlignmentsoonResilience — Confidence, and how the team sounds after adversityResiliencesoonFan & media mood — Expectations met or missed this season (preseason rank vs now), stronger for fan bases that react hard; fan and media sentiment joins laterFan & media mood87Coach security — The hard-facts hot seat, inverted: results vs expectation, recent seasons vs the program's norm, stakes, a new ADCoach security70
InternalOn-field fitExternal
Internal · how the program talkscoming

How the team talks in press conferences and interviews, each program against its own normal, so a naturally terse coach isn't read as upset. Being built program by program, Big Ten first.

▸Alignment
Coaches and players telling the same story; the staff on one page
soon
Coming: measured from press conferences and interviews.
▸Resilience
Confidence, and how the team sounds after adversity
soon
Coming: measured from press conferences and interviews.

Readings are team-level; we don't publish psychological readings of individual players.

On-field fit · how it is playing togetherlive

How the team is playing together this season: beating or missing its preseason expectation, a settled lineup, clean execution.

▸Playing above its parts
Results vs what its preseason projection expected, game by game
63
This season63
+0.2 points a game vs its preseason projection (6 games)
▸Settled & sharp
A settled starting lineup and clean execution (penalties, turnovers) vs its own normal
86
This season86
88% of starters kept game to game
External · pressure from outsidelive

Pressure from outside the building: the hard-facts hot seat now; this season's fan and media mood as it is measured.

▸Fan & media mood
Expectations met or missed this season (preseason rank vs now), stronger for fan bases that react hard; fan and media sentiment joins later
87
This season87
AP preseason #4 -> now #3 · beat rival Stanford 58-7 (+13) · results 6-0 (+13, recent games count more)
▸Coach security
The hard-facts hot seat, inverted: results vs expectation, recent seasons vs the program's norm, stakes, a new AD
70
This season70
Marcus Freeman, year 6 · 100% wins so far · +0.2 pts a game vs preseason expectation · last two seasons +11% vs the program's norm · banked job capital (recent top-10 / top-25 finishes) · impatient fan base

Dashed gold ring = typical (62). 20-50 is the warning zone; under 10 is a collapse. Spokes with no data yet are dashed and left out until they fill in. Chem blends the two halves, then places the blend among this season's teams.

Trend · Foundationeach program year runs Feb 1 to the title game
'1666'1758'1875'1973'2073'2161'2265'2361'2459'2568'262016 wk 1 vs Texas: 76 · L2016 wk 2 vs Nevada: 84 · W2016 wk 3 vs Michigan State: 77 · L2016 wk 4 vs Duke: 67 · L2016 wk 5 vs Syracuse: 64 · W2016 wk 6 vs NC State: 67 · L2016 wk 7 vs Stanford: 72 · L2016 wk 9 vs Miami: 71 · W2016 wk 10 vs Navy: 70 · L2016 wk 11 vs Army: 67 · W2016 wk 12 vs Virginia Tech: 69 · L2016 wk 13 vs USC: 66 · L2017 wk 2 vs Georgia: 56 · L2017 wk 3 vs Boston College: 59 · W2017 wk 4 vs Michigan State: 61 · W2017 wk 5 vs Miami (OH): 59 · W2017 wk 6 vs North Carolina: 61 · W2017 wk 8 vs USC: 55 · W2017 wk 9 vs NC State: 61 · W2017 wk 10 vs Wake Forest: 62 · W2017 wk 11 vs Miami: 61 · L2017 wk 12 vs Navy: 60 · W2017 wk 13 vs Stanford: 59 · L2017 wk 1 vs LSU: 58 · W2018 wk 2 vs Ball State: 76 · W2018 wk 3 vs Vanderbilt: 77 · W2018 wk 4 vs Wake Forest: 73 · W2018 wk 5 vs Stanford: 74 · W2018 wk 6 vs Virginia Tech: 77 · W2018 wk 7 vs Pittsburgh: 76 · W2018 wk 9 vs Navy: 75 · W2018 wk 10 vs Northwestern: 74 · W2018 wk 11 vs Florida State: 73 · W2018 wk 12 vs Syracuse: 72 · W2018 wk 13 vs USC: 76 · W2018 wk 1 vs Clemson: 75 · L2019 wk 3 vs New Mexico: 79 · W2019 wk 4 vs Georgia: 79 · L2019 wk 5 vs Virginia: 80 · W2019 wk 6 vs Bowling Green: 79 · W2019 wk 7 vs USC: 78 · W2019 wk 9 vs Michigan: 78 · L2019 wk 10 vs Virginia Tech: 80 · W2019 wk 11 vs Duke: 78 · W2019 wk 12 vs Navy: 76 · W2019 wk 13 vs Boston College: 77 · W2019 wk 14 vs Stanford: 77 · W2019 wk 1 vs Iowa State: 73 · W2020 wk 6 vs Florida State: 71 · W2020 wk 7 vs Louisville: 71 · W2020 wk 8 vs Pittsburgh: 75 · W2020 wk 9 vs Georgia Tech: 73 · W2020 wk 10 vs Clemson: 73 · W2020 wk 11 vs Boston College: 71 · W2020 wk 13 vs North Carolina: 77 · W2020 wk 14 vs Syracuse: 75 · W2020 wk 16 vs Clemson: 72 · L2020 wk 1 vs Alabama: 73 · L2021 wk 2 vs Toledo: 62 · W2021 wk 3 vs Purdue: 62 · W2021 wk 4 vs Wisconsin: 58 · W2021 wk 5 vs Cincinnati: 62 · L2021 wk 6 vs Virginia Tech: 58 · W2021 wk 8 vs USC: 59 · W2021 wk 9 vs North Carolina: 65 · W2021 wk 10 vs Navy: 65 · W2021 wk 11 vs Virginia: 66 · W2021 wk 12 vs Georgia Tech: 53 · W2021 wk 13 vs Stanford: 61 · W2021 wk 1 vs Oklahoma State: 61 · L2022 wk 3 vs California: 62 · W2022 wk 4 vs North Carolina: 61 · W2022 wk 6 vs BYU: 61 · W2022 wk 7 vs Stanford: 60 · L2022 wk 8 vs UNLV: 61 · W2022 wk 9 vs Syracuse: 66 · W2022 wk 10 vs Clemson: 66 · W2022 wk 11 vs Navy: 64 · W2022 wk 12 vs Boston College: 64 · W2022 wk 13 vs USC: 65 · L2022 wk 1 vs South Carolina: 65 · W2023 wk 1 vs Tennessee State: 67 · W2023 wk 2 vs NC State: 65 · W2023 wk 3 vs Central Michigan: 67 · W2023 wk 4 vs Ohio State: 64 · L2023 wk 5 vs Duke: 66 · W2023 wk 6 vs Louisville: 68 · L2023 wk 7 vs USC: 68 · W2023 wk 9 vs Pittsburgh: 67 · W2023 wk 10 vs Clemson: 68 · L2023 wk 12 vs Wake Forest: 71 · W2023 wk 13 vs Stanford: 66 · W2023 wk 1 vs Oregon State: 61 · W2024 wk 2 vs Northern Illinois: 62 · L2024 wk 3 vs Purdue: 62 · W2024 wk 4 vs Miami (OH): 64 · W2024 wk 5 vs Louisville: 62 · W2024 wk 7 vs Stanford: 61 · W2024 wk 8 vs Georgia Tech: 63 · W2024 wk 9 vs Navy: 63 · W2024 wk 11 vs Florida State: 61 · W2024 wk 12 vs Virginia: 64 · W2024 wk 13 vs Army: 63 · W2024 wk 14 vs USC: 59 · W2024 wk 1 vs Indiana: 60 · W2024 wk 1 vs Georgia: 57 · W2024 wk 1 vs Penn State: 57 · W2024 wk 1 vs Ohio State: 59 · L2025 wk 3 vs Texas A&M: 65 · L2025 wk 4 vs Purdue: 67 · W2025 wk 5 vs Arkansas: 67 · W2025 wk 6 vs Boise State: 66 · W2025 wk 7 vs NC State: 68 · W2025 wk 8 vs USC: 69 · W2025 wk 10 vs Boston College: 69 · W2025 wk 11 vs Navy: 66 · W2025 wk 12 vs Pittsburgh: 67 · W2025 wk 13 vs Syracuse: 69 · W2025 wk 14 vs Stanford: 68 · W2026 wk 2 vs Rice: 78 · W2026 wk 3 vs Michigan State: 78 · W2026 wk 4 vs Purdue: 79 · W2026 wk 5 vs North Carolina: 79 · W2026 wk 6 vs Stanford: 80 · W2026 wk 7 vs BYU: 79 · next gametypical 62

Every game since 2016, one continuous line; thin rules separate seasons and the chip is where each season finished. Navy dot = win, red = loss. Big drops usually mean a new staff, a new quarterback or a rebuilt line.

Trend · Gelthis season, after each game
typical 62wk 1 · on-field 76 · fan mood 65721wk 2 vs Rice · W · on-field 65 · fan mood 64652wk 3 vs Michigan State · W · on-field 74 · fan mood 67713wk 4 vs Purdue · W · on-field 79 · fan mood 71764wk 5 vs North Carolina · W · on-field 80 · fan mood 72775wk 6 vs Stanford · W · on-field 81 · fan mood 87836

How the team is working right now, rebuilt after each game from only the games so far: on-field fit (results vs preseason expectation, lineup settling, execution) and that week's fan & media mood. Coach security is part of today's Gel number but isn't rebuilt week by week yet. Navy frame = win, red = loss.

Continuity facts
Head coach
Year 5
at this school
Offensive coordinator
Year 3
at this school
Defensive coordinator
Year 2
at this school
HC & OC together
3 seasons
working together
QB with his OC
2 seasons
same play-caller
QB & receivers
8.0 games
started together, average
Offensive line pairs
8.0 games
started together, average
Returning starters
64%
from last season
Starter experience
16 starts
career average
Internal facts
Pressers read
soon
this season, coaches and players
Coach tone
soon
vs his own normal
"We" vs "I"
soon
share of team language
Owning mistakes
soon
vs pointing outward
Same story
soon
coaches and players agree
After losses
soon
how fast tone recovers
Leaders named
soon
players teammates point to
Newcomers
soon
transfers talked about as part of it
Openness
soon
forthcoming vs guarded
Measured from press conferences and interviews, program by program.
Climate facts
Athletic director
Pete Bevacqua
year 3
Football spending
$93.3M
2024-25 federal report
Spending trend
+57%
over three years
Department revenue
$290M
all sports
Recruiting spend
$2.85M
men's teams
Home crowds
—
of capacity
Staff turnover
27%
on-field staff new this season
Fan mood
soon
fans and local media
Coach & AD
soon
on the same page
Finances: U.S. Department of Education athletics disclosures. Athletic directors: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).
Offense · games started togetherlatest lineup · 11 starters
Carr
James
Greathouse
Gilbert
Faison
Flanagan
Craig
Absher
Lambert
Knapp
Black
QBCJ Carr1626516510916165
RBNolan James Jr.22222222222
WRJaden Greathouse6221496846154
WRMicah Gilbert52455554555
WRJordan Faison1629520712916185
TECooper Flanagan52657121045105
OLAshton Craig10285121016410135
OLSullivan Absher92449449994
OLGuerby Lambert1626516510916165
OLAnthonie Knapp162155181013916305
OLWill Black52455554555

Each square: games the two players have started together at this school (darker = more). Gray diagonal: the player's own starts here.

Defense · games started togetherlatest lineup · 11 starters
Traore
Mukam
Young
Brewu
Ausberry
Bowen
McKinney
Gray
Shuler
Moore
Talich
DLBoubacar Traore17364131751416153
DLArmel Mukam33323332332
DLBryce Young63645655663
DLFrancis Brewu42444443443
LBJaiden Ausberry13354161651315143
LBDrayk Bowen17364163152730243
DBDJ McKinney53545554553
DBChristian Gray14253132742726202
DBAdon Shuler16364153052630243
DBLeonard Moore15364142452024243
DBLuke Talich32333332333

Each square: games the two players have started together at this school (darker = more). Gray diagonal: the player's own starts here.

Chemistry is Scorebook's own rating of how well a program fits together, on the same all-time 0-99 scale as our other ratings (compared with every FBS team since 2016; 62 is typical, 20-50 signals something is wrong, and single digits are reserved for true collapses; each season is compared with its own era). This early version blends continuity (who has played and coached together, and for how long; it counts most) with the climate around the program; how the program talks joins as it is measured. Within continuity, quarterback-centered pairings count most because they held up when we tested them against results. How our ratings work →