(Notre Dame) — Nine times in its football history, Notre Dame has beaten the #1 team in the country.

Now you can make it ten.

History repeated itself before a boisterous sold out crowd at Notre Dame Stadium, as the 11th-ranked Fighting Irish toppled #1 Miami, 31-24, handing the Hurricanes their first loss of the season and bolstering Notre Dame’s hopes of making the College Football Playoffs.

“What a night, what a moment for this program, for this university, for so many people that love this place — a special moment,” exuded Irish head coach Marcus Freeman. “This is as good of a win as I’ve ever been a part of, and as special of a moment, as special of an outcome that I’ve been a part of since I’ve been the head coach here.”

That says a lot considering Freeman took Notre Dame to the national championship game at the end of the 2024 season, but there had been legitimate concern if the Irish could get back to the playoffs if they didn’t get a win tonight.

“We knew our backs were against the wall,” admitted safety Luke Talich, who made a key interception to force the only turnover of the game. “We knew we had to win this game. Since I’ve been at Notre Dame, we’ve felt almost all our games have been playoff games. Every game is a playoff game to us.”

The Irish rode the right arm of quarterback CJ Carr, who completed 29-of-40 passes for 319 yards and three touchdowns.  They needed all those plays, as Miami quarterback Darien Mensah also threw three touchdown passes, but was frequently under heavy pressure from a relentless Irish pass rush.

Notre Dame jumped to a 10-0 lead on a 44-yard field goa from Spencer Porath and a beautiful spinning 27-yard touchdown catch by Jordan Faison in the corner of the end zone.

Miami closed the gap to 10-3 midway through the second quarter, but Carr led the Irish on a pivotal drive late in the second quarter. First, Carr kept the drive alive, running from pressure in the backfield on 3rd and 4 and completing a bullet to Aneyas Williams for a first down. After a sure-handed grab by Gilbert for 18 yards in front of the Miami bench, Carr found Gilbert again on a play-action post route for an 18-yard score to make it 17-3.

“We knew they weren’t going down without a fight,” stated Carr. “We knew we were going to face a storm at some point and we had to be ready for it.”

The storm came in the second half. After Gilbert’s second touchdown of the night put Notre Dame up 24-3, the Hurricanes roared back. First, Mensah found tight end Elijah Lofton for a touchdown grab, then he made a 12-yard strike to Cooper Barkate, and suddenly the Irish lead was just 24-17 with a quarter to go.

Lofton and Barkate both had big nights in the absence of injured Miami star Malachi Toney, as the duo combined for 17 catches and 205 receiving yards.

“It really started going down when Leonard (Moore) went down. He got poked in the eye, and they tried to attack us in man coverage. We were playing a lot of man coverage today.  We got to the point where it’s the definition of insanity. If we keep playing man coverage, this thing won’t stop. So we had to adjust at that point and start playing some zone.”

Luke Talich came to the rescue with two big plays in the fourth quarter. His interception of Mensah in front of the Irish bench set the table for a Nolan James touchdown run that extended the lead to 31-17. After Miami closed the gap to 31-24, the Canes were marching. On 4th and 6, Mensah tried to hit Lofton in the end zone, but Talich reached in at the last minute to break up the pass and help preserve the win.

“I know I’m going to wake up tomorrow, and unfortunately, you’ve got to let this one go, sighed Freeman. “You’ve got to get ready for the next one. But I’m going to try to extend tonight as long as I can, and then we’ll move forward tomorrow.”

Indeed with Boston College coming to the Stadium next week, Irish fans will remember the 1993 season when Notre Dame topped #1 Florida State, only to lose to the Eagles the next week. The hope for Notre Dame is that on this one, history does not repeat itself.