(Photo Courtesy of Notre Dame Athletics)

Notre Dame’s “magical” scoring system led to a dramatic conclusion for the 95^th Blue Gold Game as Spencer Porath hit a 43 yard field goal on the final play to give the offense a 41-40 win over the defense in front of the 2^nd largest crowd to ever witness a Notre Dame spring football game.

Blue-Gold game crowds are typically impacted by three factors: seeing the next starting quarterback at Notre Dame for the first time, good weather, and excitement in the program.

There’s no doubt who Notre Dame’s starting quarterback will be in 2026 as CJ Carr is back for his 2^nd season leading the Irish. So that was in play as much as it was last year when he was still in a quarterback battle. But the weather was picture perfect with temperatures in the 60s on a sun splashed spring Saturday and there is unquestionably strong excitement surrounding the football program as Irish fans believe this is a team that could end Notre Dame’s national championship drought.

It resulted in 45,308 Irish fans attending, the 2^nd largest crowd in the nearly 100 year history of the Blue-Gold Game. Only the 2007 spring game, featuring the debut of Jimmy Clausen, resulted in more fans. The 2007 game had 51,852 fans.

The defense appeared to out play the offense over the course of the 12 series scrimmage but the ‘adjust it as we go’ scoring system led to a fun finish for the fans. After Ethan Logan intercepted Noah Grubbs late in the scrimmage, the defense took a 44-38 lead BUT the scoreboard quickly changed to 40-38, allowing Porath to lineup for the game winning field goal—which he made.

Even so, Irish offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock said after the game that the offense had a slow start Saturday.

“I wish we had started faster,” Denbrock said. “I thought we were pretty sloppy in the beginning and missed some things that we need to make sure we sure up–whether that’s decision making or protection checks. We just have to be sharper out of the gate than we were today. So I was a little disappointed in that. Not mad at them but just disappointed. I thought we picked it up as time went along. We were able to hit some big chunk plays which is kind of the foundation of what this offense is built on and we have to continue to get better at our consistency.”

Linebacker Jaylen Sneed, who intercepted a CJ Carr pass midway through the scrimmage, and led the way with 4 tackles, was named the Player of the Game.

“We were in zone—I stepped in, I stepped out and I saw Ethan tip it and then it kind of just landed in my hands,” Sneed said of the interception. “It felt good.”

With Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa out for the spring and Drayk Bowen limited, Sneed saw a lot of time on the field with fellow linebacker Jaiden Ausberry this spring. Sneed says that was a great experience because the two are best friends.

“They really haven’t played together a lot,” defensive coordinator Chris Ash said of Sneed and Ausberry. “They had to work together on communication, setting a front and adjusting things. They really hadn’t played the mike linebacker position so both of them did a lot of that this spring and it was new for them. I know they’ve had a lot of snaps here but playing mike and will is different. It was great to see those two guys over the course of the spring work together, communicate together and as we went through, they got better adjusting and playing with each other.”

Carr was just 7-of-15 passing for 55 yards as he led the 1^st team offense. He targeted Micah Gilbert five times early in the scrimmage for just one completion. Michigan transfer cornerback Jayden Sanders, starting at cornerback with star Leonard Moore out with a late camp injury, shut Gilbert down and was very effective throughout the day after playing nickel for most of spring practice.

Running back Aneyas Williams shed the red jersey from off season elbow surgery for the first time although whistles still blew on the first sign of contact. Williams showed his versatility as both a runner (10 carries, 38 yards, one touchdown) and a pass catcher (tied for a game high 3 receptions).

“The position I’m finally in, that I’ve been waiting for for the last two years, I couldn’t just sit there and watch,” Williams said of what led to him playing more this spring than initially expected. “I felt really good. I felt like I could go. I don’t know if my medical staff would agree but I just felt a better timeline than where I was.”

Denbrock says while Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price have moved on to the NFL, it doesn’t mean that the team’s expectation of the running back room’s production has to be less.

“My anticipation for Aneyas is the same as it’s always been—every time we’ve given him an opportunity and he’s stepped into a football game, he’s made something positive happen and I don’t see that being any different,” Denbrock said.

Nolan James Jr is expected to see a lot of time alongside Williams in the fall but saw just one carry for one yard during the Blue Gold Game.

Denbrock says the competition for the backup quarterback position will continue into the fall. Blake Hebert and Noah Grubbs are battling now with Teddy Jerrad arriving this summer.

Hebert had the best day of the quarterbacks, engineering two touchdown drives while completing 7 of 11 passes for 103 yards. He threw a 53 yard pass to Cam Williams that setup a Jonaz Walton 4 yard touchdown run. Later Hebert threw an 8 yard touchdown pass to Elijah Burress.

“I think Blake’s made tremendous progress from where he was a year ago to now,” Denbrock said. “I see a lot of signs of someone who understands our offensive structure a little bit better, understands kind of how to adjust it a little bit better. I like the direction he’s headed in. He did some really good things in the spring.”

Grubbs, who enrolled at Notre Dame in January after leading his high school to a state football championship, was 7-of-14 for 64 yards, including a touchdown pass to Devin Fitzgerald and the interception at the end of the scrimmage.

Denbrock says that end of the scrimmage was a great example for a young quarterback like Grubbs. Denbrock called the same play two times in a row.

“The first one he took his medicine and dropped it down to the back and we gained a first down on a little drop to the running back,” Denbrock explained. “I called the exact same play on the next play and he tried to force the dig and it got picked off. That’s a little bit about young quarterbacks and maturity and how they have to handle making decisions and making sure they don’t compromise what we are trying to do as a football team along the way. That’s a great lesson for him. As frustrating as it is to have it happen, there’s no greater teacher than him going through that, understanding that and now getting back for it.”

Notre Dame opens the 2026 season on Sunday, September 6^th at Lambeau Field against Wisconsin.