Arkansas Razorbacks can put college football world on notice against Notre Dame

One thing that is for certain, it's down to C.J. Carr or Kenny Minchey to take over the quarterback position after last year's starter Riley Leonard saw his eligibility expire. The guy expected to have taken over passer duties was Steve Angeli, but he bailed for Syracuse during the spring portal session.

With such a quarterback race going on and neither player showing they have taken the reins, Arkansas will eventually have to prepare for two different talents if Freeman and the Irish offense don't have it figured out.

“We’re still in a competition,” Freeman said Saturday after the Notre Dame's practice. “We’ll go back and evaluate today’s practice and make a decision. We’ve got to make a decision here soon. I don’t want to put a timeline on it, but they’ve both been playing really, really well.”

While Freeman hasn't made a decision, he's waiting on one quarterback to emerge as the guy.

“As soon as one clearly says he should be the starter, then we’ll make a decision," Freeman said. "Now, we have to make a decision before we play, and we will, but there hasn’t been that moment where this guy said he is clearly the starter. They’ve been battling, and they’ve both been doing a really good job.”

The Irish are beginning to run out of time before the start of the season, and things aren't going to be easy earlier on for the national runners-up. Notre Dame opens up at Miami Aug. 31 followed by Texas A&M and Purdue before taking a trip to Arkansas, the beauty of being an FBS independent.

Playing Mind Games

Razorbacks defensive coordinator Travis Williams will have a chance to play mind games with whichever quarterback Notre Dame chooses.

Just last season, first-time Tennessee starter Nico Iamaleava got his first real taste of SEC ball after starting 2024 with a 4-0 record and dominant performances against the likes of Oklahoma and NC State.

Iamaleava struggled trough the air, completing just 17-of-29 passes for 158 yards along with 11 carries for 17 yards in what was his worst regular season performance.

The Razorbacks were worried about the Volunteers run game that averaged nearly 300 yards per game going into that fateful October night, but it was Williams' implementation of a defense not seen before that paid off.

"The game plan came in Sunday night, [and Travis Williams] had talked about what he thought he wanted to do," Arkansas coach Sam Pittman said following the Tennessee victory. "There were some tweaks and all that, but I think it was, we ran something that they had not seen us run, first of all.

"Second of all, we ran it real well. We weren’t going to let them get behind us if we could help it, and we were really worried about stopping the run, but we always had the edge covered, because we were bringing corners off a read run and we were bringing the field linebacker off the read run, and we mixed it up, so we had a little bit of an odd front and then a little bit of a four-man and mixed it up."

What Williams' defense wants to do is bring more pressure from a variety of areas on the field, including stunts from the linebackers.

"We brought total zero blitz, heat," Pittman said. "I just thought Travis did a wonderful job of calling the defensive game, and more important, getting the kids to believe in what we were going to try to do to stop this very, very, very high-powered offense."

Stout Run Defense

One thing Notre Dame has going for it is its top running back, Jeremiyah Love, who is in contention for a Heisman Trophy campaign following a productive sophomore season.

Love rushed for 1,125 yards on nearly seven yards per carry with 17 touchdowns, but once the Irish faced College Football Playoff defenses, his production suffered with just 68 total yards and one touchdown against Georgia, Penn State and Ohio State.

The Razorbacks run defense wasn't much of an issue last season, which brings about the chance of Arkansas stopping Love and his stable of teammates in the backfield.

Williams' unit allowed teams to average 3.63 yards per carry, which was good for No. 27 nationally last season. Should Arkansas have its defense figured out like it did in the early stages of 2025, an upset could be brewing in Razorback Stadium Sept. 27.

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