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Notre Dame made the most disrespectful playcall against Arkansas

Originally posted on Larry Brown Sports | By Grey Papke | Last updated Sep 27, 2025 3:58 PM ET

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish pulled out one of the most disrespectful playcalls of the year during Saturday’s game against Arkansas.

The Fighting Irish held a 42-13 lead over the Razorbacks early in the third quarter of Saturday’s game at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Ar. Arkansas made a defensive stand to force Notre Dame to punt for the first time all game.

That was how it appeared, anyway. Despite the lopsided score and the fact that they had the ball at their own 25-yard line, Notre Dame decided to run a fake punt, which they converted.

Hogs force a 3 and Out

ND pulls off a fake punt hahahah pic.twitter.com/zrcXVVMEib
— Grant Speaks (@GrantSpeaks1) September 27, 2025

This is just rubbing Arkansas’ nose in it. The Irish obviously had the game well in hand and there wasn’t much upside to running a fake, but they did.

Notre Dame ended up turning the ball over on downs later in the drive when they were sacked on 4th and 1 from the Arkansas 26.

Marcus Freeman has been accused of being too conservative in the past on fourth down. Nobody will be saying that in this instance. If anything, it was borderline disrespectful.

The Fighting Irish went on to win 56-13 to move to 2-2 on the season. Arkansas has now lost three straight after beating two cupcakes to open their season.

This article first appeared on Larry Brown Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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