College football Week 1 came delivered four — count 'em — four ranked upsets with massive implications for the postseason. One of which occurred on Sunday with 2025 national runner-up Notre Dame falling on the road to Miami.
Despite making a valiant fourth quarter comeback, the No. 6 Fighting Irish were out-dueled by the No. 10 Hurricanes at Hard Rock Stadium 27-24. Miami kicker Carter Davis hit a 47-yard field goal with just over a minute to play to put his team back on top and the defense finished the job.
"WHAT A KICK! GOOOOD! FROM 47!" - Sean McDonough
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 1, 2025
"That thing might have been good from 65! He hit that with such adrenaline! WAY up top on the upright! Just a tremendous strike!" - Greg McElroy
Miami takes down Notre Dame 27-24. 🏈🎙️ #CFB pic.twitter.com/Wpr4ubo68r
The loss was a massive blow to Notre Dame, who was the fourth Top 10 team to fall on the weekend. It joins No. 1 Texas, No. 4 Clemson and No. 8 Alabama at 0-1 to start the year where expectations were sky high.
Can Notre Dame recover and still make the College Football Playoff after Week 1 loss to Miami?
There will be many online pundits, and maybe some on television, who will go ahead and bury Notre Dame's season after Week 1. That would be a premature judgment, by far.
The Fighting Irish will benefit from the fact that they weren't the only Top 10 team to falter out of the gate and they shouldn't be punished for scheduling big time matchups, especially as an Independent that has historically been criticized for cushy schedules.
Notre Dame has an immediate opportunity to redeem itself with a home matchup against No. 19 Texas A&M in Week 2. Win that game and the Irish are right back in the CFP conversation. Then it's just a matter of taking care of business the rest of the way.
That being said, they cannot afford to lose games on their schedule where they are clear favorites. That's essentially going to be every game from Week 3 onward unless the bottom collapses out from under head coach Marcus Freeman.
So, bottom line, Notre Dame is going to be just fine unless it stumbles again. A two-loss Fighting Irish team should still make one of the 12 playoff spots but there's really zero room for error if the rest of the sport ends up being deeper and better than last year.