To be perfectly honest, I don’t know if I am emotionally ready for the 2026 college football season. Despite not attending the school or even being Catholic, I’ve been a Notre Dame Fighting Irish fan my entire life, and I’m still not over the first two games of last season.

The Irish started the 2025 campaign with back-to-back, heart-wrenching, last-second losses, first to the Miami Hurricanes and then to the Texas A&M Aggies. After their 0-2 start, the Irish dominated their remaining 10 games, including a 56-13 humiliation of the Arkansas Razorbacks. The Irish beat the Southeastern Conference Razorbacks so badly that the school fired its head coach literally the next day.