The 42nd Degree - First Five In Photos

One of the goals in this endeavor is to highlight some of the amazing content Fighting Irish Media creates on a weekly basis. There is too much for me to keep up with, to be honest. 

This week, Notre Dame football has finished its first five games of the season and it provides a great opportunity to look back at each victory through photos. I’ll pick out some great photos from our football photography crew and then I will throw in a bunch of nerdy statistics and historical context for each moment because I can’t help myself. 

You have to love the framing on this photo as DJ McKinney celebrates his interception return for a touchdown in the season opener. You get the Wisconsin cheerleaders' stoic reaction, Lambeau Field over the top of the helmets and a close up shot of the Shamrock Series uniforms. 

Did you know? 

• This was the first of three defensive touchdowns that Notre Dame has scored so far in 2026. That moves the program’s total to an eye-popping 33 non-offensive touchdowns scored since 2021 (when Marcus Freeman was the defensive coordinator, then The Dick Corbett Head Football Coach). 
• That number leads the nation during that time and reflects any touchdown scored on defense and special teams. Yes, the Luke Talich fake punt at Stanford last year is included in the total. 

It was the second play from scrimmage against Rice when Adon Shuler’s textbook tackle jarred the ball loose and Boubacar Traore scooped it up to return it for a touchdown. Notre Dame has experienced two games that effectively ended on the opponent’s first series of the game with this play against Rice and another to be covered in just a bit. This touchdown came 14 seconds into the game. 

Did you know? 

• The Traore touchdown was the eighth-quickest in program history and the fastest since safety Brandon Joseph’s first-play pick-six at Syracuse in 2022 that took just seven seconds.
• Notre Dame ended Rice’s first two drives of the game with fumble recoveries, which is the first time that has happened since 2024 against Navy. Adon Shuler was the one who recovered the first fumble in that game against the Midshipmen. 

The Micah Gilbert game? Well, I believe that Gilbert is just scratching the surface of what his career will be so let’s call it the Micah Gilbert Arrival Game. 

Did You Know? 

• Gilbert finished the game with a career-high eight catches and 170 yards. It was the first 100-yard receiving game for an Irish player since Eli Raridon’s 109 yards against NC State in 2025. 
• The 170 yards was the most for an Irish receiver since Chase Claypool caught 180 yards worth of passes against Wake Forest in 2017. 
• The 170 yards is the most for an Irish receiver during their first 100-yard performance since Maurice Stovall had 171 at Purdue in 2003. Jim Seymour holds the untouchable first 100-yard performance record with 276 yards against Purdue in 1966 – a number which also happens to be the single-game receiving yards record in a single game at Notre Dame. 

I was very satisfied at the end of the Michigan State game as a fan of running the football. I absolutely loved the final drive that featured eight straight runs by Nolan James Jr., then two knee downs in victory formation, to extinguish the final 5:02 on the game clock. 

I had an inkling that doesn’t happen very often. The offense gets the ball, doesn’t even think about throwing a pass and literally ‘runs out the clock.’ 

Did You Know?

• It has happened recently and Nolan James Jr. was involved. At Arkansas last year Notre Dame killed the final 5:19 of the game with six carries and a kneel down with James Jr. logging four rushes for 22 yards. 
• Against Michigan State James Jr. piled up eight consecutive carries for 52 yards (6.5 yards per rush) before CJ Carr kneeled down twice to end the game. I need to note here that kneel downs are attributed as a ‘team’ rush in the official statistics so in all actuality Carr did not get an official carry on that drive. 
• That is the most yards for a single Notre Dame player handling all the carries on a final drive to run out the clock since Robert Hughes had six consecutive carries for 54 yards to finish off the last 5:10 on the clock in a 44-20 victory over Western Michigan in 2010.
  There have been some other impressive ‘run out the clock’ drives for the Irish since 1970, but each of those featured two or more players with a carry on the drive. The most recent impressive drive was the 7:10 extinguished against North Carolina in 2017 when CJ Holmes (eight carries, 32 yards) and Deon McIntosh (two carries, 24 yards) drained all the remaining time off the clock. 
• We can go a step further. On or around 1969-70 the play-by-play time-of-game data is unreliable, as many times the game clock time was not recorded, so it is impossible to push back in the 1960s to find a five-or-minute more game-ending drive. I am pretty sure it happened, but I cannot prove it. What I can confirm is that the James Jr. eight carries are the most for any player handling all the carries in a final drive back to 1970. 
• The longest game-ending, run-only drive I have found was in 1991 at Stanford when the Irish drained 7:40 off the clock. Six different backs carried the ball in that game, with Jerome Bettis logging six carries for 37 yards. 

I believe that the Rice game lasted about 14 seconds. The Shuler hit, Traore fumble return and it was pretty much game over. Was the Purdue game over even faster? Since the Traore return was a scoring play, it has a definite time stamp of 14:46 when he crosses the goal line. 

Bryce Young’s first-play sack of Purdue quarterback Ryan Browne happened on the first snap from scrimmage. The picture above even shows that Young was that close to a forced fumble, which would have been an even greater harbinger of things to come for the Purdue offensive line in the game. Browne, to his credit, was able to reign in that loose ball before he hit the ground. The Boilermakers took their next snap with 14:23 to go according to the official play-by-play but I looked at the game film and Young first hit Browne at 14:57 on the clock. 

That game ended in three seconds. I know I am being a bit hyperbolic here but after that first sack, I am not sure Purdue believed they could protect the quarterback for the rest of the game. It was 14 seconds against Rice, then three seconds against Purdue. 

If you think the final Michigan State final drive made me giddy, Notre Dame’s herculean 17-play drive to answer North Carolina’s kick return to open the second half was even more satisfying. The Irish consumed 9:10 off the clock on the way to owning the ball for 13:32 of the 15:00 minutes of time in the third quarter. The picture above tells the tale of that drive, freshman Jonaz Walton cruising through huge holes cleared by the offensive line. 

Did You Know?

• It is the second nine-minute-plus drive for Notre Dame on their first possession of the second half this season. On the first drive after halftime against Michigan State the Irish drove the field in 15 plays while draining 9:48 from the clock before a Spencer Porath field goal. If you want to break any team’s thoughts of an upset, that is the perfect way to do it. 
• Five of Notre Dame’s six longest drives of the 2026 season have occurred in the second half of games when the Irish have fully asserted their control.  Across the five games, Notre Dame has rushed for 500 yards in the second half on 105 carries (an average of 4.8 yards per rush). 

Five games finished already in 2026. In this new world of the College Football Playoff and how many games it takes to get to the title game, hopefully the Irish are just one-third of the way done with the season. I can’t wait to experience the next memorable moment, coupled with a perfect image, as Notre Dame enters the October and November portion of the season. 

The 42nd Degree is written by Alan Wasielewski.

Alan has worked on campus as a member of the athletic communications team and video production unit since his graduation from Notre Dame in 2000.

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