Notre Dame Football Stats: The ACC Comparison with Irish Players

The 2025-26 regular season is closed for Notre Dame football.  The team’s final record was 10-2 and all signs point to a College Football Playoff berth.

It’s also time for the annual intensification of arguments about why the Irish’s Independent status should:

1 Automatically bar them from CFP participation

2. Completely bar them from Power 5 scheduling.

Both are ridiculous arguments, but this sport is ridiculous more of the time than it isn’t.  And while we await the results of Conference Champion Weekend and how it will affect Notre Dame’s Playoff chances, let’s see how the Irish players would stack up against ACC opponents if they were to be a full conference member.

This first part is focused on the player-level stats.

Passing

Freshman quarterback CJ Carr’s stats were at the top of ACC quarterback charts in multiple categories.

He fell on the lower end of completions and would’ve been slotted in as #10, with 195 passes completed.  Boston College’s Dylan Lonergan, who had 190 pass completions, would be bumped from the leaderboard by Carr.

California’s Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele led the conference with 288 passes completed and Darian Mensah from Duke wasn’t far off with 286 passes completed.

CJ Carr fared a little better in terms of comparative passing accuracy.  He would’ve been tied with Clemson’s Cade Klubnik.  Both quarterbacks finished the 2025-26 regular season with accuracy ratings of 66.6%.  Miami (FL)’s Carson Beck sat at the top of the conference with a 74.1% completion rate.

CJ Carr and Cade Klubnik were also close when it came to passing yards.  Klubnik finished the regular season with 2,750 passing yards and Carr recorded 2,741 passing yards.

Duke’s Darian Mensah and SMU’s Kevin Jennings led the ACC in terms of passing production. Mensah tallied up 3,450 yards through the air and Jennings finished with 3,363 passing yards.

Notre Dame’s freshman quarterback really excelled when it came to throwing touchdown passes.  He would’ve been slotted as #4 in the ACC with 24 touchdown passes thrown in the regular season.  Carr would’ve bumped down NC State’s CJ Bailey who had 23 passing TDs.  The conference leader was Darian Mensah, with 28 passing touchdowns.

Rushing

Jeremiyah Love would’ve been ranked #3 in the ACC for rush attempts.  Love recorded 199 carries in the 2025-26 regular season.  The conference leader was California’s Kendrick Raphael with 215 rush attempts.

But Love would’ve been the conference’s undisputed champion in terms of rushing production.  The junior running back finished the regular season with 1,372 yards on the ground and #2 would’ve been Virginia’s J’Mari Taylor, with 997 rushing yards.

Two Notre Dame running backs would’ve cracked the conference’s leaderboard for rushing touchdowns.  Love would’ve been #1 with 18 rushing touchdowns and Jadarian Price would’ve fallen in the middle with 11 touchdowns on the ground.

Receiving

No Notre Dame Leaders

No Notre Dame Leaders

Offense

Jeremiyah Love would be the ACC’s 2025-26 leader in yards earned from scrimmage.  He’s tallied up 1,652 yards from scrimmage.  The next best is Virginia running back with J’Mari Taylor with 1,216 yards.

Defense

No Notre Dame leaders

Boubacar Traore is among the ACC’s top defensive players, regarding sacks.  He would’ve been tied for third with 7.5 regular season sacks along with Clemson defensive end Will Heldt.  North Carolina defensive lineman Melkart Abou-Jaoude led the conference with 10.5 sacks.

Three Irish defensive players would be at the top of the ACC list for interceptions.  Leonard Moore would be tied for 2nd with five interceptions.  Tae Johnson and Luke Talich were in the middle of the pack with four and three regular season interceptions, respectively.