During the first few weeks of the Notre Dame football season, the Irish defense emerged as a major concern. Conceding an average of nearly 35 points to Miami, Texas A&M and Purdue not only set the Irish miles back defensively from where they were last year, but also lost them two games right out of the gate.
However, Notre Dame’s defense has suddenly allowed only 13 and 7 points to its last two opponents. While claiming that Chris Ash’s unit is “back” may be a slight overreaction at this point, it’s clear that the Irish have made improvements on that side of the ball.
Helping to steer the ship through both smooth and choppy waters is a young man whose contributions weren’t necessarily a guarantee in 2025. It’s sophomore defensive end Boubacar Traore, who has returned from a torn ACL suffered last September to play his best football and lead the Irish defense back to where it needs to be.
“Week by week, I feel like everyone on the defense has been progressing in the right direction,” Traore said. “We’re just focusing on playing as a team, just playing fast and just playing violent.”
Even when Notre Dame’s defense wasn’t in great shape early on, Traore made an impact each week. He’s averaged nearly a full tackle for loss and more than half a sack per game, often coming up with timely pressure on third downs.
Last week against Boise State, his four tackles and half a sack factored into keeping quarterback Maddux Madsen under constant duress and adding to Notre Dame’s defensive confidence.
“It fuels us up to continue to keep applying pressure and just keep doing what we do because at the end of the day, we’re trying to be the best we can be for the [defensive backs] and the whole defense and the whole team,” Traore said.
With that added confidence, we’ve seen Traore’s play become a bit louder in recent weeks. Though he arrived humbly last year in relief of the injured Jordan Botelho, his effort spoke volumes, whether it be in his pick six against Purdue or his two-sack day against Miami (Ohio).
Now, it’s Traore himself doing more of the talking, and his play hasn’t missed a beat.
“I could be quiet sometimes because I like for my play to speak for me,” Traore described. “But I’d say I’m definitely getting better at being vocal.”
Often, being a strong vocal leader involves preaching the right kind of message. And for Traore and company, that message is to set aside the anguish of an 0-2 start and continue looking ahead to the next opportunity.
“It was frustrating, but at the same time, we can’t hang our heads on those losses we took those first two weeks,” Traore said. “We’ve got more games to play, so we just have to keep moving forward and focusing on our next opponent.”
This week, the next opponent is NC State, a team whose backfield Notre Dame will have to disrupt. Quarterback CJ Bailey threw for 337 yards and four scores against Campbell last week, and top running back Hollywood Smothers is averaging more than 115 yards per contest.
If Traore and the Irish contain those two, you’d have to imagine they’ll extend their win streak to four.
“As long as we’re taking the stuff that we need to get better at in practice and just continuing to win each day, I feel like we’re gonna have a really good Saturday,” Traore summed up.
Looking to improve their record to 4-2 and perhaps re-enter the national top 15, the Irish will host NC State at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday.