SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — When Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman studies the defensive tape of No. 1 Miami, he sees a lot of similarities to the unit that powered the Hurricanes to last season's national championship game.
Defensive end Armondo Blount reminds Freeman of first-round draft picks Rueben Bain Jr. and Akheem Mesidor. Freeman calls Marquise Lightfoot and Damon Wilson Jr. “dynamic” pass rushers. And, of course, Freeman remembers how difficult it was to open holes against defensive tackles Ahmad Moton Sr. and Justin Scott in the 2025 season-opener.
So Freeman recognizes just how critical it will be for the Fighting Irish to meet the challenge when No. 4 Notre Dame hosts Miami as one of college football's most heated rivalries is renewed.
“Their defense is their identity,” Freeman said. “They're going to be aggressive to stop the run. They're going to play some zone (coverage) early, and if you have some success, they'll turn it into man and go pressure. It's a disciplined team. They play hard and that's the thing probably more than anything, you see a group that plays extremely hard.”
The Irish counter with four returning starters along the offensive line, turning a star-studded showdown into a good, old-fashioned donnybrook, likely to be decided up front.
The tale of the tape is impressive.
While C.J. Carr has thrown 222 passes, Notre Dame’s offensive line has allowed only two sacks. Miami's defensive line, meanwhile, allows the fewest yards rushing per game, 69.8, in the Football Bowl Subdivision.
The line play is one of the big reasons the Hurricanes (8-0, 6-0 ACC, No. 1 CFP ) and the Fighting Irish (7-1, No. 11 CFP) are chasing yet another national championship trophy.
Just how critical could the line play be?
“They’ve got a veteran group of guys that do a really good job protecting him (Carr),” Miami defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman said while lauding the Irish line. “He has made his way out of sacks this year, but I think he’s taken one or two sacks all year. I think he’s like 18 touchdowns to one pick on the year. They do a really good job moving the ball.”
The question is whether that will continue against an aggressive Miami defense loaded with NFL talent.
Lightfoot forced a key second-half fumble and registered seven tackles and two sacks in last week's closer-than-expected win over North Carolina. He has seven sacks and an astounding 31 quarterback pressures this season. And while Moten and Scott have held up in the middle all season, Lightfoot understands what the Canes are up against.
“We know they have a great line, a great quarterback, and just a great scheme,” he said.
It could be an even bigger challenge for Notre Dame, and starting guard Anthonie Knapp relishes the challenge.
“As a player that’s that strong and that good, (Moten) is going to keep giving you challenges," Knapp said. "You can’t take your foot off the gas. He’s played a lot of football. He understands football. He knows where to put himself in the best position to win.”
The Irish are hoping they can do the same thing by establishing an effective ground game on early downs while protecting Carr in passing situations. And Knapp has played a key role in that success so far this season by making a virtually flawless move to guard after starting 27 games at tackle.
So far, things have worked out well for Knapp and the Irish offensive line.
“I’ve really been pleased with seeing those guys play vertically, play on the other sideline of scrimmage,” Freeman said. “It takes time. It takes reps. It takes game reps. It takes failure to understand what it takes to have success."
Notre Dame learned one lesson with its loss at No. 8 BYU in October. That's on top of the lesson they learned last year when they missed the playoffs after losing to Miami 27-24 in the opener and the following week to Texas A&M.
And this will be Notre Dame's biggest and most important test yet. So on a day the Irish will honor their late coach, Lou Holtz, the Irish want to take care of business by following their season-long motto — leave no doubt.
“They've got a great, a really a good team. That's why they're the No. 1 team in the country," Freeman said. “We're excited for the opportunity, but we've got to understand our key and our formula for success — that's the way we prepare. So we've got to continue to double down on that and realize Saturday will be here before we know it.”
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North Carolina running back Demon June (0) is tackled just short of the goal line by Miami defensive lineman Marquise Lightfoot (8) during the second half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, in Chapel Hill, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Seward)
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Democrats took control of the Texas state House after historic wins for governor and U.S. Senate in Tuesday's elections.
Republicans had taken control in the 2002 election and had held it since.
The win for Democrats was part of a series of sweeping gains in state governments for the party during the midterm elections, seizing several legislatures and shifting the balance of power across some battleground and historically Republican-leaning states.
The party took full control — both statehouse chambers and governors' offices — in at least five states where they previously shared power.
The wins put pressure on the party to answer to an electorate angry over the rising cost of living, high gas prices, inflation and the lack of affordable housing. State governments shape a wide array of policies affecting everyday lives, including tax rates and abortion rights, school choice and education funding, data center development, and the use of artificial intelligence and law enforcement surveillance cameras.
“Now it’s time to deliver,” Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Devin Remiker said.
Democrats succeeded in flipping both chambers of the Legislature in Wisconsin, breaking a 16-year Republican majority, and retained the governor's office.
They also won or retained full control of both chambers of the legislatures in Michigan, Minnesota and Pennsylvania and kept the governor's office — for trifectas in all three.
In Nevada, they gained control by winning the governor's seat and retaining the legislature.
There will be pressure on Democrats in Wisconsin and other battleground states to redraw congressional maps, just as President Donald Trump successfully urged eight Republican-led states to do ahead of this election. But that backfired, with Republicans losing most of the Democratic-held seats they had targeted to flip and others they had banked on winning.
The Republican congressional redistricting in Texas may have mobilized additional Democratic voters in some parts of the state who helped drive gains in the statehouse, said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University in Houston.
But “when we’re trying to think about why Democrats won, it’s one man in the White House and his policies — Donald Trump,” Jones said.
Even under maps that favored Republicans in Wisconsin, Democrats picked up two congressional seats in Tuesday's races. That means the state will have an evenly divided congressional delegation in 2027.
Democrats will also hold at least 28 governorships in 2027, with pickups in Georgia, Iowa, Ohio and Texas — states long held by Republicans.
And the party broke or prevented Republican supermajorities in nine legislative chambers in eight states: Florida, South Carolina, Indiana, Missouri, Iowa, Ohio, Kansas and North Carolina.
That means Republicans would need help from Democratic lawmakers to override a Democratic governor’s veto in Iowa, Ohio and North Carolina. The Associated Press has not called the governor’s race in Kansas.
The wins come after Democrats lost nearly 1,000 state legislative seats during President Barack Obama's tenure, a slide they've been trying to reverse for several cycles.
It's the biggest single-election change of partisan power in state governments since 2010, said Katie Owens Hubler, director of elections and redistricting at the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Heather Williams, president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, said the party won “historic levels of power in statehouses.” She said they hadn’t flipped this many seats nationwide since the 1980s.
“This election is about kitchen table issues, it’s about economic opportunities,” she said Wednesday. “That is what the mandate is about.”
She said Democrats will have to focus on issues that matter to middle-class voters such as improving educational opportunities and increasing access to healthcare, particularly in rural areas.
“They’re going to represent the middle class,” Williams said. “They are not going to work for a few billionaires.”
The cost of groceries, housing, healthcare, gas and utility bills were campaign talking points after legislative sessions packed with bills aiming to make life more affordable for Americans, while also providing tax relief and reining in data center development and the use of artificial intelligence.
The coming legislative session could see major efforts to lighten the tax burden on the middle class, relax housing regulations, expand access to healthcare, and force utilities and data center developers to do more to stop electricity bills from rising.
Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who won reelection, told his supporters Tuesday night that people want him and lawmakers to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, invest in infrastructure, kids, police and communities, and enshrine abortion rights for women in the state constitution.
Other newly elected governors, including Wisconsin's David Crowley and Minnesota's Amy Klobuchar, said they wanted to work with Republicans.
“I am not interested in moving Minnesota to the left or the right; I want to move us forward,” Klobuchar said.
She even had a warning for her Democratic supporters.
“Spoiler alert: You may not like every single thing I do,” she said.
Mulvihill reported from Haddonfield, New Jersey. Associated Press reporters Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and David Lieb in Washington contributed.
Iowa Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand speaks during an election night event Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt)
Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Crowley, left, greets supporters at an election night event Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
