What Happened the Last Time Notre Dame Played BYU?

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In the last game before their bye in 2026, your Notre Dame Fighting Irish will be headed out west and at long last granting the deepest desire of BYU fans’ hearts, playing in Provo for the first time in 22 years. Despite what the BYU community would have you believe, that game, which Tyrone Willingham’s Irish did lose, was not in fact the last one between the two teams. The Irish have won four consecutive games in the series, winning in South Bend in 2005, 2012 and 2013 and then again in Las Vegas in 2022. That game was the final in what was originally scheduled as a six-game series between the two schools, with four games set to take place in South Bend and two in Provo. Feeling the scheduling crunch post-ACC affiliation, Notre Dame first negotiated the series down to three games and then got the Cougars to turn their remaining home game into a neutral-site game in Vegas, in what I think we can all acknowledge was a somewhat villainous move.

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This left a bad taste in the Cougars’ mouths, and together with Notre Dame’s more recent decision to decline an invitation to play them for a large breakfast pastry it has made this year’s bunch the thirstiest Cougars east of Beverly Hills. BYU’s conference affiliation also means their schedule is rather easy leading up to this game (offense intended, Cougs and also Joey McGuire), so there’s a good chance they will host the Irish undefeated and ranked in the top ten.

All that said, the 2026 Irish wouldn’t be the first Notre Dame team to expose a BYU team that got a fair bit of preseason hype. The 2022 Cougars, who were in their last season of independence after realizing they couldn’t cut it the wisdom of conference membership, walked into Las Vegas 4-1, ranked no. 19 with their only loss on the road at a solid Oregon team. Quarterback Jaren Hall was a preseason awards dark horse, and had a great target in Puka Nacua on the outside. Notre Dame, meanwhile, was 2-2 and I don’t need to remind you what one of those losses was. At last, it must have seemed to the Cougar faithful, the perfidious greed of Jack Swarbrick was to be avenged.

This was not to be.

Week 7: BYU Cougars​

Last matchup: October 8, 2022 – Notre Dame 28, BYU 20

This was a very fun game (maybe the best iteration of the Shamrock Series in terms of location and opponent), which I got to attend in person. Things started auspiciously for the Irish, as Hall’s first pass ended up in the arms of Tariq Bracy for an interception. It was 2022, so the Irish only turned this into a field goal after driving the ball 36 yards. Punts were then exchanged before the Cougars found the end zone, taking a 6-3 lead into the first quarter’s end after missing the PAT.

In an early rendition of a prominent trend in the Marcus Freeman era, the Irish absolutely dominated the middle portion of the game. After scoring 22 unanswered points, they had stretched the lead to 25-6. To to their credit, the Cougars weren’t done yet. A Drew Pyne interception actually got BYU the ball back down only five, with a chance to score and take the lead. But a timely stand by the Irish defense quickly led to a punt, and the Irish tacked on a field goal to give themselves an eight-point margin. With one last shot to tie the game, the Cougars drove into Notre Dame territory. Seeking a conversion on 4th-and-1 they handed the ball to Lopini Kotoa, but Kotoa ran into a wall. That wall’s name was Jayson Ademilola.

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Stopped in their tracks, the Cougars were forced to watch Notre Dame go into victory formation and deny them their long-sought revenge.

This was one of the great Michael Mayer games, as the big fella brought in 11 catches for 118 yards and two touchdowns and set a new Notre Dame record for receptions by a tight end. Jayden Thomas also broke out in this one with an impressive one-handed catch around the back of a BYU defender, while Audric Estime and Logan Diggs each put up impressive efforts on the ground (97 yards for Estime and 93 for Diggs). While the Irish would go on to lose in bizarre fashion the next week to a truly awful Stanford team, this game was still important in establishing what would become a winning offensive formula for most of the remainder of the 2022 season, built around centering Mayer and the running game to take the pressure off Pyne as much as possible.

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For BYU’s part, this was one of those hinge-point games that we’ve all seen as college football fans where you wonder how the year might have gone differently if they had been able to pull it out. The Cougars lost three more games in a row after their defeat in Las Vegas, including a home loss to East Carolina (but remember guys CJ Carr is NOT going to be able to handle LVE), and ended the regular season 7-5.

Next time you hear a BYU fan foaming at the mouth waiting for overrated, entitled Notre Dame to be exposed in Provo, you are welcome to remind them that the last time we saw each other they were beaten by an Irish team quarterbacked by Drew Pyne that lost to Marshall three weeks prior and 3-9 Stanford the week following. Highlights below:

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