​SOUTH BEND – Here Come the Irish? More like here comes another one for No. 4 Notre Dame football. After sitting and waiting for the better part of nine months to play a football game that matters, Notre Dame will get its second in seven days when it opens the home part of the 2026 schedule against Rice on Saturday, September 12. An easy day of it for the Irish? Not if you’ve paid attention to Septembers around these parts for the last four years. Even five. This season might be different. This team might be different. Here are four players to watch as Notre Dame (1-0) and Rice (1-0) meet for the first time since 2014 in a series the Irish lead 5-0. Noie: It took a half, but we saw the real Notre Dame football against WisconsinOn the Mend: Minor injuries sideline Notre Dame safety Brauntae Johnson, DT Jason OnyeRICE OWLS (1-0)RB D’Andre Hardeman, Jr. (28)If you let one set of numbers fool you about the homegrown sophomore running back with a familiar college football last name, others will surprise you. At 5-foot-8, Hardeman might seem a little small to do what he does. At 197 pounds, he might seem a little light to hold up to all the pounding that a guy at his position takes. Look at another set of numbers that landed Hardeman on The Athletic’s annual preseason Freaks List. He can bench press the standard 225 pounds a whopping 34 times. He can squat 600. He’s been clocked as fast as 21.3 mph. His body fat is a lean, mean, eight percent. Those numbers allow Hardeman to stand tall and do what he does. He rushed for career-high 77 yards on 11 carries in the opener against Houston Christian. Pay too much attention to others in the Owls’ run-heavy spread option offense, and Hardeman will get through a hole he’s not supposed to get through and run away from defenders he’s not supposed to out-run, just like his father, who tallied 1,595 yards and 30 touchdowns in his career at Texas A&M.  DE Chibby Nwajuaku (16)A switch was flipped for Nwajuaku somewhere along the last six games of the 2025 season that saw Rice finish 5-8. It was a switch that allowed the 6-2, 246-pound edge to go from just another guy to one of the guys. Even a main guy as he enters his redshirt senior year as one of four team captains. Over the last six games of 2025, Nwajuaku, a Nigeria native whose full first name is Chibuikem, played 212 snaps compared to 99 over the first seven. In the final four, he tallied 11 tackles, two tackles for loss and a sack in a season that saw him finish with career highs for tackles (28), tackles for loss (three), sacks (two) and starts (two). A three-time all-academic selection in the American Conference, Nwajuaku opened 2026 with a team-high five tackles, two for loss and two sacks. He’s now a mainstay on the edge for a Rice team that needs to be better at stopping the run. If it allowed Houston Christian 148 rushing yards (4.2 yards per carry), what might a deeper, more talented Notre Dame team do? We might see Saturda