Notre Dame football Week 5 injury report: Leonard Moore, two others still questionable for Arkansas

Notre Dame played without its best defensive player against Purdue, and it didn’t go well. The Fighting Irish defense gave up 30 points vs. the Boilermakers, and many of the plays that led to that output were through the air.

That’s where sophomore cornerback Leonard Moore comes in. Or, doesn’t.

Moore missed the Purdue game with an ankle injury he suffered a week prior vs. Texas A&M. He was joined on the sideline by Alabama defensive back transfer DeVonta Smith, who missed his second straight game with a right ankle injury of his own. North Carolina kicker transfer Noah Burnette was also held of the Purdue game with a right hip injury.

Without Moore and Smith, Notre Dame went with junior Christian Gray and freshman Mark Zackery IV as the starters at cornerback on the outside. Moore usually pairs with Gray in that capacity. Freshman Dallas Golden started at nickel, which is where Smith started the first game of the season at Miami and will presumably continue to start when he gets back to being healthy.

Notre Dame allowed 303 passing yards and 3 passing touchdowns to Purdue. The Irish were the No. 1 team in college football in passing efficiency defense the last two seasons. Through Week 4 of the 2025 season, they rank No. 103 in the same statistic. They need Moore and Smith on the field to even have a remote chance of getting anything close to what they were against the pass when Al Golden was the group’s defensive coordinator.

As for playing without Burnette, that could be an issue in a road game at Arkansas that’s expected to be close — and high-scoring. Notre Dame is favored by 5.5 points and the over/under is 64.5, per BetMGM.

The Irish relied on true freshman Erik Schmidt against the Boilermakers. He made all of his extra points, but he missed his only field goal attempt from 31 yards away when the game was already all but decided in the fourth quarter.

In two games with Notre Dame, including the season opener on the road at Miami, Burnette has made all three of his field goal attempts, with a long of 39 yards, and all seven of his extra point tries.

One final injury note: Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman told the media Monday Louisville defensive tackle transfer Jared Dawson was held out vs. the Boilermakers because of an undisclosed nagging injury that prevented him from practicing fully late last week.

Dawson played 74 defensive snaps in the Irish’s first two games but zero against Purdue. Freeman said he should be available to help out the interior of the Notre Dame defensive line against the Razorbacks. As for Moore, Smith and Burnette, they’ll remain a game-time decision unless Freeman says otherwise in his final meeting with the media before kickoff, which takes place on Thursday afternoon.