Mitch Jeter Steps Up Big Against Texas A&M

The headlines of the week in South Bend will be talking about head coach Marcus Freeman’s signature win, the dynamic play of the running backs and Riley Leonard’s debut. 

They should also be talking about Mitch Jeter. 

The graduate student kicker made his debut for the Irish, but he wasn’t in unfamiliar territory. Jeter transferred into South Bend from South Carolina, where he spent his first four seasons of college football. 

“Obviously Notre Dame has got a great team and has great recruits coming in all the time, so I feel like we're able to just have a positive outlook on every single year,” Jeter said.

“Whenever I was kind of looking around, it was really what was like the best opportunity for me as a graduate student to be able to go to a school that I could get a really good master's degree from and play top-tier football as well.” 

This was his third time kicking under the bright lights of Kyle Field. 

“It’s a great place to play. Playing in the SEC is pretty top-notch,” Jeter said. “To come in here and get out with a victory is great for our team. It's a great place to play. I think this is my third time playing here, so I've gotten to see it a couple times, and some other place in the SEC too, so it compares like none other.” 

Jeter was the leading point-scorer for the Gamecocks in 2023 and was perfect on all of his field goal attempts as a junior in 2022.  

Jeter’s experience came through big-time for the Irish whenever they called his number. He knocked through his two attempts in the first half, from 46 and 26 yards, tying the game each time. 

But Jeter’s biggest moment came with the Irish already up seven with just over 30 seconds to go. This time, he was being trotted out to boot another 46-yarder, with all of the wrath of College Station bearing down on him. 

He nailed it, putting the Irish up 10 and sending the 12th Man home silent. 

Even though he was up at the podium as one of the stars of the game, he still took time to credit the entire special teams operation. 

“I really want to give some credit to my long snapper and my holder, Rino Monteforte and Chris Salerno, both those guys, being able to go out there in their first games for Notre Dame as starters, and being able to go out there and execute, " Jeter said. 

“Aside from the noise and the crowd and everything that was out there, just being able to go out there and do their jobs like we do in practice, and be able to set the tone early.”

“Mitch was big-time,” head coach Marcus Freeman said. “That was clutch. There was a lot of thought going into that field goal, whether to go for it on fourth or kick the field goal. Ultimately, we made the decision to kick it, and that was clutch.”  

As Freeman said, Jeter was just about as clutch as you can get Saturday night — a good sign for the kicking operation. 

After all, it might not get much tougher than that for Jeter and company. 

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