Fighting Irish Wire makes Notre Dame Stadium debut at Blue Gold Game

Major stepping stone for our site.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The first Notre Dame event Fighting Irish Wire covered on location was the final edition of the Crossroads Classic. That was in late 2021. Since then, we have covered many Irish men’s and women’s basketball games at Purcell Pavilion and elsewhere. We also traveled to Boston a year ago when the baseball team played at Fenway Park.

However, we never have had media access to any football events, let alone one at Notre Dame Stadium. That changes today with the annual Blue Gold Game to wrap up spring practices. Yes, you read that correctly. Fighting Irish Wire is covering its first event inside the House That Rockne Built.

As of this writing, we aren’t entirely sure what we’ll be writing about today. What we are sure of is we’re excited to be here, and we hope this will serve as a dress rehearsal to covering at least some regular-season games here this fall. We appreciate your support on this big day for our site.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Watch Notre Dame conduct draft for 2024 Blue Gold Game

Which team will you cheer for?

This Saturday will mark the most exciting day for Notre Dame football since the 2023 season ended with a win in the Sun Bowl. The Blue Gold Game that has concluded spring practices for nearly a century will take place at Notre Dame Stadium.

Since [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag] took over as coach, it has been customary to live stream the draft for that game. In case you missed it live, the whole thing is available here:

Hopefully from this, you can determine which side you would like to root for. It really doesn’t matter though because everyone is on the same team at the end of the day. The important thing is to provide the fans who come out a great competition and not get injured.

Most importantly for us at Fighting Irish Wire, we will be on site at Notre Dame Stadium to cover this yearly program tradition. We can’t wait to do so.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Notre Dame prepares to break ground on new football facility

Hope it looks beautiful.

This is a transitional period for Notre Dame with a new athletic director and, this summer, a new president. [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag] is entering his third full season of hopefully will be a long tenure as football coach. So it only makes sense that a new football facility be built. That’s exactly what’s happening according to a report from Footballscoop.

Perhaps sometime after the current semester, ground on the Notre Dame campus will be broken for a state-of-the-art football building with a nine-figure cost. The plans are formally expected to be announced before Saturday’s Blue Gold Game. The meetings involving this facility have involved both past and present Notre Dame personnel.

This undoubtedly is an exciting time for the Irish as they position themselves to attract the best possible talent in the future. A new facility will go a long way towards making that happen, and hopefully, it will have played a role when and if the Irish win another national championship.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Notre Dame sets date for annual Blue-Gold Game

What? More college football already?

Even though it feels like college football just ended, fans surely are ding for it to start up again already. While spring games can’t compare to the games that count, they can scratch a itch for fans who are just dying to see more college football. Now, we know when Notre Dame will present its annual Blue-Gold Game.

The traditional culmination of Notre Dame’s spring workouts will be held Saturday, April 20. The game will kick off at 1 p.m. EDT. Fans can purchase tickets for as little as $10. For those who can’t make it out to Notre Dame Stadium, it will be streamed live on Peacock.

This is an affordable alternative for fans and families who feel they have been priced out of regular-season games at Notre Dame. At a time when it feels like sports and entertainment have become too expensive, this game remains unblemished on that front. So mark your calendar and plan accordingly in order to see college football up close.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Social media reacts to Notre Dame QB Steve Angeli’s first TD pass

Congrats, Steve!

Buried on Notre Dame’s depth chart in 2022, [autotag]Steve Angeli[/autotag] surely wondered whether he would get to shine beyond the Blue-Gold Game. Now, with [autotag]Drew Pyne[/autotag] and Tyler Buchner gone, he is firmly in the role of [autotag]Sam Hartman[/autotag]’s primary backup. With the Irish possessing a 35-3 halftime lead, Hartman had done enough. That meant Angeli would run the offense in the second half.

While it took most of the third quarter for it to happen, Angeli finally got the first touchdown pass of his collegiate career. After [autotag]Jadarian Price[/autotag] lost 4 yards on a run, Angeli threw to Price on the next play after avoiding defensive pressure, and Price took the ball 40 yards to the house:

Angeli will remember this moment for the rest of his life. Perhaps he also will remember [autotag]Clarence Lewis[/autotag]’ 33-yard interception return for a touchdown that happened immediately after. Either way, it was a memorable sequence of events.

We’ve seen impact plays from Lewis before, so let’s focus on how social media reacted to Angeli’s big moment:

Notre Dame football: Marcus Freeman recaps Blue-Gold game

How the head coach saw things in Saturday’s Blue-Gold Game

On the kind of spring day in the Bend that you hear about for the wrong reasons, Notre Dame held their annual spring football game.  It was the 15th and final spring practice of the year as the page now turns to finals, summer workouts, and a countdown to fall camp ahead of the Ireland trip to take on Navy.

Marcus Freeman met the media following the game and answered all the questions about the game.  Is the quarterback competition decided?  What did he make of a freshman hauling in 11 receptions?  And what position groups especially stuck out?

Find out how Freeman answered those and several more questions below.

Twitter reacts to Notre Dame’s Blue-Gold Game

What did you think about today’s game?

Notre Dame’s Blue-Gold Game is more than just a warmup for the players and coaches. The fans have an opportunity to warm up, too. Specifically, they can practice the booing and cheering they inevitably will do when the games start counting. That might include saying things vocally, but that also means taking those things to Twitter.

From late August through November and also likely a bowl game in late December or early January, there will be plenty of thoughts tweeted out from the biggest Irish fans on Twitter. There’s little doubt that many of them were missing the opportunity to tweet everything that makes them love the Irish and everything that frustrates them. Until you actually see some action, you only can go by what you’ve seen in the news or on social media. Worse yet, you only have last season to go off of, too.

Here are some thoughts from Irish fans for the most college football they’ll see for the next four months:

Notre Dame football: Spring game instant reaction

What was your biggest takeaway from Saturday’s action?

There are some days that Notre Dame’s annual Blue-Gold game to cap spring practice takes place on a picture-perfect Saturday in South Bend.  That was not the case this time as rain, sleet, wind, and a lot of gray sky covered campus.

However, that doesn’t mean the spring game didn’t take place and that there weren’t plenty of things to take away from it.  The gold squad jumped out to an early lead on the backs of [autotag]Sam Hartman[/autotag] and [autotag]Jayden Thomas[/autotag] and never looked back.

What stood out in this edition of the Blue-Gold game?  Here are your instant takeaways.

On3 editor: Notre Dame fans ‘absurdly dumb’ to be at Blue-Gold Game

How much bad weather are you able to take?

Everyone has their own tolerance level as far as lousy weather. At the time Notre Dame’s Blue-Gold Game began, temperatures struggled to break 40 degrees. Rain also appeared at times, sometimes pouring. For On3 managing editor Riley Gates, this was more than anyone should be able to take, and he called out the Irish fans who chose to sit through it at Notre Dame Stadium:

Look, I’m not going to pretend that I would want to be outside and freezing at a time of year when it’s supposed to be warming up. But if fans want to tolerate the elements in order to watch their favorite college football team, I’m not going to judge. They say that where there’s a will, there’s a way. If anything, it shows many Irish fans will do whatever it takes to see their team.

Sure, you might need to thaw out at the end of the day, but if it’s all worth it, that’s all that matters.

[lawrence-related id=71732]

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Twitter reacts to Sam Hartman’s first quarter during Blue-Gold Game

You like what the transfer is providing so far?

With no kickoffs during Notre Dame’s Blue-Gold Game, Irish fans immediately gained a look at transfer quarterback [autotag]Sam Hartman[/autotag].

The Wake Forest legend was incredibly productive during his time with the Demon Deacons, and he showed why right out of the gate. Representing the Gold team, Hartman hit [autotag]Jayden Thomas[/autotag] for a touchdown on his first drive, then ran for one himself on his second. He completed all five pass attempts on those two drives.

Irish fans took notice of how good Hartman was and took to Twitter to express how they felt about it. Maybe it was because [autotag]Tyler Buchner[/autotag] was the quarterback for the Blue team. Maybe it has been too long since the fan base has claimed to truly be proud of a quarterback. Either way, the reception to Hartman was a warm one. In fact, it was warmer than the weather conditions at Notre Dame Stadium: