Tag: notre dame schedule

Notre Dame Football Schedule 2023: Analysis, Breakdown, 3 Things To Know

Notre Dame football schedule 2023. Analysis, breakdown, 3 things to know

Notre Dame football schedule 2023: What are the biggest games on the Fighting Irish schedule and what are 3 things to know?

Notre Dame Football Schedule 2023: 3 Things To Know

[mm-video type=playlist id=01f1343a1wt7q817p7 player_id=none image=https://collegefootballnews.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

Aug 26 Navy (in Dublin)

Sept 2 Tennessee State

Sept 9 at NC State

Sept 16 Central Michigan

Sept 23 Ohio State

Sept 30 at Duke

Oct 7 at Louisville

Oct 14 USC

Oct 21 OPEN DATE

Oct 28 Pitt

Nov 4 at Clemson

Nov 11 OPEN DATE

Nov 18 Wake Forest

Nov 25 at Stanford

2023 College Football Rankings 1-133: First Look

Notre Dame Football Schedule What To Know: The Biggest Games

It’s Notre Dame, so there’s not a whole lot of ducking when it comes to the big games. However, there are more than enough winnable battles to come up with a massive season.

It’s Notre Dame – it’s going to want to get to the College Football Playoff.

That means it has to hit the layups, and it has to nail at least three of the four deep shots. With all due respect to road games against loaded Duke and Louisville teams, the season comes down to at NC State, Ohio State, USC, at Clemson. Lose two of those four, and the CFP is out.

Lose one, and it’s going to be really, really tough to make the tournament – the Irish would have to be perfect against everyone else, and there are way too many landmines.

Unfortunately, there isn’t an open week before any of those big four games, with the closest exception being the Tennessee State game before going to Raleigh to face NC State.

Notre Dame Football Schedule What Really Matters

The ACC schedule isn’t a breeze, partly because that Clemson game on the road is in early November right after having to deal with Pitt.

There isn’t a true dud in the ACC bunch. Duke – don’t laugh, it’s coming off a terrific year with everyone back – is nasty on the road the week after dealing with Ohio State. Going to Louisville the week after that is a problem, too.

Pitt and that pass rush is always dangerous, and the Sam Hartman Invitational against Wake Forest – when the new Irish starting quarterback faces his former team – should be an offensive fight.

Notre Dame Football Schedule What’s Going To Happen?

Getting to six wins and a bowl won’t be any sort of an issue, but obviously that’s not what the content the 2023 Notre Dame team will be here for.

How close can it get to 11-1 and the College Football Playoff?

In an expanded era – 2024 – this team could go 10-2 with this slate and get in. 10-2 won’t cut it this year, and unfortunately, it’s asking a lot of anyone to get by Ohio State and USC and at Clemson clean, and without misfires against any of the other good teams on the schedule.

[protected-iframe id=”361699434b6d70baf15f631ed2408ac1-97672683-92922408″ info=”https://www.googletagservices.com/tag/js/gpt.js” ]

2023 College Football Schedules: All 131 Teams

ESPN FPI projections for entire Notre Dame season

Which projection is the most surprising to you?

Yesterday we spent a good amount of time here at Fighting Irish Wire discussing if holding Marcus Freeman to a 10-2 standard was fair in his first year, and if Notre Dame were to finish with that mark, if it’d feel like an accomplishment or like a disappointment.

Today, ESPN released their FPI game-by-game predictions for the 2022 season which included what they think Notre Dame’s chances are to win each of their 12 regular season contests.

Here are the chances ESPN‘s FPI give Notre Dame in all 12 games and at the end we’ll share how some of those numbers compare to other powerhouse programs entering the year.

Notre Dame basketball adds Saturday game

Notre Dame went searching for a local basketball opponent for Saturday and have found one. Details here.

We’re one game into basketball season on the men’s side and already things are being affected in a big way.

The 0-1 Fighting Irish saw their game against Tennessee that was scheduled to be played this Saturday canceled due to a COVID-19 outbreak with the Volunteers basketball team.  As a result, Mike Brey took to Twitter in search of an opponent on short notice.

As it turns out, he and Notre Dame were able to find one as the Irish will now take on Purdue Fort Wayne on Saturday morning with tip-off scheduled for 11 a.m. ET at Purcell Pavillion.

Notre Dame is 0-1 on the season after losing their opener at Michigan State on Saturday.  Brey and the Fighting Irish return to the court this Wednesday when they play host to Western Michigan.

Kickoff time set for Notre Dame vs. Boston College

Kickoff time has been announced for Notre Dame’s trip to Boston College this weekend as the Irish look to avoid an upset at the hands of BC.

This Saturday’s Notre Dame game at Boston College has an official kickoff time set after the Irish upset of Clemson last week.

Notre Dame fans will have to keep the majority of their afternoons free as the ball will be teed up at 3:30 p.m. ET and will be shown nationwide on ABC.

Notre Dame moved to 7-0 on their season with the upset victory of Clemson and is the only remaining unbeaten team in the ACC.

Boston College is 5-3 on the year after sneaking by Syracuse with a 16-13 victory on Saturday.

As you’re probably aware, last time Notre Dame knocked off No. 1 all the way back in 1993, they lost to Boston College a week later which ruined their national championship dreams.

Notre Dame Football: 3 game series with South Florida announced

Notre Dame won’t be playing South Florida just once in the years to come, but 3 times.

It won’t just be a replacement for the makeshift 2020 schedule that South Florida will be a part of with Notre Dame but instead a series the Fighting Irish and Bulls will begin on September 19.

South Florida announced the news we had seen reported a week or so ago, that the Bulls football team would be coming to Notre Dame on September 19 of this season.

In addition, the announcement states that Notre Dame will be taking on South Florida in their home confines of Raymond James Stadium, also home to the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers on a future date, as well as the Bulls making a second trip in the future to Notre Dame.

That game will be Notre Dame’s first in Raymond James Stadium, and we’re all aware of how much pride the program takes in playng

Notre Dame and South Florida have played just once before as the Bulls upset then No. 16 Notre Dame to open the 2011 season in South Bend.  For what its worth, it was the maddest I’ve ever left Notre Dame Stadium as a fan.

It’s also worth throwing South Florida some props for their scheduling in the future as Florida, Alabama, Louisville, North Carolina State, Boise State and Miami (FL) are also scheduled to play at Raymond James Stadium in the next eight years.

Related:  The eight teams Notre Dame football has played but never beaten (hint – a team mentioned in this piece is on the list)

 

Notre Dame Football: The maddest I’ve ever left Notre Dame Stadium

With reports out that Notre Dame will be squaring off with South Florida on September 19, flashbacks immediately came to me from the epic disaster that was that Saturday afternoon.

I’m happy to say I’ve been able to spend countless hours in ballparks, arenas and stadiums across this entire country.  I’ve seen my teams pull upsets, clinch championships and suffer plenty of heartbreaking and blowout defeats.

I’ve never been as mad leaving a game in my life as I was on September 3, 2011, though.

With reports out that Notre Dame will be squaring off with South Florida on September 19, flashbacks immediately came to me from the epic disaster that was that Saturday afternoon.

After a 1-3 and 4-5 start in 2010, Notre Dame won their final three regular season games, including their first win over USC in nearly a decade, before obliterating Miami (FL) in the Sun Bowl.

The improvement the team made that year was clear and the hype began to follow the Irish a bit as the entered the season ranked 16th overall in the nation.

To open that season South Florida came to town and pretty much everything that could wrong, went wrong for Notre Dame that day.

As Dayne Crist was about to put an exclamation point on the opening drive with a touchdown, Jonas Gray fumbled and saw Kayvon Webster run it back 96 yards for a South Florida touchdown.

Early in the second quarter the Irish were again about to get on the scoreboard when a Crist pass deflected off of the hands of TJ Jones and was intercepted in the end zone for a Bulls touchback.

Theo Riddick would get in on the action before halftime as he muffed a punt that was recovered by USF and led to a Bulls field goal and their eventual 16-0 halftime lead.

Rains and thunderstorms would come and Notre Dame would finally wake up a bit behind Tommy Rees who threw for nearly 300 yards off the bench, but five turnovers did the Domers in that afternoon and my blood still boils thinking about how dumb that loss was.

Notre Dame out-gained USF that day 508-254.  For the most part they dominated.

Unfortunately that included in the turnover department where the Irish finished with five to USF’s zero.

It was a dumb loss, maddening and quickly deflated the high hopes of 2011 while the lightning delays only made matters worse.

I’ve never walked out of a stadium so mad about what I had just watched in my life.  I’m glad life has changed my perspective on sports a bit since.

A week later things would only get worse as the Irish would gift Michigan a game that still makes no sense.

With Duke and South Florida to start the season this year, Notre Dame fans will see those names and remember a few awful memories from September home games in somewhat recent seasons.

Let’s hope that this time USF’s new head coach Jeff Scott is the one turning purple on the sideline, and not Brian Kelly.

If for some god-forsaken reason you’d like to re-live that 2011 contest you can do so here, courtesy of “The Vault: ND on NBC”.

Related:  The eight teams Notre Dame football has played but never beaten (hint – a team mentioned in this piece is on the list)

Notre Dame Football: South Florida to South Bend?

I’ve never been more upset leaving a game than i was last time USF came to Notre Dame Stadium.

I’ve been to baseball games where my team (the Cubs) were down by six runs before they came to bat.

I’ve been to football games where the team I’m pulling for loses by way of a running back aiding a sneaking quarterback into the end zone and by way of double-doink.

I have never been as frustrated or angry after watching the team I was rooting for lose in person than I was in September of 2011 when Notre Dame looked like they belonged in a Benny Hill produced piece and somehow lost at home to South Florida.

A South Florida team that went all of 5-7 that season.

The fumble return, the goal line interception, the lightning delays and the outcome made the experience nothing short of awful.

And now according to a report from Bryan Driskell of Irish Breakdown, South Florida will be coming to Notre Dame Stadium on September 19 to fill the void left by the Western Michigan game being cancelled.

South Florida had some very strong years recently, combining to go 21-4 between 2016-17. The Bulls have gone just 11-14 the last two seasons.

Notre Dame Football: No September 19 opponent seems likely

When the MAC canceled their football season just over a week ago it was the first of what became multiple conferences to do so over the next couple days. For Notre Dame and a couple other ACC programs it meant that the “plus one” part of the …

When the MAC canceled their football season just over a week ago it was the first of what became multiple conferences to do so over the next couple days.

For Notre Dame and a couple other ACC programs it meant that the “plus one” part of the schedule needed reworked as the Irish were set to host Western Michigan of the MAC on September 19.

With that game canceled it doesn’t appear an announcement of a replacement opponent appears anything near imminent.

Irish Illustrated reports that the game may not even be filled and instead, Notre Dame would play only their ten scheduled ACC contests.

Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick is quoted in the piece by longtime Notre Dame beat reporter Tim Prister, saying:

“While the Big Ten and the Pac-12 made their final decisions on the fall, we made the decision to practice today…that gives us some leeway as the start of the season approaches.”

As Prister’s piece mentions, Notre Dame’s open game would have to be played against a member of the American Athletic Conference, Conference USA or Sun Belt as those three have no current restrictions on travel or out-of-conference games.

Army, BYU and Liberty are also possibilities as they’re the three remaining independents playing football this fall.

I have trouble believing that if Notre Dame wants to fill that open date that it wouldn’t be able to given the possible suitors.

Before you ask “what good would beating up a bad Sun Belt team do for anyone?” Ive already got your answer:

For the football team it’d provide nothing more than a Saturday afternoon to work some kinks out.

For NBC it’d be another Saturday to be able to sell a Notre Dame game, specifically on a weekend that the SEC isn’t scheduled to play on.

Notre Dame returns to classes Monday

The University of Notre Dame has officially reopened as classes for the fall semester of 2020 began today.

After a weekend of rumors and speculation about college football taking place or not taking place in 2020, some colleges and universities are officially opening their doors to students this week.

The University of Notre Dame is one such institution as they begin the new school year with their fall semester today.  Students will have classes for fall term straight through until Thanksgiving and then be on break until January 11, 2021.

With classes getting going and”normalcy” somewhat being returned to in that sense, we’d like to wish the best to all students, faculty and staff in what will undoubtedly be an incredibly strange academic year

No Notre Dame/Navy for first time since 1926

There will be no Notre Dame/Navy game this fall for the first time in almost a century. The uniqueness of all of it will be missed in 2020.

It may be one of the most lopsided rivalries in all of sports and it may not feel like your traditional rivalry filled with dislike, disrespect and hate, but Notre Dame and Navy have played football every fall against each other since 1927.

That unfortunately won’t be the case this fall, however.

With the nationwide pandemic due to COVID-19 and the conferences of college football scurrying to put together a plan for the year, Notre Dame joined the ACC for the 2020 season.

Part of the ACC guidelines were that member schools could play just one out-of-conference game and that one game had to be played in the ACC member schools home state.

As a result, Notre Dame and Navy, which was set to be played in Annapolis, Maryland this September, is now off.

It’s the first time since 1926 that these two won’t meet on the football field.

I know the Navy game is one that Notre Dame seemingly has nothing to gain from:

  • An offense that is equal parts unique and physical that is nothing like Notre Dame plays against the entire rest of the season.
  • A national perception that a win means nothing, even if its in blowout fashion over a ranked opponent, like was the case when Notre Dame beat No. 23 Navy 52-20 in 2019.
  • Lose and jokes will be made about it literally over a decade later.

Yeah there are negatives that come with it.  It’s also tradition and something that unless you’re knocking on the door of the century mark in years, you haven’t seen before.

That’s not to say some traditions aren’t worth re-examining, see the end of the Notre Dame series with Michigan, Michigan State and Purdue in the last decade.

Notre Dame and Navy might not be the most thrilling of rivalries and it may not get your blood boiling like when USC or Michigan are in town, but it’s a tradition that has been going on seemingly forever and I’m sad to see everything from the different feel on campus that game day to the playing of the Alma maters after the game vanish for this fall.

Here’s to hoping things get back to normal  with these two in 2021.