Tag: Notre Dame Stadium

Notre Dame Stadium will host soccer friendly match this summer

Soccer is coming back to Notre Dame Stadium this summer

Historic Notre Dame Stadium will add another notch it its belt this summer, as it is expected to host a soccer friendly match this summer.

Although they have already hosted a match, another one will be coming on July 27th, as Celtic will take on Chelsea. The expectation is that the majority of the stadium will have fans, as athletic director Pete Bevacqua believes at least 70,000 people will be in attendance.

Tickets are set to go on sale towards the end of this month, so getting them early would make plenty of sense if you wanted to catch another sporting event aside from football inside Notre Dame Stadium this summer.

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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.

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Former Notre Dame quarterback foe headed to Florida State

Hand him another L at ND Stadium?

Notre Dame will have the chance to do something to an opposing quarterback that likely has never been done in the program’s long history: Beat him three times at Notre Dame Stadium.

Former Clemson and Oregon State quarterback [autotag]DJ Uiagalelei[/autotag] entered the transfer portal right after the 2023 regular season. On New Year’s Day, he announced he will join the Florida State program.

Uiagaleilei played at Clemson from 2020-2022 before transferring to Oregon State this past year.  Notre Dame beat Uiageleilei in 2020 when he started in place of Trevor Lawrence, who was out with COVID. He returned as Clemson’s starter in 2022 when the Irish beat him again. He was no longer a part of Oregon State’s roster when Notre Dame beat the Beavers in the Sun Bowl.

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Notre Dame will have a chance to hand Uiagaleilei another loss on Nov. 9 when it plays host to Florida State.

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Watch: Marcus Freeman instructs players to ‘challenge everything’

Who wouldn’t run through a wall for this guy?

Even though Notre Dame blew out Boston College, 44-0, on senior day, [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag] still isn’t satisfied. Or maybe he is satisfied, but he’s not letting his players know that. Instead, he’s doing his best to keep his players motivated ahead of the regular-season finale at USC. Here is some of what he had to say in the locker room at Notre Dame Stadium after the victory:

A national championship in Freeman’s first season isn’t happening, That’s been accepted as fact for some time now. But that’s no reason for the Irish to let up, and this is the time for Freeman to live up to his reputation as a player’s coach. He’s been able to reach this group, and that group should respond accordingly.

The Irish haven’t lost to the Trojans in some time, and Freeman will do everything in his power to ensure that continues. It should be an interesting week.

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Social media reacts to Notre Dame’s Audric Estime’s rushing touchdown

Is this his Notre Dame Stadium swan song?

It took until the second half, but Notre Dame finally is treating Wake Forest like the inferior opponent it is. The game has been opened up, and the Irish appear they will have a successful senior day. Helping make that possible is this 2-yard touchdown run by [autotag]Audric Estime[/autotag], who was set up nicely by a Deacons penalty and a couple of big completions by [autotag]Sam Hartman[/autotag]:

Although not a senior, Estime is eligible for the upcoming NFL draft, and it would be a shock if didn’t enter it. He’s proven beyond a doubt this season that he’s ready for the next level, although the decision about whether to jump early is up to him. If this is his final game at Notre Dame Stadium, he at least has given the venue one last thing to remember him by.

Here are some of the more notable reactions on social media to Estime’s score:

Social media reacts to Devyn Ford scoring Notre Dame’s first touchdown

There you go, Devyn.

[autotag]Devyn Ford[/autotag] had yet to score for Notre Dame since transferring over from Penn State. Senior day was his last opportunity to get a touchdown at Notre Dame Stadium. He finally broke through on a 12-yard reception late in the first quarter to give the Irish a 7-0 lead over Wake Forest:

Entering the game against the Deacons, Ford had 36 yards from scrimmage in nine games with 22 of those yards coming on passes. So you would have to forgive any Irish fans who somehow forgot he existed. Waiting until the last home game of the season to get on the scoresheet is an easy way for you to slip through the cracks. Still, he has to be happy to have that monkey off his back at last.

Social media probably didn’t expect to tweet about Ford today, but here are some of the best tweets that were found regarding his touchdown:

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Johnson: Notre Dame ‘not an independent’

Keep telling yourself that, Richard.

With college football almost here, old issues are starting to be debated again. Notre Dame’s independence is about as old a debate topic as it gets, but with major conference realignment coming in 2024, it feels like a hotter issue than ever. Richard Johnson of Sports Illustrated disputed the very idea of the Irish being independent on his podcast. Specifically, he cited the university being a partial ACC member:

There shouldn’t be any middle ground discussed here. Either you’re in with a conference all the way, or you’re not. Notre Dame is not a full-fledged ACC member, so it’s no use debating this particular point. Until an ACC logo permanently is painted onto the Notre Dame Stadium surface, we can’t call the football program part of it.

Notre Dame’s other athletic programs are in conferences out of necessity more than anything else. They can’t sustain themselves the way the football program can. And until the college football powers-that-be decide that independence is bad for the game, the Irish are staying independent.

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First female Notre Dame Leprechaun at football game appears

History was made at Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday.

Fans who attended Notre Dame’s game against Pittsburgh and watched on TV might have noticed something different at Notre Dame Stadium. Kylee Kazenski, a senior at the university, became the first female to portray the Notre Dame Leprechaun at a football game. While females have donned the green suit before, they haven’t done so for Notre Dame’s biggest sport until now.

Here’s a shot of Kazenski before the game:

And yes, she even participated in the pushups that are done after every Irish score:

But with the Irish continuing to run up the score on the Panthers, one had to admit doing that many pushups at once was kind of ridiculous. A TV shot showed that she eventually was just pushed up by Notre Dame’s male cheerleaders. With those arms and that many cheerleaders, that should have been easy.

Congratulations to Kylee, and here’s hoping she’s the first of many female Leprechauns to be featured at Notre Dame Stadium on Saturdays.

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Social media heavily criticizes NBC broadcast of Notre Dame-USC

Do you share these criticisms?

Notre Dame playing USC always draws a big audience no matter who’s broadcasting it. It’s one of the great rivalries in college football, so even people who don’t have a rooting interest will tune in. That means more eyes than usual are exposed to how NBC covers Irish games. It turns out that might not have been the best thing.

As has been custom for the past couple of years now, the broadcast team of Jac Collinsworth and Jason Garrett was subject to heavy criticism. But there also were noticeable sound issues as the broadcast’s audio kept cutting out at times. Most egregiously, at least for me, NBC’s feed completely cut out for an extended period in the fourth quarter, so I only heard [autotag]Jadarian Price[/autotag]’s kick return touchdown on the radio broadcast. Not a good look for the network.

NBC Sports executives need to take a good look at their Notre Dame broadcasts and correct a lot of things. Irish fans will watch regardless because they don’t have any other way to see home games short of making the trip to Notre Dame Stadium. But that doesn’t entitle NBC to put in half an effort into these games.Viewers deserve a lot better.

Here are only a few complaints from viewers on social media:

How social media reacted to Notre Dame-USC: Irish side

Pretty much everyone is happy and rightfully so.

Notre Dame fans were on edge the entire week after a disappointing loss at Louisville. It didn’t help that Caleb Williams and his high-powered USC offense were about to come to South Bend. While a victory wasn’t impossible and the Irish even were listed as a slight favorite, the confidence in a win happening wasn’t that high. Those fears were put to rest with a 38-20 win.

Maybe the best part about the win is that it not only came against the Irish’s biggest rival and made college football’s best player look vulnerable, but it came right before a bye week. That means the fans will get to enjoy it for a little longer. If the field celebrating on the Notre Dame Stadium field afterwards isn’t an indication of things to come, nothing is.

There were a lot of tweets celebrating this victory. Here are some of the best that were found: