Tag: South Bend

No Single-Game Tickets Available for Notre Dame in 2020

If you were hoping to buy single-game tickets for 2020 Notre Dame games through the university, you’re out of luck.

If you were hoping to buy single-game tickets for 2020 Notre Dame games through the university, you’re out of luck. According to an email viewed by BlueandGold.com, Notre Dame’s Rivals site, the usual lottery system that distributes tickets and parking passes for single games will not be available this coming season, assuming there is one. In what should be a surprise to no one, this is an effort to keep attendance down at Notre Dame Stadium in the current environment.

The email includes the following:

“Over the past few months, we have worked diligently on a seating plan that would incorporate proper physical distancing measures to ensure Notre Dame Stadium is as safe as possible this fall. We are in the final stages of that planning process, which will greatly reduce our capacity.”

In addition, Notre Dame’s ticket allotment for road games will be reduced and might not be able to be bought. Meanwhile, lottery eligibility for next season remains under evaluation. There should be an update about that next month.

We all want to gather in South Bend on Saturdays this fall, but this is for the best. Even thinking about going to a game this season is a terrible idea, and it’s why the NCAA might just decide not to take the chance and cancel the season. However, if it doesn’t go down that route, Notre Dame rightfully has taken opportunities away from people who otherwise wouldn’t have thought twice about taking a chance.

Local News Reports on Notre Dame’s Potential 2020 Schedule Problems

Notre Dame’s trouble putting together a 2020 schedule with the Big Ten and Pac-12 going conference-only has been highlighted a lot lately.

Notre Dame’s trouble putting together a 2020 schedule with the Big Ten and Pac-12 going conference-only has been highlighted a lot lately. Gone are the annual meetings with USC and Stanford. The much-anticipated game against Wisconsin at Lambeau Field also is history. This and other related issues were discussed on a Tuesday newscast for WBND-LD, South Bend’s ABC affiliate.

We also know by now that the ACC appears willing to help the Irish fill the gaps in their schedule. What no one knows is if the 2020 college football season will start on time, be canceled or even move to the spring. Still, we’re a month-and-a-half away from the scheduled kickoff, so if the ACC indeed is going to lend a hand, it better do so quickly.

While Notre Dame’s 2020 schedule won’t look as sexy as it did a week ago, conventional wisdom dictates that nothing for the rest of the year will look ordinary. These times are strange, and everything has to be strange with it. So with that being the case, simply playing a season would be an accomplishment. You almost have to throw preseason predictions out the window because who knows how many key players can remain healthy in this environment?

20 years ago today Notre Dame hired Mike Brey

How in the world has it been 20 years since Notre Dame hired Mike Brey? Time flies when you’re having fun.

Cheers to Notre Dame head basketball coach Mike Brey, who was hired by Notre Dame 20 years ago today.

It may seem like a strange time of year for a college basketball coach to be changing jobs but if you recall, Brey replaced Matt Doherty who left South Bend after just one year, as Doherty replaced Bill Guthridge who retired from is post at North Carolina.

Despite being a relative unknown, Brey has taken Notre Dame basketball to a level of sustained success that it simply has not ever had.

In Brey’s 19 completed seasons at Notre Dame, the Fighting Irish have earned a post season berth in the NCAA Tournament 12 times and twice helped guide the Irish to Elite Eight appearances.

Brey’s 417 wins at Notre Dame are more than any other men’s basketball coach in history, including Digger Phelps who finished his career in 1991 with 393.

The former Duke assistant coach came to Notre Dame 20 years ago today from Delaware where he guided the Blue Hens to a 99-52 record in five seasons, twice earning NCAA Tournament bids.

It doesn’t matter what your profession is, 20 years at one job is beyond impressive.

A tip of the cap, or a floor-slap if you’d prefer it, to Mike Brey on two fantastic decades at Notre Dame.

Watch: Notre Dame’s 1924 Battle With Ku Klux Klan

This week has seen Notre Dame fans rise up against the notion that the “Fighting Irish” nickname should be abolished.

This week has seen Notre Dame fans rise up against the notion that the “Fighting Irish” nickname should be abolished. They see the moniker as a badge of honor, not a stereotype. One event frequently cited is when students went toe-to-toe with the Klu Klux Klan. Two years ago, “Journey Indiana” took a look at the battle that occurred in South Bend on May 17, 1924, five days before my grandfather, a 1948 Notre Dame graduate, was born:

As the video and a story about the riot from the university’s website conclude, it was the Rev. Matthew Walsh, the President at the time of the riot, who signed off on Notre Dame officially adopting the nickname “Fighting Irish” a few years later. A Klan group headquartered in South Bend was founded in 1960 and remains active, but it has posed far less of a threat to the community than the group that rallied on that fateful night. Perhaps it knows better than to risk messing with Notre Dame students again, even as we approach 100 years since the Klan last did it.

No Notre Dame players test positive for COVID-19 this week

The latest round of COVID-19 testing at Notre Dame is complete with no positive tests to report. Read more right here.

Late in June we saw every Notre Dame football player and coach get tested for COVID-19 upon their arrival back to campus with only one positive test being found.  Two weeks later that number has in fact decreased to zero.

103 football student-athletes received tests on July 1 with no positive tests coming back.  Furthermore, no tests came back with positive results for the antibodies, either, and the one player who previously tested positive has recovered and returned to voluntary workouts.

This is what I’m most interested in not so much at Notre Dame since there was only one positive test to start with, but at other colleges that have seen significantly more positive tests.

Two weeks later Notre Dame has a roster full of clean health in regards to COVID-19.  Will the numbers dip at places like Clemson, Alabama or LSU where positive tests have been a major issue to date?

The answer to that question probably gives you your best information as to if we’ll see college football this fall or not.

Here’s to hoping those numbers drop on college campuses nationwide, and everywhere else not on a college campus for that matter, as well.

The Toughest Opposing Crowd Notre Dame Ever Faced

Before Penn State became the center of the college football universe for all of the wrong reasons, it was highly respected.

Before Penn State became the center of the college football universe for all of the wrong reasons, it was highly respected. That’s why Notre Dame was happy to have a road game lined up with the Nittany Lions for its second 2007 contest. But the game’s timing turned out to be terrible. It followed the worst season-opening defeat in program history, a 33-3 disaster against Georgia Tech in South Bend, and a frenzied crowd to rival all others awaited them.

On Sept. 8, 2007, the Irish went into Happy Valley looking for stability. Ahead of the contest, Charlie Weis tabbed freshman Jimmy Clausen to make his first career start. They and the rest of the team realized quickly they would have to do it during Penn State’s annual White Out. Unlike previous years, all fans were asked to wear white instead of only the students, and it hard to find any Nittany Lion supporter among the 110,078 who packed Beaver Stadium who didn’t comply.

The Irish got on the board first with Darrin Walls’ 73-yard interception return for a touchdown. All momentum from that was lost for good when, in the final minute of the first quarter, Derrick Williams returned a punt to the end zone from 78 yards out. From there, the crowd continued to make noise, and everything that could go wrong for the Irish did in a 31-10 loss. Just watch these videos from the game and say you’d be able to focus on your job:

With a completely unforgiving backdrop, the Notre Dame offense was shut down. Clausen was sacked six times, and the run game accumulated no yardage on 26 carries. It’s miraculous that Clausen only threw one interception and that none of the Irish’s three fumbles were lost. Had it gone any worse, Clausen surely would have been pulled.

Loud crowd noise make communication difficult, and that’s exactly what happened. The Irish were penalized 14 times for 97 yards. To say it simply was due to no discipline would be selling the Penn State fans short. They forced the Irish to listen to each other carefully and closely, and it still wasn’t enough to keep the flags off the field.

Though it was a bad night to be a Notre Dame supporter and it came during a 3-9 season, you had to give the Penn State fans credit. They went all out in supporting their team, and it paid off for them. Of course, Penn State’s reputation was shattered a few years later, and it’s perfectly reasonable if you continue to look at that program, university and community through that lens. Regardless, this is a fan base that knows how to cheer, and for one night, Irish fans got to experience it firsthand.

68 days until Notre Dame football returns!

Notre Dame football returns in 68 days! Don’t miss today’s countdown as we look back on a rivalry that has been played, well, 68 times.

Another day down and just 68 more to go until we get Notre Dame football officially back in our lives.  We’ll be breaking down plenty of position battles, starting spots and everything regarding the 2020 Fighting Irish football team.

Day 69 looked back at a recent Notre Dame All-American who made a game changing defensive play in a win over a then top-fifteen team.  Now we move to 68 and an opponent who has come up here fairly often in recent weeks.

68: Total meetings all-time between Notre Dame and Pitt in football

I never think of Pitt as one of Notre Dame’s biggest rivals, probably because in my lifetime I can count on one hand how many times the Panthers have finished a season ranked in the top 25.

However, Notre Dame and Pitt have been playing nearly forever and the series has included some incredible moments even if the Panthers haven’t been a national championship contender like they were in the Dan Marino and Tony Dorsett days.

Notre Dame has dominated those 68 games, winning 47 of them and never losing more than three straight meetings in any point of the series that dates back all the way to 1930.

The series has had plenty of memorable moments, like when Allen Pinkett helped Notre Dame get a win at No. 1 Pitt in 1982, the 2012 comeback win that somehow kept Notre Dame’s unbeaten season alive or the 2018 thriller that again, somehow kept Notre Dame’s unbeaten season alive.

The most iconic moment in the history of this rivalry however may have happened when a pair of teams who finished the year a combined 16-10, battled to a three overtime game on the first day of November in 2008.

After blowing a 17-3 and being forced to overtime, Notre Dame played host to one of the more embarrassing moments for a grounds crew in sports history.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bU7wOJb58o&w=560&h=315]

The only thing worse was eventually losing that game and stumbling to a 7-6 final record after a promising 4-1 start.

They may not be on the schedule even close to annually anymore and they may not be in the national championship picture often, but the Notre Dame/Pitt rivalry continues to provide memorable moments all these years later and is the game that scares me the most in terms of an upset entering the 2020 season.

Related – Way too early game-by-game predictions for Notre Dame football in 2020

Daelin Hayes Speaks at Notre Dame Juneteenth Rally

Like many locations around the country, Notre Dame served as a location for a Juneteenth rally Friday.

Like many locations around the country, Notre Dame served as a location for a Juneteenth rally Friday. Among the participants in South Bend were members of the Irish football team, coaches from every varsity sport and the Rev. John Jenkins, the university’s president. About 1,500 people gathered on a 90-degree day.

Irish defensive end Daelin Hayes was among the speakers to the crowd. He talked about him and his fiancee visiting Lincoln Elementary School in South Bend twice a week to work on conflict resolution with students there. He hoped his teammates would be involved with community outreach programs, too.

Hayes and offensive lineman Max Siegel also called for Notre Dame to mandate cultural competency classes for the university’s incoming freshmen. While Hayes spoke out against discrimination and called for the university to diversify across the board, Siegel shared some unsettling stories involving his race in the classroom and around campus.

Notre Dame is known for building and fostering leaders. These may be among its important ones yet. Change already is happening, and it’s starting with young people like these.

ESPN Names Jimmy Clausen Notre Dame’s Most Hyped Recruit

ESPN+ subscribers got a treat Thursday when Tom VanHaaren released a list of the most hyped recruits from ESPN’s Way Too Early Top 25.

ESPN+ subscribers got a treat Thursday when Tom VanHaaren released a list of the most hyped recruits in recent years from ESPN’s Way Too Early Top 25. The list goes back to the 2007 recruiting class. At No. 10, Notre Dame qualifies for this list.

In the Irish’s case, you have go back to the earliest recruiting class used for this list to find their most hyped prospect. The name that was drawn could qualify for both this and a most overrated recruit list. That happens when your name is Jimmy Clausen.

Clausen’s entry begins by mentioning how he announced his commitment to Notre Dame by getting out of a limo at the College Football Hall of Fame with a 2000s hairdo and his high school state championship rings. Since he was ranked eighth in his recruiting class, he must have felt he earned the right to do that. As it turned out, he had Johnny Manziel’s personality but never anything close to a Heisman Trophy season.

Over Clausen’s three years in South Bend, the Irish went 16-21, though he wasn’t the only reason for that and not even as horrible as some might remember. Regardless, his hopes as a first-round NFL pick were dashed, and his parting image with the program was a black eye from a sucker punch by a fan. At least he knew how to go out in style, even if it wasn’t pretty.

Lindy’s Names Notre Dame’s Offensive Line Best in Country

As college football presumably creeps closer to a new season, it’s time for the outside experts to rank everything possible.

As college football presumably creeps closer to a new season, it’s time for the outside experts to rank everything possible. That includes the best units at every position. In the opinion of at least one publication, Notre Dame is the best in one area.

In its annual preview issue, Lindy’s has ranked Notre Dame as having the best offensive line. Bryan Driskell of Irish Illustrated has highlighted the paragraph indicating this honor. The paragraph mentions the five returning starters for the Irish’s unit, four of which are pro prospects: Robert Hainsey, Liam Eichenberg, Tommy Kraemer, Aaron Banks and Jarrett Patterson. Special mention is given to backup Josh Lugg.

Eichenberg already has been named a preseason second team All-American. With him and a few others ranked among the best in the country at their respective positions, it won’t be shocking if a few more media outlets follow suit in high praise for the O-line. Regardless, if this unit is as good as advertised, Ian Book’s going to have an easy final season in South Bend.