There’s been a lot of angst amongst the Notre Dame fan base this year for ESPN skipping over Notre Dame as a venue for College Gameday for ranked matchups with USC and NC State. Fans will finally get their wish for ESPN to make a Notre Dame contest the showcase game of the week, but it will be on the road with ESPN announcing that it will be going to Miami to see the #3 Irish take on undefeated Miami.
For the first time in more than a decade, we're headed to The U!
Notre Dame. Miami. We can't wait. pic.twitter.com/UEoiKKT0SN
— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) November 5, 2017
It was also finally announced yesterday that the game time will be 8:00 PM ET on ABC.
So there we have it. Notre Dame and Miami will be the Gameday game and the Irish and Canes will be the primetime game of the week. A win and the Irish have nothing but two games against unranked, albeit rivals, between them and the College Football Playoffs.
Miami did its part yesterday in making this such a big game by playing hands down their best game of the season in a 28-10 win at home over #13 Virginia Tech. The Hurricanes had been living on the edge week after week before putting together last night’s complete performance. Because of it, going to Miami was a nobrainer for ESPN with the Irish in the top 3 and Hurricanes likely headed up to 6th or 7th.
The last time Notre Dame played in a GameDay site was w2015 when ESPN set up shop in Philadelphia with Notre Dame taking on an upstart Temple Owls squad that gave Notre Dame all they could handle. Prior to that game, Notre Dame was on a 4-game losing streak in GameDay games dating back to the BCS National Championship in Miami.
This game will mark the 7th time straight time Notre Dame has been on the road in a GameDay site. The last time ESPN came to Notre Dame’s campus was back in 2012 for the Stanford game that ended in epic fashion. Notre Dame is 8-11 all-time on the road when they are playing at a GameDay site. Brian Kelly sports a record of 4-5 in GameDay appearances so this weekend could get him back to .500.
The Irish are so much bigger than Miami on both sides of the ball so on a normal day ND would dominate. Just play the full 60 mins and the Irish should prevail. Don’t let the great success of this year detract from the importance of completely dominating a second rate team in Miami.
Frankie, congratulations going to 9-0. You must have some magic , scientific formula for picking the winner. Praying this week you will have promising news. Deacons did beat the overall spread. I knew they would keep close, even though they were hopelessly beaten. If Irish play at methodical pace and not get flustered they should control Canes. No show off runs by Wimbush. Carry the ball like a fullback. To bad we won’t be hearing Doug Flutie describe His Hail Mary pass.