Notre Dame and Texas Matchups in the Works

A week after the dates were announced for the long talked about Notre Dame-Miami series, Notre Dame fans got more good scheduling news with rumors of an upcoming series with Texas starting as soon as 2015.

notre-dame-texas
Notre Dame and Texas are reportedly close to agreeing on a deal to play a four game series starting as early as 2015. (Photo - Icon SMI)

Orangebloods.com broke the news of the potential series on Tuesday and several media outlets have picked up on the news since then.  There aren’t many details available this time, but reports suggest that it would be a four game series.  It’s not known whether the games would be home and home series or if off-site locations could be involved.

Notre Dame and Texas haven’t played since 1996 when the two traditional powers played a home and home over the course of the ’95 and ’96 seasons.  Notre Dame won both contests including a dramatic, last minute victory in 1996 over the 6th ranked Longhorns.  Autry Denson converted a 4th and goal option pitch from Ron Powlus to tie the game with three minutes to go before true freshman kicker Jim Sanson booted the game winning 39 yard field goal as time expired.

Overall, the two have played a total of 10 times with Notre Dame holdng an 8-2 advantage over the Lognhorns.  Three of the meetings took place in the Cotton Bowl with the most memorable being Notre Dame’s 38-10 victory that propelled them to the 1977 National Championship.

Should this series happen, Jack Swarbrick deserves some props from Notre Dame fans.  He recently finalized the deal to add three games with Miami to upcoming schedules and Notre Dame is still slated to play Oklahoma in 2012 as well.

Swarbrick has done a heck of a job improving the quality of Notre Dame’s schedule in a short time.  He gets a lot of undeserved blame for the 2010 schedule since the last few opponents were added on his watch, but his predecessor left him in a horrible position with open dates on this year’s slate.

Scheduling big name opponents takes time and these last two additions prove that.  The Miami series was two years in the making and won’t happen for another two seasons.  Should the series with Texas come to fruition, it won’t be for another five seasons.

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17 Comments

  1. I believe it has to do with when classes start. I looked and there are a lot off schools that don’t start untill next week.ND is actually in the middle as far as when most team are starting practice.I’m not worried as BK will have this team ready to go against Purdue.His attention to detail is what makes me confident. GO IRISH!!!

  2. Teams all accross the country have started their fall camps. Many of those whom didn’t start yesterday, will open today. And when does ND start their camp? Saturday. three, sometimes four days later. I’m not sure why this is. ND seems to always be behind everyone else in this regard. You would think that with a new Coach, new staff. new system, and for the most part a new QB, that the sooner that they could hit the practice field the better!

    1. Shaz,

      Don’t let this get to you. There’s only so many practices allowed, so starting camp on Saturday as opposed to Weds isn’t that big a deal. I don’t know for sure but there may have been other factors involved, things like finishing summer classes before starting fall camp, or giving BK time to wrap up a trip or visits with recruits. Whatever it was, I’m sure there were reasons for waiting.

      The important thing to remember is that the bulk of the work of getting ready for the season should already be done. The important part now is bringing the players back together, finalizing the depth chart and getting in tune for Sept 5th.

  3. Here is an interesting article on Kelly’s recruiting:

    The other thing that is interesting about ND’s recent recruiting is the school is recruiting more “athletes.” By this I mean players who are not only outstanding athletes but players who have the ability to play more than one position. They seem to be going after tall, long type athletes with growth potential. Of the 16 commitments so far, seven are listed as 6-5 or taller and have played more than one position.

    I guess that is what they mean by RKG’s

  4. This Texas match up will be critical to shutting all the critics up on ND’s emergence back on the scene!!! Kelly will have at least two national championships under his belt by then (2011 and 2013 if my predictions are correct as they usually are like when I predicted the Red Sox would win in this century when everyone doubted me. It was wicked cool to shut those Yankee Pankee fans up for once)!!! Teo will have a Heisman and soon will be followed by T Jones or C Wood. ND is is back boys!!! The Brian Kelly Express is rolling through!!!!! Everyone needs to come on board. This train is leaving town on a roll!!!! Choo Choo!!!! Choo Chooo!!! We are back baby!!!! The Kiffin Express just derailed at the gate. What a palooka he is.

  5. ND just got a commitment from 4-star saftey Eilar Hardy. He had a un-official visit in January and wasn’t that impressed, but his parents talked him into taking an official. He said he was blown away with the staff and the players he met with.

    I’m sensing a lot of excitement with the staff and the players. Brian Kelly is generating a buzz like no other since I’ve started following ND in the late 80’s.

    Saw Kelly interviewed on ESPN and he is so confident that he will win a National Championship at ND. When asked, he said it is just a matter of time. I tend to believe him because he has the track record. Davie, Ty, and CW had nothing to go on, but Kelly is a proven winner and he will win BIG at ND.

    Saturday is the start of something special at ND.

    1. My bad on Hardy, he commited back in June. Saw a recent article on him so I thought it was something new.

      Still think that this team is the beginning of something special.

  6. Wow. Texas? So you’re telling me that we will be playing the Hurricanes, Pittsburgh, Sooners, Longhorns, Trojans, Wolverines, Spartans, and still get to play Navy, and Boston College?

    Wow… Who needs the Big 10?

    I’m loving this.

  7. These two schools have the biggest fan bases in the country( although I think there are a lot of bandwagoners for texas).This could be a game everybody remembers for a long time.Think of how big the ohio state vs. texas games were, these two games might be bigger and more of an audience.Great for college football and great for Notre Dame.
    GO IRISH!

  8. This is great news — and it’s necessary. Notre Dame doesn’t need a conference as long as we schedule worthy opponents which provide good opportunities to recruit talented student athletes. If we’re in the Big Ten, we’re stuck with Penn State and Iowa and Michigan and etc. We’d never make a trip to Texas — unless we played in the Cotton Bowl.

    Let’s Go Irish!

  9. im excited about this. All of a sudden ND is getting top quality games. I dont care what anyone says about ND having no relevance, ANY big time program will and wants to play notre dame, the reason why it took soo long to happen is because the admin now is willing to play these games, unlike the admin before it. ND will not be what they used to be unless they play big name teams, because that will draw recruits.

    exaclty one month!
    GO IRISH!!!

  10. Delta & JC,

    Swarbrick and Kelly are determinded to bring ND back to the top of the college football world. Great teams, great games, and great victories!

    I’ll always remember one of Brian Kelly’s first quotes that he made soon after accepting ND head Coaching job:

    “The Pride and Tradition of Notre Dame Football will not be left to the weak, the timid, or the non committed”

    GO IRISH, BEAT PURDUE!

  11. Swarbrick has been instrumental in fending off the Big (FLOP) Ten, coupled with bringing Oklahoma, Miama and Texas to town in the future. GEE WHIZ, must mean there is some type of ND RELEVANCE or Oklahoma, Miama and Texas would not have any interest at all in playing ND. Don’t think ND is relevant, get over it irrelevant hawks we already know it is fashionable to whine about ND’s stature in the real world. Good job, Mr. Swarbrick!

  12. I absolutely love this. With our recruiting and scheduing coups of late I’m getting estatic about the direction of this program. Let’s hope the wins come next. Down here in the deep dark bayou, I rarely get to see the Irish live. An added benefit to Texas is Austin is just a short ride for me. Can’t wait. GO IRISH.

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