Notre Dame Back in Prime Time in 2012
Notre Dame played its first home prime time again in over 20 years last fall when they hosted rival USC under the lights of Notre Dame Stadium. Turns out Notre Dame fans won’t have to wait another 20 years for a home night game – we won’t even have to a full year with the annual showdown with Michigan slated to kick off at 7:30 local time.
Last year’s USC game, the first home night game for Notre Dame since 1990, was seen as a huge success for Notre Dame everywhere but on the scoreboard and at the time athletic director Jack Swarbrick said that Notre Dame would use the experience to determine if they would add more night games in the future. Looks like Swarbrick and the athletic department determined that it made sense for more home night games for the Irish.
Notre Dame pulled out all of the stops last year when they held their first home night game in over two decades. They introduced new helmets, played music over the PA for the first time ever to get the crowd going, and hosted an impressive list of recruits all of which made for an incredible weekend in South Bend. That was until the team came out flat and the crowd died out early, but that’s neither here nor there at this point.
Notre Dame and Michigan also played in the first night game ever at Michigan Stadium last year – a gut-wrenching, last second loss by Notre Dame that feature a furious fourth quarter comeback by the Wolverines. The two last played under the lights of Notre Dame Stadium in 1990 when Notre Dame knocked off Michigan in the first home game of the career of Rick Mirer.
Michigan has now won the last three meetings against the Irish – all last minute wins in games in which the Irish held the lead late in he fourth quarter before surrendering last second touchdowns to Michigan. Those three straight losses will make this year’s contest even more important for Brian Kelly as he looks to notch his first win against Michigan while preventing Brady Hoke from starting 2-0 against the Irish.
Notre Dame will open it’s season with a trip to Dublin to face off against Navy and then hosting Purdue before the Wolverines come to town.
A week later when Notre Dame and Miami square off in the annual off-site game, the Irish will once again be playing in prime time with another 7:30 ET kickoff.
The other five Notre Dame home games for the year – Purdue, Stanford, BYU, Wake Forest, and Pittsburgh – will all kickoff at 3:30 ET.
Frank Vitovitch has been Co-Owner and Editor in Chief of UHND.com since joining forces with Kyle Flavin in 1999. Since that time, he has written over 2,000 articles covering Notre Dame football, recruiting, and basketball. He also works with all staff and external writers on all articles published on UHND.com. Frank's love for Notre Dame football started at a young age watching Rocket Ismail give opposing coaches ulcers in the late 1980's. By day Frank works in marketing and holds a degree in Digital Media from Drexel University. Frank's work has been cited by online/print editions of NBC Sports, ESPN, and Sports Illustrated and has been quoted on air by ESPN's Collin Cowherd. He's conducted interviews with Notre Dame legends Rocket Ismail, Randy Kinder, Lee Becton, Reggie Brooks, Michael Stonebreaker, and Ned Bolcar among others over his 20+ years of covering Notre Dame football. He's also been published in the print edition of USA Today Sports Weekly and the USA Today College Football Preview multiple times. Other Published Works/Citations for Frank Three Reasons Notre Dame Will Beat Alabama - USA Today Notre Dame Suspends WR Kevin Stepherson, RB C.J. Holmes Indefinitely - Bleacher Report Notre Dame / Ohio State Fiesta Bowl Preview - Eleven Warriors Brace Yourself: The Fighting Irish are Relevant Again - Sports on Earth Interviews with the Enemy: A Q&A with Frank Vitovitch of UHND - Yahoo! Sports Five Good Minutes: Notre Dame Football Preview With UHND.com - BC Interruption Vicious Electronic Questioning with UHND - MGO Blog
“Irish do it in the dark” – a 1988 T-shirt. (I wore it!) This is such an amazingly important game, the significance of which I think no one is really “getting.” Navy is winnable. Purdon’t is winnable. MSU is winnable. Not counting my chickens before they hatch, but recognizing potential. This (sc)UM game has enormous potential to make-or-break the season. At least that’s what I forecast. GO IRISH!
Primmmmeeeeeee Timeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Like it. Yeah, don’t want to see another damn loss to Mich.
Go Irish
Should be another heart breaker. Letting that game slip away last year was awful for BK. I cant believe every opponent didn’t throw at Gary Gray non-stop after that display vs. Mich. Blanket coverage but doesn’t know how to put his arms up. Pretty good tackler though.
kelly loses so many recruits, its so weird. what gives????
I was really hoping this would continue. Nice job Swarbrick! Last year’s USC game was a blast, even though we sucked!