Blue & Gold Illustrated: 2019 Notre Dame Football Preview
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BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 2019 FOOTBALL PREVIEW ✦ 15 UNDER THE DOME Vintage Notre Dame Memorabilia Augie's Locker Room Check Out Our Wide Selection of ND Stadium Items, Jersey's, Helmets, Autographs and One of a Kind Rockne Items. Exclusive Joe Montana Signed Items. Voted Best Notre Dame Collectables in the Country! Stop In And See Our Vintage Helmet Display ~ 1890's To Present, And The Rockne Exhibit! 1811 South Bend Avenue South Bend IN 46637 Located Near Campus 574-277-NDND (6363) www.augieslockerroom.com FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK: FACEBOOK.COM/AUGIESLOCKERROOM Serving You Since 1988 Buy ✦ Sell ✦ Trade BeST SelecTion & priceS Notre Dame Football tickets www.NotreDametickets.com Tickets also available for other nationwide events including MlB, nFl, auto racing, nBa, all sports, concerts 800-925-2500 Call today for friendly, personal service and a Special Discount! TRAVEL LIMITATIONS When the 2019 football schedule was first re‑ leased a few years ago, even Notre Dame director of athletics Jack Swarbrick acknowledged at the time that playing Georgia, Michigan and Stanford all on the road would be a treacherous task. Plus, Louisville at the time under head coach Bobby Petrino and 2016 Heisman winner Lamar Jackson was a force itself, and Duke had won at Notre Dame in 2016. "That's one more tough road game than I'd like," Swarbrick admitted in the summer of 2017 about the 2019 slate. "It's not ideal … it's not like you get to choose every game or where it goes. You're working through situations where the number of transactions with the ACC is re‑ ally complicated. I understand the reaction to '19 … but it's how it fell and it's up to us to try to navigate it." However, perhaps an underrated element of the schedule is that in the 106th season since 1913 — when Jesse Harper took over as the first athletics director at Notre Dame while also coach‑ ing the football team to prominence through 1917 — this year will mark only the ninth time Notre Dame will not have back‑to‑back games on the road during the regular season. The first didn't occur until 1971 (an 8‑2 season in which the players voted no to going to a bowl), and the most recent was in 2012, a 12‑0 regular season. The others were the 1988 national title cam‑ paign, 1992 (10‑1‑1), 1994 (6‑5‑1), 2004 (6‑6), 2006 (10‑3) and 2009 (6‑6). For future schedules, Notre Dame director of athletics Jack Swarbrick has prioritized play- ing in NFL stadiums and/or big-city markets. He has also made a point to have more SEC teams on the docket. Georgia and Vanderbilt were included from 2017-19, and Arkansas, Texas A&M and Alabama will be rotated on from 2020-29 in two-game series. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA