Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com OCT. 9, 2021 11 UNDER THE DOME All that was missing was the date. News of a Notre Dame and BYU game next season in Las Vegas surfaced in early September, but without a formal announcement or a specific time on the schedule. A few weeks later, the schools provided those details. The Irish will play BYU in Las Vegas on Oct. 8, 2022 at Allegiant Stadium, home of the NFL's Raiders, they announced. It will be the 2022 Shamrock Series game and Notre Dame's first contest in the state of Nevada. The game is the completion of a three-game contract that was originally a six-year pact signed in 2010, but reduced when Notre Dame agreed to a partial scheduling agreement with the ACC. The Irish and Cougars played the first two games in 2012 and 2013 in South Bend. Both were Notre Dame wins, and the Irish have a 6-2 lead in the all-time series against BYU. Discussions between the two sides to play the final game had intensified in recent months, which BYU athletics director Tom Holmoe acknowledged in June. In July, BYU reportedly reached out to Notre Dame about playing a game in 2022. Their agreement on a game fills their 2022 schedules. Notre Dame's 2022 season begins Sept. 3 at Ohio State. The Irish host Mar- shall Sept. 10 and California Sept. 17 before a trip to North Carolina Sept. 24. The Shamrock Series precedes October home games with Stanford (Oct. 15) and UNLV (Oct. 22). Notre Dame then hosts Clemson Nov. 5, plays Navy in Baltimore Nov. 12 and travels to USC to end the regular season Nov. 26. Scheduled 2022 Notre Dame games against ACC opponents Boston College (home) and Syracuse (road) have not been given dates. Neither the Eagles nor the Orange have learned their 2022 conference schedules or have set games on Notre Dame open dates Oct. 1 and Nov. 19. Boston College plays UConn Oct. 29 when Notre Dame is also open. Syracuse does not yet have a game set for that day, either. — Patrick Engel Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly is optimistic graduate student nose tackle Kurt Hinish (concus- sion) will not miss any more games. However, he thinks freshman left tackle Blake Fisher (meniscus) could potentially miss the rest of the season. Fisher suffered a torn meniscus in the first half of the season opener at Florida State Sept. 5 and had surgery shortly afterward. The initial timetable for return was eight weeks. Now, Kelly sees any return to action this fall as a bonus. "That injury is generally something that takes you through most of the season, if not the entire season," Kelly said Sept. 30. "If [athletic trainer] Rob Hunt comes to me in Week 10 and says, 'We're well ahead of schedule,' we'll get our hopes up then. It's not even part of what we think about on a day-to-day basis that Blake is going to be back with us during the season." If Fisher is out for the year, it's an unfortunate twist after a promising offseason that saw him claim first-team left tackle reps in spring practice and earn the starting job in fall camp. He was the first Notre Dame freshman offensive tackle to start an opener since Sam Young in 2006. Sophomores Michael Carmody and Tosh Baker have each started games in Fisher's place. Fresh- man Joe Alt also played nine snaps at left tackle Sept. 25 versus Wisconsin, his first career action along the offensive line. Hinish went in the concussion protocol earlier this month and missed the 41-13 win over Wisconsin. He did not play against Cincinnati Oct. 2 and is tar- geting a return for the Oct. 9 game at Virginia Tech. "Kurt went and saw a specialist," Kelly said. "He was cleared from having any kind of head injury. It was something different. We expect to have him back next week." Hinish's absence from the Wisconsin game snapped a streak of 28 straight starts, which was the longest run of any active Irish player. If he returns at Virginia Tech as expected and remains healthy from there, he would still be on pace to finish his career with the most games played of any player in program history. He returned for a fifth season using the NCAA's COVID-19 blanker waiver that gave all 2020 fall sport athletes an extra year of eligibility. In three games this year, Hinish has five tackles and a sack. Junior Howard Cross III has started at nose tackle with Hinish out. He made a tackle for loss against Wisconsin in his first career start. — Patrick Engel Brian Kelly thinks freshman offensive tackle Blake Fisher's meniscus injury suffered Sept. 5 at Florida State could sideline him for the rest of the season. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER NOTRE DAME AND BYU FORMALLY ANNOUNCE 2022 GAME IN LAS VEGAS INJURY REPORT: KURT HINISH PROGRESSING, BLAKE FISHER MAY BE OUT FOR SEASON Notre Dame will play its first game in the state of Nevada when it takes on BYU in a Shamrock Series contest at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA