Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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10 AUGUST 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED UNDER THE DOME Four Notre Dame players were named to the Walter Camp Pre- season All-America teams July 1. Three of them were the usual suspects — the same players who helped make the Fighting Irish a force on the defensive side of the ball in 2023. Graduate student defensive tackle Howard Cross III, graduate student safety Xavier Watts and junior cornerback Benjamin Morrison. Three starters who are surely among the best in the nation at their respective positions. Cross and Watts were named first-team Walter Camp Pre- season All-Americans. Morrison appeared on the second team along with Notre Dame wide receiver Jayden Harrison, a Mar- shall transfer who was an All-American kick returner last fall. He showed up on this year's Walter Camp second team in the same capacity. Cross was in the top five of all FBS defensive linemen with his 66 total tackles last year. Watts tied for the NCAA lead in inter- ceptions with 7. Morrison is ranked the No. 2 returning corner in college football by Pro Football Focus and should have a good shot of being a first-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. Harrison was one of five players in the country with multiple kick return touchdowns. Walter Camp, commonly dubbed "The Father of American Football," is credited with releasing the first All-America team in 1889. He's also responsible for developing play from scrimmage, set plays, numerical scoring systems and putting 11 players on the field per side. — Tyler Horka TWO INFLUENTIAL FIGURES IN FIGHTING IRISH HISTORY PASS AWAY Notre Dame lost two of the best at what they did in the span of just over a month in May and June. Multi-sport superstar Kevin Hardy, 78, passed away on May 6, and former Notre Dame director of athlet- ics Dick Rosenthal died at the age of 91 on June 11. Hardy was the first Notre Dame student-athlete in 19 years to earn a monogram in three sports. He was a defensive tackle for the Fighting Irish football team and helped Notre Dame win a national title in 1966. He was also a role player on the men's basketball team and started at right field for the baseball team. He led the Irish with a .398 batting average in 1967. Rosenthal was the Irish AD when the university inked a television contract with NBC for the first time in 1991. He helped move Notre Dame's Olym- pic sports into the Big East in 1995 and was a driv- ing force for the expansion of Notre Dame Stadium from 59,000 to 80,000 seats in 1997. Women's golf, soccer, softball, track and field, lacrosse and rowing all came to Notre Dame dur- ing Rosenthal's tenure. He served on the NCAA's Gender Equality Task Force and was the No. 37 most powerful person in sports per a ranking by The Sporting News in 1991. — Tyler Horka IRISH ADD ANOTHER FOE TO THEIR ALL-TIME OPPONENTS LIST For the first time ever, Notre Dame and Boise State will square off in football on Oct. 4, 2025. The Irish announced the news in a press release June 4. It'll mark the second consecutive season Notre Dame goes against an Foot- ball Bowl Subdivision opponent for the first time ever. The Irish are hosting Northern Illinois this fall. After the matchups against the Huskies and Bron- cos, the Irish will have faced 90 of 134 FBS teams. Boise State went 8-6 as a member of the Mountain West Conference last season. That included a 6-2 league record for the Broncos with an appearance in the 2023 LA Bowl against the UCLA Bruins. Boise State lost, 35-22. The Broncos are coached by 35-year-old Spencer Danielson. He took over as the program's interim head coach when Andy Avalos was fired in November. On Dec. 3, the Solana Beach, Calif., native was promoted to head coach, the 12th in program history. He's been at Boise State since he arrived there as a graduate assistant in 2017. Boise State is Notre Dame's 11th opponent slated for 2025. The Irish will play Texas A&M, Purdue, Boise State, USC, Navy, North Carolina State and Syracuse in South Bend, and will go on the road to face Arkansas, Boston College, Miami and Pittsburgh. The dates for the games against the Aggies (Sept. 13), Boiler- makers (Sept. 20), Arkansas (Sept. 27), Broncos (Oct. 4), Trojans (Oct. 18) and Midshipmen (Nov. 8) are set, with the other to be announced later. On June 27, Notre Dame announced that it will also renew its series with Michigan State in two years. The Irish will host the Spartans at Notre Dame Stadium on Sept. 19, 2026, and then head to East Lansing on Sept. 18, 2027. — Tyler Horka Four Notre Dame Players Named To Walter Camp Preseason All-America Teams Cornerback Benjamin Morrison was named to the Walter Camp Preseason All-America second team. He led the Irish with 10 passes broken up in 2023. PHOTO BY LARRY BLANKENSHIP