Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM JANUARY 2025 7 Notre Dame's Shamrock Series has been a rousing success, with the Fighting Irish going 12-0 on the field. It has also allowed the Irish to play in venues such as the Alamodome in San Antonio; Yankee Sta- dium in The Bronx, N.Y.; FedEx Field in Landover, Md.; Soldier Field in Chicago; AT&T Stadium in Arling- ton, Texas; Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis; Fenway Park in Boston; and Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. On our message board at BlueandGold.com, Irish fans discussed where they would like to see Notre Dame play future Shamrock Series games. Here is a snippet of that conversation. troidG: Where would you like to see some future games? Mine are so far: Paris — Somewhere near the REAL Notre Dame. I would insist on building a stadium in the shadows of the Eiffel Tower like the Olympics and hang an 'ND' LED sign instead of the rings. In case Parisians balk at that idea, the Stade de France or their rugby stadium. Mexico City — Would be a nice destination late November. Dodger Stadium — Play an SEC team, a major [diss] to USC while they play their usually poorly at- tended home game at the Coliseum. Rome — Near the Vatican, preferably versus Miami. Since the REAL Coliseum is out, I would settle for one of their soccer stadiums. Las Vegas — Always fun. I would 100 percent bend over backward to go to any of the above locations for an ND game. Rich Starkey: I'd love to see one in Notre Dame Stadium. Ndrulzinwv: Agreed, ditch the Shamrock Series game and just play at ND. Rich Starkey: They can still wear the fancy uniforms. NDBeatSC: Why Dodger Stadium? Geez, you couldn't fit a football venue in there. Why not SoFi Stadium in LA? KCIRISH8: We already play in CA once a year. Go south … New Orleans, Nashville, ATL, Orlando … Singerhasmyback: Just do Vegas every year. It's the happiest place on the planet. FWCOACH: I look at these games through the lens of recruiting. I don't see how Paris helps build a championship team. Could it bring in nice revenue? Sure but ND isn't hurting for money. ND is already playing in Ireland periodically. Same with Mexico City and Rome. Unless those countries start playing major HS football, no thanks. Dodger Stadium is fine. ND has to recruit Cali. Sure. I like Vegas the best. ND hasn't recruited Nevada well enough. It is close enough to Cali and Arizona where ND needs to recruit. If we want an international game, play in Toronto or another large Canadian city. They play football up there. We do well in Canada and with Canadians that move to United States. ND wants to recruit St. Louis, so play one in Busch Stadium. Playing in Nashville, St. Louis, Tampa, or even Detroit would be fine with me. Big markets that ND recruits. And as Rich stated, just wear Shamrock unis for a regular home game. Have some fun with it. Asterix: Maybe a September game in Lambeau Field. Nice ND connection with Curly Lambeau. There's not much of a regional recruiting connection other than for beefy Midwestern linemen. But then again, I think kids would still be excited by a game in such a historic NFL stadium. Beyond that, while I'm not particularly in love with Las Vegas, I agree that it'd be a great place for a game due to geographic location near recruiting hotbeds and just a place that is synonymous with excitement. FROM THE WEB .com .com JOIN THE CONVERSATION AT BLUEANDGOLD.COM! Sign up for just $1 for the first 7 days! nation's best high school kicker pros- pects. According to each of the four ma- jor recruiting rankings websites, he is a top-five kicker in America. The On3 Industry Ranking lists him as the No. 2 kicker in America and the No. 20 pros- pect in Wisconsin. Schmidt — who will play in the Under Armour All-America Game in Orlando, Fla., in January — had a strong senior season. He connected on 10 of 13 field goal attempts with his only misses being on 60, 52 and 49 yards. He set a school record with a 55-yard field goal in November. FASHION STATEMENT Regarding the white pants. Please, no more. Ever. Especially vs. USC. Bad look. Kevin Corrigan Rock Island, Ill. KEEPING THE FAITH I first met Gerry Faust outside of Gi- ants Stadium in October 1983 after the Navy game, through his personal on- field bodyguard, Paul Harvey. I traveled the following week to South Carolina where the Irish pulled out the victory on a soggy, rainy day. Through Harvey, I wound up driving Gerry from the team hotel to a local radio station when the driver did not show up on time on the Friday night before the game. As a reward, he gave me a bench pass for the Carolina game. The following week in South Bend, I once again made it onto the field af- ter convincing Gerry that in order to break the outrageous ND spell having lost to USC seven consecutive times in the Coliseum after our 51-0 rout in 1966 (other than the tie in 1970), my grandmother's special holy water was in order. I tested it successfully versus USC in South Bend in the 1983 win; and that's when Gerry made me promise to douse the Coliseum the following year (1984) which not only resulted in the John Carney four-field goal win in a quagmire, 19-7, but also started a 12-game undefeated streak versus USC that did not end until another tie in I believe Lou Holtz's last year. RIP Gerry, your faith broke the USC hex. Gary A. Marzolla Mahwah, N.J. Not all Irish fans appreciated Notre Dame's all- white look against USC, especially against the Trojans' traditional cardinal-and-gold uniforms. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER