Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1546068
BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM PRESEASON 2026 5 I had plans to host my father in South Bend for Miami versus Notre Dame in November. He had plans to tag along with me to Syracuse for the Fight- ing Irish's regular-season finale in his home state of New York a few weeks later. He was born and raised in Auburn, 30 miles southwest of Syracuse. He visited me for Notre D a m e 's ga m e a ga i n s t North Carolina State last fall, and he was hooked. Again. He grew up a Notre Dame fan because of his father, and he rediscovered some of his affinity for the Fighting Irish by simply spending one home game weekend in South Bend. It was the first time he'd done so in my five years on the beat and the first Notre Dame game he'd been to, period, since the 1978 Cotton Bowl. It'll likely be the last one he attends for quite some time. Again. It'll make no sense for him to be in South Bend for the Miami game or in Syracuse for the game against the Or- ange. I won't be there either. And the reason I won't does make all the sense in the world. I'm going home. The next time my dad visits to see me do what I love and what I've done every year since I graduated college in 2018 he won't need to get on an airplane. He can just get in the car and drive a few hours to the very place I called home for four years until graduation. The University of Texas at Austin. As the years went on covering Notre Dame for Blue & Gold Illustrated, it became increasingly clear I'd only ever leave that post for one other college beat writing destination — Texas. The great folks at Inside Texas came calling this summer and presented me with an op- portunity I could not pass up. Opportu- nities, plural, is more appropriate. I get to continue covering a national champi- onship contender and dedicate each and every one of my fall Saturdays to a sport that's meant so much to me for my en- tire life, and I get to do it surrounded by the people who have always meant the most to me in the place that has almost meant the most to me. It's a no-brainer. That doesn't take anything away from the people I met and the things I did in- vesting all of myself into Fighting Irish football for the last half decade. On that note, wow, five years? Where did those go? It feels like yesterday and an eternity ago, all at once, when Brian Kelly drove off and ditched Notre Dame at the end of my first year on the beat. Since then, Marcus Freeman has en- dured and experienced everything a head coach can short of winning a na- tional championship. He even rallied his team well enough to play for one in the same season in which the Irish lost, at home, to Northern Illinois, marking the first time ever a team participating in the Mid-American Conference at the time of kickoff had ever beaten Notre Dame. The Irish were previously 8-0. Freeman was also the first Notre Dame head coach to ever start his ten- ure 0-3. You'd never know it with the amount of ranked victories he's ac- quired and stellar recruits he's gotten to sign on the dotted line, pledging their allegiance to his program and immers- ing themselves in all it has to offer. Which is quite a lot. I didn't play for Free- man, obviously, but I did have the pleasure of sit- ting front and center for each and every one of his press conferences since he took over for Kelly in 2022. I'm going to miss that. I'm going to miss so much about pulling onto Notre Dame's campus on a Saturday in Septem- ber, October, November and even December (how about that College Foot- ball Playoff game in 2024? What a spectacle!) know- ing something special was bound to happen at some point that day. At many points. There is so much that goes into and comes with being at a Notre Dame football game. A lot of it will stick with me forever. I attended 61 of the 67 Notre Dame games that have been played since the start of the 2021 season. While that run has come to an end, something tells me I'll find my way to one sometime in the future. When? I don't know. But if my dad can do it after so many years then I can, too. And I will. Heck, maybe the Longhorns and Irish will even have something to say about it and meet in the CFP this season. That'd be poetic, just like the first college football game I ever covered as a credentialed media member was when Notre Dame went to Texas in 2016. Life has a weird way of working out. This move sure works out for me and my loved ones. I won't ever forget the peo- ple and places I grew fond of in Indiana, and I will see them again down the line. But for now, I'm queuing up "Ama- rillo by Morning" for the moving truck. Then "Texas On My Mind" after that. It's time for a new beginning back where it all started. ✦ My father, Michael, went to a game at Notre Dame Stadium for the first time ever on Oct. 11, 2025. The Irish beat North Carolina State, 36-7. PHOTO COURTESY TYLER HORKA Saying Goodbye After An Unforgettable Five Years Tyler Horka has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2021. We wish him well in his new endeavor. GOLDEN GAMUT TYLER HORKA