Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UNDER THE DOME agreed to be profiled on an all-access series on premium cable channel Show- time. "A Season With Notre Dame Football" will air weekly starting Sept. 8, three days after the opener against Texas. The 30-minute episodes will be broadcast at 10 p.m. every Tuesday. Production work began in mid-August, with cameras following players and coaches throughout the season. The success of HBO's NFL training camp series "Hard Knocks" has inspired many similar sports documentary type of programs that include professional and college teams. Earlier this year, the Notre Dame and Maryland men's basketball programs were also featured in a Showtime documentary entitled "Hoops U." It provided an elaborate behind-the-scenes look at the lives of their players and coaches through Selection Sunday on March 15. The Fighting Irish responded with one of their greatest two or three seasons in the post-World War II era, highlighted by winning the ACC championship that is now recorded for posterity. The access also might be a sign that Kelly and Co., are confident that Notre Dame is set up to have an outstanding 2015 season. That is the view from the outside, with both Sports Illustrated and the Associated Press projecting the Irish to make the four-team College Football Playoff. "The production part of it can concern you a little bit, but we're used to it," Kelly admitted. "We have cameras around. … We have an opportunity to showcase our program and what we do and how we do it with the people from Showtime. We thought it was something we couldn't pass on. That ultimately was why we went with it." The show is not intended to be fluff. A lot of human interest and drama will be involved over the course of a regular season, and the university and Kelly understand that "reality" also includes inevitable hardships or pain that might occur, so collaboration and communication of how to present it will be essential. "Anytime you're putting together a weekly show … you want to make sure you're real and it's not a public service announcement each week," Kelly said. "Their production people will want something that is certainly indicative of what goes on here on a daily basis. Having said that, we never want to embar- rass any players or coaches of the university. I think we're pretty clear on that whole collaborating thing." If things go awry during the season, the show could backfire in some ways, but Kelly believes the rewards — including potentially on the recruiting trail — should outweigh the risks. "We're definitely going to be able to tell our story each week during the year and we're going to talk a lot about why 17-year-olds should come to Notre Dame," Kelly said.