In just under a month, Notre Dame will officially kick off spring football 2015 after announcing the dates for both the start of spring ball – March 18 – and the annual Notre Dame Blue-Gold game – April 18 – yesterday.
UPDATE: The 2015 Notre Dame Blue-Gold Game will be televised live on NBCSN on April 18 at 12:30.
So mark your calendars Irish fans, the 2015 Notre Dame Blue Gold Game will be in just under two months from now on April 18. What we don’t know, at this time however, is where that game will be played. Rumors floated a month ago that the game could potentially be played at Soldier Field in Chicago due to the construction from the Campus Crossroads Project that started this off-season. Brian Kelly said at his Signing Day Presser, however, that the game would likely be played somewhere on or near campus.
This spring figures to be one of the more intriguing of the Brian Kelly with yet another quarterback controversy. Everett Golson and Malik Zaire are set to square off in what could be the most heated quarterback derby of all the competitions that have taken place during the Brian Kelly era.
In addition to the quarterback race Notre Dame will also be looking to improve a defense that fell apart down the stretch as injuries ravaged Brian VanGorder’s troops on his first year on the job. He’ll be looking for some answers at linebacker while being without Joe Schmidt for spring football and safety specifically this spring, but will also need to find some source of a pass rush as well in order for the Notre Dame defense to move forward in 2015.
Mix in some intriguing early enrollees in Jerry Tillery who has surprisingly started his career on the defensive side of the ball and linebacker Tevon Coney who could force his way onto the field early along with center Tristen Hoge and defensive tackle Micah Dew-Treadway and it’s sure to be an interesting spring.
Other notable dates announced by Notre Dame were the annual Notre Dame Pro Day which will take place on March 31 and the annual Coaches’s Clinic from March 26-28.
It is not snobbish. Due to the construction they had to move it to the practice field. Since it is a “practice field” and was not built to hold hundreds or thousands of people ofcourse it would be invite only. How would all the travelers feel after they spent the hundreds of dollars traveling to watch a game that they can’t even see because of all the people, it’s a practice field for goodness sake how many people do you really think could fit. Agreed it was poor planning and they could of found a better place but snobbish isn’t the word.
They definitely haven’t planned things out very well with the construction and all, but the invite only thing does make some sense, even if it is a bit snobby. If it’s at LaBar, it’s just too small to accommodate the normal amount of people that make the trip to the game. I’m not sure how much the soccer field holds, but they must have judged that that would be tough numbers-wise as well. I guess then the logical thing would be to schedule it off-site (Lucas Oil or something like that), but that’s a lot of travel and logistics for just doing a spring scrimmage. It totally sucks for us fans, but it’s probably the most practical thing for the team itself. Assuming the construction is done by this time next year, it won’t be invite only. This is a one-time thing.
This years game isn’t going to go well. Notre Dame is being snobbish about the game,and only offering invite “only”. I go to the game every year and now people can’t go unless your invited. I guess us “fans” aren’t important enough to get tickets. I don’t think they realize who makes them money.
Snobbish? The La Bar facility is a very small place to hold the practice. There is no way that a typical Spring game crowd can fit. Don’t take it personally Travis, they are well aware of who “makes them the money” and if you are part of that group, you should expect an invite.
invite only that sounds awful snobbish to me,this game was always a family affair weekend,fans from all over the country always attended.don’t LIKE!!!
I agree they are getting snobby about games and tickets.
todays clip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13MQFCfCYdQ
Just announced that it is going to be at the La Bar practice facility on campus and tickets are by invite only… no public ticket sales.. this was in the south bend tribune posted just this afternoon 3/2/2015
Excuse me, it was posted on the wsbt.com website not the south bend tribune.
Uh oh, robby is going to be upset at this development.
When will the brunch tickets go on sale?
I hope they play the game at ND soccer or lacrosse field. If not a really cool local high school football field. For me it would kill the atmosphere of the game if it was at some big time NFL stadium. I would chose to watch it on my computer instead of going to the game.
This is going to be a nightmare for out of town travel plans. Trying to get a group to agree on a plan and coordinate a weekend of activities and hotels isn’t too easy without more than a vague idea of it being within 2 hrs of South Bend. The staff at ND has a sweet job, living on campus and their lives revolving around a college schedule. As for the rest of us, we don’t have the luxury of such a whimsical lifestyle. This is frustrating, I’ve already turned down military orders to run a project during the game and have certain people commit to Chicago and others commit to South Bend, I’m starting to understand why coaches are leaving…
Yes, a true nightmare! It’s hard to imagine the pain and strife you are going through trying to schedule a trip to watch a scrimmage. Just the other day I struggled with whether or not to play golf at 10:00am or 10:08. It was devastating.
Thank you for the compassion Ron, its rewarding to get reminders about the uniqueness of Notre Dame and its fan base being apart of the Body of believers and the blessings graced to some of us to have such economic and time security to be in such a position in life. I’m sorry my military pay and schedule is trivial to you and this scrimmage game is one of the highlights of my year.
Yes. Last week I read where it will be played at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indy. Sure hope that will be the case!
I thought the game was going to be played in INDY
It is frustrating for those of us that travel from out of town. I have gone to this game every year since I was a kid growing up in South Bend Area…but traveling from Florida…I need more that just a date…Location is important too!!!