This weekend is Notre Dame’s yearly “Green Out” game, but according to Marcus Freeman on Monday, there’s a chance that the Irish won’t actually wear green. During his weekly Monday presser, the Notre Dame head coach told the media that he would let the players decide.
“I’m going to let them make the decision on if they want to wear them or not,” Freeman said of the green jerseys. “I know it’s an ‘Irish Wear Green,’ but I like to leave that into the hands of our captains. If they want to wear the green jerseys, then we’ll wear the green jerseys on Saturday.”
Since Freeman took over in 2022, Notre Dame has only worn green for the “Irish Wear Green” weekends. In fact, Freeman and Notre Dame released a video in which they poked fun at themselves for not wearing green while encouraging fans to do so for years.
Since Freeman took over, Notre Dame has worn green for the Cal game in 2022 and then again for the Ohio State game last year. When the Louisville game was announced as this year’s “Irish Wear Green” weekend, it was assumed that Notre Dame would be wearing green jerseys—especially after releasing new green jerseys last year.
I could see the captains going either way on this one. On one hand, the players tend to love the green jerseys, so it seems like a no-brainer. On the other hand, Louisville handed it to Notre Dame last year, and perhaps they’ll want to wear the traditional navy jerseys in a “we mean business and don’t need gimmicks” kind of way. There is also the school of thought that wearing an alternate jersey only serves as even more motivation for the opposition.
It would be objectively funny if Notre Dame didn’t wear green after the video two years ago. If they don’t, there also is almost no point in having an “Irish Wear Green” weekend since a large portion of the fans couldn’t be bothered to wear green, either. Of course, those same fans are probably the ones yelling “down in front” as well, but that’s a topic for another day.
