Notre Dame Football: First Thoughts On Army
Notre Dame goes back to the beginning when it plays Army in San Antonio.
There was a time once, when we were calling these neutral site games “barnstormers.” It wasn’t that long ago– in fact… it was just 2010. I’m getting a little ahead of myself.
Back in 2009, Notre Dame started its new plan to schedule a neutral site game each year in place of a home game. It kicked off with a forgettable game against Washington State in San Antonio Texas. Nothing about it made sense really. It seemed more like a horrible bowl game. Then, in 2010, Notre Dame took on Army at Yankee Stadium and nostalgia saved the day as the game was billed as such, reaching back to those games between Notre Dame and West Point in the 1920’s.
At this point, Notre Dame was getting what it wanted in the neutral site game, but that was about to change in 2011. That year, Notre Dame was scheduled to play Maryland at FedEx Field to continue this barnstorming series. But a funny thing happened along the way… Notre Dame got tricky.
It really all boils down to “getting away” with changes in the uniform. In 2011, Notre Dame played Michigan in Ann Arbor and wore a throwback uniform that included the shamrock helmet. It was a clean and cool look and even some of the older DON’T MESS WITH TRADITION crowd thought so.
The helmets lined up for the Maryland game however… it was like someone dropped a bomb on the Golden Dome.
So Notre Dame is sitting here with one game in the books with an alternate uniform, and now it has another in the same year and the helmets are a little too- well… too much for some, and now we have a problem.
In steps the Shamrock Series. Notre Dame decided to call these games the “Shamrock Series” and dated it back to the 2009 game in San Antonio versus Washington State. In doing so, they stated that these Shamrock Series games would also have alternate uniforms for a little more exciting flair.
I’m not sure if they just thought nobody would notice that date and name switcheroo, or they just didn’t care- IT’S CALLED THAT NOW AND THAT’S THE WAY IT’S ALWAYS BEEN SINCE WE SAID SO.
That brings us to this year, and yes… these are my first thoughts, because this may very well be the last “Shamrock Series” game for Notre Dame regardless of the lip service provide by Jack Swarbrick. You see, Notre Dame will have a brand new stadium it will want to show off next year, and for a lot more years to come with seven home games a year. They want to make sure the alumni and any involved with helping the campus Crossroads project succeed sees the new Notre Dame Stadium shine like a beacon of awesomness in the midwest.
So it’s kind of fitting that one of the first Shamrock Series opponents, before it was called that, will play Notre Dame in the first exciting venue of the Shamrock Series in San Antonio as its last Shamrock Series game.
Honestly, the only thing I’m really looking forward to in this game will be to see if Notre Dame will finally wear camo uniforms. I got ten bucks that says they will.
Slap The Sign will have more on the Army game and the rest of the schedule in our Schedule preview in June.