Notre Dame (Independent) 2009

College:  Notre Dame (Independent)

Year:   2009

Games:   Notre Dame 35 Nevada 0

Rating:  8 out of 10

Cost:  High

Tickets:   Difficult

Stadium:   Excellent

Description:  This really is a shrine and should be attended once by every college football fan. More than once really as they have so many excellent traditions and a great set up.  No matter where you sit in Notre Dame Stadium the action is close.  Some of the seats are 10ft from the action (Think Reggie Bush pushing Matt Leinart over the goal line).  The crowd is loud and into the game.  

We went to a throw away game in 2009 against Nevada (though it did feature Colin Kaepernick at QB).  We tried to go to the Penn State Notre Dame game in 2008 and couldn’t get in but we did end up watching the game at “Legends of Notre Dame” which was a pretty good consolation prize.  There is no excuse as a college football fan to not attend a game here.  Even a substandard opponent is worth the trip.

Misc:  Don’t worry about parking, they have that covered!  Best parking management team in the world, or so they claim, and I believe it!  

Also, it’s the proper time to pay tribute to “Dave”.  “Dave” is a dog who has been faithfully serving various forms of travel for years.  It’s not always fun for him but he hangs right in there and does his part for the pack.  At the Notre Dame vs. Penn State game we found ourselves in a bind. It was too hot to leave Dave in the truck, but he certainly could not go to the game with us.  We ended up letting him sit under the truck with some water. Not risky by, let’s say, 1975 standards but I’m kind of surprised we didn’t catch any shit in 2009. 

Notre Dame is a church in Paris but they are the Fighting Irish?  Not sure how that happened.

Don’t Miss:  Notre Dame Stadium, player greetings after the game, Legends of Notre Dame, Linebackers
If you want to make it part of a bigger trip:  Chicgago is 90 minutes away, Ann Arbor & East Lansing are a couple of hours.  Detroit is a couple of hours.  You could plan a beercation in Michigan.

Avoid:    Any part of South Bend that isn’t the Notre Dame campus

Attendees:  Bones, Polychronopoulus, Col Hans Landa, Dave

Game Recap:  http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=292480087