Three weeks ago, as Notre Dame football got underway with its brutal home loss to Northern Illinois, former Irish quarterback Malik Zaire took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to voice some concerns. However, he didn’t call out the team (although he would plenty of times as the game continued). Instead, he expressed his frustrations with the Notre Dame Stadium environment.
ND must rank last place in toughest places to play in college football. We give no intimidation factor to teams just all the motivation they need to play amazing vs us lol
— Malik Zaire (@MalikZaire8) September 7, 2024
I certainly wouldn’t call Zaire a stereotypical hater by any stretch. He made starts as the Notre Dame quarterback just under a decade ago. He knows the expectations and pressure attached to the program well, loves the team and is locked into Irish football every week. If he has something negative to say about the program, it’s coming from a place of genuine care.
Anyway, Zaire’s post generated 237,000 impressions and stirred up quite a conversation among Notre Dame football fans. Some Irish supporters shared their tales of being asked to sit down or cheer less vehemently at games — something I as merely a student cannot speak on. Others lamented the combination of senior citizens, “wine-and-cheese” elitists and academic-minded students occupying the stadium’s rows. A few defended the crowd, claiming the lackluster stadium atmosphere was a consequence of the team’s poor performance.
The discussion has continued throughout the season’s first month, with numerous stadium-related forums appearing on message boards and social media posts. It’s a legitimate talking point as No. 15 Louisville comes to town for the annual Irish Wear Green game. Will Notre Dame actually have a legitimate home-field advantage in its biggest home game of the season on Saturday, or will Louisville walk into The House that Rockne Built and play comfortably like Cincinnati, Marshall and Northern Illinois recently have?
Obviously, plenty has changed inside Notre Dame Stadium within the last 10 years alone. Gone are the days of tiny scoreboards, the band crowding in behind the north end zone and the late Sergeant Tim McCarthy’s puns about driving home safely. The Campus Crossroads project brought in a massive videoboard along with press box and luxury seating attachments atop the stadium bowl, creating a more updated traditional feel for the venue in 2017. From my perspective, though, I don’t believe the stadium experience changed all that much. Not until 2021.
As full-capacity crowds returned to South Bend after the 2020 pandemic season, Notre Dame introduced several items to up the ante of fan engagement. The season opened with three consecutive “Irish Wear Green” games (although the team wore blue) in hopes of a more unified gameday crowd. Third-down hype music became a staple, as did the much-debated usage of the Vengaboys’ “We Like To Party” after defensive stops. Later in the season, night-game light shows joined the 1812 Overture at the end of the third quarter.
Most of those developments have carried on into 2024, although the “Irish Wear Green” now appears just once per season. An in-house DJ and on-field host have entered the picture more recently to fire up the fans.
With all of these elements in play, it’s easy to see how the stadium can have a bit of an identity crisis during low-level games like Northern Illinois and Miami (Ohio), which have started this year’s home schedule. With their team a four-touchdown favorite on both occasions, Irish fans didn’t show up to those games expecting to play much of a role in the outcome. And why would they? Penn State’s Beaver Stadium isn’t setting any records for noise when Delaware pays a visit. Nor is LSU’s Tiger Stadium when Troy occupies the visiting sideline. Afternoon home games against mid-major programs aren’t meant to function as fearmongering madhouses, but rather as celebrations of the superior program’s success.
That’s what can make a bad first quarter from Notre Dame so unbearable in terms of stadium experience. When you’ve spent the whole day feeling confident that the Irish will roll, there’s a whiplash effect when you find they’re trailing a MAC school after 15 minutes of play. Some might argue that the team isn’t performing well because the crowd isn’t behind them enough, but let’s be real. If Notre Dame needs maximum fan support to beat a directional university, that’s a team issue. And on most days, the team itself needs to be enough of an intimidation factor to spook lesser programs. When Ohio State, USC or Louisville inhabit the opposing sideline, that’s where the crowd must step in.
On Saturday, I believe it will. Notre Dame Stadium, barring the occasional south-end-zone takeover from a Georgia or Cincinnati fanbase, does not miss when it comes to big games. The place was rocking for Clemson in 2022 and both Ohio State and USC last season. I understand that those were night games against much more established programs and this is an afternoon game against up-and-coming Louisville, but I still feel that the environment will deliver.
Just look at Notre Dame’s 2022 “Irish Wear Green” game against Cal. That was a September afternoon game against a program irrelevant since the Black Eyed Peas ruled the charts. Plus, it followed the Marshall loss that put the Irish at 0-2 and out of both the AP Top 25 and the College Football Playoff race in Marcus Freeman’s first head coaching season. I still remember feeling impressed by that day’s atmosphere given the circumstances.
I fully acknowledge that Notre Dame Stadium’s current environment is far from perfect, especially for afternoon games. The Notre Dame day-game fanbase — composed typically of successful alumni, traveling groups and a small but passionate student body — is not an easy one to appeal to all in one swoop. Factor in what the team and its visiting recruits are looking for, and it can get awkward at times.
But there’s a palpable sense of urgency heading into this weekend. With an Irish revenge win against Louisville, we can begin to seriously entertain our postseason hopes again. With a Notre Dame loss comes another season of aggravating, below-expectations football.
The Louisville game means a lot, and I have faith that when the rubber meets the road on Saturday, the Notre Dame faithful will treat it as such.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
