There were approximately 78,000 people in Notre Dame Stadium when Mitch Jeter lined up for a last second 62-yard prayer against NIU. Nearly all eyes were on him, but mine were on the uprights. I stood directly under the goalpost with a Nikon D7500 camera and an 18-140 mm lens. I was in a focused, rigid stance, anticipating what I thought would be the defining shot of the evening. As it turned out, I couldn’t have been more wrong.
There are two things you should know about me before I tell this story. The first is that when it comes to Notre Dame football, their history, their legends and the myriad of emotions generated by any particular season, I know what I’m about. I care deeply about every game I watch and that manifests in tears of joy and of sorrow.
Second, I am the photo editor for The Observer, a position I’ve held for nearly a year now (and not much longer). During my tenure I have captured concerts, protests, snowball fights and 16 different varsity sports, including football. It has been a wild and wonderful job — one I will probably not get the chance to do again.
Taking pictures at a Notre Dame football game is thus an outsized task for me. Nerves and photography do not go together well. You have to be focused on the play at all times, tracking the ball from center to quarterback to receiver. Sometimes you even need to predict where the ball will be in order to achieve the best shot.
The following are a few stories, perspectives and lessons I’ve learned through the lens of five football games I attended as an on-field photographer: Texas A&M, Northern Illinois, USC, Indiana and Ohio State.
Texas A&M:
The crowd at Kyle Field was indefatigable. 100,000 angry Texans capitalized on every mistake we made and continued to jeer until a Jeter kick late in the fourth quarter induced a galactically satisfying silence. It was so bad that for the majority of the game I retreated to the part of the stadium with a large Irish contingent and used a giant telescopic lens to take pictures from both sides of the field.
While the Irish fought their audience, the photographers were battling a hoard of cockroaches. As soon as the sun set the disgusting creatures emerged under my feet and around the equipment. I joined forces with the ABC57 news team to stomp them but eventually we became desensitized and gave up.
When you’re on the job you don’t have time to look down. You never know when Marcus Freeman will roar at a developing play or Riley Leonard turns a short route into a backbreaking touchdown. It’s better to keep your eye to the viewfinder and just pray you don’t feel something crawling up your leg.
NIU:
My best photo of the afternoon — the one that made our front page — was an NIU player making a seat belt motion over graduate receiver Kris Mitchell, who was doubled over on the ground in pain.
I made a painful discovery that day that the quality of play affects the quality of your photos. My camera roll overflowed with sacks, unacceptable incompletions and running backs consumed by a wall of Husky defenders.
As soon as the sound of the block reached my ears I minimized my monopod, packed my field bag and left expeditiously. I’m sure a lot of avid fans went back to their cars or dorms in tears. I cried as well, but it was at the photo desk in the basement of South Dining Hall, reliving our mistakes for about an hour before calling it quits.
USC:
While this was far from a perfect game from a fan’s perspective, it was a wonder as a photographer. Just about every type of shot you could possibly want was rolled into this one.
Want a pick six? Sophomore cornerback Christian Gray tallied one for 99 yards and graduate safety Xavier Watts astoundingly topped this with a 100 yard return. Want a signature hurdle from Jeremiyah Love? He completed arguably his best of the season en route to a touchdown. One-handed pass blocks, open field running and group celebrations made photography easy and frenetic.
In the days after the game, I noticed that many photographers published virtually the same pictures as I was. I saw the Love hurdle captured a dozen times, each edited differently and from another angle. I could view this as me needing to be more creative, but I also think the more the merrier. It was comforting to know that upholding the greatness of those moments was not my responsibility alone.
Indiana:
Keeping your camera steady and level is among the most basic skills to learn in sports photography. However, throughout the season, I struggled to control my nerves (the Irish didn’t always make it easy for me) and this resulted in a few missed opportunities at Texas A&M and Northern Illinois.
The Indiana game was a delight because that feeling never presented. Instead it felt like the first inklings of destiny. Our hopes were not in vain as the Irish surged to an early two-touchdown lead that they never relinquished.
Because I didn’t have to worry about every little thing on the field, I was able to capture some pictures of the stands. One of my favorite pictures of the season wasn’t strictly a football photo, but instead a young Notre Dame fan and his brother building miniature snowmen in the first row of the stands.
Ohio State:
I have never seen the second half of the 2013 BCS national championship game. My mom turned off the TV at halftime with the Crimson Tide leading 28 to nothing and I never looked back. Since then I have only missed three halves of a game, 2017 Miami (FL), 2019 Michigan and 2024 Navy (by accident).
We were entering halftime of the 2025 College Football Playoff National Championship game and all I wanted to do was shut my eyes. I wanted to turn off the screen and busy myself with other things, calling it a phenomenal year but internally accepting yet another high-profile, close-but-not-close-enough loss.
But I couldn’t do that. In this moment I couldn’t be the avid, emotional fan, but someone with a responsibility to be an active participant in whatever the game had in store. I took a much-needed break in a warehouse-sized room the stadium had organized for the hundreds of photographers who attended, took a breath, downed four hamburgers and returned to the field.
As I suspected, we lost. In heart-wrenching, what-iffing style to boot. But that second half was glorious. We made mistakes, but every ounce of heart was laid out for those who dared to watch and I’m glad I did. Most importantly, the photos were special and worth keeping despite that loss.
I thank my lucky stars for becoming photo editor when I did and for having the opportunity to follow this 2024 season so proximately. This was the most emotional season I’ve experienced as a fan but also the most enriching. Having a focused lens on every motion and play gave me a new appreciation of the game, and I hope I have a few more chances to experience that before these stories are relegated to children and grandchildren.
