Notre Dame

[DeacAssured]

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that ND Stadium always has fans in all the seats.

As compared to:

Ouch!

 

[PhDeac]

Going to Notre Dame was the best pure football experience I've had. It's a football focused on-campus stadium without a lot of bells and whistles.

 

[liveanddiedeac]

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that ND Stadium always has fans in all the seats.

As compared to:

That's great, wouldn't trade stadiums with them though. Tradition, success, and all that yes of course, stadium no.

 

[inspectah]

Most crowded stadium ever. You are packed in like sardines. Been to a bunch of games there and never once did I fully exhale.

 

[WakeForestRanger]

It's probably on here somewhere but Josh Banks has been suspended for the final three games of the season.

 

[Biff Tannen]

That is like saying you go to a game at Clemson or Auburn and come away unimpressed with the towns of Clemson, SC or Auburn, AL. So what. You are going to game for football, the stadium and all the history. You take in all the game weekend stuff the first time, just because. We went to Chicago on Wednesday for all the tourist stuff, then stayed in Valpo on Fri/Sat so we could take in all the Notre Dame ambience. I didn't go there for the town, although we did find 2 nice Italian places to eat.

Those towns beat the hell out of South Bend.

 

[Demonbeck]

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that ND Stadium always has fans in all the seats.

As compared to:

Could have something to do with them winning all the time as well. If we averaged 17 football wins a season for 900 years, we'd probably have a full stadium too.

 

[cheeseheads12]

Could have something to do with them winning all the time as well. If we averaged 17 football wins a season for 900 years, we'd probably have a full stadium too.

Or may have something to do with playing an awful team in cuse at noon. Most people would rather do other things on a Saturday morning instead of watching a display of football involving those teams from last year. Just a guess

 

[siff]

Notre Dame is one of the more overrated teams I've seen in recent memory.

 

[siff]

Most crowded stadium ever. You are packed in like sardines. Been to a bunch of games there and never once did I fully exhale.

Have you ever been to Bryant-Denny? Same feeling, but much bigger.

 

[DeacLaw05]

Or Neyland.

 

[inspectah]

Never been to games at Bryant-Denny or Neyland. Only seen them from the outside. Have been to more games at the Big House than at ND, though (wife is a UM alum), and even at Michigan you can move around a little bit and the aisles are wide enough to accommodate people easily. Every section at ND is like the hold on a slave ship.

 

[HONDO2]

Brief late 1st time recap -

Got to campus early and walked all around and saw the well-known sights. Save for the 'dome' building, the chapel, the grotto and the massive bookstore, the campus is nice but not as scenic as Wake. As expected, ND has the big-time pre-game stuff down to a science with a team 'walk' from beneath 'touchdown Jesus' to the stadium led by bag pipers. The marching band is enormous, loud and also does a stirring entrance thru the famous 'tunnel'. They also do a post-game on field mini-concert for about 20 minutes. Given it's size, the stadium is a surprisingly great place to see a game. Wood bench seating not as good as BB&T's aluminum bench-backs but not as cold on the touch when the sun went down ( it got cold ! ). ND is building 2 large additions above each sideline - picture 2 Deacon Towers on steroids ! However, the 2 scoreboards are tiny and very hard to see....HUGE edge to BB&T on that !

The game - obviously very frustrating. We had the exact same take as Dan Collins wrote. When ND quickly went up 14-0 we thought it'd be a killer and Wake would fold....but we didn't. You know the rest so will just add that the OL was very good, Bell ran tough, Hines and Brent made great catches and Wolford o.k.. Couple sacks he held the ball too long and has gotta learn to throw it away. Weaver ( the 51-yarder had the distance ) and Alex K were great. On D, Duke E was fantastic as were Lee and Watson. Didn't have a clear view of his penalty but Clawson went ballistic as did Kelly when it was cancelled - what happened ?

Finally, the Paris tragedy with a moment of silence pre-game....very moving. PA announcer also asked for silence in memory of 2 students - 1 from each school - who passed. Wasn't clear if they passed in Paris or not....anyone ?

In sum, a definite bucket-list visit and highly recommended to all next time.

 

[HONDO2]

Hondo, just drive around near the stadium. Lots of nice folks let people use their yards and don't charge too much. Really close to everything and that way you can get out a little easier to go to dinner. We found a couple real nice family run Italian places for both Friday night after the pep rally and Saturday night after the game that hit the spot and didn't cost an arm & a leg. We were staying in Valpo, which was a little cheaper vs right in South Bend, but what was confusing was one was Central & the other Eastern and only 60 miles apart.

Forgot to thank you for this advise as this was exactly what we did/found with a nice woman's home only about 50 yards off campus near ND's library. $30 bucks but worth it based on location versus public alternatives. And yea, LOL on the time zone changes back and forth to our hotel on I-80.