The Irish Are Home | The 2023 Aer Lingus Classic | Notre Dame Football

[Music] 154th college football season and I remember the stadium just such a roar to it debut for Sam Hartman we were all anticipating what that start could look like it all begins right here at AV via Stadium just the atmosphere that was there it was like wow no matter what the scores no matter what the situation all I got to do is win the and that's the the same mindset we have no matter where we're playing or who we're playing against we had a lot of confidence going in this one was particularly special and it's an awesome example of what a Shala really was friend in Saturday Dame Street felt like Time Square on New Year's Eve it was like a Goosebumps type of moment we left nothing on the table it's one thing to watch Notre Dame on television it's one thing to read about Notre Dame but when it comes to your city and you can experience it it's quite powerful Notre Dame is not just a place that's recognized in the US it's worldwide I think it was perhaps summed up best by my boss Father John who described it as [Music] magical because there are about 45,000 people here at croak Park the stadium that seat 76,000 normally for its hurling and Gaelic football action first ever American college football game played here our first game in Ireland was in 1996 was when coach Holtz was coaching Ron Palace was our quarterback we played at croak Park which is probably the more famous of the venues there and set the stage for the two trips that followed and that'll do it so the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame defeat the midshipman of Navy here at cro Park in Dublin Ireland 54 to 27 I mean if that one had not worked out well we might have had a different view of doing this but each time it's gotten better and that was a great foundational piece for us that should do it when these two teams played here at croak Park in 1996 Notre Dame scored in the 50s and they hit 50 again 16 years later the whole foundation of the 2023 game only came about because the 2020 game couldn't happen well when the game was cancelled because of Co it was a huge disappointment so many people had created plans to go over in the planning for the 20 game when that got nixed um you know we shifted a lot of that planning to 2023 the decision to go back in 2023 began with a the challenge of figure out if we could take a home game to Ireland the biggest difference obviously when you're the home team is you're you're now hosting the game and you're the the game operations so you know that got our game operations team involved the process was vastly different as you can imagine going overseas as one piece of it in all the planning with immigration and passports and all those type things but then also we were in a rugby SL soccer stadium so the field is a a pitch so it was a little bit elevated than a normal football field would be from that perspective and then also having to bring in go po play clots we actually had to bring in our own you know warboard folks play clock folks we had to bring in our PA announcer chain crew you name it we literally had to pick it up and bring it overseas to be able to have the game there so there was a lots of behind the scenes planning to get to that point but it was a lot of hard work but a lot of fun work uh particularly for our student athletes going to Ireland with the team was such a terrific experience and really starting with the flight over just to sense firsthand the excitement of the team for so many of them including Marcus Freeman the experience of playing in Ireland gave our players our coaches a chance of a lifetime I've never been outside the country and I know a lot of our players and coaches haven't been either and so without this opportunity I don't know if I've ever would go to the country of Ireland not everybody has a passport so when you see the student athletes going through that process of of having to get a passport because that says a lot you get your stamp on there and that's a big deal when you start getting your stamps on the passports that's just great for the kids to really help them develop culturally and make them a better well around their person so anytime that you can have an opportunity to go overseas and experience something like that I recommend it for everybody we got a little bit of time to experience what the country was was truly about one of the cool events we got to do was the Irish dancing they started off doing their own dancing and they brought some of our players on stage and our players put a little bit of an American twist to [Music] it but it was really cool to see our players interacting with those Irish dancers and uh it was a great experience when you think about an athletic team making a trip overseas it hits upon what we stress here that you are truly a student athlete so the trip to Dublin is a perfect example of that you were clearly going over there in the athletic sense to play a football game but you're also a student I mean you were going to experience a different culture a different country so it's a wonderful tangible example of what it means to be a student athlete at Notre Dame guys it's great to have you here we got the great page over the next few hours of having the crack with you bit of fun we're going to introduce you to the oldest and fastest game on grass on our little planet that's our national sport while you called a fight Nish The Stick of ball game with a warrior sport it's known in the English language as the game of hling yeah we play with a single piece of Timber cut for the face of the as3 and a small Stitch let ball goes almost as fast as you guys it traveled up to 180 km per hour in the course to the game yeah so it's one of a range of our GIC games here cuz you guys used to play in sport the great sport of football but here on this island in this culture GIC games mean so much much more than just games or Sports yeah for us they're very passionate and very inspirational and a very unique expression of the separateness or difference of our Irish and gay cult [Applause] come on up here please Joe cam JD and Sam come on up here please I got a little presentation for you so this is a lord Mayor of Dublin and so he's going to present us something and just want to introduce him and let him say some couple words thanks Mill guys you're all very welcome to Dublin nor we get a bit more come on the artist you're welcome back to Ireland there we go all right um as I said it's my privilege here so what we have here is a shalele I don't know if anybody's ever heard of shalele okay there's a big tradition I know the Fighting Irish well as we go back for years and years and years this used to be used in fights in Ireland so we didn't use pistols we didn't use swords we use chales they're made from black torn they're soaked they're all these kind of things they're really really cool so it's an old traditional symbol of fighting and what we're going to do it was made by a third generation Craftsman in wiow okay and it was made in the town of shalele so shalele literally means kind of a willow strap and that's what people used to beat each other other up with so hopefully we're going to start a tradition here today we're going to present it to the Irish and go Beat Navy then on Saturday again go Beat Navy on Saturday come on SO guys on behalf of the people of Dublin it's my pleasure to present you for Captain the shalele there we go all right [Applause] so like the point like every team so every year is going to get one and it's the idea to be like remember your team so you come back to the goog it'll be there just like remember yourself remember the team you're a part of and we can we have the opportunity to start this year so we can bring it on the player walk somebody can use it running out of tunnel uh we had an idea like the scout team player of the week they can use it on the walk and run out of tunnel with so yeah bring all mo so I think it's something cool that we and a lot of other people in Notre Dame have kind of thought would be a good idea and so love for you guys support and yeah [Applause] go Irish TGs on two one two [Applause] TS I'm Liam Liam AA or in Irish Liam key I don't know how many generations stick maker and the down through the family and we have a store here in chel Village in the center of the territory where the whole story began hundreds thousands of years ago under British rule enduring what they call the P laws here in Ireland all Irish people were banned from carrying any weapon but the guys who used selas at that point were hiring themselves out as mercenary Fighters and didn't want to go out of business so they began making their SS look more like walking SS they made them a little bit longer and changed slightly the way they use them to fight so essentially as supp nowadays A Chala really is a weapon disc as a walking stick this is our back Garden where we have all our workshops nothing disturb you here for a second this is uh at the stage where some of the cleaner work is done where we do the straightening the steam straightening we do the painting and any decoration and whatever that needs to be done to bring the sick onto the the final finishing stage this is our finishing room her lives here now my wife is uh applying the the finishing seal which is a a coat of hard glazed varnish um important to keep this preserving oils in the sck so that it's protected against warm climates and Central heated homes uh blackt doesn't really like the heat so we have to go to Great Lengths to protect it make sure that the sck has a a long and healthy life different people will make them in different ways but we slow down the process so it takes about 5 years on average from start to finish the reason we take so long is that we try to control the moisture content of the sck the sick we made for autod Dam it's quite a special sik in that it's actually a perfect walking sik but it's also Almost Perfect Weapon not every sik you manage it but this one was particularly special and it's an awesome example of what a Shala really was in order to put on Dame Street and all the branding throughout the city it was a great collaboration with Athletics the university our counterparts Davis events in Ireland the Irish American Events limited which puts on the Air Lingus college football classic and then the Dublin City Council and so that whole group of people really came together over the course of months to plan out the whole event plan out all of the signage and figure out the logistics of how to even make something like that happen because there things like do we have the infrastructure to hang a banner that size from this building do we have the permission to use this building and kind of taking what was just a concept on a screen and really bringing it to life all of The Branding for the event was developed in partnership with Tim OKC Conor who is our director of brand for athletics and we were approached with the task of make this feel like a home game but in Ireland and so the way we did that was trying to take things that are specific to Notre Dame and give them a uniquely Irish presentation so the first one was the founders lines that fans are used to seeing in the end zone we took that and redesigned it into a Celtic knot based on the Irish book of Kels which is an illuminated manuscript from about 8800 ad to kind of bring in that element of Irish culture and history and then the second element that we did we wanted to bring something that was uniquely American football to the to the presentation so on the back of the uniforms that Under Armour designed for the game is a Celtic knot inspired by the CLA which is a symbol for love loyalty and friendship and so we took that knot and wo it into a larger knot that created an American football and so that was kind of another way of taking something unique to Ireland something unique to the game and something unique to Notre Dame and we used those two elements throughout all The Branding and so one of the things that we really focused on to try to give it that sense of the Notre Dame home game was throughout Dame Street the messaging was the irisher home and that was kind of our nod to that and one of the other special things that we did was throughout all of that branding and throughout the branding at aiva Stadium we used a lot of Irish language translations so as you went through the street you would see the Irish or home in Irish language and as you went through the stadium you'd see the Notre Dame victory march in English and translated into Irish we left nothing on the table and I think you could really tell that from the event that morning what I remember most was we had Dame Street actually closed down for a large segment so the band would be able to be accommodated coming down from Mass we way exceeded the number we were expecting at Mass which just preceded the start of the Dame Street activation with over 6,500 people in attendance there I was standing in the middle of the street closure and I remember just looking around in a circle and I couldn't believe already how many people were just queued up waiting for the band to come and then to hear the band approaching and to see the excitement and the anticipation of all of the fans that had traveled so far to be part of this weekend experience was incredible and then to see the photos afterwards from overhead and just the sheer mass of folks that were everywhere all over all of the streets and the side streets I couldn't believe it I I don't know that we ever had a firm count on the numbers that were there but it was tens of thousands of people for sure and I think that surprised all of us feels like a normal College Football Saturday only difference is it's the first game of the year and it's in Dublin Ireland Dame Street has been renamed for the day to Notre Dame Street fans lining the sidewalks bands running through the streets it was the coming together of all that makes Notre Dame so special and all that makes a Notre Dame football weekend anywhere just completely [Music] magical and the palpable excitement you can feel it each and every step that you take around this wonderful city across the pond Navy and utter Dame set to do battle once again as they renew a yearly rivalry for the third time here in Ireland 154th college football season debut for Newberry debut for Sam Hartman debut for this 2023 season and what a spectacular year ahead it all begins right here at AA Stadium my mindset and approach going to that game was to continue to remind ourselves it's still 53 and A3 by 120 and and that's the the same mind we have no matter where we're playing or who we're playing against and that's what your mindset has to be because what you have to do is go out there and do your job you got to win the interval that's what we say around here you got to win the interval I just think that he brings a different element He has a great young approach to it he's got a great discipline of the guys and I think the guys believe in him and and you know there's no phoniness to him he's with no head coach should look like all right Hey listen up listen up okay we rot the double and I we're here okay how do we how do we make sure that we reach our full potential number one don't beat Notre Dame we talked about last night don't beat Notre Dame understand that okay Relentless effort attitude Relentless effort and attitude communicate we have to talk man committed right so if we're all committed we better be committed today so those choices now become commands right okay the command is to win the damn interval that's it win the interval it's very clear One play one life for 5 seconds that's all we need One play One Life 5 Seconds everything you got and it all begins right here at AV Viva stadium in Dublin the teams are ready to go as we are as well and most importantly here come the [Applause] Irish you have to kind of keep your focus of like you know we're going over there and play a game but at the same time you're going to a new country and you're going to experience new cultures and you have to kind of keep level head and not get too you know caught up in that experience and lose sight on the football game to run out there to an A soldout Crowd loud it was an experience that you don't get every Saturday you know to be in another country you almost consider it a away game but it truly felt like you were at home unique elements that stand out to me the flyover was breathtaking we wanted to make sure that our band had the opportunity to play the national anthem as they do for all of our home games in N Dame Stadium but it was important to us that we also played the Irish Anthem or had that performed so a lot of those elements that were really special just I think gave a great Irish flare to another Dame football game that would compare it to either like a cfp level bowl game or a national championship level bowl game just because of the excitement and the pageantry and the camaraderie and everything that was going there just the excitement the environment the stadium the people the fans was really an electric environment a great environment to open up the season and and to showcase the football program and the Irish REM moving they're inside the tank estim he's got it touchdown another [Applause] Dame I felt great honestly but I honestly didn't know it was the first touchdown of the hot entire college football season until later I got my phone but it was definitely a great experience we started fast start start and he's got the hand off punch finds the hole and he's gone touchdown Irish not Dame up two scores play action now on first down taking another shot over the middle of the field it's caught touchdown not Dame Jaden greous The Freshman keeping bro not at all Tois progressions looking in zone it's caught Jaden Thomas touchdown Irish it's 28 nothing and with that touchdown throw Sam Hartman ties Colt McCoy with 112 career touchdown passage so lava Tai's Knee will bring us to the half a half controlled thoroughly by the Irish we're not looking at an end result right now we're challenging each other to just win the interval man that's all we're doing right is these 5 Seconds man can we give everything we got we talk about Relentless eff attitude the beautiful thing about that word is it doesn't stop in the first half that's throughout the entire game no matter what the score is no matter what the situation all I got to do is win the inter 28 nothing Notre Dame lead at the half it's their largest halftime lead since 2009 and the stats speak for themselves the ground game just menacing for the Irish in that first half we're going based off last Navy they played us really well like us we were coming in with a whole new team a whole new quarterback whole new offensive coordinator but we're coming off a really strong camp and we had a lot of confidence going in so we had a great game plan and we just had to execute it in a whole different country and that's what we did b m feeling the pressure of a now he's going to run it no he's going to throw it wide open TouchDown second of the day for Jaden greous so they to go in last J is Arty gets it right to KY on the outside KY stays on his feet and takes it in touchdown notter Dame fourth of the day for Sam Harman ties a Notre Dame record for touchdown passes in his debut we were all anticipating what that start could look like you knew he had outstanding qualities and and we'd seen him play before but you know representing the football program and and Notre Dame was different for him and so we were all very excited to see it take place and you know I certainly had some successful days on the football field wearing the golden helmet and so to see Sam Hartman do that it was really exciting it's always fun to be a part of those days third meeting between these two in Ireland that was dominated start to finish by the number 13 team in the country Notre Dame sets the tone early and they run away with this one 423 the final score in Sam Hartman's debut okay you throw four touchdown passes in your Notre Dame debut how' you get to a point where you're so confident with a new group um I mean I think it starts with um really Dublin Ireland walking us like they have I mean look at all these people this is an incredible atmosphere incredible Stadium incredible event and then it's the coaches um they prepared us all week I mean we've been preparing since the spring for this game um we knew we had a a really tough challenge ahead and then it's the team like from day one I showed up in January they accepted me they appreciated me coming and uh we went out executed our plan made our plays work and did what we [Music] did in my opinion the biggest success of this trip was you know the ability to go over here and win and to play the way we played to enjoy the 48 Hours of of being in a different country but at the end of the day we were over there to win a game and I was proud of the way our coaches and our players truly performed being it that it was the first game of the year and that really kicked off the 2023 season the right way we have a victory we celebrate guys you know we got 1 2 3 good job defensively to hold that offense with things we haven't seen in all of our preparation at three points unbelievable job yeah first one on defense had eight tackles but what what I love is that he went for playing linebacker to playing safety and doing a whole bunch of different stuff but uh Jack [Applause] K hey hey appreciate you it was a hard work going into this a lot detailed work first one's in the bag all right let the season we've played Navy every single year and I think that's kind of brought another unique factor to the game is it was such a big rivalry against something that you know has been through history of you know college football so to bring that to Ireland and be a part of that game and meant a lot and then have a really good game and have you know a handful of tackles and play really well like it made the game that much that much better than just to be around all the the teammates and to celebrate in the locker room afterwards and and to hold to shalele and kind of get to be recognized like that was a great feeling I think this experience truly benefits the present and the future in Notre Dame football we can make sure we sell this in recruiting that this is an opportunity that you don't get to do everywhere else in the country and to take the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to Ireland and it truly be a home game is something that we will sell in recruiting and hopefully we get another opportunity to do so we went to the game over at Ireland I mean wow what a what a reception that was for Notre Dame over there and I mean Notre Dame is not just a a place that's recognized in the US it's worldwide what I love about International competition for our student athletes we have such an important brand and really trying to show the world that you can be a student athlete and I think proving that and showing that firsthand is more important than ever in this ever changing landscape of College athletics so when you take our show on the road you know people see that and they appreciate it and they see these student athletes competing at the highest level and they see the power of Notre Dame it's one thing to watch Notre Dame on television it's one thing to read about Notre Dame but when it comes to your city and you can experience it like you did in Dublin it's quite powerful to have over 40,000 people travel to Ireland for this game created a remarkable atmosphere towntown duwin the temple bar area Dame Street was just flooded with Notre Dame people on Friday and Saturday Dame Street felt like Time Square on New Year's Eve the Notre Dame brand is so powerful and the Notre Dame sports brand is the most powerful brand in college sports in this country and it should be the most powerful noticeable brand internationally in college sports and doing things like traveling to Dublin with the football program going to other International cities with our other sports programs that allows us to grow that brand but we'll do more of that more of how do we use the power of our brand the power of our Sports to really continue to be a flagship for the University as a whole and showing the power and the scope and the understanding of what Notre Dame is all about [Music] Dublin was a huge success and we will certainly play internationally again it's not something you can do every year you have to do it every so often but whether it's back in Dublin or another great International City you can rest assured that we're already thinking about what we can do next [Music]