Notre Dame Football Friday

The view of Notre Dame stadium from the tunnel.
The view from our seats at the luncheon -- the black drape is where the players and coaches were interviewed, and you can see the video screens on the wall.
Outside and inside the Golden Dome.
The grotto.
Although Jeff & I went to a home Notre Dame football game last year (Navy beat ND), we had never been to the Friday activities of a football weekend. So this year we signed up for the Friday luncheon, which is held in the Joyce Center on campus. When I received our tickets for seats at table 110, I figured a lot of people would be there. And there were. With at least 150 tables seating 10 each, there were at least 1,500 in attendance. It was a plated meal with no choice of entree: a pasta salad at each place setting when we arrived, followed by the entree of roast beef, mashed potatoes, and mixed vegetables. Also on each table were rolls & butter, a plate of dessert pastry squares (apple and cherry, take your pick), and pitchers of water and iced tea. The food was good. There was also a very popular cash bar. At our table were three folks who came together from NJ and the Wilkes-Barre, PA, area, and a party of 4 who also came together -- 2 teen-aged boys and their fathers. I can't remember where they were from.

The program was MCed by Digger Phelps. He spoke for a bit, then "interviewed" Golden Tate, who left school after the 2010 spring semester to enter the NFL draft and now plays for the Seattle Seahawks. They had a bye week so he was back on campus. He was followed by Kyle Rudolph, a current player. He was followed by the only assistant coach Brian Kelly kept from the Charlie Weis staff. Finally, head coach Brian Kelly arrived and was pitched some softball questions by Digger and three audience members picked from written questions submitted during the luncheon: a young girl who asked him his favorite ND football tradition, a young coach who asked him for advice for coaches just starting out, and a third question that I can't remember. The speakers sat in a living room setting and video was displayed on two large screens so that those of us in the back could see just fine. As Jeff and I discussed later, it was an interesting event but neither of us are enthralled by "coach speak" (just about as informative and interesting as "politician speak"), so we probably would not attend this event again.

But it was an absolutely beautiful day to visit the campus. Before lunch we walked around. After lunch we took the opportunity to walk through the tunnel into the stadium -- along with MANY other people -- just as the players do when they arrive. We then drove to nearby Elkhart, where we were staying at the Staybridge Suites (we had a very nice suite), and up into nearby Michigan a little bit, just to see the lay of the land. Very beautiful country.