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Notre Dame Football Plays Final Third of Regular Season With No Classes, No Academic Demands and Empty Campus; Irish Become Like De Facto Semi-Pro Team

(SCW 11.26.20) Amidst all the other Covid-related changes the world is living through, Notre Dame Football will have as much as a third of their regular season with no classes, no academic demands, and an empty campus. And it is the crucial final third.

At least they should be well-rested and insulated from Covid-19, as well as, for that matter, better protected from colds and flus. Added to all the other unusual advantages presented by 2020, this a unique opportunity that Notre Dame has to maximize.

Another advantage they have, of course, is that joining the greatly weakened ACC means a much easier schedule. (That is, the non-Clemson bulk of the conference has weakened in recent years. Ironically, of course, Notre Dame and Clemson seem likely to play each other twice this season, possibly three times.)

After their Nov. 14, road trip at Boston College, Notre Dame headed into final exams and a bye week, with the main part of the student body heading home the subsequent weekend, this past weekend. Dorms were planned to be emptied by this past Monday.

As a result, the football team headed into games with North Carolina, at Chapel Hill the Friday after Thanksgiving, then home against Syracuse, Dec. 5, and at Wake Forest, Dec. 12, with no further academic demands or classes and most of the student body gone. After Wake Forest, Notre Dame has their hoped-for ACC conference title game in Charlotte, N.C., Dec. 19, anticipated to be a rematch against Clemson. (As an aside, as long as that game is close, if Notre Dame were somehow upset by Clemson, the two teams might have yet a third game against each other in the College Football Playoff, depending on seeding.)

Blame it all on the Covid-19 public health crisis. Back in the summer it was decided that Notre Dame would move up the start of their fall semester to early August.

Even if the Covid-19 configuration was unclear, it apparently was determined that starting early at least offered a fighting chance for the campus to avoid much of the flu season. Even if Covid-19 vaccines ended up still being a ways off, it meant not having to fight Covid-19 at the same as fighting the flu, as well as colds and the like. They also will be avoiding the issue of students traveling all over the country, or futher, for Thanksgiving, then coming back with whatever they might have picked up during their travels.

In 2020, Notre Dame presumably still will face required limits on things like practice time for the remaining games. Yet, at the very least, they should be able to get excessive amounts of well-earned rest and sleep. And presumably they should have individual informal opportunities for any other workouts seemed appropriate, such as individual time with whatever weights or cardiovascular exercise is deemed optimal.

There also is the question of mental preparation, such as watching film, or even informal game video. By comparison, years ago, when Brian Kelly was first hired, there was a Notre Dame quarterback who mentioned that, with the earlier BK Spread offense, there was even some computer software developed, that the quarterback was using in the off-season to heighten his familiarity with the playbook.

For an many as four games, Notre Dame arguably will be more like a pro team, with regard to time being available for rest, nutrition, and preparation.

The time available for more than adequate rest should especially helpful considering that three of the four games involve road trips.

In the past, the author of this article would groan every time it came out that Notre Dame was taking red-eye flights back from road games. Multiple studies, including for the U.S. military, had documented the lingering effects of sleep disruptions and sleep deprivation. For example, bioindicators associated with sleep deprivation could persist for many days in test subjects, much longer after the sleep deprivation events, and much longer after the subjects had thought they had "caught up" on their sleep. That situation undoubtedly would have been further aggravated for student athletes, for whom every hour of every day has to be optimized across each week.

One of the best bits of news to come out in recent years was when Notre Dame had a road game in San Diego, yet decided to stay over to let everybody get a proper night's sleep, more consistent with a sound athletic training regimen. (Even Notre Dame's middle aged in-house sports commentator commented informally, on one of the video products, how much better he felt after he, himself, got the chance to stay over and get proper sleep before returning, how noticeably better he felt, compared with coming back from some other road games.)

Yet even this year's mid-Atlantic late-season road trips should be advantageous in their own way, going to milder climates in North Carolina. Notre Dame, over the years, almost always seems to appreciate the "treat" of getting to a milder climate heading towards the winter months, and often seems to play a bit faster in the milder climate zone.

Of course, as mentioned later, Notre Dame also will play what presumably will be their latest-in-the year game ever played at Notre Dame Stadium.

Interestingly enough, even aside from Covid-19 itself, flu season by itself, pardon the pun, "is nothing to sneeze at." Notre Dame football has been hit by flu in some years that resulted in "flu games" that impacted the roster. Even with flu vaccines more readily available, Notre Dame has had its share of players still get hit hard by influenza, even sometimes ending up in the infirmary.

The world at large already reportedly has seen flu numbers down, with all the measures aimed at Covid-19 also helping to mitigate the spread of influenza. Flu, of course, is itself a potentially serious, even deadly, illness, even if so many more years of battling flu pandemics have resulted in a stronger response and greater readiness with vaccines.

While Notre Dame cannot be a team of "bubble boys," nevertheless prudence, of course, is called for. And the near-empty campus might help shield the team from excessive exposure to contagion of any type.

The absence of academic demands for a third of the regular season will be interesting, especially if that translates into a better-rested, better-prepared ball club, now that they have the entire semester's academic work completed.

While a number of schools with strong football programs also have respectable academics, Notre Dame sometimes has been said to face somewhat unique academic challenges. Or at least that has offered an added set of excuses for a program that has not won a major bowl game in a quarter-century.

The institution's academic standards are often said to be associated with the necessity of a smaller recruiting pool.

Yet there also is the strenuous nature of the ongoing academic demands during the school years themselves, in terms of the workload.

One would hope that there would be an effort to optimize the situation, to meet overall standards, yet perhaps toggle down academic workloads at least somewhat in the fall, while also loading up on coursework in the summer, or perhaps shifting more difficult courses to the spring, where possible. Additionally one might hope that, with the aid of whatever advice is helpful, there would be robust planning to get work done early and at optimal times.

Despite the potential to optimize demands, over the years there have been anecdotal accounts of, for example, Notre Dame players suffering through less sleep because of academic demands, in one instance having an entire season altered by a pivotal game.

During the Lou Holtz era, there was a season where Notre Dame's national title run took a hit from an upset loss to a somewhat solid Stanford team. It came out that Notre Dame had mid-terms that week, and that some key players were going on five hours of sleep during at least part of the mid-terms. In that instance there might have been an issue about completing projects, not just exams. One has to wonder what kind of planning resulted in that scenario, yet the point remains.

Following the road game at Boston College on Saturday, Nov. 7, Notre Dame had a bye week, meaning players were able to focus on the early final exams without a game coming up immediately.

Then they had no classes or academic demands whatsoever, and no distractions from non-football dorm neighbors, heading into a week of preparation for a Friday game, during the Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend, at North Carolina on Nov. 27.

Next, on Saturday, Dec. 5, Notre Dame hosts Syracuse at Notre Dame Stadium.

With all the later games being played this year, the natural question is, will these be the latest in the year that Notre Dame has ever played regular season games.

Now, over the years, Notre Dame actually has played a surprising number of regular season games in December, although they were most away games, usually in warm weather climates. Although there also were a few December games at Yankee Stadium, which at least was in a coastal city with the climate somewhat mitigated by the ocean.

(Now, as an aside, to be truthful, Notre Dame weather often is exaggerated, and Notre Dame can have mild weather well up into November. On the other hand, a few years ago Southern Cal indicated in some media material that the last time the Trojans played in snow was at Notre Dame, about a half-century ago. And, more modern times especially, Notre Dame has tried to finish up regular seasons on the road in mild climates, like California or Florida.)

But what about December games at Notre Dame? What are the latest regular season games played at Notre Dame itself?

Believe it or not, Dec. 5 is not the latest in the year that Notre Dame has hosted a football game.

In 1888, their second season, Notre Dame had a home game against Harvard Prep on Dec. 6, the first Notre Dame victory of all time, in Notre Dame's fourth football game of all time. That entire 1888 season consisted of Notre Dame losing two games, at home, to Michigan back in the spring, in back-to-back home games on April 20 and April 21. Then, nearly 8 months later, Notre Dame beat Harvard Prep 20-0, on Dec. 6, 1888, in a game listed as yet another Notre Dame home game.

Now, keep in mind, Notre Dame Stadium would not be built for another four decades. Yet the game is listed in the records as a Notre Dame home game, on whatever field was utilized in 1888.

It does look as if the Dec. 5, 2020, game against Syracuse will, indeed, tie the record for the latest in the year that a football game has been played at Notre Dame Stadium.

On Dec. 5, 1953, the Irish hosted SMU, for a 40-14 Notre Dame victory.

As it turns out, that 1953 game on Dec. 5 was historic in multiple respects. In an era when Notre Dame had temporarily stopped accepting invitations to bowl games, it was Frank Leahy's final Notre Dame game, and final game as a coach. The win also capped off an undefeated 9-0-1 season and a non-consensus, unclaimed national championship. It was Heisman-winner Johnny Latner's final game at Notre Dame. And it capped off an extraordinary turnaround for the progam, one that Lattner himself commented upon more than a half-century later while addressing a Notre Dame pep rally in Lattner's golden years.

Now, as a preface, keep in mind that Leahy is the third-winningest coach in Notre Dame history, for Notre Dame tenure winning percentage (for coaches staying at least three years, that is; there were some ultra-short tenures in the early 1900s that were simply astronomical). Leahy is the second-winningest coach in college football history, overall, for winning percentage, after his own coach, Knute Rockne. (Only at Notre Dame could the second-winningest coach in college football history be the third-winningest coach in school history. Rockne's coach Jesse Harper, who introduced passing offense to the game of football, had a higher Notre Dame winning percentage than Leahy. For overall career, Leahy had a higher winning percentage, adding in Harper's years elsewhere, and adding in Leahy's elite record at Boston College.)

Yet Leahy, like multiple Notre Dame Hall of Fame Coaches, had a let-down year. For Leahy, it was 1950, Lattner's freshman year as a student, when Notre Dame sat at .500 with a 4-4-1 record. (Note that Lattner, himself, would not have played that year, since freshmen were not allowed to play in those days.) Notre Dame quickly bounced back with strong records in subsequent years, culminating with the non-consensus national title year in 1953, when Lattner also won the Heisman.

In terms of late-year games overall, interestingly enough, Dec. 12 at Winston-Salem will not be the latest in the season that Notre Dame will have played a scheduled regular season game. For that matter, even a potential ACC title game on Dec. 19 would not be the latest in the season that Notre Dame will have played a regular season game, over all.

Believe it or not, in Notre Dame's fifth season of playing football, the 1893 season, Notre Dame played what was apparently a scheduled, regular season game against the University of Chicago on Jan. 1, 1894. Now, technically, of course, in terms of semantics, since that was the first day of a new calendar year, it was not the "latest in the year," in terms of the calendar year, yet it definitely was the latest in the football season that Notre Dame has ever played a regular season game.

(Perhaps one could say, it was the "latest" that Notre Dame ever played a regular season game.)

(A side note: 1893 otherwise might have been Notre Dame's seventh season, since they started football in 1887, except, according to the Notre Dame media guide, Notre Dame did not play in 1890 or 1891.)

Also note, that game most definitely was not a bowl game. The first bowl game of all time was not played until exactly eight years later, when the 1902 Rose Bowl became the first bowl game on Jan. 1, 1902, finishing off the 1901 season for college football generally.

So Notre Dame and Chicago had an actual scheduled, regular season game on New Year's Day, finishing out the 1893 Notre Dame football season with a game on Jan. 1, 1894 that was not a bowl game. Notre Dame officially did not have a head coach, yet they went up against a University of Chicago team coached by the legendary Amos Alonzo Stagg. The game was reportedly played at Marshall Field in Chicago. (Another interesting historical footnote is that later in 1894, for the 1894 season, Notre Dame got their first official head coach, whose name was Jim Morison. Coach Morison had a one-year tenure, with his name officially listed as James L. Morison. With the different spelling of the last name, one assumes he was not related to the Jim Morrison who was lead singer of The Doors in the 1960s, whose father might have started the Vietnam War as a U.S. Navy Admiral in the Tonkin Gulf, yet I digress.)

(Back to the point, or at least one of the points, so, while Notre Dame does have a fighting chance to have some decent weather on Dec. 5, 2020, for the Syracuse game, if anybody complains about having to play at Notre Dame in December, just remember, Notre Dame once played a regular season game in Chicago in January, back at the start of 1894.)

(Now, what would be really interesting, of course, would be to see whether that Notre Dame vs. Chicago game was the first New Year's Day football game ever played of all time, in addition to beating out the Rose Bowl, and bowl games generally, by eight years .... )

Key Words: Notre Dame Football, College Football, ACC, Covid-19, Coronavirus, Pandemicl