Day 1: Notre Dame v Navy

By: George Ahearn

As the NBA and NHL playoffs have finally concluded, we have now officially entered the dog days of summer. Yet, these long, hot days have left us to salivate over one thing and one thing only: the rapidly approaching college football season. It may not seem like it, but the Mecca of sports seasons is only 70 days away, and with each sleep it inches closer. 

As these 70 days tick down, we will be highlighting one aspect of the upcoming season that college football fans need to get excited about. It is never too early to start preparing yourself for the inevitable chaos that will unfold throughout the fall. 

What better way to get excited about the season than to look at the infamous Week 0, where no games of note are typically played, but there is football to turn on. Yet this year, Week 0 has some unusual intrigue.

The mighty Navy Midshipmen and Notre Dame Fighting Irish will venture across the Atlantic to face off in Dublin, Ireland. The Irish? In Ireland? On opening week? C’mon now.

To top it all off, the game will be broadcast by NBC, really just settling us in with some familiarity to kick off the season. 

Typically, I’d expect Navy to make this game somewhat interesting, and especially when you take into account Notre Dame’s early season struggles last year. The Irish surrendered a home loss to Sun Belt opponent Marshall and were defeated by their PAC-12 rival Stanford, despite the Cardinal posting a woeful 3-9 record which led to the resignation of long-tenured head coach David Shaw.

Yet, the Marcus Freeman era showed promise at the tail-end of last season. They defeated No. 5 Clemson and put a cap on their season with a 45-38 Gator Bowl win against red-hot South Carolina. 

The second year with Freeman at the helm looks even more promising due to their acquisition of all-ACC quarterback Sam Hartman. At Wake Forest, Hartman was a flamethrower, leading the Demon Deacons to some of their more successful seasons of recent memory. 

Notre Dame has the keys this year, and with a new offensive coordinator and stud quarterback, expect an uptick in points from the Irish this year — only one of a million reasons to get excited about the upcoming college football season.