It’s not that it never happens, but Notre Dame generally only plays one or two 12:00 p.m. ET kickoffs during the year.
It did so Saturday, as it wound up being a 37-26 victory at North Carolina, kicked off at noon on ESPN.
As a result, Notre Dame was able to be featured during ESPN “College GameDay” in a way it usually isn’t, as starting quarterback CJ Carr made his biggest throw of the day nearly two hours before the ball kicked off in Chapel Hill.
CJ Carr Wins Quarter-Million for Charity
Roughly two hours before kickoff, Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr joined College GameDay as he was mic’d up during a warm-up at Kenan Stadium in North Carolina.
The starting quarterback did an interview with the show staff, and at the end, was challenged to hit the crossbar of the goalposts for $250,000 to the charity of his choosing.
And wouldn’t you know it, Carr nailed the throw.
As many Notre Dame fans know, the entire Carr family does significant work for Chad Tough, as they fight for a DIPG/DMG cure in memory CJ’s brother, Chad, so that money will clearly go to an outstanding cause.
Perhaps it was a sign of things to come as Carr went on to match his career high with four touchdown passes in the 37-26 win.
That wasn’t it for Notre Dame on College GameDay, though, as the biggest name in the WNBA had an admission about the Fighting Irish later on.
Caitlin Clark Reveals Notre Dame Football Fandom
While at Iowa for the Hawkeyes hosting of Ohio State, ESPN went and got Iowa legend Caitlin Clark to be the guest picker.
The timing worked out great as Clark’s Indiana Fever were eliminated from the WNBA playoffs this week, and apparently she decided to take a trip back to Iowa City instead of Cancun.
When making picks for the BYU game against TCU, Clark mentioned the Cougars as an upcoming opponent of Notre Dame’s.
“I’m looking forward to the Notre Dame-BYU game, I think that’s in two weeks,” said Clark. “I’m kind of a Notre Dame football fan a little bit, because now I’m in Indiana.”
Clark was committed to play basketball for Muffet McGraw at Notre Dame originally, before ultimately choosing to stay home at Iowa, so perhaps some memories of that remain for her.
Nick Shepkowski’s Quick Thought
“College GameDay” used to be an institution. Saturday in the fall couldn’t start without it, and it’d be two hours of information that got you flat-out hyped for the day of games.
Now, its like a bad pep rally, usually talking up something from the SEC. Yes, I know the show was at Iowa on Saturday, but that’s the first time this fall it hasn’t been on an SEC campus, and surprise surprise, it’ll be at Alabama next week.
Maybe I’ve hit the age where pregame shows as a whole don’t do a lot for me, as I get what I need from them from social media these days, but I can’t sit through multiple hours of them, especially College GameDay.
If its at Notre Dame next month when Miami is in town, I’m sure I’ll give it a shot, by chances of me making it through any pregame show are much greater with Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff after its lineup change was announced Saturday.
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