Getty Image / Robin Alam
Notre Dame’s first football season with Marcus Freeman was a bit of a roller coaster.
The team lost their first two games of the year, including a shocking home loss to Marshall.
The rest of the way, their season was much more successful. They went 9-2 over their final 11 games, including impressive wins over Syracuse and Clemson and in the Gator Bowl against South Carolina.
That success doesn’t look like it will be coming to an end any time soon. During the offseason, the Fighting Irish added one of the nation’s top transfer quarterbacks in Sam Hartman.
That move has expectations high for Notre Dame heading into the 2023 season.
Unfortunately, despite the high expectations, it seems the Fighting Irish are worried about their stadium being taken over by their opponent for their biggest game of the year.
According to The Athletic’s Pete Sampson, Notre Dame is worried that there will be a large Ohio State presence for their big non-conference matchup.
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— Pete Sampson (@PeteSampson_) July 3, 2023
It’s not a long trip from Columbus to South Bend and the Buckeyes have fans that tend to travel well.
Notre Dame has already taken a step to try and avoid this takeover by not releasing tickets for Ohio State fans, but that likely isn’t enough to deter those fans from finding tickets.
While they are extremely expensive (the cheapest ticket currently available on SeatGeek is $512), there are still tickets out there on the secondary market.
This isn’t usually a concern you would expect to hear from a program like Notre Dame, who has a long history of success, finished in the top 20 last season, and has even higher expectations this year, but it looks like we could see a whole lot of fans in red for ND’s biggest home game of the year.