Notre Dame Football VS Ohio State: The Great Field Storming Debate

Let’s not get out over our skis on this, but it’s OK to dream, isn’t it?

We all saw Notre Dame dominate a top-5 Clemson team at home last season. Afterwards the fans stormed the field, just as they did two years prior after a win over the No. 1 Tigers during the 2020 regular season. Perhaps the best part of that win was that it gave us this picture (which was made to be an album cover):

Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports

And maybe Estime and the Irish faithful will recreate that picture if Notre Dame manages to pull the upset on Ohio State this Saturday night. Which brings us to my final fan poll of Ohio State week: Should Irish fans rush the field if Notre Dame comes out victorious?

To be clear, the game still needs to be played. However, there’s a conversation to be had here, and it’s a fun one, so what’s stopping us? Let’s pretend Sam Hartman validates all the praise that’s been heaped on him these last four weeks and/or Audric Estime cements himself as the frontrunner for the Doak Walker Award as the Irish top the Buckeyes. What happens in the immediate aftermath?

In thinking about this question, I’m reminded of Notre Dame men’s basketball’s regular season win over Duke in the 2014-15 campaign (the first of back-to-back Elite Eight seasons for the program). As the final buzzer sounded on a 77-73 victory over the No. 4 Blue Devils, Jerian Grant raised his hands and motioned for the student section to not rush the court. It was a signal that the players believed they had elevated the standard for the program.

For the sake of context, that was a top-10 Notre Dame team in its own right, albeit one coming off of a 15-17 season the year prior. By contrast, it was an unranked Irish football team that notched a win over No. 4 Clemson last November, and in doing so a first time head coach demonstrated to the fanbase that he could win a big time matchup. So you can understand the people flocking to Freeman postgame.

But now, it’s pretty widely accepted that Notre Dame has the better of the two quarterback’s in Saturday’s matchup. It’s two top-10 teams facing off — just like the aforementioned basketball game — and even though the Irish are an underdog, the spread is so small (around three points) that they are bound to be a trendy pick to win outright on the gridiron.

But that’s enough talk. Make your opinions known.