The five most anticipated Notre Dame football games on the 2024 schedule

With three weeks remaining until Notre Dame kicks off its 2024 season, Blue & Gold ranks the top five most anticipated games of 2024. Here they are.

5. Army (Nov. 23)

Notre Dame versus Army is nothing new. The Irish and Black Knights have faced off 51 times with the Irish winning 39, including the last 15 matchups dating back to 1965. Their history of meeting each other in New York City is also extensive — including 23 matchups at either old or new Yankee Stadium since the mid-1920s. The rivalry also includes stops at the Polo Grounds, Ebbets Field and Shea Stadium through the years.

Any time the Irish play at Yankee Stadium it’s a treat. It takes the definition of “ Subway Alum ” to a local level.

There’s an extra element of anticipation when Notre Dame plays there knowing there isn’t another program in the country that can bring as much bounce to the Bronx as the Fighting Irish, no matter who’s the opponent.

4. Georgia Tech (Oct. 19)

It was quite literally an up-and-down — or, rather, down-and-up — season for the Yellow Jackets in 2023. Georgia Tech finished 7-6 in Brent Key’s first full season as the head coach at his alma mater. The Jackets lost their season opener to Louisville and went on a win-a-game, lose-a-game flip-flopping spree through the end of October.

That streak was snapped with 46-42 and 45-17 wins over then-No. 17 North Carolina and Virginia, respectively. A 31-23 loss to No. 1 Georgia in the regular-season finale was impressive, too; it was a one-point game late in the first half.

Finishing the year on a 4-2 spurt was an indication Key has his guys on an upswing. They get to “host” Notre Dame in Atlanta’s finest at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. That’s a major factor in Georgia Tech being in the middle of this list; Irish fans sure do love taking over NFL neutral site venues, and they should be out in full force in The ATL for a game against a potentially surging program.

3. USC (Nov. 30)

For a couple years, the main attraction in Notre Dame facing its archrival was Caleb Williams . Whether he was putting together Heisman moments like he did in Los Angeles two years ago or Notre Dame was making sure he wouldn’t repeat as the coveted award’s winner by intercepting him three times in South Bend last October, you couldn’t look away from a Notre Dame-USC game. You had to know what side of the win/loss line Williams fell on.

The Trojans don’t have him anymore. But they do still have known quarterback whisperer Lincoln Riley, and all new QB1 Miller Moss did in his first career start was throw for 372 yards and 6 touchdowns in a Holiday Bowl victory over Louisville.

The Trojans want revenge for a 48-20 drubbing in South Bend. We don’t know how they’ll fare in their first season in the Big Ten, but odds are Riley will get them right and the Battle for the Jeweled Shillelagh will be of national interest once again.

2. Florida State (Nov. 9)

Notre Dame’s 2024 schedule is not littered with blue bloods, so seeing the Seminoles slated to take a trek to South Bend certainly pops off the page. The last meeting was a barn burner, too, with Notre Dame squeaking out a 41-38 overtime victory in Tallahassee on the Sunday night of Labor Day weekend three years ago.

This isn’t the same Florida State team that went 13-0 through the ACC Championship Game a year ago and was only left out of the College Football Playoff because of an injury to quarterback Jordan Travis — Travis and many of the key players who put that undefeated season together have moved on — but head coach Mike Norvell seems to be far removed from his 8-13 start as the man in charge of the Noles. He’s 23-4 since then and appears to have FSU at a place in which it can stack double-digit-win seasons together as easily as chips in a Pringles can. The state of the Florida State program makes for an intriguing late-season matchup for Notre Dame.

1. Texas A&M (Aug. 31)

Tired: Head coach Marcus Freeman facing the program that raised him, the one he rooted for as a child and ended up playing for as a young adult. That’s old news.

Wired: Quarterback Riley Leonard facing the coach who raised him, the one who helped get him to this point in his career.

Notre Dame’s trip to Texas A&M to play in front of 102,733 — the fourth-largest stadium capacity in the NCAA — at Kyle Field is about more than just the pair of programs’ sixth all-time meeting and the second meeting between them in College Station. It’s about Leonard trying to take down first-year Aggies coach Mike Elko, a pairing that took Duke to new heights for the past three years.

Notre Dame versus Texas A&M. Leonard versus Elko. Week 1 of the 2024 college football season. Everything is bigger in Texas, and this matchup is colossal. It’s easily the Fighting Irish’s most anticipated game of the year.

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