Georgia Tech players heading to Notre Dame for Saturday’s game should be ready for a loud environment and demonstrations of raging courtesy.
That was the report from Pittsburgh defensive tackle Darryl Render, whose team lost to the Fighting Irish at Notre Dame Stadium in triple overtime in 2012. In interviews at the ACC Kickoff in Greensboro, N.C., in July, Render and other ACC football players who have played in the fabled venue offered a preview for the Yellow Jackets. All but one of the Jackets — B-back Patrick Skov, who played there with Stanford — have never played a game there.
“I know the competition is ramping up a little bit, and so I’m very excited because this is my first time going to Notre Dame and seeing something that big,” defensive end KeShun Freeman said.
With Notre Dame joining the ACC for all sports except football and hockey, the Irish are playing an average of five ACC teams annually, an agreement that began in 2014 and runs through 2025. This will be Tech’s first of four games with the Irish (the remaining three: at Tech in 2019, at Notre Dame in 2021 and at Tech in 2024). The team’s last trip there was in 2007.
Despite the loss, it remains Render’s favorite road venue.
“Just because the atmosphere,” Render said. “The fans were crazy, but at the same time, they were polite.”
How polite?
“It was like, ‘Good luck!’” Render said. “It wasn’t anything bad, like, ‘You guys (expletive)!’ It was always like, ‘Good game! I hope you guys had a good time.’ We were, like, ‘All right. Cool.’”
Render said his parents received similar treatment from fans, who asked them if they had had a safe trip to South Bend, Ind.
“It kind of took me off-guard,” Render said. “That’s the first time I’ve ever heard anything like that.”
Like Pittsburgh, Wake Forest played there in 2012, when punter Alex Kinal was a freshman, but he still remembers the noise. Also, lights.
“It felt like a lot of cameras were going off or something,” he said. “A lot of flashing lights. I don’t focus much around the atmosphere, but it was a fun place to play.”
Louisville defensive end Sheldon Rankins, from Covington, helped the Cardinals emerge with a 31-28 win.
“The most vivid memory was when they threw marshmallows on the field,” he said. “I thought it was snowballs at first. Then I picked one up. I was like, ‘No, these are marshmallows.’ I didn’t understand that.”
The Jackets will miss out on that. By school tradition, members of the Notre Dame senior class engage in a marshmallow fight at halftime of the final home game of the season.
Skov’s memories are not as fond. The Cardinal lost 17-14 last year when then-Notre Dame quarterback Everett Golson converted a fourth-and-11 with a 23-yard touchdown pass with 61 seconds remaining.
“It’s a fun environment to play in,” he said. “Sometimes the refs get a little frustrating, but that’s out of your control. But, like I said, I’ve got a bad taste in my mouth from last year.”
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