Notre Dame Fighting Irish men’s lacrosse season is almost upon us!  While we reversed-engineered the schedule and more-or-less knew what to expect, we are nonetheless excited for it to be official.  Kudos to the Irish sports information team for their creative and motivating presentation. Each game was announced on twitter with a video of a noteworthy Notre Dame goal or play from their series with that opponent. Ryder Garnsey OT dead fish celly, Conor Kelly last-second save versus Syracuse, John Sexton tormenting the Virginia midfield, etc.

Let’s get this part out of the way

Notre Dame is largely repeating their 2022 schedule. A lot of fans are expressing their anxiety with comparisons to the tournament snub of last May.  We get it, the wounds haven’t healed for us, either.  But make no mistake, this is a schedule built to give the Irish the opportunity to build the best possible resume. We are glad the University did not back down and soften up the schedule.

Four games against the preseason top-3 in the country (three on the road), plus the 7th, 11th and 17th (twice) ranked teams.  The remaining four games on the schedule are against pretty good teams, too.  The boys haven’t feared a challenge in the past, why start now?

What’s missing

The most noteworthy omission is that the Western Rivalry appears to be dead.  The annual game with western rival, Denver, ended with the pandemic break.  This is unfortunate, and the Irish will miss being part of the Coach Tierney farewell tour.

Some fans hoped we’d see the addition of an Ivy League team or two to establish a comparison with their resurgent conference. As fans of lacrosse, these games would be fun to watch, but the team does not need those games to bolster its resume.  The schedule gives them plenty of opportunity.

There is only one game against a mid-major conference.  Again, as fans we want there to be a million games to watch, but we understand the laser focus on a championship.

Beautiful structure

As fans we initially looked at the schedule with misplaced focus on the ghosts of 2022 and the absence of changes.  We nearly missed seeing how the season is designed with singular focus on preparation and maximizing opportunities for success.

Notre Dame’s one mid-week game is the season opener in its Thunderdome fortress, and their only short turnaround is at home against their only mid-major opponent.  Every other game is preceded by a full allotment of rest and practice. No exceptions. No midweek games staring into the afternoon sun at Arlotta, no midweek bus trips that shortchange preparation time for the next opponent.  It is a consistent, rhythmic pace of 5 days of practice, game, rest, repeat.

A lot of coaches like to play their way into form with lots of midweek games.  It works well if you are closer to the eastern hotbeds, but not so much if you have to travel back to the periphery of the sport.

And let’s make no mistake: the Notre Dame Fighting Irish are a graduate student and upperclassman-heavy team with a wealth of experience.  This is the team that stuck together during the Covid-19 hiatus, with members who played in the off season with the USA Under-23s, and with transfers who know what it is like to win national championships. A Wednesday night game would be for our amusement, not their benefit, and we’d rather see them play on Memorial Day then on a random weekday.

Objectives

There’s not a lot to add.  The tournament formula is very simple: top-5 and top-10 wins matter. You have them and your seat at the table will not be in doubt.

#GoIrish

P.S.  We encourage fans to also follow the writing of Drew Brennan at OneFootDown and superfan Dave Brogan on twitter. Both love this team and bring great perspective.