Notre Dame will travel down south again for Labor Day Weekend to Hard Rock Stadium to play the Miami Hurricanes.
Photo by The Irish Tribune
Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reported earlier today that Notre Dame would play its 2025 season-opener in Miami Gardens, Florida against the Miami Hurricanes.
The last time Notre Dame played a football game against Miami (FL) was in 2017. In the second half of a home-and-home series against the Hurricanes, #3 Notre Dame headed into a toxic environment, Hard Rock Stadium, against the 9-0 #7 Miami Hurricanes. This came during the arguable peak of the infamous "Turnover Chain", which consisted of Miami defenders repping an oversized chain featuring various team logos after each turnover the team got in a game.
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Notre Dame would end up getting thrashed in that game 41-8, which killed the Irish's playoff chances and fueled a fiery theory as to whether or not the Brian Kelly-led Fighting Irish could hold their own in tough environments, such as Hard Rock Stadium. Irish QB would finish 10/21 with 119 passing yards and a 1:2 TD:INT ratio on the night. Future Notre Dame starter Ian Book would throw 3/6 for 33 yards on the night but was unfortunately known for throwing a costly pick-six against the Hurricanes, hammering another nail in the coffin that night. Josh Adams, who was flung into stardom that season and was at one point a Heisman contender, finished the game with 16 rushes for 40 yards. Miami would end up breaking out the Turnover Chain several times that game, coming away with a fumble recovery and three interceptions, one being the Ian Book pick-six.
Miami has received publicity for several years for its measly home attendance. Hard Rock Stadium holds a reported 65,300-seat capacity. According to D1.ticker on a 2022 report, Miami had a 2022 average of 54,964 fans attend their home games, meaning a little over 10,000 seats were empty per home game on average, about 16% of the stadium's capacity. The Hurricanes did however average only 43,698 fans per game in 2021, granted that was the season that followed the pandemic season. Looking at a 5-year average, Miami averaged 55,050 fans per game. Referring to the 2017 game between Miami and Notre Dame, Miami reported a soldout stadium at 65,303 fans according to ESPN. Miami's most recent home game against the one-win Florida State Seminoles, who are rivals to Miami, brought in 66,200 fans per ESPN.
According to a 2023 trend report by D1.ticker, Miami saw a nearly 10% drop in attendance from 2022 from 54,964 to 49,714, bringing average stadium capacity to just 76%. Miami is currently ranked #5 in the AP Top 25, remains undefeated, and is very much in play for an expanded playoff bid. And you never know, maybe Notre Dame and Miami meet ahead of their confirmed 2025 season opener. Notre Dame leads the all-time series 17-8-1.
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