2024 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team

The 2024 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team represented the University of Notre Dame as an independent during the 2024 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Fighting Irish were led by Marcus Freeman in his third year as Notre Dame's head coach. They played their home games at Notre Dame Stadium in Notre Dame, Indiana.
Despite an upset loss as heavy favorites against Northern Illinois, Notre Dame proceeded to win their next 10 games, including ranked wins over Louisville, Navy, and Army, and made their 3rd College Football Playoff appearance, their first in the inaugural 12-team playoff. They defeated the Indiana Hoosiers, 27–17, in their first round home game. Their playoff victory over Indiana marked the first time a home game would air on ESPN and ABC since 1990. The Irish would then defeat the Georgia Bulldogs, 23–10, in the quarterfinal Sugar Bowl. The Sugar Bowl victory was the program's first win in a New Year's Six bowl game since 1994, ending the Irish's ten game losing streak in such games. The Irish then defeated the Penn State Nittany Lions, 27–24, in the semifinal Orange Bowl. With the win, the Irish improved to 7–0 against AP ranked teams during the season, the team's most ranked wins in the poll era. Also with this win, Freeman, who is of mixed black and South Korean ancestry, became the first African American, as well as the first Asian, head coach to reach a Division I college football national championship. This was the first trip to the National Championship game for the Irish since the 2012 season. However, Notre Dame would fall to Ohio State 34–23. The Irish would finish the season ranked #2 in both the AP Poll and Coaches Poll, their highest finish since the 1993 season. It would mark the program's first 14-win season, breaking the previous record of 12, which was accomplished four times prior. They would finish #1 in the nation in defensive takeaways with 33, and fourth in the nation in points per game allowed (15.5 ppg).
The following coaches left the program:
The following coaches were hired:
The following coaches were promoted:
The following coaches were demoted:
The 2024 meeting between Army and Notre Dame at new Yankee Stadium commemorated the Notre Dame's Four Horsemen backfield that led them to an upset win over Army at the Polo Grounds in 1924. Notre Dame wore special blue-gray uniforms, a nod to the blue-gray sky mentioned in Grantland Rice's 1924 "Four Horsemen" dispatch in his opening line, "outlined against a blue-gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again." While the shiny gold uniform numbers represent the Gothic Blackletter of New York City's newspaper mastheads. Notre Dame again won easily, 49–14, handing Army their first loss of the season.
This game marked the first time a home game would air on ESPN and ABC since the 1990 season. The reason it aired on those networks instead of NBC was due to the fact that playoff games aren't part of Notre Dame's deal with NBC.
This will be the fourth meeting between the Fighting Irish and the Bulldogs. The two teams have previously met in the postseason just once, in the 1981 Sugar Bowl, which resulted in a 17–10 Georgia win. Though Georgia won all three previous matchups between the teams, each game was decided by seven points or less.
The game was delayed from January 1 to January 2 after a truck attack that took place in the nearby French Quarter.