Marcus Freeman confirms Notre Dame will have a spring game in 2025

There has been a recent shift in how college coaches are approaching Spring Games. That includes, in several cases around the country where coaches have canceled them entirely, though that isn’t the case for Notre Dame and Marcus Freeman.

With Spring practice underway, Freeman shared that the Irish did make the decision to adjust their calendar to adjust to the elongated season that comes from the College Football Playoff. However, it was important for the Irish to maintain their Spring Game itself.

“We moved spring back,” Marcus Freeman said. “I think when I first put our spring practice calendar, it was last year sometime, when we decided when the Spring Game was going to be. So, I decided after the season that we had to move Spring practice about two weeks. The reality is I did not want to cheat strength and conditioning phase or the development phase of our team. I think it’s really important and there was an integration of different guys based on how many plays they played last year in terms of when they started that strength and conditioning phase. So, that’s why I decided to push it back two weeks to get started.”

There are a few different reasons why schools have made the decision to cancel their Spring Games. At Texas, head coach Steve Sarkisian reportedly made the decision due to the length of the previous season. Others, like Matt Rhule at Nebraska, have cited potential tampering with players.

Despite that, for Freeman and Notre Dame, the Spring Game is important. In particular, Freeman highlighted how it helps the team and fans come together.

“We will have a Spring Game. It will be a version of a Spring Game. Again, it’s important to me to use that as an opportunity one to let our players perform in front of our fans but two, it’s a chance to really integrate our community and our fans with this football program. I think it’s so important to me is to give the opportunity to fans that maybe typically don’t get the opportunity to come to a Notre Dame game or, if they do, to give them another opportunity to come and engage with our players,” Freeman said.

“I don’t want to take away from that. There’s a lot of pros and cons for each decision, but that one, to me — my decision of keeping our Spring Game was I want to use this opportunity for our team and our football program to make sure that we are really interacting with our fans.”

The Spring Game is on for Notre Dame. Fans can see the Irish compete in the Blue-Gold Spring Game on April 12th.