Marcus Freeman shares how trip to Hawaii impacted travel plans for Week 0 game in Dublin

When Notre Dame takes on Navy in Week 0, the Fighting Irish will have to deal with a big time difference by traveling to Dublin. South Bend is five hours behind Dublin, and the players will have to adjust to be ready for the game.

The team has a plan in place, according to Marcus Freeman. He knows some teams — both college and in the NFL — who’ve made international trips before and got some advice. However, he made a few changes after he got back from a trip of his own.

“We came up with a great plan and I feel really good about it,” Freeman said on College Football Live on Thursday. “Then, something funny happened. I went to Hawaii for about eight nights about two weeks ago with my family, and we took the redeye back.”

Hawaii is six hours behind South Bend, meaning Freeman got to — in a sense — practice going to Dublin and back, in addition to spending some time with his family. That led him to adjust the plan he and his staff had in place because he got to see what that type of trip is like first-hand.

Now that vacation season is over, he’s ready to get the season started.

“What it did was give me a real-life experience of what our players will feel like when we leave on a Wednesday night and land there on Thursday morning,” Freeman said. “So, I kind of tweaked the plans a little bit just through my own experience.

“I’m looking forward to it. We’re looking forward to a challenge and playing Navy in Week 0. But there [are] some logistical challenges that we have to prepare for.”

Notre Dame vs. Navy will mark the first game of the college football season when the two teams head to Ireland. The Fighting Irish have beaten the Midshipmen every year in which they’ve played since 2017 and will try to keep that streak in tact as Freeman starts his second year at the helm. Last year, Notre Dame had a 35-13 lead at halftime before Navy mounted a comeback before ultimately falling to the Fighting Irish 35-32.

That victory was one part of Freeman’s 9-4 record as he settled in as Notre Dame head coach. He’ll look to build on that this year, especially after earning a spot on the Dodd Trophy preseason watch list.

The Week 0 game between Notre Dame and Navy is set for Aug. 26 at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.