Marcus Freeman expecting crowd to work in Notre Dame's favor in Ireland

Notre Dame will be more than 3,000 miles from home when it faces Navy on Saturday in Dublin, Ireland, but Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman still expects the crowd to favor the Fighting Irish.

Freeman has seen Notre Dame fans throughout Dublin since arriving in town for Saturday’s game. He has also heard plenty of stories about Fighting Irish fans being out and about.

“You know, we’ve have a lot of people – I think coaches, players, that are over here, that have been here all week,” Freeman said. “And I’ve heard from the people I’ve talked to that, like, there’s Notre Dame fans everywhere over here. It’s exciting but a great reminder of the global impact that this university has.”

If the crowd does in fact favor the Fighting Irish, Freeman expects it to create quite the home-field advantage.

Aviva Stadium, where Notre Dame and Navy will meet, isn’t your typical college football stadium.

“I think it’s going to be in our favor. I just, for the first time, had a chance to walk out into that stadium and you see how it’s structured,” Freeman said. “And it looks like it’s going to keep a lot of the noise inside. And that hopefully will work in our favor.”

Freeman added that it’s pretty incredible to be so far from South Bend, Indiana and yet still see Notre Dame fans everywhere.

“It’s subtle reminders like that when you hear about, ‘Man, I got off the plane and everybody’s saying ‘Go Irish’ and when you hear that from other people… it’s a reminder,” Freeman said. “Sometimes we take it for granted how special this place is.”

Marcus Freeman confirms Eli Raridon will not be ready to play against Navy

While Marcus Freeman expects Notre Dame to have the fan advantage, it won’t have the advantage of having tight end Eli Raridon available for the game.

Raridon, who tore his ACL in October of 2022 — his second time in less than a year — is close but not quite ready. And though Freeman would’ve been excited to have the tight end back, he’ll trust the doctors and Raridon to know when he’s good to play.

“He won’t be ready. He’s not ready yet,” Freeman said. “He’s working his way back, it’s just — it’s a process. And I think his strength is getting close to where it needs to be.”

He added that for Raridon, coming back from a second ACL tear will be as much of a mental challenge as it will be physical. Just months after wrapping up rehab for his first surgery, he was back under the knife and at what must’ve felt like square one.

With that in mind, Freeman has seen how Raridon has pushed to get back, enduring both the physical and mental gruel of rehab yet again — it just wasn’t quite done in time for the season opener.

“But this is a mental and physical thing, to come back from your second ACL. And so I’m trusting our doctors and I trust in him to know when his body’s ready to go,” Freeman said.