Marcus Freeman details Notre Dame's schedule ahead of trip to Dublin

In 2020, Notre Dame and Navy were planning to play in Dublin, Ireland to kick off the college football season. But like most plans that year, the COVID-19 pandemic got in the way, meaning the game got pushed back.

At long last, it will happen this week as the two teams square off in the Aer Lingus College Football Classic. That also means the two teams are preparing for the roughly 11-hour flight across the Atlantic Ocean to Dublin, which is why Marcus Freeman is changing the schedule up.

Freeman shared how Notre Dame’s practice schedule will look a little different than most “normal” weeks during the season. The reason for that is he wants to make sure the players are tired for the flight so they can sleep on the way.

“The schedule for this week is we’ll go today,” Freeman said Monday. “Usually Mondays, we [do] more of a walkthrough practice. But with being the first week, we will go today as like a Tuesday practice. Tomorrow will really be a Thursday practice in our minds in terms of how long we’ll be out there and then Wednesday will be a normal Wednesday practice.

“The thought is to truly get after them Wednesday. I want them pretty tired as we get on this flight Wednesday night to fly over to Dublin.”

When the team arrives in Ireland, though, Freeman said he doesn’t want his players going right to sleep. He wants them to stay awake, and the Notre Dame staff plans to work through some pieces of the game plan at the hotel in Dublin to do so. Since everyone will still be adjusting to the time difference Thursday night, that practice won’t be as tough as Friday’s.

Freeman said the staff talked to multiple different people who’ve made overseas trips to work out the schedule, which is why he’s so confident in the plan in place.

“We’ll land in Dublin Thursday morning, go to the hotel, get unpacked and keep our guys up. We’re gonna keep them up,” Freeman said. “Do some walkthroughs and stuff at the hotel. Then, we’ll go and we’ll practice Thursday. And then Friday will be a little bit more intense than Thursday. Thursday, they’ll be pretty jet-lagged.

“We have to be smart in terms of our structure once we get there. But I feel really good about the plan. We talked to a lot of different organizations that have kind of done similar trips, and we felt like this was the best one.”

Notre Dame and Navy will kick off the 2023 college football season Saturday at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.