Notre Dame football: How will the modified Blue-Gold Game work?
Notre Dame did not join several prominent football programs in canceling its spring game. The 94th Blue-Gold Game will go on as scheduled at 2 p.m. ET on Saturday in South Bend.
However, it will not look like it has in the past, when the Irish have traditionally split their squad into two complete teams. It will pit the offense against the defense in a scrimmage format similar to what reporters saw this past Saturday, with a scoring system to determine the winner.
Why? Not enough players, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman explained.
“We don’t have the ability to truly have two complete offenses and defenses and, you know, feel like it’s going to be what’s best for our program,” Freeman said after Saturday’s scrimmage. “So we will go offense versus defense for the spring game and score it in a way kind of like we scored it today.”
Notre Dame has around a dozen projected starters either out, limited or managing their workloads this spring. That includes 4/5 of the projected starting offensive line. It’s easy to see why the Irish didn’t think it would be best for the program to run the traditional Blue-Gold Game format.
On Thursday, Notre Dame released the complete details for the Blue-Gold Game, including its format and scoring system.
Blue-Gold Game details, courtesy of Notre Dame athletics
• The game will be offense (the blue team) vs. defense (the gold team).
• Each team will be coached by their respective coordinators: Mike Denbrock on offense and Chris Ash on defense.
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• Notre Dame’s four quarterbacks — Steve Angeli, Kenny Minchey, CJ Carr and Blake Hebert — will not be live for the scrimmage.
• The offense will wear blue jerseys, with the exception of the quarterbacks, who will wear green. The defense and specialists will wear white jerseys.
• The game will consist of three periods, separated by two eight-minute intermissions. Each period will consist of four drives, for a total of 12. Each drive will be separated by a 90-second break.
• For each drive, the ball will be placed at various spots on the field to simulate game-like situations.
• The offense and defense will have three timeouts each for the duration of the scrimmage.
• Each drive will consist of a minimum of six plays.
Blue-Gold Game scoring system
| Offense | Defense |
| Touchdown: 6 points | Forcing a punt: 1 point |
| PAT: 1 point | Takeaway in plus territory: 5 points |
| First down: 1 point | Takeaway in minus territory: 7 points |
| Gain of 20 or more: 2 points | Defensive score: 12 points |
| Field goal: 3 points | Tackle for loss: 1 point |
| 2-point conversion: 2 points | Sack: 2 points |
| Field goal block: 3 points | |
| PAT returned for score: 2 points | |
| Failed 2-point conversion: 2 points | |
| Fourth-down stop in plus territory: 2 points | |
| Fourth-down stop in minus territory: 2 points | |
| Missed field goal: 2 points |
