‘Oh my gosh’: What playing Notre Dame means to Eddie George, Tennessee State

Eddie George stopped and giggled.

It wasn’t a laugh spawned out of hysteria. It was more so one of those, “Is this really happening?” chuckles. The kind that comes when someone is in sheer disbelief. George’s simper occurred Wednesday standing smack-dab in the middle of the iconic interlocking “ND” logo on the 50-yard line at Notre Dame Stadium.

“Oh my gosh,” George said. “I’m actually going to be coaching on the sideline at the stadium that Knute Rockne built.”

Like the legendary Notre Dame head coach who put the Irish on a path to greatness a century ago, George has a been there, done that resumé in college football. In just one season at Ohio State in 1995, George won every runing back accolade under the sun. The Heisman Trophy, the Doak Walker Award, unanimous First-Team All-American status.

You name it, George won it.

So how could a guy like that be so wowed by something as simple as an empty stadium? He used to put tens of thousands of folks on their feet in venues just like it regularly.

It’s because Notre Dame is Notre Dame, and his situation is totally different than it was 27 years ago as a player. Sitting on a stage in South Bend on Wednesday afternoon, the 48-year-old looked like he could still rush for 1,000-plus yards like he did twice at Ohio State and seven more times in the NFL. But he’s the head coach at Tennessee State now, as indicated by his striking blue suit, and come Sept. 2, 2023, he’ll forever be the man who led an FCS/HBCU program against mighty Notre Dame for the first time ever.

The Irish have been playing football since 1899. Never have they faced a team like Tennessee State.

“It’s overwhelming to think I can help bring light to all the great things we’re trying to do — that we’re going to do — at Tennessee State University and expose our kids to this,” George said. “Playing in this building, this venue, this is the cathedral of sports venues.”

More Tennessee State vs. Notre Dame news

• Notre Dame football vs. Tennessee State: Irish to face FCS, HBCU opponent for first time

• WATCH: Jerome Bettis crashes press conference, asks Eddie George a question

George watched his son play against the Irish for Vanderbilt in 2018. That was more of a celebratory event. A proud father watching his child play on a grand stage. Next year, George will be leading dozens of players into the same environment. Only that time, everything will be on his shoulders with the world watching on NBC. There is obvious pressure to perform in that scenario. A demand to represent Tennessee State and HBCUs everywhere as best he can.

Tennessee State director of athletics Mikki Allen grew up a Notre Dame fan. A defensive back for the Tennessee Volunteers in the late 1990s, he knows what college football looks like at the highest level from his days watching the game as a kid and playing it as a young adult.

So Allen also knows how momentous an occasion this is for the athletics program he assumed power of two years ago to get back on track under a head coach whose name is synonymous with success in the sport.

Tennessee State isn’t at the height of its powers. It has only won one of its 12 Black College National Championships since 1983. The rest came before then. Sound familiar? Only one of Notre Dame’s 11 Division I national titles have come since 1978.

This game is about more than wins and losses, though. It’s about more than numbers, even though the one that signifies how much Notre Dame paid Tennessee State to make it happen has to be substantial. Irish Athletics Director Jack Swarbrick made a quip about that Wednesday. On paper, Notre Dame wins in a runaway. In optics and program positioning for the future, it’s hard to argue everyone involved won’t come out on the winning side of history.

“At the end of the day, it’s not a gimmick,” Allen said. “We want it to be real.”

“It’s all about the opportunity for us as the University of Notre Dame to get the chance to play an HBCU,” Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said. “And that’s extremely, extremely exciting.”