(Photo credit: AJ Houk)
In a kickoff time announcement not likely to surprise anyone, Notre Dame will begin the 2024 season in a prime time matchup at Texas A&M. The Fighting Irish and Aggies game will start at 7:30 p.m. ET in a national broadcast on ABC, Saturday, August 31, 2024 at Kyle Field.
ESPN College Football Gameday will also be in College Station.
The match-up will feature Mike Elko’s debut as the A & M head coach. Elko served as the Notre Dame defensive coordinator in 2017. He then spent three seasons as the defensive coordinator in College Station. Elko then moved on to his first head coaching job at Duke and was named the 2022 ACC Coach of the Year as the Blue Devils finished 9-4 complete with a bowl victory over UCF in the Military Bowl. The 2023 season saw the Blue Devils get off to a 4-0 start before injuries took their toll and Duke finished the regular season 7-5. Among those injuries was one to QB Riley Leonard who missed five games. Leonard was injured on the last series against Notre Dame, a game the Irish prevailed in 21-14.
Leonard moved over to Notre Dame during the off season via the transfer portal, and is expected to begin 2024 as the Irish starter.
Notre Dame will be facing Texas A&M for the sixth time in history and the first since a loss in ND’s only visit to College Station in 2001. The Irish and A&M first met in 1987 at the Cotton Bowl (a 35-10 Texas A&M victory), then followed with two more Cotton Bowl meetings – both won by the Irish – in 1992 and 1993. The two programs then held a home-and-home series in 2000 and 2001. The Irish and the Aggies split those two regular season contests.
The game will mark the fourth consecutive year Notre Dame will play its first contest away from Notre Dame Stadium at night and fifth time in the last nine seasons that the Irish will begin the season on the road, in prime time.