One year after appearing in the BCS National Championship game against Alabama, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (8-4) find themselves playing at Yankee Stadium in the Pinstripe Bowl against Rutgers (6-6). Today's Pinstripe Bowl kicks off at 12:00 p.m. ET on ESPN, and can be live streamed free here. Fighting Irish fans can listen to the game on WVFI Radio, and Rutgers fans may do the same on 88.7 WRSU.
Notre Dame enters this game as a nearly two-touchdown favorite, an indication that perhaps they expected a better result this season. They nearly came back from down 15 against Stanford on November 30th, but fell short.
"Not good enough obviously. Proud of the guys and my teammates and how we fought all year but you don't come to Notre Dame to go 8-4, and everyone understands that," said quarterback Tommy Rees, who assumed the reins of the offense for dismissed quarterback Everett Golson.
Just because it isn't one of the major bowl games, though, Irish coach Brian Kelly isn't complaining or lamenting the season his team had. "We were privileged to play in New York City and Yankee Stadium in 2010. The treatment our university received from the Steinbrenner family, the New York Yankees and the entire organization was unlike anything we've experienced in my tenure at Notre Dame," he said.
The Scarlet Knights are in their eighth bowl game in nine seasons, but they could be torched by Rees in today's game. This year Rutgers has allowed 3,596 yards passing-Rees has thrown for 2,938 yards and 27 touchdowns.
Despite that potential nightmare, Rutgers coach Kyle Flood is nothing but excited to get going.
"It's a really attractive matchup," Flood said. "It will certainly be an attractive matchup for their fan base and I think it will be attractive to just the casual college sports fan that wants to see an event and to get an opportunity to go watch a football game in Yankee Stadium, one of the premiere venues in the world."
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