Notre Dame football to hold Blue-Gold Game draft this Thursday
It’s draft season. Yeah, NFL Draft season, one week from Thursday. Former Notre Dame offensive tackle Joe Alt should hear his name called sometime soon in the first round that night with festivities taking place in person in Detroit.
But this Thursday, it’s Notre Dame Blue-Gold Game draft season. For the third consecutive year, the Fighting Irish will come up with teams for the annual Blue-Gold Game via a standard back and forth draft held on Notre Dame’s campus.
The draft will take place Thursday, April 18, at 9:15 a.m. ET. It will be streamed live on YouTube and FightingIrish.com. Click here to access the YouTube link for the draft.
The recipient of the No. 1 pick will be determined by a coin flip. Notre Dame running backs coach Deland McCullough is the coach of the of the Gold Team. Notre Dame defensive line coach Al Washington is the coach of the Blue Team. This is also the third year running for those two to go head-to-head. Each coach has been victorious once in the series with Washington’s group claiming a 24-0 win last year. McCullough guided his team to a 13-10 victory in 2022.
Senior student-athletes will be assigned to a team in advance and will assist their respective coaches through the draft process. The draft will go through position group by position group until every unit has been sifted through. Once the draft is complete, another coin toss will determine which team gets first possession of the ball on Saturday.
The 93rd edition of the Blue-Gold Game kicks off at Notre Dame Stadium at 1 p.m. ET Saturday. The game will be broadcasted live on Peacock.
It’ll be a big day for quarterbacks Steve Angeli, Kenny Minchey and CJ Carr with Riley Leonard likely not taking part in the game. He’s been a limited participant in practices since undergoing a second ankle surgery in a two-month span in March.
The media got a sneak peak at what to expect Saturday last weekend in a scrimmage made available to reporters for viewing. Angeli and Minchey both threw interceptions, the former tossing two INTs, while Carr did not turn the ball over and accounted for two touchdowns.
Two years ago, Angeli won the Blue-Gold Game with a last-second rushing touchdown. It was Sam Hartman who stole the show a year ago with a three-touchdown performance, all in the first half.
