SAN ANTONIO -- Among the green-clad (and -wigged) throngs near the RiverWalk early Saturday, a Washington State fan turned to the small group with which he was ambling around town.
"Kind of scary, isn't it?" he said.
Presumably, he meant the number of Notre Dame fans descending upon the city for the first of the annual off-site home games. The Irish have gone out of their way to make this an Alamodome away from home, starting with the giant "ND" logo on the scoreboards and the end zones, like those at Notre Dame Stadium, marked only with white lines.
Other pregame notes...
Interesting note about Toney Hurd, Jr., who became the 18th member of Notre Dame's Class of 2010 recruiting haul. According to the South Bend Tribune, Hurd -- a Missouri City, Texas, native -- couldn't talk to the Irish coaching staff in-person to deliver the news Friday, thanks to a non-contact period on the recruiting calendar.
Instead, Hurd had to pick up the phone to call the Irish coaches -- even though they may as well have been within arm's length this weekend.
On Friday afternoon, Notre Dame cheerleaders visited wounded soldiers at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. The school provided 100 of those soldiers with tickets to Saturday night's game.
Estimated attendance for the Friday night pep rally at the Alamo -- which the Irish football team could not attend, arriving in San Antonio after the rally started -- was 7,500 people.
The change of scenery Saturday probably will be accompanied by a change of script, with lowly Washington State (1-6) not likely to force the action down to the final drive. That will be quite a change, as the last six Irish games have been decided by seven points or less, setting a single-season school record.
Notre Dame is the only team in the Bowl Subdivision to have played that many games decided by that small a margin.
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