The Shocking 2024 Notre Dame Football Defeat That Sparked an Unforgettable Docuseries Triumph

There’s always that one moment in a season that slams home just how real it all is — and for the 2024 Notre Dame football team, pinpointing that instant isn’t easy. Was it the exhilaration pulsing through the team after opening with a triumphant win at Texas A&M over Labor Day Weekend? Or maybe the electric buzz from the showdown in the season finale at USC, wrapped up on Thanksgiving weekend? Heck, perhaps it was stepping into Notre Dame Stadium that chilly December night, hosting and winning the university’s first-ever on-campus College Football Playoff game — or the surreal feeling of walking into Mercedes-Benz Stadium in January, staring up at that gleaming national championship emblem etched on the turf.
“It was like, all right, this could go one of two ways,’” Fornaro said Thursday from a darkened Notre Dame Stadium interview room. “I will say, after the Northern Illinois game, you kind of knew it was real. You knew the show was real.” 
What moment did it for you? Any? All? 

The result was a seven-episode docuseries look at the 2024 Notre Dame football team from the highest of highs (pick one) to that lowest of lows (Northern Illinois). Everything that Fornaro, a native New Yorker and 2016 Marist College graduate, heard about Notre Dame and its storied football program, he lived last season. Charged with overseeing the first season of “Here Come the Irish,” a docuseries that aired on Peacock last season, Fornaro wasn’t going to let one loss keep him from making what he thought had the makings of something special. 

For John Fornaro, the director at the heart of “Here Come the Irish,” a docuseries tracking the highs and gut-wrenching lows of this storied program, the season’s truth hit hardest on a tough September day after the unexpected loss to Northern Illinois. Most would see only defeat, but Fornaro caught a glimpse of something deeper — a story begging to be told, raw and unfiltered. Even amidst setbacks, access remained wide open; the cameras rolled through every meeting, every candid moment, painting an unvarnished portrait of a team and community bound together, come win or heartbreak.

Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at [email protected]“We shoot 90% and 10% of it gets used,” he said. “You have to show the team and the staff that you’re committed to be there. That’s the most important part for me.” “We,” Fornaro said, “don’t know what exactly is going to happen.” 

You can guess what storylines are in pen (for now) this season. Jeremiyah Love, the starting quarterback, any returning starter on defense would be good places to start. There will be a few pivotal plotlines come December that no one saw surfacing in August. That’s football. SOUTH BEND ― When did the 2024 Notre Dame football season get real for you? 

Driving in from Chicago day after day, Fornaro soaked in Notre Dame football’s lore, its passion, and its undeniable authenticity. This wasn’t just a show — it was a living, breathing narrative that demanded honesty, trust, and commitment to every frame captured. As this season’s cameras roll once more, mounting storylines from star quarterback Jeremiyah Love to key returning defenders promise surprises that no one could script back in August. Because that’s football — unpredictable, relentless, and visceral in every second. And that, folks, is why we watch, why we care… and why this tale demands your attention. LEARN MOREHow about none? 

Break the doc? How about make it? That’s film. The docuseries, last season and again this season (it was announced Thursday that the first episode will drop December 8), also, real. Notre Dame football may have the final say, but Fornaro insists there wasn’t much of a balancing act to the documentary that he wanted to make and the one Notre Dame wanted made. “As soon as that happened, I was like, ‘All right, we’re making a real show here. This is going to happen. This is going to be good,’” Fornaro said. 

“Here Come the Irish” has been in production since long before the first official day of practice on July 31. Over the summer, Fornaro and his staff took home visits with several returning Irish to start building out backstories and possible storylines. Not everything made it without making it the War and Peace (ask your parents) of docs. It would have run for days, not hours. Fornaro and his crew made it a point last season and will make it again this fall to be at every team meeting, every practice, every recordable moment. “You always hear about Notre Dame and you hear about the lore and you hear about the prestige of what Notre Dame is and its history,” he said. “Being with the team every day, being on the road, being in the team hotel, being on the team charters, you see all this stuff that makes this place special and you understand it. It was dizzying. What might those be? You know better than to ask any director to reveal his hand. Fornaro won’t, though he stressed that flexibility is crucial. Last fall, former Irish All-American cornerback Benjamin Morrison was supposed to be a solid storyline. When his collegiate career came to a premature end in October after hip surgery, Morrison went from central character to a supporting actor. 

“We told the exact story that we wanted to tell,” he said. “There were no limitations, no restrictions from football or the (communication) staff. There’s a good relationship there; there’s trust there.” “The feeling here is real. The fans here are real.” Access rarely was restricted. Fornaro and his crew were not asked not to shoot this team meeting or that player-coach interaction. Freeman and his staff, like Fornaro and his, went about business as usual. Even in soul-crushing defeat. Was it the win in the opener at Texas A&M over Labor Day Weekend, or the win in the finale at USC over Thanksgiving weekend?

The show must go on. It went on. Notre Dame director, feature content John Fornaro knew he had something special during what was the football program’s lowest moment in 2024, maybe the lowest moment in decades. On that September Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium, Fornaro felt something that only a person in his position could after the loss to Northern Illinois went final. Real because for as low of a moment as that loss was for everyone associated with Notre Dame football – from the head coach on down – they treated it, and treated Fornaro and his crew, just as they had done the previous week after winning at Texas A&M. Every day from August camp, into the regular season and through a CFP postseason that stretched from late December to late January, Fornaro learned what makes Notre Dame football after a near-daily 93-minute drive from his home in Chicago’s West Loop. It took Fornaro, a four-time national sports Emmy award winner during his four years at ESPN, four seconds when he arrived in April 2024 to understand that campus, that football program, that everything. Was it walking into Notre Dame Stadium on that cold Friday night in December for the first on-campus College Football Playoff game (and win), or walking into Merecedes-Benz Stadium on that cold Monday night in January and seeing that national championship logo there on the field?There also was a lot there. Fornaro admitted he over did it on the amount of footage shot last season just, well, because he could. He thought everything about Notre Dame and its football program was “amazing” and wanted to squeeze everything in the show.