Notre Dame, Miami Coaches Excited For Showdown; Watch Full News Conference

The 77th annual Hyundai Sun Bowl is still three weeks away, but the excitement kicked off Thursday.

Both Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly and Miami interim coach Jeff Stoutland were in town for the annual Rotary Club of El Paso’s Kickoff Luncheon. And the room was buzzing even prior to the arrival of the coaches.

When Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly and Miami’s Jeff stoutland finally entered the room it was as if Christmas arrived a couple weeks early in El Paso, especially for football fans.

This gift of a game has the whole country poised for the renewal of a rivalry that has not been played in two decades. Notre Dame’s kelly said he’s well aware that the Irish have a huge following in the Borderland.

“I’ve read some numbers that we have a big Catholic population here,” Kelly said, “So I would think that means good things for Notre Dame.”

Miami’s Stoutland, who was about an hour late for the news conference because of a flight delay in Dallas, said he found that out well before he even got here.

“I’m looking out the window of the plane and from underneath the plane comes a worker with a belt and all the things,” Stoutland said. “He’s got a ski cap, a Notre Dame ski cap on, and he’s waving at me. I said, ‘You gotta be kidding me. We haven’t even run a play yet and it’s already on here.'”

The game is already a sellout. And that’s largely due to all the Fighting Irish fans in this area.

“The Notre Dame brand we know is around the country,” Kelly said, “and it’s nice to know it’s here in El Paso too.”

Both teams come to town on Dec. 26th. Kickoff is noon Dec. 31st.

The teams haven’t played since 1990 and Notre Dame leads the all-time series 15-7-1, though the two schools have never met in a bowl. Over the summer, the schools said they will resume their spirited and often fierce regular-season series with three games beginning in 2012 at Soldier Field in Chicago.

Watch the full news conference at kvia.com/sun-bowl