April 24, 2006

Placekicker Carl Gioia kicked a 20-yard field goal as time expired to give the Blue Team a 10-7 victory over the Gold Team in Notre Dame’s 77th Annual Blue-Gold Spring Football Game Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium.

A spring game-record crowd of 41,279 watched head coach Charlie Weis’s 2006 edition of the Fighting Irish for the first time on a sun-splashed day. Using an innovative split-squad format, Weis split the team into two units bolstered by a third, green-clad group of offensive linemen and kicking specialists who served both squads. The game was set up to feature the starting offense and defense facing each other exclusively, as well as exclusive competition by the reserves against other backup players.

Photos by Marcus Snowden and Brother Charles McBride, CSC.