St. Patrick's Day special: Classic Irish Football on Versus

Just in case Notre Dame’s participation in the NCAA basketball tournament isn’t enough to fill the 49-day dead period between National Signing Day and the Opening of Spring Football, the cable network Versus will air three classic Notre Dame football games on Thursday, St. Patrick’s Day, part of Versus’ six hours of “Celebrate the Irish” coverage.

The three games are the Irish’s 1992 victory over Penn State (4 p.m. CDT); No. 2 Notre Dame’s 31-24 victory over No. 1 Florida State in 1993 (6 p.m.); and the 2005 heartbreaker against USC, known as the “Bush Push” game (8 p.m.). All three games were played at Notre Dame Stadium.The show, which will be hosted by Liam McHugh, will include interviews with head coach Brian Kelly — who was at Grand Valley State in 1992 and 1993 and in his second year at Central Michigan in 2005 — and Notre Dame “legends” including Jerome Bettis.So if Pitt vs. UNC-Asheville isn’t your cup of team, Versus St. Patrick’s Day celebration of classic Irish football is an event you won’t want to miss — except for the last play of the USC game, perhaps. Versus also will broadcast the Notre Dame’s 82nd Annual Blue-Gold spring football game at 1 p.m. CDT on Saturday, April 16.