Irish fans prepare for tailgating

Saturday is game day in Fighting Irish country. Notre Dame's campus opened up at 6 a.m. for tailgaters to begin setting up.

Thousands of fans will fill up parking lots all across campus for the day's event. Tailgating will be going on all morning and afternoon long up until kick-off. 

Rich Sherman graduated from Notre Dame and is excited to be back on campus for the weekend. 

“We’re hoping for the Irish to beat the Longhorns because living in Austin, Texas, if we don’t win it’s going to be a real long year,” said Sherman laughing.

He said a lot of things have changed since he was here more than a decade ago.

"It's been great coming back, this place has changed immensely in 11 years," he added.

Sherman is not the only Irish fan to start the day out early. 

“It’s Notre Dame football, it’s a new season gotta start out early. We’ll probably get home about 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning, that’s my guess,” said football fan Jeremy Lobenthal. 

Fans are hoping for a win against the Texas Longhorns.

"We're gonna go and beat some Longhorns today," Lobenthal said.

Kick-off is at 7:30 p.m.