SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The specialists drag the defensive line’s popup bags under the crossbar hanging above the south end zone of Notre Dame’s indoor practice facility. One bag aligns parallel with one upright, the other bag rests parallel to the other. It’s a game week Friday, which means Notre Dame’s unit strength games, a ritual to blow off steam before the team’s walk-through.
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While the other positions do their own thing, Notre Dame’s kickers, punters and long snappers stage a penalty shootout. The crossbar and bags form the goal, roughly the same size as what’s set up in Alumni Stadium next door, where the men’s soccer program advanced to the College Cup last weekend by ousting Indiana in penalties before a sellout crowd.
There are no such stakes in these games. Notre Dame’s specialists just act like there are when third-string kicker Bryan Dowd steps into goal. Because that’s about when the fun stops for long snapper Michael Vinson, punter Bryce McFerson, kicker Spencer Shrader, et al. Sticking Dowd in goal is like offensive lineman Joe Alt joining the lacrosse team and the Irish attackers suggesting they try pass rush moves for fun.
“We score like never,” Vinson said. “It has to be a one-in-a-million shot, hit it perfect, whatever direction he doesn’t guess.
“When Dowd’s not there, a lot more points are scored.”
The Irish soccer team understands the sentiment. When Notre Dame faces Oregon State on Friday (8:30 p.m. ET, ESPNU) in the national semifinals, Dowd will be between the posts — regulation measurements and materials this time — as the Irish try to advance to the national title game on Monday. If Notre Dame wins it all, Dowd will be a major reason why.
The senior has started the past three seasons and could be the nation’s top goalkeeper. He’s posted 10 shutouts this season, has allowed one goal all NCAA Tournament and helped the Irish win back-to-back shootouts to make the College Cup. Earlier this week, college soccer released its 15-player short list for the MAC Hermann Trophy, the sport’s version of the Heisman. Dowd was the only goalkeeper included. When the MLS stages its Super Draft on Dec. 19, Dowd is a surefire selection.
Bryan Dowd is part of Notre Dame football, even though he knows he can’t enter a game. (Courtesy of Notre Dame athletics)And yet, no matter what happens this weekend, Dowd’s Notre Dame career will end in El Paso, Texas, at the Sun Bowl, him warming up the Irish returners, then supporting Marcus Freeman’s program from the sidelines.
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For the past two years, Dowd has been part of Notre Dame’s specialists, happy to shag balls, chart kicks and talk smack. During springs, Dowd turns into a full-time football player. During the fall, he attends team meetings, walk-throughs and dresses out for games. Football honored him on senior day against Wake Forest, the day before soccer’s opening tournament win over Kentucky. Back in August, Dowd almost traveled to Ireland with the football program, the day after soccer’s season-opening draw against Indiana. Only rehab from a preseason MCL injury stopped Dowd from boarding the plane.
“Football is one thing, but Notre Dame football is another thing,” said men’s soccer coach Chad Riley. “I think Bryan loves Notre Dame as much or more than anyone I’ve ever coached.”
The fact Dowd has never kicked in an actual football game has not dulled his affections.
But the fact that he can’t, that’s harder to process.
When Dowd first picked up a football his freshman year at Fenwick High School, he’d already been under contract with the Chicago Fire’s youth academy, where he signed at barely 10 years old. It’s not that soccer came easy growing up in Willow Springs, Ill., it’s just that a passion for it did. He rose through various club teams, never quite getting enough training to satisfy him. Bryan’s father, Dave, would take Bryan to local parks for more work.
Soccer was taking Dowd places.
Football was just something his buddies wanted him to do.
“My friends peer pressured me to try out for football, and I lied to my parents about where I was that night,” Dowd said. “I think it was a Wednesday tryout for the freshman team, and the coach asked if I could play Saturday. My parents were very cautious. I think my dad called the coach or the athletic director, ‘My boy can’t get touched.’ But I fell in love and ended the year on varsity.”
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Dowd switched club soccer teams in high school, which helped him make the most of Fenwick’s football schedule. For practices, sometimes he’d warm up with the football team, then bolt for soccer training while head football coach Gene Nudo shook his head. Dowd finished his Fenwick career with the most made field goals in school history.
Walking off the field after his final high school football game, Dowd told his dad that wouldn’t be the last time he put on a football uniform. At that point, Dowd had long been committed to Notre Dame soccer, with football showing some interest in a walk-on spot. Offensive coordinator Tommy Rees had stopped by the school. Special teams coordinator Brian Polian had been in touch.
Dowd comes from a family of Notre Dame fans on his mom’s side. His grandmother grew up watching games. She was cordial when other schools offered soccer scholarships to her grandson. She swooned when Notre Dame did.
When Dowd enrolled the summer before his freshman year in 2020, the football program wanted an all-in commitment, basically asking a five-star goalie prospect to drop soccer to become a third-string kicker. A year earlier, Dowd had made the preliminary roster for the U17 World Cup.
“That was non-negotiable for Bryan,” Dave Dowd said. “They had made it sound like he could do both, but when it came to crunch time, well, a national team kid, he’s not gonna leave soccer. When coach Freeman came on board … it was, ‘Yeah, we’ll let you do both.’”
Dowd synced back up with football during Freeman’s first spring and played in the Blue-Gold Game, hitting a 44-yard punt. He was again hooked on football as a side project, attending team meetings at the Guglielmino Athletics Complex and trying to fit in with the specialists. He listened to enough Freeman speeches that Dowd wrote “OPOL” on his goalie gloves, shorthand for Freeman’s “One Play, One Life” maxim.
“That really struck me the first time I heard it,” Dowd said. “Kicking and goalkeeping is weirdly similar. You don’t have too many moments, but when you do have a moment, you have to step up or everyone’s gonna be pretty disappointed in you. I try to apply a lot of lessons from the Gug.”
Bryan Dowd applies lessons from football to soccer. (Pete Sampson / The Athletic)During that first spring with football, Dowd learned he’d probably never play in a game because of NCAA rules on scholarships. If a player on scholarship in a non-revenue sport sees the field in a football, he immediately goes on scholarship in the revenue sport. It’s the same rule that turned Jordan Faison from a partial scholarship lacrosse player to a full scholarship football player the moment he saw the field at Louisville. Faison scored a touchdown that night. There’s less upside in a 35-yard field goal or 40-yard punt.
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“I was pretty bummed,” Dowd said. “What kept me going was that I felt as if I was already accepted into the family. Being able to play in a game would be awesome, but I know I can still help the team in other ways, even if it’s small. I realized no one is ever too big for a role. Someone has to be the backup, do scout kickoffs, help the starters be their best.
“I’m used to being ‘the guy’ with soccer, but football humbles me and gives me a bit of perspective.”
Unless there’s an unknown loophole that allows Dowd to play in a football game after his collegiate soccer career has ended — special teams coordinator Marty Biagi plans to explore it before the Sun Bowl — Dowd’s football career will finish in the background, juxtaposed against his soccer career wrapping in the spotlight.
“You couldn’t even do a ‘Rudy’ moment,” Biagi said. “It’s not that he knows he wouldn’t go in, it’s that he knows he can’t go in. But he’s obsessed with Notre Dame and Notre Dame football.”
If Dowd the third-string kicker is here to serve Notre Dame football, Dowd the potential All-American goalie is here to lead Notre Dame soccer. Whatever humility Dowd brings to the Gug melts away on the pitch, at least when Notre Dame heads to penalty kicks.
The Irish won two penalty shootouts en route to the College Cup two years ago, first in the ACC tournament against Louisville and then in the NCAA Tournament against Pittsburgh. When Dowd’s penalty save beat the Cardinals in the ACC quarterfinals, he turned and waved goodbye to the fans behind the goal.
This postseason, Notre Dame beat Western Michigan and Indiana on penalties in the NCAA Tournament. When Dowd saved Western Michigan’s first penalty in a second-round win — stoning the nation’s leading scorer Charlie Sharp — the Irish goalie sprung to his feet and gave Sharp a pouty face with pursed lips. He didn’t save a penalty against Indiana, but he guessed the correct way on four of the Hoosiers’ five attempts.
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“Not many times as a keeper you get to show your flair. So I try to make the most out of those opportunities when I have full control over the game,” Dowd said. “It helps get in an opponent’s head. Anything that gives me a slight advantage, especially in penalty kicks, I’ll try to take.
“I like to stir the pot a little bit. I like to get in people’s minds.”
Dowd will wave his arms and move on the goal line as the penalty taker runs up to the ball, an attempt to put him off. But Dowd has already done his research, understanding where the penalty kicker likes to slot the ball. He’s also watching pre-kick actions, where there kicker is looking and how he places the ball down. During the run-up, Dowd watches the plant foot and hips of the shooter.
Then he makes a best guess. Usually it works. Sometimes it doesn’t.
The last time Notre Dame made the College Cup came during Dowd’s sophomore year. Clemson knocked Notre Dame out on penalties in the semifinals. The Tigers won the national title two nights later. Dowd put a picture of the Tigers holding up the trophy in his locker. And if Notre Dame beats Oregon State on Friday in Louisville, Ky., it will face the winner of Clemson versus West Virginia in the national championship game.
“It’s a constant reminder of how close we were and how bad the College Cup left a taste in my mouth,” Dowd said. “And how all I wanted was to come back here and prove ourselves.”
Back in South Bend, Notre Dame’s football program will be watching. A few specialists attended the Indiana game and met Dowd on the pitch when fans stormed the field after Daniel Russo buried the winning penalty kick. Vinson watched that match from his house with a few walk-ons, plus quarterbacks Sam Hartman and Steve Angeli. He might push for the match to be shown in the Gug auditorium.
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“I’m sure we’ll have a watch party,” Vinson said. “We definitely get how good the soccer team is.”
A third-string kicker is the biggest reason, both why Notre Dame soccer is challenging for a national title and why Notre Dame football knows about it.
But whatever happens in the College Cup, Dowd’s Notre Dame career will still end in El Paso in the Sun Bowl, a reserve specialist warming up the returners in pregame before retreating to the sidelines. From there he’ll just watch, all Dowd can do as the curtain comes down on both of his college careers.
“My last time putting on that Notre Dame jersey,” Dowd said. “That will be a special moment.”
(Top photo courtesy of Notre Dame athletics)
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