A Season with Notre Dame Football: Preview, TV Schedule for Showtime Show

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish competed for the BCS National Championship as recently as 2012, but it feels like only now is head coach Brian Kelly seriously building the program up to be a true title contender.

As a result, Showtime's A Season with Notre Dame Football series should offer a nice look at how Kelly is going about making the Irish a national powerhouse once again.

You can view the schedule for the first eight episodes below:    

Episode	Date	Time
1	Tuesday, Sept. 8	10 p.m. ET
2	Tuesday, Sept. 15	10 p.m. ET
3	Tuesday, Sept. 22	10 p.m. ET
4	Tuesday, Sept. 29	10 p.m. ET
5	Tuesday, Oct. 6	10 p.m. ET
6	Tuesday, Oct. 13	10 p.m. ET
7	Tuesday, Oct. 20	10 p.m. ET
8	Tuesday, Oct. 27	10 p.m. ET

Unlike with Hard Knocks, the HBO series that follows NFL teams, Showtime will follow Notre Dame throughout the season rather than just spring practices and additional stages of the preseason.

Of course, the series is part documentary, part recruiting tool, so A Season with Notre Dame Football isn't going to be a no-holds barred, hyper-critical look at the program. Plus, Kelly won't want to lend any sort of advantage to the Fighting Irish's opponents by giving cameras carte blanche to practices and meetings in the film room.   

Kelly said in August he wants the show to strike a balance between being a public relations piece and giving fans an idea of what truly happens behind the scenes, per JJ Stankevitz of CSNChicago.com:

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I think anytime that you’re putting together a weekly show, you want to make sure that you’re real and it’s not, you know, a public service announcement each week. We get that, and Showtime and their production people want something that is certainly indicative of what goes on here on a day-to-day basis. Having said that, we never want to embarrass any players, coaches, or the university. I think we’re pretty clear on how we’ll collaborate in getting that to that end.

"

A Season with Notre Dame Football will be entertaining for fans of the Fighting Irish or simply those who follow college football in general. It's always interesting to see how head coaches interact with their players.

Plus, Showtime will also follow the players through their everyday lives as a students as well, which surely makes for quite the spectacle for those walking across Notre Dame's campus, per Pete Sampson of Irish Illustrated:

The trailer for the series premiere offered a brief look of what to expect in the first episode and beyond:

One of the more fascinating aspects of A Season with Notre Dame Football will be watching the progression of Malik Zaire as the season goes on. It's one thing to watch the junior quarterback improve on the field during games. But the series should offer a better understanding of what he's doing on the practice field to become a better passer each and every week.  

Zaire certainly got the year off to a great start, going 19-of-22 for 313 yards and three touchdowns in a 38-3 win over the Texas Longhorns last Saturday.

It's still a little early to call the Fighting Irish favorites for the College Football Playoff, but if Zaire proves to be the real deal, a top-four spot isn't out of the question for Notre Dame.

Given everything that is going on with the team, Showtime couldn't have picked a better time to follow Kelly and his players as they navigate the campaign ahead.

Note: All episodes of A Season with Notre Dame Football are available on demand on Showtime Anytime. You can see view times and dates for additional airings of the series on Showtime's website.