It's already been a busy nine months for Notre Dame's athletics director

SOUTH BEND – Who’s the new one?

That’s the first thought Tuesday afternoon in the football interview room at Notre Dame Stadium, as you see and hear about someone the mainstream media hasn’t seen or heard of much (or at all) during his time with a fairly prominent title .

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Director of Athletics at the University of Notre Dame.

Who is Pete Bevacqua? Who is this 1993 Notre Dame graduate who has been on the job for nearly nine months, who has been on campus since the summer and who signed a three-year contract extension for Marcus Freeman earlier this week that keeps the head football coach at the helm becomes? Football coach until 2030?

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Tuesday was the first opportunity for many media outlets to see and hear Bevacqua, who spoke for 43 minutes. Without time it might have taken the whole afternoon. He likes to talk.

No topic was off limits on Tuesday. No request was rejected; No truncated answer offered. You asked. Bevacqua replied. And answered. The 53-year-old spoke easily and passionately, like someone who has long practiced this media dance, which he has done, of course, as the former president/chairman of NBC Sports, which has broadcast every Notre Dame home game since 1991. Until Friday.

They – you know, “they” – often say that a new coach “wins the press conference.” Bevacqua won that presser. Shattered.

For Bevacqua, the first nine months on the job felt more like nine weeks. It happened that quickly. It was so much fun.

He arrived in winter. He watched Notre Dame’s men’s lacrosse team win the national championship for the second straight year in the spring. He closed a program (men’s swimming) because it failed to meet a certain department standard during the summer. That fall, he was on the sidelines as Freeman and his football team rattled off 10 straight wins and advanced to the first round of the College Football Playoff.

“I couldn’t be happier,” Bevacqua said. “I couldn’t possibly enjoy it more.”

The unofficial official answer as to why Bevacqua remained in the shadows all these months was that he was simply too busy. No time. Everything about this job happened too fast to slow down. There never seemed to be a good time for Bevacqua, a quiet time to fit into his schedule. This was something predecessor Jack Swarbrick did in his final AD days. Do you need an hour? Let’s do it.

Bevacqua would have been remiss on Tuesday if he didn’t mention Swarbrick.

Bevacqua initially served as a special assistant for nine months following his appointment as Swarbrick’s successor in June 2023. When there was a men’s basketball practice at Rolfs Hall, there were Swarbrick and Bevacqua. A football game in the stadium? Swarbrick and Bevacqua. A meeting on the other side of campus? Swarbrick and Bevacqua. A college football playoff conversation? Here come these two Notre Dame guys.

The then-current AD and the then-future AD worked side by side to ensure a seamless career transition. Bevacqua was named solo AD on March 25. When he had to make the most difficult decision of his short tenure – closing the men’s swimming program due to athlete misconduct – the fact that he sat alongside Swarbrick for months convinced him that the difficult decision was the right decision.

A normal AD does not bring this certainty and conviction. Tailing Swarbrick didn’t allow Bevacqua to get off to a quick start, but rather put him in a full sprint.

“This type of transition doesn’t happen in many places,” he said. “You feel like you can maybe start with a little more momentum. Jack was so warm to me and involved me in everything he did. I can never thank him enough.”

Pete Bevacqua is focused on Friday’s historic CFP home game

In what is arguably Notre Dame’s busiest week of the year with finals AND a College Football Playoff home game, it was decided that it was also the right time for Bevacqua to be at the forefront of the stadium interview space and conversation about Notre Dame athletics.

Really talk about Notre Dame football, because everything about Notre Dame athletics starts with football. Tuesday was about Freeman’s contract extension and trying to win national championships. It was Friday’s CFP first-round game against Indiana. It will be cold. It could snow. Notre Dame knows how to deal with cold and snow. Hosting the first CFP in college football history, it gets a chance to do both in front of the nation.

It’s only fitting that it unfolds in the house that Rockne built (but didn’t renovate). At night. With a little cold and a little snow and a landscape that doesn’t need words. Just an introductory panoramic shot at 8 p.m

This…is…Notre Dame.

When it comes to college football, be it Heismans or hype, this campus has been there and done that. Until Friday.

“There aren’t many opportunities to get No. 1 at Notre Dame,” Bevacqua said. “This is a first. That was our goal. The entire campus was committed to this event.”

Even though everything feels strange this week – Monday felt like Tuesday and Tuesday felt like Wednesday – Bevacqua will maintain his typical gameday Saturday routine on Friday. He’ll get up early and start his game day like he always does: with a jog around the lakes. It offers clarity amidst the calm, before all the craziness.

“For me, it’s a great way to see how the campus gets ready for game day,” he said.

Bevacqua might have a meeting or two. He will attend the team mess, where he will sit at the back of the basilica and then slip out the back door as the team heads toward the stadium. This is followed by a short stop in the office before entering the stadium approximately 30 minutes before kick-off.

Forget the welcoming warmth of the AD suite somewhere on the west side of the stadium. Bevacqua will walk down the tunnel, turn right and position himself in his usual spot along the west sideline.

Boss or not, he’s still one of them this Alums who live and die with each snapshot. One of those people who doesn’t mind small talk – right any talk – for three hours and change.

“I like watching the game from down on the field,” said Bevacqua, who was seen on the Irish sideline from start to finish (without a baseball cap) on a sun-drenched, 30-degree day at Purdue in mid-September. “I kind of love it. You see it up close.”

Being on the field helps Bevacqua socialize. Not with the coaches or the support staff, but with a group that perhaps means the most to him – the players. Bevacqua was on the floor of the Los Angeles Coliseum on Nov. 30 and saw his teammates gathered around cornerback Christian Gray as he struggled that afternoon. He was there when he saw Gray return an interception 99 yards to decide the CFP home game.

He saw and heard and felt emotions that you just can’t see, hear or feel in some suites.

If he had his way, Friday’s game would rival a game that still sits atop Bevacqua’s all-time list – the 1993 game of the century at Notre Dame Stadium between No. 1 Florida State and No. 2 Notre Dame.

Anyone who knows the game knows the day. The hustle and bustle around campus. The hazy sunshine of a November day. The four quarters of roller coaster football. Then finally the high spirits at the end.

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