SOUTH BEND — Notre Dame football opens its 2024 season Saturday night at No. 20 Texas A&M in College Station. Kickoff is scheduled 7:30 p.m. EDT.

It's a challenging situation for the seventh-ranked Irish to start in front of 105,000 Aggies fans at Kyle Field. It's also the perfect barometer for a team with College Football Playoff aspirations in search of its first national championship since 1988.

The storylines are abundant. New graduate transfer quarterback Riley Leonard makes his first ND start in new offensive Coordinator Mike Denbrock's first game in front of a new offensive line with a combined six collegiate starts between them.

Lenorard will also go against new defensive-minded Aggies coach Mike Elko who was his head coach last season at Duke. Oh yeah ... it will be hot, to.

So what does that all mean?

South Bend Tribune Notre Dame football beat writers Tom Noie and Mike Berardino, along with WNDU sports director Jackson Neill, break it all down on this week's Pod of Gold Notre Dame football podcast before setting off for East Texas.

Special guest this week in Aggies beat writer Alex Miller of the Bryan-College Station Eagle. This week's show was recorded in the studios of news gathering partner WNDU.