A historical game, that Notre Dame has dominated. Only a couple of losses in the last 50 or 60 years. Charlie Weis lost the first game in 44 years in 2007, and then lost again in his final year 2009. Then Brian Kelly lost in his first year mainly because the DCoord, Bob Diaco, had no clue how to defend the Option. Kelly lost again in 2016 when the Irish had a losing season. We are 77-13-1 overall vs the Midshipmen. It's discussed every year amongst ND fans/alumni, why do we keep playing Navy. The answer is always the same, the Navy V12 program in WWII saved Notre Dame as a University during WWII. The priest of the Congregation of the Holy Cross have felt an obligation to them ever since. Father Hesburgh confirmed it whenever the subject came up. So on we go! The big problem for the Irish in this game will be the defense, which even in good years can be a problem. We are not a great defense; we have been playing poorly with regards to the fundamentals. Tackling has been bad. All bad news when facing a decent service academy triple option attack. We will have the advantage in talent, all over the place. But if the talent isn't disciplined vs the Navy option, they will 16 play drive on you all day. and you will hardly ever touch the ball on offense. Which of course puts a lot of pressure on your offense to score every time they have the ball. The good news is that the Irish offense seems to be finding itself, we have an improving OL and a running game that is suddenly looking pretty good. Jack Coan has found some success with the up tempo offense. We have some new talent starting to emerge. I believe that Braden Lenzy should be 2nd team now behind Lorenzo Styles Jr. And Logan Diggs at RB looks very good, certainly has filled in very well for Chris Tyree. C'Bo might not get any carries the rest of the year unless there is an injury. Navy was awful to start the year, they have been in decline for a couple of years now since going 11-2 in 2019 including a bowl win. They have played some of their best against Houston, Cincinnati and SMU. All were losses but by less than 10 points. So they might be coming around. I hope the trip to South Bend sets them back a little. I don't think the Irish have any injury issues. We had a scare when Kyren went to the injury tent, but then he came out and ripped off the 91 yard beauty. Kyle Hamilton continues to be unavailable. I'm not aware of any other players who won't be available. Keep an eye out for the Hawaiian, Jordan Bothelo, he seems built for defending this Navy offense. He got into the game vs UNC and showed some flash!
It's time for the LBs and corners to step up. The Navy triple O is aimed right at our Achilles heel. Remember what Lou said about facing triple option teams, "you don't defend it, you attack it." That means that the secondary has to reach quickly and decisively.
From a document I found on Navy/Notre Dame 2. The two schools began playing in 1927-and had a good relationship, but the relationship was redefined in the wake of World War II In the spring of 1943, Notre Dame’s enrollment fell dramatically to only 2,623. It was a 20% drop from 1940. They needed more students to keep faculty on staff, to keep facilities open, to keep the school afloat. The University wrote to the Department of War (the Army) and the Navy Department hoping to house and train officer candidates for the war effort. The Army declined and Notre Dame came very close to maybe not being here today, certainly not as the same school we know today. But the Navy Department agreed. The Navy sent Notre Dame 1,851 officer candidates and nearly a half million dollars for heat, light, and facility maintenance to South Bend in a contract between “The United States of America and University of Notre Dame Du Lac”. Throughout the war thousands more trainees, “90-day wonders”, flowed through the collegiate quadrangles with $9,000 a month to help pay for them, creating almost a second Academy. Even when Notre Dame stopped playing Army from 1948-56, they continued to feel indebted to Navy. There is a brotherhood between the two schools epitomized in the two football programs. Navy Coach Rip Miller, was previously one of Notre Dame’s “Seven Mules” the frontline that blocked for the famed ‘Four Horsemen’ against Army. But more than just people, both programs have sacrificed to continue playing each other out of a sense of loyalty. In the early 1960’s a lot of people advised “Barnacle” Bill Busik the Navy Athletic Director to stop playing Notre Dame because Navy kept losing. He responded, “There was a time when people said they [Notre Dame] shouldn’t play us. Notre Dame appreciated the fact that we kept them on our schedule in those days. They weren’t that good, but we understood”. And when Navy considered de-emphasizing its football program in the 1990’s Superintendent Thomas Lynch (the captain of the 1963 Navy team) spoke to Notre Dame’s President Fr. Joyce: “He gave me comfort and confidence that we could do this, that it is possible to play (at that level)”. The influence of Father Hesburgh Father Hesburgh was a larger than life figure. For decades, he was the most prominent Catholic Priest in America, he counseled Presidents, marched for Civil Rights, and flew in the SR-71 before we acknowledged its existence. But his dream was for the church to make him a Navy Chaplain. Every year until his death he confided in the newly commissioned officers coming out of Notre Dame; that every night he prayed with them, that in their darkest hours no matter where they were he would be praying with them. Father Hesburgh wasn’t just a figure in South Bend, or even in Washington. He was directly involved with the Naval Academy as well, even serving as the chairman of our Board of Visitors. Many times, he stayed in my residence, Buchanan House. He would watch the Brigade form up in Tee Court and march by. He would smile and wave while they chanted at him “Go Navy! Beat Notre Dame!” It was all “in good sport” as he would say. During the Vietnam Era, many top schools started getting rid of their ROTC programs. Father Hesburgh wouldn’t even hear of it. He firmly stated that Notre Dame was the midshipmen’s home just as much as any other student. One winter night the senior Midshipman at Notre Dame told Father Hesburgh of a threat that some of “the crazies” were going to set fire to the ROTC building. Farther Hesburgh asked simply, “doesn’t the navy train you to deal with difficult situations?” The midshipman said they did, so father Hesburgh told him to deal with it and report back in the morning, and he went to bed. When he woke up, he was relieved to see that the ROTC building was still standing. Four or so of the would-be arsonists had showed up with fire and gasoline to torch the building. But, most of the Naval ROTC Battalion was waiting for them in the trees. They overwhelmed the small group of “crazies” and, deciding they needed to cool off, threw them in the lake. https://www.usna63.org/tradition/NavyNotreDamerivarlynotes.pdf
From BK's presser. On injuries to Braden Lenzy, Kyle Hamilton, Isaiah Foskey Everyone is optimistic on Lenzy. He's cleared for cardiovascular testing today. If all goes well, he practices tomorrow. We're on track. He has voiced his want to play this weekend. Kyle will have a second treatment today on his knee. Made good progress. Expect that through this week. Will be evaluated next week whether he can play against Virginia. On worn down Drew White, JD Bertrand and others are at this point You want to be careful with them. I would be less than truthful if I said he was 100% last week. We would like to rest them, but keeping Drew out of the lineup isn't easy. He's a warrior. He's closer to where he has been. JD has played a lot of snaps. We backed him off last week. He had 30 less snaps. We noticed that a load needs to be taken off this guys. Foskey's shoulder turned out well. Bumps and bruises of a high impact game. Nothing that would limit him from competitive stuff this week. BK on Jon Doerer's kickoffs not getting to end zone: He had pretty significant injury he's working back from. Had PRP injection during bye week. "He's trying to build up the strength in his leg." And the most important injuru update: Zeke Correll is cleared to play!!!!
Braden Lenzy runs the risk of becoming Notre dame's version of Wally Pipp. Get well soon because Lorenzo Styles is ready to take your job right now.
Chris Tyree arrived at Notre Dame as the highest rated ND RB in quite awhile and he's the fastest. Now it's not like Tyree has been a bust, he's played well. But he's not been able to take the job over, there is a guy named Kyren who won't give it up. Now Logan Diggs is starting to show some stuff, so I wonder if Tyree will ever be the top dog at RB like most thought he would.
LB depth is an issue for the Irish and while Clark Lea did a great job as a DCoord for the Irish, he was a less than enthusiastic recruiter. He wasn't reluctant from what I read, just not a really good one. The last couple of years he just didn't bring in the talent he should have. Last year we had Prince Kollie who won the HS Butkus Award but the only other LB was Kahuna Kia a 3 star from Hawaii. This years haul by Marcus Freeman, who is dynamic and enthusiastic about recruiting had 4 LB's all of them are on the finalist list for the High School Butkus Award. Quite a difference. Now if Freeman will just develop into the type of DCoord we all expected when he came to South Bend! Also most are expecting that 2023 5* Indiana LB Drayk Bowen will verbal to the Irish this week. Lander Barton, Brighton - Cottonwood Heights, UT Stone Blanton, Madison-Ridgeland Academy - Madison, MS Joshua Burnham, Traverse City Central - Traverse City, MI C.J. Hicks, Archbishop Alter - Dayton, OH Devon Jackson, Harry A. Burke - Omaha, NE Dasan McCullough, Bloomington South - Bloomington, IN Kobie McKinzie, Lubbock Cooper - Lubbock, TX Shawn Murphy, Unity Reed - Manassas, VA Harold Perkins, Cypress Park - Cypress, TX Gabe Powers, Marysville - Marysville, OH Jimmy Rolde, Marist - Chicago, IL Jaylen Sneed, Hilton Head - Hilton Head, SC Niuafe Tuihalamaka, Bishop Alemany - Mission Hills, CA Jalon Walker, Salisbury - Salisbury, NC Robert Woodyard, Lillie B. Williamson - Mobile, AL Nolan Ziegler, Catholic Central - Grand Rapids, MI
Thanks, Terry for the history between ND and Navy. Of all the many, many great posts you've written over the years, this is one of your best. I'm going to the game this Saturday. My oldest granddaughter is a Plebe at the Naval Academy and is coming out with her fellow midshipmen for the game. We have tickets in the same section as the midshipmen. Having seen Logan Diggs run, IMO he's Kyren Williams 2.0. Same leg drive. Same 2nd, 3rd, 4th effort. I haven't seen that from Tyree. He consistently goes down on the first hit and doesn't have the same north-south leg drive as the other two. IMO, if Diggs stays healthy, he'll be our #2 TB.
More on ND /Navy at the link. Details on the WWII program. Hard to imagine what ND would be like today if the Navy V12 program hadn't saved us. Would the University actually had to shutdown? If so then the Leahy years don't happen in the late 40's,maybe Leahy doesn't even come back to ND if he has to start a program from scratch Notre Dame and Navy: Why We Play, Part 2
Kelly on Jack Coan. Kelly on Monday said if he listened to all the outside noise around his Notre Dame football program that he would be left to jump from a building. Specifically, Kelly was asked about his season-long commitment to graduate-transfer quarterback Jack Coan. “I know you'll laugh when I say this, but I didn't know that I needed to be vindicated,” Kelly answered. “Jack is the guy. And I don't mean that in any other way. Look: How can you be the head coach at Notre Dame if you listened to all of this stuff every day? I would jump out off my roof. I mean it's crazy. “I think more than anything else we felt like Jack was our best option for us to win, and we just needed to continue to work with him. Every day we work with him. “Who knew he was that fast?” Kelly's tongue-in-cheek comment about Coan's speed centered on the quarterback's 21-yard scoring scramble in last Saturday's 44-34 win against North Carolina. Kelly shifted focus from the staff's belief in Coan into what Coan has delivered in his only season with the Irish. “He's a selfless player,” Kelly said. “He gets a chance to run the one time going down to our end zone on the left. Most quarterbacks in that situation try to extend the football. He has the sense that he wants to extend it and he tucks it, he just doesn't want to put the ball in jeopardy. He's just that kind of player. Those nuances may be don't get seen by a lot of people, but I see it. He's just a fun guy to coach.”
Kelly also when asked about Kyle Hamilton waffled quite a bit. He did say that Kyle had a PRP procedure and that things were going well, held out hope that he would be ready for UVA. But also said that it was up to Kyle, that they supported him 100% in whatever he decided to do and that they provide him with outside 3rd party information (on his NFL status I assume, but he didn't explain). He also commented that this is where we are in college football. “We're going to support him 100% whatever it is [on returning or not returning this season]. That's the nature of where we are today in college football, a guy's gotta make those kinds of decisions, and we'll support him. He's been a great teammate.”
Of course there has as previously noted a lot of speculation about Kyle Hamilton. Should he ever suit up again for the Irish or should he opt out to preserve his health/NFL draft status. Certainly Hamilton isn't the only player who as they are in their final year before going to the NFL thinks about getting injured while playing. Players who have established themselves as high NFL draft picks don't have to worry so much about opting out hurting their draft status. Those players who need more "good" film for the NFL to evaluate and hopefully improve their draft status need to continue to play and "risk injury". It is a new phenomena that's for sure. Now Drew White has no NFL future, likely to not even get drafted. Is more old school...playing through injuries. ____________________ Kelly also had more concerning news for the linebacker group as Drew White is also battling an injury and probably shouldn't have played last week against North Carolina. "I'd be less than truthful if I said (White) was 100% for last weekend's game and probably in some instances if we could, we wouldn't have played him," Kelly stated. "Trying to keep him out of the lineup is another thing. "He battled through it. I think he feels so much better this week, even after playing, than he did last week. So the expectations are really high for him to be closer to where he has been." White being healthy this weekend will be critical for Notre Dame as he's been phenomenal against the triple-option dating back to 2018 when he made his debut for an injured Drue Tranquill against Navy in San Diego. "Drew has been somebody that has really picked it up," explained Kelly. "I don't know if you remember it or not, but Greer Martini was one of those guys that really had the option down, had the sense of where the ball was going and Drew has that. He just has a really good sense. "He got his kind of baptism in the option when he came in for Drue (Tranquill) was injured. But after he (White) battled some injuries, he really dedicated himself to being physically stronger and fit."
I hope I'm wrong but I suspect we've seen the last of Hamilton. For the premier athletes college football is simply a means to the NFL. The quicker they get there the better and they will not do anything to jeopardize that.
Big Decision coming today for Notre Dame target Drayk Bowen. 2023 Andrean (Ind.) linebacker Drayk Bowen will make his college decision on Wednesday night at 9:00 PM ET. Bowen has always wanted to pick a hat for his commitment and there will be three hats on the table tonight. Auburn, Clemson and Notre Dame are the finalists and all have given him the opportunity to play baseball and football at the next level.
Everybody but Hamilton will be on deck for the Middies. Even Kevin Bauman who was seemingly headed for a breakout season at TE, but then waylaid by injury, will be available. Now we have to hope that the Navy blocking scheme doesn't result in injuries to the DL! On another topic, the opt outs. It's November teams that are out of it, CFP, and have upper classmen heading to the NFL are going to be faced with opt outs. Most will be for bowl games, even the best bowl games like the New Years 6. In South Bend Kyle Hamilton has been the talk about whether he should even play again for the Irish healthy or not. I don't like that logic, but it's out there and growing. You see a lot of support for healthy players quitting on their teams to preserve themselves for the NFL combine/draft. Kelly has said that they will support Kyle in whatever he decides to do, at the same time he's optimistic that Kyle will be given the green light to play maybe even as early as the UVA game. Let's say he does come back and play against UVA, Ga.Tech and Stanford, will he opt out of the bowl if we don't make the CFP? What about other players? Jarrett Patterson is pretty much set with his position in the draft, will he sit out? Cain Madden, MTA, Kevin Austin (who should comeback IMHO), I don't know if others might as well. Georgia and Florida last year had a ton of players sit out the bowl game, as did North Carolina.
I don't like it at all. If so, it would seem the university made a poor bargain. They traded a 4 year education, top shelf training, a showcase for skills and a great, pampered lifestyle for 2.5 years of play.
George, there are many folks that don't think the value of the opportunity to get a free education is compensation at all. I have said it before, I was 5'10' weighed 150 lbs, and ran a 6 second 40. I wish someone had offered to pay for my college but they weren't interested. I had to pay for my own.
KP, likewise. I was a decent high school football player but no one had interest beyond that in a 5'10" 175lb. LB / C. Although I clocked a 4.9 in the 40 a few times. I paid my way through college as well but would have killed to play more football.