SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman is well aware of the headaches Navy and its unusual triple-option offense can cause. He got a first-hand glimpse of it when he was the defensive coordinator at Cincinnati.
He doesn’t want to see a repeat Saturday when the 10th-ranked Irish host the Midshipmen on the cusp of earning a second straight playoff berth.
So Freeman has spent this week making sure his players understand the nuances of one of college football’s most complex and challenging offenses.
“I feel we’ll have a good plan,” Freeman said Monday. “Our guys will play fast. We’ll be able to adapt and adjust. Our guys have experience, which is important.”
Freeman seems to have figured it out, too, going 2-0 in the series as Notre Dame’s coach, though he hasn’t forgotten about that embarrassing 42-32 loss to Navy in 2017 with the Bearcats.
The Irish (6-2) have found their groove this season after a rocky start. Since losing their first two, both against top-20 teams, they’ve reeled off six straight wins, C.J. Carr has looked like one of the most promising young quarterbacks in the country and a stouter Irish defense is forcing turnovers.
It’s a combination that will be seriously challenged by Navy (7-1), which suffered its first loss last weekend — 31-17 at North Texas — and is one of six American Conference teams with only one loss in conference play.
“We’ve got a phenomenal opportunity in front of us,” said coach Brian Newberry, whose team leads the nation with 317 rushing yards per game.
Blake Horvath leads the nation’s quarterbacks and ranks fifth overall with a 115.8-yard rushing average.
Yet the Midshipmen faced a similar situation last season, when Notre Dame couldn’t afford another loss if it wanted to make the playoff and then-unbeaten Navy was trying to fight its way into the postseason conversation. The result: Navy had six turnovers and allowed 466 yards as Notre Dame rolled to a 51-14 victory at MetLife Stadium.
Now, Navy is looking to return the favor and get its first win over a top-10 team since beating Houston 46-40 in 2016. It hasn’t beaten a top-10 team on the road since 1974, when it won 7-6 at Penn State.
And if anyone at Notre Dame starts to underestimate Navy’s ground game, all Freeman needs to do is remind them of what happened when he was at Cincinnati.
“The very first time I faced Navy, they might have ran for a record,” Freeman said, recalling the 569 rushing yards the Midshipmen piled up that day — three short of the school record. “I didn’t have any answer. They just kept running the ball, and we couldn’t stop it.
“It’s a rough feeling. It was a decision we all made as a coaching staff, but it was like, ‘We can’t let this happen again. We’ve got to dive deeper into it. We’ve got to figure out what they’re looking for, not just how to stop it.’”
The other side
Navy has its own concern in stopping one of college football’s top rushing duos: preseason All-American Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price.
Love has rushed for 11 touchdowns and is 106 yards away from his second straight 1,000-yard season. Price has 521 rushing yards, eight touchdown runs, one TD catch and two kickoff returns for scores — giving Notre Dame the distinction as the only FBS team with two players with 11 or more touchdowns.
“Both have home run capabilities,” Newberry said. “They can both go to the house from anywhere on the field. Obviously it’s going to be a huge challenge for us, and they’re big and physical up front. We have to do a great job of tackling.”
Special rivalry
Although Notre Dame has dominated this rivalry with an 83-13-1 record that included a streak of 43 straight wins from 1966-2006, Freeman still sees the value in the series.
“This is a unique one because it’s an every-year rivalry like USC,” Freeman said. “We know how big this game is for both teams. The history of this rivalry game means a lot.”
