College Football Week 0 Picks: Notre Dame–Navy Rivalry Kicks Things Off

Who will cover the three-score spread in the first big matchup of the year?

Thank whatever deity you pray to that a summer of realignment and NCAA legislation and every coach complaining about transfer portal tampering is mercifully over. Football is finally back, if only in the Week 0 variety to whet the palate. College football doesn’t have a preseason, but unless you’re a Ravens fan the past few years, the NFL’s preseason games aren’t worth watching. So while many teams are playing a schedule that may seem of preseason quality (looking at you USC [vs. San Jose State] and Vanderbilt [vs. Hawai‘i]) at least Notre Dame’s playing somebody. The Irish kick off the annual rivalry with Navy in Ireland for the third time after meeting across the pond in 1996 and 2012. 

And so we kick off our season of picking games against the spread, because there’s nothing like a little friendly competition between colleagues. Each week after this one, we’ll pick a group of games and anchor it with analysis of the game of the week. We’ll keep track of our records over the course of the year for either bragging rights or extremely public shaming on the internet.

In last season’s matchup, Notre Dame charged out to an early lead before Navy roared back to make it a one-score game :: Tommy Gilligan/USA TODAY Sports

SI’s game of the week: Notre Dame (-20.5) vs. Navy

Pat Forde: Navy +20.5. New clock rules plus option opponent equals shorter game, which means fewer chances for Notre Dame to test out its revamped offense. In the past three meetings, the Fighting Irish averaged about 12 fewer offensive snaps per game against Navy (56) than their season average (68)—and that was with more clock stoppages in play than we’ll see Saturday in Ireland. Assuming the Midshipmen continue to employ their ground-based option attack under new coach Brian Newberry and have some success with it, this could be a relatively short game. With the Irish implementing a new offensive coordinator, new quarterback and several new faces at the skill positions, it may take a few games for them to hit their stride. The pick here is Navy to keep it just a bit closer than 21.

Richard Johnson: Notre Dame -20.5. I take the Irish here because I actually don’t consider the option the biggest advantage in Week 0. Notre Dame has had all summer to prepare for this, and Marcus Freeman also faced Navy’s option multiple times while at Cincinnati. All things considered, I think he’ll have Notre Dame’s defense ready to play and play well against the system, which observers may recall wasn’t actually that good last year, despite the fact that the Midshipmen were able to cover last year’s 16-point spread with two garbage-time touchdowns, including one through the air.