Notre Dame Is Ready For The Unique Navy Challenge

Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman assesses what his team will face this weekend in its season opener

It’s not just season opener week, It’s not just zero week. It’s also Navy week, and every college football fan, especially Notre Dame fans, know that Navy week means triple option week. The wing-T formation was a staple in the game decades ago, but the service academies are among the last of the breed to use the otherwise antiquated offensive scheme.

"You don’t see triple option offenses often in college football,” Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said this week. "You have to be so disciplined. Our guys defensively are used to being able to, yeah, do your job, but finding a way to get to the ball, finding a way to make a play happen at times. When you play triple option, you might not ever make a tackle with a guy on the ball, but you have to do your job and it’s something that's extremely difficult.”

One benefit the Fighting Irish have in what will be the 97th all-time matchup with the Midshipmen is when the game takes place. Only once in the previous 96 meetings has the Notre Dame-Navy game not taken place in October or November. The only September game between the two was the season opener of the 2012 season, which was also in Dublin, and the Irish prevailed 50-10.

Freeman is all-in on the benefit of facing the triple option to open the season.

"A hundred percent,” Freeman declared. "We’ve been able to prepare from spring ball to parts of the summer to parts of fall camp and then obviously two weeks to prepare for Navy, just strictly Navy. It’s a tremendous advantage to play Navy the first game of the year because the preparation that entails getting ready for them is obviously linked in.”

There be a wrinkle or two, though in Navy’s option attack this season. Ken Niumatalolo was fired after last season and Brian Newberry was promoted from defensive coordinator to head coach. Newberry hired former Kennesaw State offensive coordinator Grant Chestnut to run the offense.

Chestnut was Brian Bohanon’s coordinator at Kennesaw State from 2013 through last season. Bohanon previously worked under former Navy and Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson at both of those schools.

Chestnut and Bohanan ran a triple option at KSU that included more passing than Navy has had in recent years. The Owls ranked 10th in the FCS last season, rushing for 232.2 yards per game, while also passing for 136.8 yards per game. The Midshipmen averaged 241.2 rushing yards and just 85.7 passing yards per game last season.

"We’ve got to watch Kennesaw State,” Freeman remarked. "That’s not what Navy did last year and so we’ve got to prepare for a lot of different things that we might see. It will be a challenge. We have a great plan. I love the plan that Coach (Al) Golden has come up with and we’re doing defensively but it’s the ability to recognize, ok what is this offense trying to do and then jump into that game plan.”

The Midshipmen are expected to use two quarterbacks against the Irish on Saturday. Senior Tai Lavatai ran for 309 yards and five touchdowns in eight games before a season-ending knee injury last year. He completed 46% of his passes for 785 yards, five touchdowns and three interceptions last year.

Lavatai could start, with sophomore Blake Horvath, the better passer of the two, coming off the bench. Horvath is yet to see game action in college. 

Navy’s defense has its own uniqueness, but it is also good. The Midshipmen ranked No. 3 in the nation in rushing defense last season, allowing just 88.9 yards per game. The Fighting Irish managed just 66 yards on the ground in last year’s narrow victory over the Mids.

"I’m a coach that always comes up here and always says we’ve got to be able to run the ball, run the ball because it opens up things in the passing game,” Freeman explained. "At times you can’t run the ball, right, versus them because they have more people than you can block and so we have to be able to utilize different formations and utilize our pass game at times to open up the run with them. Very challenging defense.

"You guys might not see it, but we almost look at their defense like we look at their offense,” Freeman continued. "It’s something you won’t see every week. You don’t see this type of defense often in college football. It presents a big challenge that we’ve been preparing for months.

"What Sam (Hartman) does, I think, is presents a level of maturity that he’ll know the game plan, he’ll know the things he’s looking for but the moment won’t be too big for him. He’s played in a lot of big games. I believe that he’ll put our offense in the right position to be successful.”

Navy returns nine starters from last year’s defense. That includes linebacker Colin Ramos. The 5-11, 215-pound junior was the Mid’s No. 2 tackler with 79 last season. He and safety Rayuan Lane III, who was their No. 3 tackler with 71, shared the team lead with seven tackles each in last year’s narrow 35-32 Irish win. 

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