Notre Dame vs Navy Game Preview

Irish Breakdown dives into the matchup between Notre Dame and Navy

Notre Dame kicks off the 2023 season this weekend when they head to Ireland to take on the Navy Midshipmen. It will be our first opportunity to see what this version of the Fighting Irish team looks like.

Location: Aviva Stadium (Dublin, Ireland)
Game Date: Saturday, August 26
Start Time: 2:30 PM ET
Network: NBC
Current Line: Notre Dame -20.5, O/U 50.05

In today's episode of the Irish Breakdown show we preview the matched up and dove into what we expect Navy to look like.

During the preview part of the show we discussed a number of topics.

*** We talk about the history of this rivalry, with Saturday's matchup being the 96th edition of the series.

*** Our discussion shifts to what's at stake for Notre Dame, and what we might learn from this game. It's not really a needle moving game, or one that announces to the college football world that Notre Dame 2023 is going to be a force, no matter how impressive the victory. That doesn't mean we can't learn a lot about this football team. We'll learn about it's football character, it's fire, how this team plays together and much more.

*** Next we dive into Navy, who underwent a lot of changes this offseason. Gone is long time coach Ken Niumatalolo, who was replaced by Brian Newberry, who served the last four seasons as the defensive coordinator.

*** There is an interesting connection between Navy and Kennesaw State, which is where Newberry came from prior to being hired by Niumatalolo. His offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator also came from Kennesaw State, whose head coach came from Navy.

*** We dive into the Navy offense, which will look somewhat different than past versions. We talk about what we expect to see from the Navy option game, which will look familiar while also having some unique wrinkles. The pass game looks a lot different, which we discuss.

*** The final aspect looks at the Navy defense, which was one of the best rush defenses in the country last season. It wasn't a fluke, either, as Newberry put a Top 10 rush defense on the field in two of his four seasons running the defense. We broke down the structure of the defense and what makes them so good against the pass.

After our breakdown of this matchup we had a mailbag, which we broke into two segments.

If you'd like to watch the show you can see it below:

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Irish Breakdown Content

2023 Scholarship Chart
2023 Football Schedule

Notre Dame 2024 Scholarship Offers

2024 Commit Rankings - Offense
2024 Commit Rankings - Defense

2023 Recruiting Class Grades - Offense
2023 Recruiting Class Grades - Defense

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