The good vibes continue when Notre Dame plays Navy in Ireland. On Saturday evening in Dublin, the Fighting Irish cruised to an easy 42-3 victory over the Midshipmen in a game that was never in doubt. Notre Dame scored touchdowns on their first 5 offensive drives, never punted or turned the ball over, and immediately put Navy in a hole they wouldn’t be able to crawl out of on the Emerald Isle.
It’s time to break down the 1-0 start to the season.
Stats Package
| STAT | IRISH | NAVY |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 42 | 3 |
| Plays | 57 | 55 |
| Total Yards | 444 | 169 |
| Yards Per Play | 7.78 | 3.07 |
| Conversions | 6/9 | 7/18 |
| Completions | 20 | 3 |
| Yards/Attempt | 10.1 | 6.1 |
| Rushes | 32 | 48 |
| Rushing Success | 81.2% | 51.1% |
| 10+ Yds Rushes | 8 | 3 |
| 20+ Yds Passes | 5 | 1 |
| Defense Stuff Rate | 31.4% | 23.3% |
Offense
QB:Â A
RB: A
TE: C+
OL: A
WR: B+
For Navy’s standards they might have a very good defense this year. For the wider college football world they may not be that impressive but Sam Hartman and the Irish offense made them look really poor and ineffective on Saturday. There were a few hiccups along the way, although not many across just 57 snaps for Notre Dame.
Hartman was cool, calm, and collected finishing with 251 yards and only 4 incompletions (including 1 drop, 1 tipped ball off Tyree’s hands, and 1 spike) with 4 touchdown passes in his Notre Dame debut. He was hurried once and took a hit on another snap otherwise it looked like an easy day for the 6th-year senior. The future looks bright!
The run game was stuffed a handful of times keeping them away from a perfect rushing success day. Nevertheless, over 80% success against anyone is a proper stellar performance.
If anyone doubted the depth at running back (including myself a little bit!) they were proved wrong for the 1st game of the season. Audric Estime, despite a near lost fumble, rebounded for a very productive day. Jadarian Price scored on a beautiful touchdown run for his first college carry and true freshman Jeremiyah Love looked awfully athletic in his Irish debut. Those 2 youngsters may pass Gi’Bran Payne on the depth chart but meanwhile the sophomore went a perfect 6 for 6 on his carries against Navy. Ho hum.
Notre Dame “only” rushed for 191 yards but in reality it felt far more dominating in a shortened game against a triple option opponent. Kudos to the offensive line and the new starting guards Pat Coogan and Rocco Spindler who passed their first test with flying colors. Things went so well that the 2nd-team offensive line of Tosh Baker, Billy Schrauth, Ashton Craig, Andrew Kristofic, and Aamil Wagner got some work on the final series.
Rushing Success
Estime – 14 of 16 (87.5%)
Payne – 6 of 6 (100%)
Price – 2 of 3 (66.6%)
Love – 3 of 4 (75%)
Ford – 0 of 1 (0%)
Tyree – 0 of 1 (0%)
Interestingly, there were no targets or receptions by the tight end group. How often has that happened in modern Notre Dame history? The blocking was fine but a lack of presence in the passing game (plus a hold by Mitchell Evans that almost derailed the opening series) forced me to lower their grade. The offense did open the game with both Evans and Holden Staes on the field at the same time, although it’s possible they will start to drift away from 12 personnel.
The distribution to several pass catchers was exciting.
Jayden Thomas, Jaden Greathouse, Deion Colzie, and Chris Tyree all totaled at least 3 catches and 30 yards while taking in all of the touchdown passes. Even better, their combined 13 receptions came on just 14 targets–the tipped drop by Tyree being the only incompletion. As President of the Greathouse Fan Club it feels good to see him lead the team in receiving yards and haul in 2 touchdown passes in his first college football game.
Defense
DL: B+
LB:Â A
DB:Â B+
If this was supposed to be a reinvigorated or slightly different Navy offense it didn’t show up on Saturday. Head coach Brian Newberry listed Blake Horvath as the starting quarterback, told the media both he and Tai Lavatai would play, started Lavatai, and inserted Xavier Arline when Lavatai’s knee brace was briefly broken. This looked like a Navy offense that maybe tried to install some new stuff but ended up reverting to their old ways.
Navy’s night on offense really came down to one solid drive before garbage time, a 14-play 56-yard drive that ended with a missed field goal. Outside of that drive, the Middies gained 46 total yards until their final drive of the game.
The Irish defense was a little leaky early in the game, especially up the middle, as all 3 of Navy’s best runs came in the first 20 minutes of action. After shutting down the interior, the Middies attempted more runs to the outside without much success.
A few of the Irish defenders in the 2-deep had quiet days, which is to be expected against the triple option and strict assignment football. The secondary mostly spent the day out of the spotlight (Navy’s first 4 passes on 6 total attempts were unsuccessful) and we didn’t get to see a ton from grad transfers Thomas Harper at nickel or Antonio Carter at safety.
I did see a picture perfect tackle by corner Jaden Mickey and Cam Hart also added a forced fumble and tackle for loss.
Overall, I was very impressed with the starting linebackers. In a triple option game, it felt like they were completely in control and cleaned up a lot of the leaks both in between the tackles and to the sidelines. The trio of Bertrand, Liufau, and Kiser combined for 18 tackles and 5.5 stuffs while giving up a long run of only 14 yards.
Stuffs vs. Navy
Liufau – 2.5
Botelho – 2
Onye – 2
Kiser – 2
JJB – 2
Hart – 1
Burnham – 1
Bertrand – 1
Cross – 1
Mills – 1
Mickey – 1
We definitely saw several players on the defensive line flash. Among the top guys were Jordan Botelho and Javontae Jean-Baptiste coming off the edge. Rylie Mills had a big sack that deflated a Navy attempted touchdown drive by driving the quarterback down to the ground by his forehead. I thought the interior 2-deep needed to have a good game and they did step up really well. It didn’t go on the scoresheet but Gabriel Rubio deserved half a sack on a play where Josh Burnham received the full sack–the first of his career, by the way.
Final Thoughts
Hartman’s 2nd pass of the game was a dropped screen to Tobias Merriweather. For someone who could’ve used a little confidence it’ll have to wait another week. Merriweather should’ve caught a touchdown pass later in the game which would’ve reversed the criticism but he was blatantly interfered with as the refs picked up the flag…for some reason.
Estime’s 11-yard run on 3rd & 10 during the 1st drive might have been the best play-call of the game. I’m sure new offensive coordinator Gerard Parker will be feeling great on the flight back to the United States.
Navy’s 4th down pass attempt to end their 1st drive was one of the funniest throws I’ve seen in a while.
It looked like Estime was benched for a while after he fumbled, a year after having some fumbling issues. I never would’ve guessed he’d end up with 16 carries after sitting out for so long. Not a bad day with 122 total yards for Notre Dame’s lead running back.
JD Price sure looked healthy! What an amazing comeback from an Achilles injury.
What did we think of the shiny metallic gold outline on the numbers? I rather liked it.
The Hartman 2-minute drive to end the 1st half was a thing of beauty. He was 6 of 8 (with the spike) for 63 yards and the tight window touchdown throw to Thomas to cap it off.
The 8 attempts on 3rd down were the fewest in a Notre Dame win since November 14, 2020 when the Irish beat Boston College 45-31 with also only 8 attempts.
New kicker Spencer Shrader’s PAT attempts looked great, but he’s started his career with the Irish missing his first field goal. At least it was evened out by Navy missing a field goal in the 1st half.
Backup quarterback Steve Angeli got into the game and even got to throw the ball! Unfortunately, it was a screen pass to Rico Flores that only went for 2 yards. That’s the 1st career catch for Flores, though.
In a sharp nod to the game location, Notre Dame added an Irish flag in between their monogram on the front nose bumper of the helmets. It’s one of those small changes that goes unnoticed during play and jumps out on the zoomed in camera work.
Cool.
The true freshmen to see the field against Navy included: RB Jeremiyah Love, WR Rico Flores, WR Jaden Greathouse, TE Cooper Flanagan, LB Drayk Bowen, LB Jaiden Ausberry, and CB Christian Gray.
One of those weird stats is seeing Navy convert 3 out their 4 attempts on 4th down but score only 3 points.
The Evans holding call was the only penalty of the game for the Irish. You could say it was a militaristic display of discipline.
Navy’s 3.07 yards per play on offense is the 2nd best effort from an Al Golden-led Irish defense.
After a bizarre performance last year, it’s nice to see Notre Dame’s red zone defense sitting at 0% touchdowns allowed and only 50% overall as Navy settled for a sad field goal in the 2nd half.
After the game, Hartman mentioned the team was given a shillelagh from “the king of Dublin” or the people of Dublin. Whomever it came from on this trip it’s welcome. The team will be giving it to the scout team player of the week to carry around to each game. That’s a pretty cool tradition.
Nice writeup. I love to see a dominating win to start the season. In true ND fashion, the message boards are pretty quiet after an easy win. I was very impressed with Parker’s debut as a play caller. Kept things mixed up and leaned on what was working. Didn’t try to look like a Wonder Kid.
One complaint I do have, and I don’t know if this goes on Parker or Freeman, but I would have liked to see Angeli get that last scoring drive that started at the very end of 3Q. Up 35-0 with one quarter left, there’s no reason to let your amazing QB risk getting hurt. And even after Hartman was finally out, Estime was still running up the middle (trying to get him to 100yds?).
I hope next week when we’re dominating a 1-AA opponent that Angeli gets at least a couple of series, and maybe even a garbage time mop up for Minchey.
But it’s great to start a season with that being the only complaint you can register.
Completely agree about Angeli coming in earlier. At 35-0, late 3rd quarter, that game is over. It did seem to my untrained eye like a lot of younger guys rotated in at other positions in the second half, so that was good to see, at least.
The ISD guys pointed out that Navy’s last offensive possession was over 8 minutes and likely chewed up a lot of time they would’ve given to Angeli.
Navy came out in some new formations and the defense adjusted quickly, especially the LBs. Thanks for mentioning Golden, he sure takes the heat when they aren’t stout.
My favorite hartman play was one that nbc didn’t even show a second time (I was very underwhelmed by nbc unsurprisingly), but I believe it was on the second drive, nd had a first and 10 in plus territory and navy had an unblocked rusher coming from his right he pump faked then hit tyree underneath for a 9 yard gain. that was a deflected pass like 18 times last year, it was Incredible. My wife usually watches or ant least tries and so many opening games she asks what’s wrong with the quarterback. Yesterday she was gushing at how good they looked. She was right.
New rules kinda suck, nd only had 7 real possessions, feel like the reduced sample size could cause some dumb results this year, just hopefully not for nd
I enjoyed NBC ignoring entire drives to bring us an interview with a very, uh, festive Joe Montana and all of Hartman’s medical charts for his entire life.
The Merriweather play where he was maybe interfered with- hartman throws that two seconds earlier it’s a touchdown. That was the only play where I thought he’d want back. Otherwise he was awesome
Maybe ?
Actually agree with that assessment. Defender was a tad early and you could see that in slo mo. But in real time looked bang bang defense on a throw that was late.
Regardless, if hartman releases earlier it’s an easy td
I only meant to defend Merriweather. Even if only a “tad” early, he was certainly interfered with on the late throw, denying him a reasonable chance to catch the ball. That flag should not have been picked up.
Seems to be an issue editing comments….FYI
Wow wow such a stress free game. That and the lack of other decent games throughout the day left me wanting more.
Hartman is the real deal against cupcakes at least. But some of his quick reads and escape from pressure gives me hope for when the margins decease against Ohio State.
Defense was good but I think Navy helped us out with some really odd pass plays and lack of aggression on 4th down. We will see if our line can hold up down the road and linebackers are still not winning any foot races.
On to the next one! Would love to see Angeli get a 1.5 quarters of action next week
Navy was pretty different from usual. They were conservative when they should have been aggressive and vice versa. No cheap shots, no stupid fighting after the whistle. They pretty much played the game straight up and conceded when it was obviously over.
I think you can go through every notre dame season for probably the past 20 years and the first game is typically a good indicator of things to come for the proceeding games. A microcosm if you will
Pretty much. I know there’s the quote about teams improving the most between games 1 and 2, but at least with ND, what you see is usually what you get.
Maybe a quick analysis on this will make it into a 5-wide or rambler this week
Miami: Our booster bought us jewelry that we wear when we get a turnover while losing to Duke.
Sam Hartman: This necklace is made of my own bones.
Yup! i’m not a metal head…but i just can’t think of anything more metal than an own bone necklace.
An opponent’s bone necklace?
i get that…but i still think wearing your own bones would be more intimidating. Like a friend of mine…when he was a freshman in HS a huge senior was picking on him…he’s 5’7″ and thin as an adult so at 14 he was pretty small. The senior was ready to throw down so my friend reached up, broke his own nose (a talent he gained through getting it broken many times in wrestling) and the said let’s go. The big dude said, “you’re crazy”, turned around and walked away. Breaking his own nose was definitely more intimidating than breaking someone else’s.
Early leader for comment of the year.
Thoughts from Dublin:
1, Honestly, Eric, to your opening comments in your preview, I thought the players liked the trip. Hopefully the changed travel plans from 2012 in order to avoid the jet lag issues that hurt us vs Purdue the next week will work as designed.
2, But at least for the fan base, a Dublin trip is simply a lot of fun. Irish Spring and I were seated among the Europe-based ND alums, so that was great as well. But the whole vibe in the city and at the game was great. Best for me after having been at the previous two was that we were the home team. Loved the unis, and it seemed to make a positive change in the entire ambiance. Wish we could have linked up with Gambit.
3, To the comment about it’s been a long time since a relaxed opener — our 50 points in the 2012 ND-Navy game in Dublin opened up a damn good season. Here’s hoping that 42 could be a harbinger!
It’s the “for some reason” part that bugs me. I totally agree that it was blatant PI and there was no call. For a game that ND totally dominated, it sure seemed like the officiating was one-sided.
I could live with the flag being picked up, it was close enough, fine. The one that was annoying was when ND clearly recovered a fumble and the officials ruled with just no evidence whatsoever that it had happened after a Navy runner was down with the ball.
That pic at the top of the post is great.
My thoughts:
Nice to have a successful two minute drill at the end of the half. If it was a Brian Kelly team, or maybe even a Tommy Rees offense, it would have been run, run, run, and then maybe a field goal.
The shortened clock certainly made the game go faster. In years past, I think this Navy team would have gotten to double digits in scoring, but that running clock really hurts their opportunities (and ours, 8 possessions).
It certainly seemed like the refs were giving the benefit of the doubt to Navy on any potential flag.
I hope Merriweather finds his rhythm and meets his potential.
Good to see the young guys in the game and perform competently.
I’m not sure that I’m downgrading the TEs for not catching a ball. For a holding call, sure. But Navy was blitzing quite a lot, so putting TEs on blocking duty seems like a thing to do. Especially when your WRs and Hartman are connecting as well as they did.
Question about the passing stats graphic: If Hartman had 23 attempts, and Angeli had 1, why is the total showing as 25? Do they not count spikes in personal stats, or is it something else?
The Heisman fix is in.
Makes sense.
Yes, the spike is a “team” snap. If you check the ESPN box score it’ll show Hartman as 19/23, Angeli as 1/1, and TEAM as 0/1.
(Also the Heisman fix is in.)
I’d like to be a part of the Greathouse fan club – that kid looks really good!
From the stadium, it seemed like Navy players were getting open against our secondary during the few pass plays they had. Was that a product of trickery, should I be concerned, or was it not as bad on TV as it seemed in person?
it was a product of respecting the triple option and not respecting the pass