#4 Notre Dame will play #17 Army at West Point, this Saturday at 2:30, CBS sports network.  The Irish have one last tuneup before the NCAAs at Michie Stadium.

The Stakes

The 10-3 Cadets have had a good season and will present a difficult challenge for Notre Dame.  An additional challenge comes from the reality that the Irish have little to gain and much to lose in this contest.   Their status in the NCAA tournament is more-or-less set, and they are in desperate need for time to recover from injury. Conversely, Notre Dame needs to establish some momentum going into the tournament if they are going to make a deep run.  Army will test this Notre Dame team severely.

The Opposition

Army is 10-3 heading into this matchup with big wins at Syracuse and twice against ranked Boston University.  Army gets offense from multiple players, particularly from scoring leaders Cole Johnson, Nate Jones and David Symmes.  Once again, the Irish will square off against a great faceoff man in Dan Grabher who has won at an excellent 63% clip.  Defense has held opponents to a tidy 8.13 g/game.

Last year’s contest was a strong 13-7 Irish win (as compared to the OT squeeker at Michie Stadium in 2015).  Ryder Garnsey led the way with a highlight-rich four goals.  The Notre Dame faceoff unit drew evenly with the Army unit which included Dan Grabher.

Army lost to Loyola in the Patriot League tournament and will likely be excluded from the NCAA even with a win over Notre Dame.

Our pregame questions:

  1. Health:  There has been no news regarding the injuries to Perkovic and Garnsey.  Last week did not give anyone the impression that either injury was minor.  One hopes the coaching staff will show some wisdom in whether they deploy these two ahead of the NCAAs.  ND-Atl 2.0 is adamant that neither should play unless it is clear they are entirely back to normal.  The risk to the big picture is far too great.
  2. Elevate in the secondary players:  Considering his position regarding injuries, ND-Atl 2.0 sees this as a great opportunity to focus on Costabile, Gleason, Willets and Byrne, who often get overshadowed by Perkovic and Garnsey.  The past few weeks have shown how much talent there is in this group, it’s time to let them eat!
  3. Man-down defense:  This is the last chance to fix this mess.  Our readers are familiar with our fanatical devotion to the Gerry Byrne defense, so for us to admit this unit it flirting with dumpster-fire status should mean something.  Frankly, we don’t get it.  They look active and athletic, but always seem to lose the plot.  Stabilizing this unit is critical.

 

The is quite a conundrum for the coaching staff.  There is work to be done, progress to be made, momentum to develop.  At the same time, they must protect against catastrophe.

We’ll see how this turns out on Saturday!  Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

 

#GoIrish