After over forty years of frustration, the Naval Academy has finally turned the tide on the Fighting Irish. After years of having victory snatched out of their hands by a football team with greater pedigree and higher-ranked recruits, 2007 marked a watershed victory for the Midshipmen, and the opening of the floodgates that have turned this lopsided series into a potential rivalry.
(At least what counts as a rivalry these days anyway…)
Two of the last three years, Navy has beaten Notre Dame, with the Irish escaping in 2008 after nearly giving the game way in outrageous last-minute fashion. Following along through all the good and bad has been Mike James, the proprietor of the outstanding Navy blog, The Birddog, the “unofficial peanut gallery of Navy Sports.”
Mike was kind enough to answer a few of my questions in anticipation of Saturday’s game between Navy and Notre Dame.
Inside the Irish: Navy sits at 4-2, a respectable record certainly, but one that has to be a disappointment fter some considerable preseason hype was muted with the stunning loss to Maryland. How confident is this Navy football team going into Saturday’s game against Notre Dame?
Mike James: It’s only a disappointment to people who bought into the
hype. Losing to any BCS team, even one as underwhelming as Maryland was
last year, isn’t all that stunning for a service academy. If anything is
disappointing, it’s that the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy is in jeopardy
of leaving Annapolis. This is the fourth straight season that Navy has
started 4-2, so it’s not as if the Mids are having a down year.
I’m sure that outscoring a pretty good SMU team 28-7 in the second half
last week doesn’t hurt their confidence.
ITI: The Irish receiving corp has been decimated by injury, with potentially all three top targets — Michael Floyd, Kyle Rudolph, and Theo Riddick — out for the Irish. (Floyd is the only game-time decision, the other two are out.) Navy’s been playing some very good defense, allowing only 18 points a ballgame. Can the Midshipmen shut down a Notre Dame offense that’s struggled with consistency?
MJ: That depends on your definition of “shut down.” Can they play well
enough to win the game? Sure. But Navy’s defense has injury problems of
its own, especially on the line and in the secondary. Containing a Notre
Dame offense that is averaging 286 passing yards per game will be their
biggest test to date. The offenses lining up against the Navy defense
this season have really been on one extreme or the other. Maryland only
attempted 5 passes against Navy, while Georgia Southern and Air Force
both run spread option offenses. On the other hand, Wake Forest threw 50
passes, SMU runs the run & shoot, and Louisiana Tech is now coached
by Mike Leach and Hal Mumme disciple Sonny Dykes. The Irish offense is a
little bit more eclectic (and talented, regardless of injuries) than
what Navy has seen so far this year.
ITI: While Notre Dame under Charlie Weis did its best to show respect to
Navy and their service to the country, there was some bad blood brewing
after head coach Ken Niumatalolo questioned the Irish coaching staff’s
strategy in his post-game comments, and a Navy WR committed a pretty flagrant cheap shot on cornerback Robert Blanton. Do you expect any of that anger to bleed into this week’s game?
MJ: Niumatalolo didn’t question anything. All he said was that given the way
the 2008 game ended up, he expected the Notre Dame staff to use the
same defense. And if you want to talk about “flagrant cheap shots,”
knock yourself out. Bloggers and message board fans can whip themselves
into a frenzy about that nonsense, but nobody on the field cares.
ITI: With many of the same pieces, the Navy offense has slipped an entire touchdown a game in scoring. What’s been the problem? Is the trend of a decreased running game under Niumatalolo one of the problems?
MJ: Navy has moved the ball pretty well; the problem has been mistakes
in the red zone. The Mids are just outside the top 30 teams in getting
to the red zone, but are 109th in the country in converting on those
opportunities. They scored touchdowns on each of their 8 red zone
chances in their last two games, though, so that appears to be turning
around.
but that doesn’t really reflect a problem with the offense. Coach
Niumatalolo likes to speed up the game and help out the defense by
controlling the ball and reducing the number of possessions each team
gets. And frankly, a lot of the regulars on Navy’s schedules– Pitt,
SMU, Duke, Temple, Army, Air Force– are just better than they used to
be.
ITI: Navy showed the blueprint on how to beat Notre Dame in 2009. Outside of the final two minutes of the 2008 game, the Irish seemed to show the blueprint on how to stuff Navy. What’s the game plan for the Midshipmen if they want to make it two in a row and three of four against the Irish?
I don’t think either team showed much of a blueprint, really. Notre
Dame tried the same defense in 2009 that they used in 2008, and Navy
won. But the way the Irish were moving the ball up and down the field,
it was clear that Navy hadn’t solved any magic formula either; instead,
Notre Dame had red zone issues of their own. Controlling mistakes is
part of the game, and the last two games have been won by the team that
made fewer of them. That’s pretty generic, I know, but it’s been as much
of a “blueprint” as anything else.
when both were assistants at Eastern Michigan in 2003. EMU spent most of
the game in an odd front, alternating between a 5-man front (3-4) and a
3-3-5. Paul Johnson tinkered with a few different formations in the
first quarter to see how the EMU defense would react. Whenever Navy
would line up in what’s called “Over Right Brown” or “Over Left Brown”
(twin WR and a slotback on one side of the formation, with a slotback on
the other side of the formation on the line of scrimmage like a tight
end), EMU’s linebackers would shade toward the side of the formation
with the slotback on the LOS. This created a numbers advantage going the
other way, and Navy stayed in that formation running plays away from
the linebackers pretty much the rest of the game. Navy ran for 372 yards
that day in a 39-7 win, so I’m not sure how much of that game
plan Diaco will want to repeat. The closest thing to Navy that Notre
Dame has faced this year is Michigan. The Irish spent most of that game
in a 4-man front, so already Diaco has done things differently.
week. Running the ball out of the spread formations that Charley Molnar
and Brian Kelly prefer puts a lot of pressure on individual defenders
because they’re usually isolated. Maryland and Louisiana Tech were both
able to have some success catching Navy’s new linebackers out of
position by doing just that. The LBs have improved in recent weeks, but
I’m sure that Notre Dame will put that improvement to the test.
ITI: With the Meadowlands likely a wash for homefield advantage, what’s your gut feeling on Saturday’s game? Who comes out with a win?
MJ: Let’s not kid ourselves; Notre Dame is going to have the home field
advantage at the Meadowlands, not that it really matters. I don’t like
to predict winners, but I will say that I think the game is going to go
quickly. Navy is going to take their time when they have the football,
and their defense will keep everything in front of them to force the
Irish offense into long drives. Notre Dame is favored for a reason. Navy
won’t keep the Irish from moving the ball between the 20s. Whether
those drives end in field goals or touchdowns will be the story of the
game.
Great stuff from Mike, especially the in-depth look at Bob Diaco and Mike Elston’s first run at the Navy triple-option. For more Navy perspective and a healthy dose of postgame haikus, head over to The Birddog.
