We’ve had almost nine months to think about it. After finishing the 2011 season on a dour note, Notre Dame — both its team and its fans — have been in an ornery mood hoping to get the bad taste of a disappointing season out of their collective mouths ever since the Irish let Florida State sneak out of Orlando with a victory.
So much has changed from last season. After taking over for Dayne Crist in the season’s opening game, quarterback Tommy Rees now finds himself on the bench with the Irish resetting their offense behind youthful wildcard Everett Golson. Missing the team’s best player, the Irish offense, long identified by the singular brilliance of wideout Michael Floyd, will look to find an answer in the passing game. And while Manti Te’o chose to return for a final season leading the defense, Bob Diaco‘s troops will need to find a back end to stop the big play and a rush end to finally get to the quarterback.
Notre Dame’s first opponent is one of its oldest: Navy. While this game is played 3,600-odd miles farther away than usual, head coach Ken Niumatalolo‘s team is coming off a sour season of their own, a year in which the Midshipmen were uncharacteristically sloppy, and suffered one of their most embarrassing defeats of the year to the Irish.
While we’ve been doing our best to follow the ups and downs of the Navy offseason, we were lucky enough to catch up with Bill Wagner, who covers the Midshipmen for the Annapolis Capital Gazette.
We asked questions, Wagner answered them. Hopefully we can all learn a little bit more about the team the Irish are set to face this weekend.
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After winning a few big games against the Irish, Notre Dame really beat up the Midshipmen last year, the ugliest game of the season for Navy. Has that been used as fuel during this fall camp?
Yes, Ken Niumatalolo has harped on the fact “We are opening against a team that beat our brains in last year.”
Not sure he’s using it as motivation, but more to warn the players that this is a very, very tough opponent that has the capability to physically whip Navy.
Last season, the Navy defense struggled to contain not just Notre Dame, but a lot of programs. The Midshipmen already have to replace their best defensive player Jabaree Tuani, can Buddy Green assemble a unit that can slow down the Irish offense?
Navy suffered some significant losses on defense, notably Tuani. However, it returns a lot of players who saw playing time. Navy defense is the same as always. A little undersized and not as fast as most BCS programs. The key is execution, running to the football and gang-tackling. Last year’s team didn’t figure that out until too late in the season.
Trey Miller had a tough debut when he came to Notre Dame last season in place of Kris Proctor. Will he be a capable option trigger man or will the Midshipmen adapt their offense to take advantage of his throwing skills?
Trey Miller is a talented quarterback, as athletically gifted as any Navy quarterback in recent history. He is still young and developing a grasp of the triple-option. However, he has matured as a player and as a leader. He has looked very confident in preseason practice.
Last year, Navy lost a ton of games because of the little things — special teams, red zone play, and penalties. How confident is Ken Niumatalolo they that they’ve solved these problems, and what should we make of the handful of key contributors not being able to pass their physical readiness test, a seemingly modest challenge for a college football player.
Niumatalolo was very upset that Navy got away from its trademark of playing mistake-free football, and also playing with great intensity and toughness. Navy went back to the basics during spring practice and also hit a lot in order to develop toughness and physicality. Truth be told, bad placekicking was the difference between a winning and a losing season. Not sure that has been corrected as the kickers have looked awful this August. Freshman Nick Sloan won the job by default.
Special thanks to Bill who has had a ton of demands on his time as he prepares to head to Dublin to watch the big game. If you want to catch up on all things Midshipmen football, head over and check out some of Bill’s work.
