Notre Dame Football

GAME THREAD | Navy vs. No. 13 Notre Dame

By Matt Freeman

August 26, 2023

517

103,714

Navy (0-0) vs. No. 13 Notre Dame (0-0)

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Five Players To Watch

Notre Dame QB Sam Hartman
The obvious choice, but to deny that all eyes will be on Notre Dame's new starting quarterback would be ridiculous. The Irish had struggles at quarterback last season. Hartman looks like he'll fix that and he'll get tested early by an aggressive Navy defense.

Navy LB Colin Ramos
Navy had five sacks in the second half last season against Notre Dame. Ramos had three of them. He's undersized, but a great blitzer and the best returning player on Navy's defense.

Notre Dame C Zeke Correll
While every Notre Dame fan will be monitoring how the two new guards are playing, they should also keep a close eye on Correll who suffered an ankle injury late in camp. He's expected to play and they need him to be sharp with the multiple pressure looks the Irish will see.

Navy FB Daba Fofana
Fofana went for 133 against Notre Dame last season. 100 came on his first three carries. The next 12 went for only 32 yards. Playing the triple option always starts with stopping the fullback and Notre Dame doesn't want to get gashed like they did to start their 2023 matchup.

Notre Dame LB JD Bertrand
One of the reasons Fofana went off was because Bertrand was out with a pre-game injury. He's healthy and going to be a critical part of Notre Dame's run defense. Bertrand is looking to lead the Irish in tackles for the third straight season. That's something no Notre Dame defender has done since Manti Te'o.

Quotes of the Week

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman:
”We’ve got to be efficient. We cannot go three-and-out. We’ve got to take care of the ball. All of a sudden, if we go three-and-out. if you look at last year’s second half. The first couple of drives were three and out and then we had an interception. Listen, Navy had the bal - the time of possession in the second half was tremendous in an advantage to them. So we have to be efficient on offense. We cannot have negative yardage plays, and we cannot go three and out.”

Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden:
”You’ve basically got three influences on offense and so it’s definitely made us simplify. We’re going to have to keep it simple and be able to adapt on game day. But that’s game one. It’s just magnified a little more this year because it’s already a different offense than you’re used to seeing. Now you compound that with not knowing the percentage of each system or each concept, how much it contributes to the whole. So, we’ll see how it unfolds on game day.”

Notre Dame offensive cooradinator Gerad Parker:
”Week in and week out, we're going to be judged on how we take care of a football.”

Offensive lineman Rocco Spindler:
”Playing next to Blake Fisher is surreal. We’ve dreamed about this for over three years now. Now it’s going to happen. I get to play next to one of the best tackles in college football. I just get to have fun playing next to my best friend.”

Safety DJ Brown:
“I would say after the first drive you know what to expect and how the game is going to go. The one thing I would say is kind of hard to keep track of the downs because they’re running the same plays every play. I would say our focus this year is mainly communicating that it’s third down or fourth down. It’s kind of monotonous seeing the same stuff every play, so it’s kind of hard to see what down it is. It’s like one of our focal points.”

Defensive lineman Nana Osafo-Mensah:
“I wouldn’t say it’s a relief, but it’s definitely nice to not have to worry about defending the triple option later in the season.”

Running back Chase Ketterer:
“I think it’s great for (the team) first week. We’ve had a little bit of the summer. A little bit of fall camp. And then we had two weeks coming into the game, so I think it helps a lot. Instead of having it Week 2 and only having a week to prepare and coming off a different opponent. I think it’s beneficial for Scout O and the actual D.”