Notre Dame Offense Displays Smooth Operation in Opener

Notre Dame dominated Navy from the jump on Saturday night in Dublin, leaving Ireland with a 42-3 victory.

What’s more impressive than the 39-point win? 

Notre Dame’s offensive operations went on without a hitch, despite the program breaking in a new starting quarterback (Sam Hartman), offensive coordinator (Gerad Parker) and offensive line coach (Joe Rudolph).

“There weren’t any issues,” coach Marcus Freeman said. “Usually, the first game, first-time offensive coordinator, first-time quarterback, there are some operation (issues) in week zero that I should see. There’s some pre-snap. We didn’t have to call timeout. 

“That’s the real things we really worry about in the first game. How many operational mistakes are we going to have from the communication (issues)? It was really good that we didn’t have any.” 

Their cohesiveness paid off with a masterful two-minute drive at the end of the first half, where the Notre Dame offense started at its own 20-yard line with 1:55 to go in the second quarter. 

Sam Hartman led Notre Dame on a nine-play, 80-yard drive. It finished with a 14-yard touchdown to wide receiver Jayden Thomas that put the Fighting Irhs up 28-0 with 13 seconds to spare. 

“Hats off to our coaches,” Hartman said. “When we've been prepping for Navy. We know, obviously, from last year, what a challenge they presented on defense. Again, part of this is their players and a lot of its their scheme. We had a great plan, and we went out and executed it. It's not really any of my abilities.”

Notre Dame’s 42 points mark the most the Fighting Irish have scored in a season opener since a 49-16 week one beat down of Temple in 2017.

Six Fighting Irish touchdowns underscore how explosive the Notre Dame offense was on Saturday night. 

Also in week zero, USC defeated San Jose State 56-28 on 7.26 yards per play, which was on par with the Trojans’ average in 2022. 

But USC’s fast-paced offense ran 69 plays to Notre Dames's 57. Ultimately, the Fighting Irish eclipsed the Trojans on Saturday with 7.79 yards per play. 

It helps that Notre Dame rushed for 6.0 yards per carry with eight runs of 10 yards or greater.

“I thought the overall operation of our offense, the ability to run the ball helped Sam a lot too,” Freeman said. “We talked about this in our team meeting. The greatest friend for a running back is the ability to run the ball and that was something our offensive line and our running game did a great job of doing today.” 

In reality, the biggest question marks coming into the game were new starting offensive guards Pat Coogan and Rocco Spindler. 

On Saturday, they passed their first test by moving Navy defenders in the run game and projecting Hartman, who left Dublin without getting sacked. 

“I was just talking to Jack Swarbrick about it. I guess we found out those two guards can play,” Freeman said. “We knew three of those guys had game experience, but Pat and Rocco both stepped up and did a really good job.”

It’s just as crucial that the offense earned just one penalty on Saturday — a holding call on tight end Mitchell Evans during Notre Dame’s first offensive series. 

No flags were thrown pre-snap for pre-snap penalties, which is no easy feat against when seeing a variety of alignments from the Midshipmen front seven.

“Navy’s defense is almost as exotic as its offense,” Freeman said. “You don’t see some of the things they do, so for them to execute and run the ball and to play physical, man, credit to Coach (Joe) Rudolph and credit to those guys for what they’ve done in their first game.”

Of course, Notre Dame had the crowd advantage inside Aviva Stadium on Saturday night with a large contingency of Fighting Irish fans in attendance. 

They’ll play five road contests this fall against hostile crowds. Plus, there could be an abundance of scarlet and gray inside Notre Dame Stadium on Sept. 24. 

That’s when the true test for Notre Dame’s offense will come. That’s when the operation must run smoothly if the Fighting Irish are to be victorious. 

“When you play clean football,” Hartman said, “good things happen.”

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