Rivalry Renewed: Offense Rolls as Notre Dame Runs Past Navy
Last year marked the first time that Navy and Notre Dame did not play since World War II. With a year off thanks to Covid, Notre Dame and Navy took to the field to renew their rivalry on Saturday. Notre Dame will always be more talented than Navy, but that never means the Irish will cake walk the Midshipmen. This is the one game a year I never really know what to expect. Navy always comes to play and when you toss in their old-school triple option that they run on offense, it’s always a tough game. Even with the final score being what it was, the game was anything but an easy one.
The Notre Dame offense was slow out of the gate to say the least, and being shut out in the first quarter was not a good look. The Irish shook the rust off and turned on the jets in the second and didn’t look back. The offense put up a total of 430 yards on offense Saturday afternoon. Kyren Williams picked up where he left off last week and had 95 rushing yards and two touchdowns. The real star was Kevin Austin who had a career day with six catches for 139 yards and one touchdown. The touchdown came late in the second heading into half time, when Austin caught a ball from Jack Coan and raced down the sideline for a 70-yard score, putting the Irish up 17-3 entering half time.
Jack Coan has gone from getting benched in the Va Tech game, to coming back into that same game to lead the Irish to a win, and then put together three very good games at QB. Coan finished Saturday 22 for 29, with 269 yards and one touchdown. Another very good game from the grad transfer. While Coan remains QB1, we still are seeing Tyler Buchner getting some playing time as well. Buchner looks night-and-day different from the start of the season, and you can tell that now he’s way more confident when leading this Irish offense. Normally playing two quarterbacks doesn’t work out, but let’s give props to Offensive Coordinator Tommy Rees for making it work this year.
Player of the Game: Kevin Austin Jr. – 6 catches, 139 yards, 1 TD.
Unfortunately the Irish didn’t get out of Saturday’s game without injury, and Notre Dame lost senior captain Avery Davis. Davis was hurt in the fourth blocking on Williams’ last touchdown of the day. News broke Monday that Davis tore his ACL and will be out for the rest of the season. Notre Dame was already thin at the wideout position, and this makes it worse. Look for freshman Lorenzo Styles Jr. to now become a starter. Next man up, and I am very excited to see Styles get more playing time.
While the Irish offense got off to a slow start on Saturday, the Fighting Irish defense did not. They were all over the Navy offense all day Saturday. Navy, who lives and dies by the run game, was held to just 166 yards rushing. Notre Dame was led by senior Kurt Hinish with 10 total tackles, while also adding a safety in the fourth quater. It seemed liked Hinish was in the Navy backfield all afternoon. Notre Dame was again without their best player Kyle Hamilton, but you would not have noticed it Saturday, as the defense didn’t skip a beat. The Irish held the Midshipmen out of the end zone and only gave up two field goals. Remove the one large 30+ yard play, and Notre Dame held Navy in check all day. With or without Hamilton, Notre Dame will need to reproduce this defensive performance, because the test next week is much harder.
It was awesome to see Notre Dame and Navy playing again this year. This rivalry is why college football is great, and not having it last year put a damper on the season. It was also awesome to get a Notre Dame game where the Irish won in convincing fashion like they did on Saturday. The offense may have started slow, but they ended up rolling to a 34-6 win. In a season of close wins, it was nice to enjoy a game that didn’t come down to the wire. With the win the Irish move to 8-1 with a giant test next week when Notre Dame heads to Virginia to face an outstanding offense. If this Notre Dame team has showed us anything, it is that this Irish team won’t back down from the fight.