Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com OCT. 29, 2018 37 rushing for 98 yards on just eight carries in a 56-27 victory at Wake Forest Sept. 22. Navy was below average against the run through the first five contests, yielding 179.2 yards per game and 5.3 yards per rush. It was even worse against teams that ranked in the top 50 in rushing offense, permitting 245.0 yards per tilt and 6.2 yards per tote against Memphis and Air Force. Senior Mike linebacker Taylor Heflin ranked sec- ond on the team with 29 tackles, but paced the Midshipmen defense with 3.5 tackles for 3.0 sacks. Advantage: Notre Dame NOTRE DAME PASSING GAME VS. NAVY PASS DEFENSE After allowing 436 yards and six touchdowns through the air in a season-opening loss to Hawai'i, the Navy defense tightened up its pass coverage over its next four matchups. The Midshipmen gave up only 156.8 yards per game through the air during that stretch, relinquish- ing five passing touchdowns while picking off four passes. Holding Memphis to just 145 passing yards was especially impressive. Through six weeks the Tigers ranked 32nd nationally in passing offense and tallied at least 246 yards through the air against their other five opponents. An area Navy has not done well is get after the quarterback. It registered three sacks against Hawai'i, but brought down an opposing quarterback just three times over the next four games. Senior cornerback Jarid Ryan and senior safety Sean Williams were Navy's best pass defenders through its first five games, with Ryan pacing the unit with two picks and three passes broken up in five games. Once junior quarterback Ian Book was inserted into the starting lineup, the Irish aerial attack soared. Book averaged 291.3 yards per game through the air in his first three starts while com- pleting 72.5 percent of his passes. His favorite target was senior receiver Miles Boykin, who hauled in 19 catches for 261 yards and three scores in wins over Stanford and Virginia Tech. Advantage: Notre Dame SPECIAL TEAMS Through five contests the Navy special teams ranked in the bottom half of the national rankings, checking in at No. 72 in efficiency according to the S&P+ ratings. The Midshipmen were averaging a poor 9.1 yards per kick return while giving up 25.4 yards in coverage. Senior placekicker Bennett Moehring started the season making four of his five field goal attempts, but just one went in beyond 40 yards. Opponents returned 15 of junior Owen White's punts, averag- ing 12.5 yards per return. Though five games only five teams permitted more punt return yards than the Midshipmen, and each had played one more game than Navy. Notre Dame did not light the world on fire with its special teams to open the season, but begin- ning with the matchup against Vanderbilt the unit started to pay much better. Senior placekicker Justin Yoon became Notre Dame's all-time leading scoring leader (322 points) during the team's 45-23 win over Virginia Tech. Advantage: Notre Dame COACHING Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo started his ca- reer with the Midshipmen by winning at least eight games in eight of his first nine seasons. Niumatalolo's squad won 11 games in the first season (2015) as a member of the American Athletic Conference and nine games in year two (2016), at least tying for the West Division championship in each year. Through five games of the 2018 season the Mid- shipmen are just 9-9 since winning the West Division outright in 2016, and he is currently riding a two- game losing streak to Army after beating the Black Knights in each of first eight seasons. Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly is trying to put together his fourth double-digit win campaign in South Bend, and the third in the last four seasons. Should Kelly and the Irish make that happen it would be the first time since 1992-93 that Notre Dame had back-to-back years with double-digit wins. Notre Dame has beaten Navy six of the last seven times the schools faced off, and four of those games were decided by double figures. Advantage: Notre Dame INTANGIBLES When Notre Dame and Navy square off Oct. 27 the Irish will be coming off a bye week in which the players get a much-needed rest. It will also give Notre Dame a bit more time to prepare for the triple option. Navy will be coming off its fourth straight tough contest, which would seem to give the Irish a leg up. The Irish have controlled the rivalry of late, but Navy did win the last neutral-site game when it beat the Irish 28-27 in Jacksonville, Fla., on Oct. 5, 2016. For the first time in quite a while, the Notre Dame defense has the depth and speed on all three levels to throw waves at the Navy option attack. With Navy being down on both sides of the ball, the matchup appears to heavily favor the Irish, more so than in most seasons. Navy is also 0-3 on the season in games played away from its home field. Advantage: Notre Dame GAME PREVIEW: NAVY Offense Pos. No. Name Ht. Wt. Cl. X-WR 9 Zach Abey 6-2 212 Sr. 87 Ryan Mitchell 6-3 190 So. LT 57 Jake Hawk 6-6 295 Sr. 76 Kendel Wright 6-4 278 Jr. LG 78 Laurent Njiki 6-3 292 Sr. 68 David Forney 6-3 297 Jr. C 72 Ford Higgins 6-2 260 Jr. 68 David Forney 6-3 297 Jr. or 77 Bryan Barrett 6-3 330 Sr. RG 67 Chris Gesell 6-4 288 Sr. 64 Steve Satchell 6-4 296 Sr. RT 61 Andrew Wood 6-4 290 Sr. 69 A. Amosa-Tagovailoa 6-2 278 Sr. Z-WR 89 Taylor Jackson 6-3 215 Sr. 88 Mychal Cooper 6-5 220 Fr. SB 21 Tre Walker 5-9 190 Sr. 25 Tazh Maloy 5-7 176 Jr. QB 10 Malcolm Perry 5-9 185 Jr. 7 Garret Lewis 6-1 200 Sr. SB 20 CJ Williams 5-8 180 So. 28 K. Makekau 5-11 170 So. FB 43 Nelson Smith 5-9 212 So. 38 Anthony Gargiulo 6-2 239 Sr. Defense Pos. No. Name Ht. Wt. Cl. LE 95 Anthony Villalobos 6-2 261 Sr. 92 Josh Webb 6-5 250 Sr. DT 99 Jackson Pittman 6-3 309 Jr. 97 Dave Tolentino 6-2 301 Jr. RE 90 Jarvis Polu 6-3 292 Sr. 94 Corbin Heyward 6-3 289 Jr. STR 8 Elan Nash 5-11 196 Jr. 11 Evan Fochtman 6-1 194 So. MIKE 54 Taylor Heflin 6-2 229 Sr. 55 Matt Stewart 6-1 211 Sr. SAM 53 Hudson Sullivan 6-2 240 Sr. 45 Pepe Tanuvasa 6-1 226 So. RAID 56 Nizaire Cromartie 6-2 243 Jr. or 50 Diego Fagot 6-3 255 Fr. CB 3 Cameron Kinley 6-2 196 So. 7 Khaylan Williams 6-0 201 Sr. S 29 Brady Petersen 5-10 196 Sr. or 1 Jacob Springer 6-1 198 So. S 6 Sean Williams 6-1 197 Sr. 13 Juan Hailey 6-1 199 Sr. CB 2 Jarid Ryan 5-11 198 Sr. 5 Michael McMorris 5-9 165 Fr. NAVY DEPTH CHART Pos. No. Name Ht. Wt. Yr. PK 16 Bennett Moehring 5-9 175 Sr. 4 Owen White 5-10 197 Jr. KO 4 Owen White 5-10 197 Jr. or 16 Bennett Moehring 5-9 175 Sr. P 4 Owen White 5-10 197 Jr. 16 Bennett Moehring 5-9 175 Sr. LS 44 Michael Pifer 6-3 226 Jr. 49 Kyle Gibbs 6-2 212 So. Pos. No. Name Ht. Wt. Yr. H 7 Garret Lewis 6-1 200 Sr. 8 Dalen Morris 6-1 204 So. PR 1 Jacob Springer 6-1 198 So. 20 CJ Williams 5-8 180 So. KR 20 CJ Williams 5-8 180 So. 21 Tre Walker 5-9 190 Sr. Special Teams