Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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40 NOV. 8, 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED GAME PREVIEW: NAVY your poison. There is no such thing as keying in on one guy and stopping this Navy offense. "That's just kind of our guys," Navy offensive coordinator Drew Cronic said. "Eli gets the ball, Chat's blocking his tail off. Vice versa. And then, Tecza is blocking his tail off. They just kind of do that, and some- times you hap- pen to be the one who has the ball in his hands and sometimes you don't. And you go play hard and you do it the right way all the time." It's a different story with the Navy defense. It's clearly the Midshipmen's worse side of the ball. Some of the teams that have scored 30-plus points on the Midshipmen raise eyebrows. Air Force, 31. Temple, 31. Florida Atlantic, 32. What does that mean for a Notre Dame offense ranked 10th in the country in scoring offense through Week 9 with 39.1 points per game? Probably pretty prolific things, unless the Irish go out and beat themselves like Navy did to itself in this matchup a year ago. As cliché as it sounds, that's why you play the game. This preview, outside of a lot of deserved tire pumping for Navy's offensive skill players, was largely spent detailing why for all of the good Navy's been able to do in the last couple of sea- sons Notre Dame is still a bugaboo for the Midshipmen. More talented. Just flat-out better. But all Navy needs is to be better on one day, in one four- hour window on a Sat- urday in South Bend. For that, we should all be thankful for the buildup and lead-in to this head-to- head. It's a kickoff under the lights at Notre Dame Stadium against one of the Irish's annual rivals. That's worth get- ting up for no matter what the point spread is, no matter who's supposed to win and by how many. ✦ 1. Eli Heidenreich May Be Navy's Greatest Pass Catcher Of All Time The official position for senior Eli Heidenreich in Navy's offense is known as a "snipe." It's an evolved version of a slot back with responsibilities as a runner and receiver. The latter is where the 6-foot, 206-pound Heidenreich shines in Navy's offense. With 25 receptions for 507 yards and 4 touchdowns in Navy's first seven games of the season, Heidenreich put himself in rare air in the program's proud history. Heidenreich already set a school record with 14 career receiv- ing touchdowns, and he entered November on track to set the school record for career receiving yards after increasing his total to 1,560. What Heidenreich hasn't done in his Navy career is make a big splash as a receiver against Notre Dame. The Irish limited him to 2 catches for 10 yards last season, though he did rush 11 times for 51 yards and 1 touchdown. Heidenreich, who also rushed for 285 yards and 3 touchdowns on 41 car- ries in the first seven games this season, received an invite to the East-West Shrine Game last month. "He deserves that," Navy offensive coordinator Drew Cronic said. "He's a really good football player. I think he can play pro ball. I really do." 2. Nose Guard Landon Robinson Provides Pressure Up The Middle Navy's best pass rusher has the shortest path to the quarterback. Senior nose guard Landon Robinson takes advantage of his proximity to the QB near the middle of the defensive line. Robinson, a captain who made his playing debut against Notre Dame in 2022, was Pro Football Focus' top-graded pass rusher (89.9) among FBS interior defensive linemen entering Week 10. PFF credited Robinson with 24 pressures and a 12.8-percent win rate. Robinson's pass-rush havoc included 5.5 sacks through seven games. Only 15 defenders entered Week 10 with more sacks per game than Robinson's 0.79. Notre Dame will have to account for the 6-0, 287-pound Robinson with inexperienced interior offensive linemen following injuries to center Ashton Craig and left guard Billy Schrauth, a pair of redshirt juniors. 3. Navy Keeps Debuting First-Time Starters Navy entered Week 10 on the college football calendar with a list of 19 players who started games this season for the first time. The only two teams in the FBS with more first-time starters at that time combined for just five wins by the end of October: Bowling Green (22) and Eastern Michigan (24). Navy already had seven wins. Navy's first-time starters included freshman offensive tackle Malcolm John- son. He started against Florida Atlantic after playing in the first six games of the season on the field goal/extra point unit. Johnson became the first Navy freshman to start on the offensive line since 2007. He's the sixth first-time starter on Navy's offensive line this season after sophomore left tackle Sean Crowley, senior right guard Greyson Crawford, sophomore right tackle Jaylin Acevedo, sophomore center Toran Smith and sophomore center Jake Polito. Johnson replaced Acevedo at right tackle. — Tyler James Heidenreich, a senior slot back, led the Midshipmen with 25 receptions for 507 yards and 4 touchdowns during their 7-0 start. PHOTO COURTESY NAVY ATHLETICS Three Things To Know About Navy "When you look at almost every single turnover or fumble, it was something we did. They almost didn't touch the ball. That is the most frustrating piece from our point. We wanted it really bad, and we bit ourselves." QUARTERBACK BLAKE HORVATH ON NAVY'S 6 TURNOVERS VERSUS NOTRE DAME LAST YEAR