Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1547434
22 NOV. 7, 2026 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED TURNING POINT Notre Dame looked disheveled, unprepared and apathetic as it clung to a 14-13 lead after the first half against Navy. The team that came out of the locker room was the opposite. After halftime adjustments and a direct mes- sage from head coach Marcus Freeman to "stop panicking," an inspired and motivated Irish team flipped the script and beat Navy at its own game. Notre Dame took control. The Irish held possession for 20:53, ran 24 times for 137 yards and scored 2 rushing touch- downs while piling on 21 unanswered points. And the defense? It limited the Midshipmen to 56 yards and 3.5 yards per play while pitching a second-half shutout. It was a true tale of two halves for Notre Dame. STATS OF THE GAME There were red flags everywhere when defen- sive coordinator Chris Ash's unit took the field in the first half. Navy tortured the Irish defense by running 41 plays over 23:33 and amassing 189 yards of total offense — almost all of it on the ground in the first half. The Midshipmen converted 4 of 8 third downs. Two of the four third-down attempts Navy failed to convert led to field goals; the Midshipmen converted on fourth down after the other two. In addition to Notre Dame's reliable rushing attack, junior quarterback CJ Carr was on point, completing 19 of 29 passes for 210 yards with 2 touchdowns. He completed passes to nine dif- ferent receivers, including sophomore wideout Jerome Bettis Jr., who had a team-high 6 catches for 78 yards and 1 touchdown. A DIFFERENT LOOK AT TIGHT END Notre Dame's tight end usage looked much different than it had in the previous seven games. Junior Jack Larsen earned the start, true fresh- man Ian Premer shared the tight end lead with Larsen at 33 offensive snaps and sophomore James Flanigan did not play on offense. Injuries drove those changes. As Freeman revealed afterward, senior Coo- per Flanagan (7 snaps) had not fully recovered from a hamstring injury, and Flanigan was also banged up. That created more opportunities for Larsen, Premer and fifth-year Ty Washington. They each had a catch and helped the Irish keep the chains moving on offense. The Irish will probably rely on the experience of Flanagan and Flanigan next week against Miami. However, Premer's emergence coming out of the bye week cannot be ignored. It's a big development for Notre Dame to finally get its five-star freshman more involved. THREE OBSERVATIONS BY KYLE KELLY WR JEROME BETTIS JR. The sophomore wide receiver stepped in for starter Micah Gilbert, who left the game with an ankle injury, and stepped up big time. The son of former Irish All-American running back Jerome Bettis Sr. was Notre Dame's leading receiver in the game with 6 catches for 78 yards, including a 31-yard touchdown reception from junior quarterback CJ Carr. It was his first career touchdown. Bettis came into the Navy game with 5 career catches for 98 yards. Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman and Irish wide receivers coach Mike Brown had both talked about being open to expanding the usage of wide receivers beyond starters Jordan Faison, Jaden Great- house and Micah Gilbert. Those three handled nearly all of the wide receiver snaps in the 28-24 loss at BYU Oct. 17. Against Navy, 11 Irish receivers saw playing time, with Bettis matching his career high in snaps with 23. Freeman said Bettis would have played regardless of Gilbert's injury status. RB NOLAN JAMES JR. The sophomore continued his recent surge and recorded his second game of more than 100 yards rush- ing this season. And James added a little breakaway speed to the effort against Navy. Two long touchdown runs — a career-long 52-yarder and a 23-yarder — highlighted James' 107-yard rushing performance. And he did it on just 9 carries against Navy. His previous 100-yard performance came against Michigan State Sept. 19, when he carried 26 times. The Midshipmen came into the game as the No. 31 rush defense among the nation's 138 FBS teams, and the Irish were able to amass 204 rushing yards, the most Navy has given up this season. "Nolan today has had a great day, but that's what Nolan James does," Irish head coach Marcus Freeman said. "He had an opportunity to make some big plays, but I'm not surprised who Nolan James is." S LUKE TALICH The 6-foot-4, 222-pound former walk-on set a career high in tackles for the second consecutive game. He topped the 8 he had in the pre-bye week loss to BYU Oct. 17 with 10 in No. 5 Notre Dame's 35-13 victory over Navy at Foxborough, Mass. Talich now has 37 tackles this season, almost half of those (18) coming in the past two games. After starting the season as a reserve for the Irish behind preseason All-American Brauntae Johnson, Talich is trying to play his way into at least the periphery of that All-America conversation. Johnson has been out since the second half of Notre Dame's Sept. 6 season opener with Wisconsin. Talich himself missed a game against Purdue Sept. 26 with a wrist injury. He has played in a cast for most of the season. In the second half against Navy, the Irish held the Midshipmen (2-6) to 56 total yards, zero points, zero third-down conversions in four tries, zero fourth-down conversions on one try and just 16 offensive plays. GAME BALLS BY ERIC HANSEN Senior safety Luke Talich recorded a career-high 10 tackles to help Notre Dame shut out Navy in the second half of its 35-13 victory. PHOTO BY NICK GRACE