Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com NOV. 20, 2017 33 BY COREY BODDEN A fter four-plus decades of dominance by the Irish in the Notre Dame-Navy series, the tide has turned a little bit. Over the past 10 seasons since Navy ended Notre Dame's 43-game winning streak in the series in 2007 with a 46-44 triple-overtime win, the Irish hold just a 6-4 advantage over the Midshipmen. That includes Navy's 28-27 victory in Jacksonville, Fla., last season. While the script has changed in the series overall, the same can be said in relation to where each pro- gram stands heading into the 2017 matchup compared to last season. Notre Dame was in a free fall last year on its way to a 4-8 mark. Navy, however, sat 9-2 before losing its final three games — including the Ameri- can Athletic Conference championship game against Temple — to finish 9-5. In 2017, it is Notre Dame that en- ters the matchup on the upswing while Navy is looking to bounce back from a three-game slide — losses to Memphis, Central Florida and Tem- ple — that followed a 5-0 start. Through eight games, Navy was averaging 457.1 total yards per con- test to rank 27th nationally. Of course, the Midshipmen were among the na- tion's best on the ground, rushing for 346.1 yards per contest to rank No. 2 in the country behind only Army. Head coach Ken Niumatalolo's of- fense put up 32.5 points on average in those eight games, good enough for 39th nationally. That offense will need to be clicking on all cylinders in South Bend for Navy to pull off what would be quite the upset. Niumatalolo will rely on junior quarterback Zach Abey to continue carrying the load for the offense. In the first eight games, Abey carried the ball a team-high 233 times, which was 132 carries more than any other player on the team, for 1,202 yards and 13 touchdowns. The disproportion of carries has not been totally by design — at least from Navy's perspective. "When you look at last year when Zach struggled, defenses wanted him to carry the ball and he was carry- ing the ball 30 or 35 times a game," said Mike James, publisher of TheMi- dReport.com on the Rivals network. "He's done pretty well, but he's had some fumbling issues. … He's get- ting the tough yards. "It's been kind of a weird season for him and the offense in general be- cause it's been so quarterback centric. But that's just the look defenses are giving Navy right now." Navy's two previous quarterbacks — Keenan Reynolds (2012-15) and Will Worth (2016) — were not huge threats throwing the football, but were effective. Reynolds completed 53.0 per- cent of his passes while notching eight touchdowns and just one interception as a senior in 2015. Worth equaled Reynolds' touchdowns last season, but recorded a 61.5-percent comple- tion rate with just three interceptions. Abey, though, struggled through the air in the team's first eight games, completing just 41.7 percent of his passes with six touchdowns and six interceptions. Throwing the ball is only a miniscule portion of Navy's offense, but Abey's inability to be consistent has held the Midshipmen back on offense to a degree. "There have been times that it's been very effective," James ex- plained. "At the end of the Air Force game, he threw the ball and led a drive with a minute and a half left and went 70 yards for the game-win- ning touchdown. So, he can do it. "But what defenses are doing is stacking the box and daring Navy to throw. In a couple of these games, they haven't been able do it which has been a problem. … They're kind of coming around. As bad as the Temple game was, the team was 12-of-18 passing. … It looks like the passing game may be coming around a little bit, but it's defi- nitely hurt them in a couple of games." Outside of Abey, Navy relies on sophomore slot back Malcolm Perry and senior fullback Chris High. Perry was a playmaker for Navy in the its first eight games with 44 carries for 454 yards (10.32 yards per carry) and three GAME PREVIEW: NAVY TURNING THE TIDE The Midshipmen have played the Irish tough over the past decade Facts & Figures NOTRE DAME VS. NAVY Game Info Date: Nov. 18, 2017. Site: Notre Dame Stadium (77,622). Kickoff: 3:30 p.m. ET. Television: NBC. Radio: This broadcast can be heard live on SIRIUS Satellite Radio (channel 129) and on Notre Dame's IMG affiliates. Series Facts: This will be the 91st meeting between Notre Dame and Navy with the Irish holding a 76-13-1 advantage in the series. Navy has won four of the past 10 games against the Irish, though. Head Coaches: Navy — Ken Niumatalolo (83-45, 10th season); Notre Dame — Brian Kelly (67-33, eighth season). Noting Navy: The Midshipmen are looking for back-to-back wins over the Irish for the first time since 2009 and 2010 … Navy has won consecutive games in the series just three other times: 1933-34, 1956-57 and 1960-61 … Notre Dame won 43 straight games in the series from 1964-2006, which is an NCAA record for longest win streak against an opponent … After its first eight games of the season, Navy ranked No. 2 nationally in time of possession with an average of 35:28 per contest … The Midshipmen also ranked 14th nationally in penalties with just 4.38 per contest. Junior quarterback Zach Abey carried the ball 132 more times than any other player on Navy's roster in the team's first eight games and was on pace to rush for 1,953 yards. PHOTO COURTESY NAVY