Notre Dame Coach unhappy with Navy

I read an article earlier that confused the heck out me, so much so that I feel compelled to write about it. That’s not saying much, since I could write about a lot of things right now, but when one coach accuses another of being “dirty” and “malicious,” it’s too good not to write about.

Disclaimer: I love Navy football. If you’re a fan of football, it’s tough to not root for a team that methodically reduces its opponent’s defense to nothing as they run up and down the field. The triple option, it’s almost as awesome as football itself. Call me crazy, but I love the Naval Academy’s triple option attack.

Until that attack is being run on my team. But, since that probably won’t happen for a while, I think it’s safe to say I love watching Navy football. I found out that one man in South Bend doesn’t though.

Notre Dame associate head coach Corwin Brown took umbrage with something that Navy Head Coach Ken Niumatalolo (nee-uh-mah-tuh-low-low) said after Navy beat Notre Dame 23-21 on Saturday.

Post game Niumatalolo said, “I think the one thing that helped us, and I really hope this doesn't come across wrong, but I think the thing that helped us this year was last year because we knew that they'd line up the same way.”

Correct me if I’m wrong football fans, but I translated Niumatalolo’s comments as saying, “We planned on Notre Dame not changing the way they played defense, and we guessed right.”

Brown was less than happy, saying, “I thought it was very disappointing what the Navy coach said after the game. He didn't want something to be misconstrued, then he said it regarding how we prepared and what we prepared to do.”

Ok, fair enough. Brown feels that Niumatalolo shouldn’t have said what he said. But, isn’t part of football game planning to defeat your opponent? Should Notre Dame have learned from last season, or the season before that, or the 43 times before that when Notre Dame beat Navy?

It would be akin to Brian Kelly saying after beating UConn last weekend, “Well, we knew they’d line up the same way, so we used a similar game plan.” Would Randy Edsall or one of his assistants get angry? Good question. They’d probably take their lumps and say, “Hey we need to get better and fix this.”

Now I understand why Notre Dame fans are growing restless with the current coaching staff, including head man Charlie Weis.

Brown also called Navy’s offense “unimaginative.” Not sure that a lot of the people I know wouldn’t disagree with that, but it certainly works. It worked for the Academy on Saturday.

The saddest part of Brown’s little tirade was that it took place on Veteran’s Day. What a day to attack one of our Military Academies.

Brown was also angry at the way Navy used, and I quote, “malicious illegal cut blocks.” I know, I know, you’re thinking, but, cut blocks are legal and Navy uses them masterfully to eliminate defensive linemen. Well, apparently in South Bend it’s illegal.

Gosh I hope the Big East officials get reprimanded for not calling the legal blocks illegal. (What is this, the SEC?)

Maybe I shouldn’t have wasted my time reading and writing about Brown’s ridiculous attack on Niumatalolo. But it seems that when Notre Dame is involved, the Catholic in me comes out. And comes out swinging it seems.