Navy defeats Notre Dame 35-17

In my weekly preview of Big East football (located below this post) I noted that Navy’s lone chance of defeating Notre Dame, and my previous head coach at Cincinnati, Brian Kelly, would be to hop out early on the poor schemes of Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator Bob Diaco, get ahead of the Irish, and hold on for dear life.

As it turns out, they wouldn’t even have to hold on that tightly.

Navy, a team that had lost 43 straight games before 2007 to Notre Dame, has now won 3 of their last 4 against the Irish. I don’t want to gloat, but I could have called this one. Unfortunately my faith in Navy’s defense was low yesterday. But the Midshipmen held up on all ends in the 35-17 win.

“You get what you deserve,” said Kelly. “We got beat today. Navy was the better football team today.”

ESPN.com’s Brian Bennett, who reports on the Big East and Notre Dame, made some great points about the game yesterday. “Of course, not all the talent was available, as receivers Michael Floyd and Theo Riddick didn’t play. That certainly didn't help. But neither of those guys play defense; neither did Notre Dame, for that matter.”

Ouch. It seems to be a common theme for Brian Kelly coached teams. Look at the second half of the 2009 season in Cincinnati. Teams like Connecticut, West Virginia and Pittsburgh ran, ran and ran some more on the UC defense. Luckily, Kelly’s brilliant play-calling and offensive genius was able to make up for the lack of defensive play.

Maybe Kelly should think about building defense before his high powered offense? Or maybe not. On Notre Dame’s first drive, the Irish employed a balanced, methodical approach, taking time and slowly driving down the field on the Middies. Then, on fourth and goal from inside the one, quarterback Dayne Crist was stoned on a sneak attempt.

“We outman 'em by 70 pounds on an average up front,” Kelly said. “If you can't get a foot on the one-half yard line, you get what you deserve.” Navy responded by going 99 yards and scoring on a 31-yard touchdown pass (one of only two passes Navy threw on the day—both passes were completed).

Kelly also, “My hat goes off to coach Ken [Niumatalolo] and his staff. We had no answer for them today.”

Well, that beats the heck out of what one Notre Dame coach said about Navy after losing in 2009.

Post game last year, Ken Niumatalolo, Navy’s head man, 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.”

Then-Irish defensive coordinator Corwin Brown replied, “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.”

At least Kelly is man enough to know what he needs to fix. And, if I may interject some opinion here, I believe firmly that it starts on defense. Get rid of Bob Diaco, consider switching to a 4-3 scheme, and then, maybe then, you’ll beat teams you’re supposed to beat.

The only thing Notre Dame can take away from this week’s loss to the Naval Academy is that they’ve given Army—who runs a similar triple option attack—a blueprint on how to defeat their defense.

Navy is now 5-2 and Notre Dame is 4-4. As Kieran Darcy of ESPN’s New York sector wrote after the game yesterday, “Notre Dame still leads the overall series with Navy by a lopsided record of 71-12-1. But on this day, Notre Dame wasn't in the United States Naval Academy's league.”

Trust me Notre Dame fans, it will all get better with Kelly running the show. I know this for a fact. But it doesn’t stop me from reveling in the win by my second favorite team yesterday.