And here we are... game week. After a long bye week, we are all ready to get the season going again as the Notre Dame Fighting Irish are looking for a playoff berth in the final five game stretch.
First stop... San Diego, California and the Navy Midshipmen.
The Irish are only 7-4 against Navy since 2007, and as much as we all pencil this in as a win every year — it can still be a brutal game to watch. After the semi-disaster against Pitt, the Irish really need a good showing on the field. They need to win big enough that no one really notices. Much like a long snapper, the Navy game for the Irish is best served when we don’t hear about it.
It’s been a long time since the Irish have played Navy while being this highly ranked. The Irish are currently #3 in both polls, and the last time they played Navy while being ranked this high was back in 1993 when Notre Dame was #2 in the country. (Unsurprisingly, the Irish were ranked in the top 10 from 1987-1993 when facing Navy).
The college football playoff committee will release their first rankings next week, so the Irish really only need to win every game — but putting some exclamation points on some of these wins won’t hurt them at all.
Follow along all week in this stream for all things Notre Dame vs Navy.