Rakes Report #216: It belongs to us and them, not to any of the others (The Navy Review)
Reflecting on an idyllic start to the season on the Emerald Isle.
~optional musical accompaniment~
1) If you’re going to fly to another country to close down and rename a main street in that nation’s capital for the day, the least you can do is put on a show when the game actually starts, and Notre Dame delivered on all fronts over the weekend. Playing Navy is always a check-the-box situation because you’ll get no more credit than that but there’s no rule against adding a little flourish with the pen. As dominant an opener as you’ll see and both a continuation and early affirmation of the themes of speed and violence and focus we’d heard about from camp. Whether the Midshipmen stink or the Irish made them look that bad will be something we find out as the season unfolds but it’s a splendid way to kick things off regardless.
2) As we did in his first game in blue and gold back in the spring, we will begin by discussing Sam Hartman, who was everything we’d dreamed on all summer in a dominant performance. Some beautiful throws, movement in the pocket, toying with Navy before the snap (you can see why he and Tommy hit it off during the transfer recruitment process), carrying a shillelagh around after the game – the complete QB1 quiver. Timing and placement were off on a few throws (particularly the deep ball to Tobias Merriweather that came out way too late) and there was almost a pick six when things were almost decided but can’t ask for much more.
As nice as it was to see Hartman play so well, I wouldn’t necessarily say it was surprising. Perhaps even bigger than his performance was the work of his weapons: From the jump, Jayden Thomas was what we needed him to be as another box checked (great route on his touchdown) but the other revelations were less certain. Chris Tyree, looking natural after the position switch. Deion Colzie, apparently having missed reading the last month of practice reports and picking up exactly where he left off the second half of last season. And then Jaden Greathouse, goodness gracious, simply a man born with the ability to play wide receiver. He had eight snaps on Saturday and produced like that! Eight!*
* And perhaps even wilder, Colzie and Love only had seven each and Price had five. Staff is going to have to do some delicate distribution.
Of course, Greathouse wasn’t the only player to score on his first career touch, as Jadarian Price looked healthy after last summer’s unfortunate injury. Not stealing joy with comparing but hoping to compound it, was Price even the most promising running back debut with how cool Jeremiyah Love looked? We were feeling good about tailback depth but you can continue tweaking that dial if you’d like, and continue cranking it if most of the opponents who come across this offensive front get mashed to the degree the Midshipmen did. Pat Coogan and Rocco Spindler, welcome to the show and consider staying a while please.
No targets to the tight ends despite a solid percentage of snaps, but they were effective in the running game (and passing game, Holden Staes helped spring Colzie on his score). Audric Estime had a fumble and was used for the final plays which I do not totally understand but he was brutally effective to set the early pace. The final point tally really undersells how dominant the offense was because of Navy soaking up time: They scored on the first five possessions, averaged eight yards per snap and had a 67 % efficiency rate (which would rank in the 99th percentile per Game on Paper). 42 points on 51 real plays is a nice conversion rate.
Go nuts feeling good this week but my only word of mild caution is Navy might be bad at defense despite 2022’s solid overall numbers. Brian Newberry comes from that side of the ball but they were atrocious against the pass last year (Do you remember what Drew Pyne did to them for a half?) and lost their best front seven player by several leagues (nautical term!) from last season. They also might look okay when they don’t have to overload against what is hopefully one of the best offensive lines in college football. But still, how many times do you turn a game on and see a team that should be dominating screw around and let an inferior unit look respectable? Gerad Parker did not let Navy get away with any of that in his Irish offensive coordinator debut, and for that we tip the cap.
3) As always, difficult to translate too much from Navy games to the rest of the season for the defense* but things looked right. I made a concourse visit for most of their first possession and missed the early option success but walked out with concessions to see a fourth down stop so it seemed great to me. (The game log backs that up.) From there, an elite effort from Al Golden’s side combined with the offense led to Notre Dame outrushing their foe.
* There was an Irish family behind us with an American friend who did a wonderful job of trying to explain what was happening over the course of the game. At one point he laid out the situation as “Everyone used to run this offense 75 years ago and now only Navy does so it’s tough to prepare,” which is a kinder way of putting it than I would but accurate.
Solid work from the elder statesmen linebackers (Marist Liufau, yes) and I loved seeing Xavier Watts and Jaden Mickey locking things up on the edge. I imagine we’re going to perhaps see some better athletes over the next few months but clean, clean start. There were questions about Javontae Jean-Baptiste’s run-stopping credentials but he was game up front doing his part in an overall sterling effort from the line. Also notable freshman corner Christian Gray played a bunch of snaps in a game that tends to favor veterans, says a lot about what the staff thinks of him. Couple of notes from seeing guys in person, even from seats up top: Joshua Burnham looks like a defensive end, not a linebacker transitioning up front, and Cam Hart is an imposing guy. Excited to see the back end of the defense in action against a real passing attack but nothing from this can possibly jump out as a worry.
4) Pro: Hilariously Sad Field Goals from Newberry, hope he’s in our lives for a while if that’s a potential motif. Con: Notre Dame missing its lone attempt of the day. Pro: Great time management at the end of the first half. If Marcus Freeman spent any part of the summer gaming with his kids it was a wise choice. Con: No Winning Is Hard this week, it was a minimalist slate and I was asleep for most of it.
This continued a nice run of success against the Midshipmen following the keep-away loss in 2016 and the Senior Day tooth extraction the following year. 2018 and 2019 were blowouts, 2021 was comfortable for the final thirty minutes and last year was half of a good game. This also makes Notre Dame 3-0 against Navy in Dublin, outscoring them by more than a hundred in those contests.
This is a point many people have made but it’s going to be fascinating to see how the service academies maintain in the transfer portal era, as it’s not like you’re going to get a lot of guys coming in to fill holes in the depth chart while also learning how to crew a submarine. If the Midshipmen begin to find their annual date with the Irish too onerous to continue, I’d be happy to relieve them of their burden.
5) Notes from Aviva: It was funny how this was presented as a Notre Dame home game for much of the proceedings but then turned into a bowl afterward. The close was delightfully surreal, as they started blasting The Pogues’ “Fiesta” as soon as the clock hit zero (if you’re not familiar, a mix of English, Spanish and Irish processed through Shane MacGowan’s, uh, unique singing) which then cut out for the alma maters as they rolled out the set for the postgame presentation of trophies for winning what was, again, handled as a home game in almost every other way. I think they were piping in “Block that kick” chants on fourth down, so keep an ear out for that on Saturday. That was as electric a pre-kickoff “Shippin’ Up To Boston” as I’ve heard, incredible in that setting – hope Pitt was holding a Saturday afternoon practice. There were so many fireworks and flames, let’s please get those incorporated back home, please.
In general, a wonderfully great time (this newsletter was composed on a Sunday afternoon train from Dublin to Belfast, which is clean living). We were pretty blessed with good weather for most of the trip and found both ample space and a good crew for pre-game festivities at Ryan’s Beggars Bush down near the stadium as many Irish fans congregated at the impressive-looking festivities up nearer the river. (I considered recording a quick pod there post-game, but it would have been on a phone with truly abysmal audio quality so Jess and I will attempt to get you a recap and travelogue in the coming days.) It was fun how Notre Dame fans were strewn all over the island over the course of the week (you’d run into pockets) before congregating on Friday to be prepared for the most important matter of the trip. Appears Aer Lingus wants to do this every year (Boston College and Florida State next year, which, sure) and I imagine the Fighting Irish will be fixtures of the rotation.
Random Ireland recommendation bonus section: Kinsale remains one of my favorite places (Fishy Fishy, The Bulman, generally wandering around spooky pirate-y harbor town in the evening listening for where the live music is coming from), had a nice time in Limerick (Curragower was an awesome spot, dinner across the river from a castle is my preferred setting), the official Doolin Cliff Walk with Pat which while technically a walk certainly has many hike-like elements to it (that’s where photo from the top of #215 was taken), Causeway Hotel/Giant’s Causeway/Carrick-a-Rede up north and O’Donoghues, Matt The Thresher and Brazen Head in Dublin. The Guinness storehouse tour was worth doing for the view from the Gravity Bar at the end alone even if you’re not into the museum elements. We were unfortunately kicked out a little early on Friday night due to a scheduled Navy event but thankful the lads avenged us.
6) Although I hope otherwise, my suspicion is all of the games might not be as easy as that one, even if this weekend seems primed to continue an enjoyable and peaceful early trend. This isn’t revolutionary, as we talked about it in the previous edition, but the omnipresent theme of the conversations I had with various Notre Dame fans in wildly varied levels of sobriety over the course of the week was how much everyone wants Marcus Freeman to succeed. This is all here for him and the way everything went in Ireland was another reminder of how much he seems very prepared for this task in so many ways.
Freeman won’t receive a crown for going 2-0 with wins over Navy and Tennessee State but the first thing good teams have to do is smash the bad ones to build depth, preserve health and take away any chance of late-game chicanery. Everything against Eddie George and company on Saturday has to be to build to be in a stronger position for Raleigh, and an even better one for Sept. 23 because if this team is indeed as special as it looked in its first outing then we all have to make the most out of it, with the staff maximizing this roster and us fans soaking it all in (both, of course, of equal importance).
Hope everyone has a good holiday weekend. If you missed last week’s excitement draft podcast, check that out. Tennessee State Review will be Tuesday so we can see what Duke and Clemson have in store for us. Until then, take care of yourselves and each other.