The Notre Dame Fighting Irish opened the season against the Naval Academy on August 26 in Dublin, Ireland, and looked like they were already in midseason form. The Irish started the afternoon strong with an opening drive that resulted in a touchdown, and they never took their foot off of the gas after that. The stout Irish defense held Navy scoreless through the first 56 minutes of the game.
Notre Dame Looks Right at Home During Season Debut in Ireland
The Irish offense was running on all cylinders under new signal caller Sam Hartman. Watching Sam under center, there was a sense of calmness and leadership that the Irish were lacking last year. Given Hartman is a 24-year-old, but the maturity and leadership he displayed was impressive nonetheless. He made all the easy throws and made the difficult ones look effortless.
Hartman ended the day with four passing touchdowns, which tied him for 1st all-time for an Irish quarterback’s inaugural game. Arguably, the most impressive pass of the day was the 35-yarder to Jaden Greathouse in the 2nd quarter. Hartman easily made over-the-shoulder throws to his wideouts and consistently put the ball in the best place for his receivers to make a play on it.
Even faced with his first bout of adversity, Hartman showed no cracks in his composure. During the first drive, The Irish found themselves in a manageable 3rd and 2. Audric Estime easily picked up the first down as he had all afternoon, but the play was called back due to a holding penalty on first-year starting Tight End Mitchell Evans. This pushed the Irish back into a 3rd and 12 and out of field goal range.
Hartman stone-cold hit Estime out of the backfield, and the human tank bowled his way 22 yards down the field for a first down to keep the drive alive. Estime capped off the drive with a score to give the Irish an early lead.
Notre Dame Audric Estime RB (7) – Matt Cashore/USA Today Sports
Audric Estime played a tremendous game, as he was just too big, too fast, and too strong for the Navy defenders. It was rare to see him get taken down by just one defender. A huge catapult to his success was the outstanding play of the offensive line. Joe Alt and company looked ready for business as they dominated the defensive line of Navy all game. It was a rare occasion that Estime was even touched before hitting the second level.
The defense played a phenomenal game as well, keeping Navy bottled up for the entirety of the game. The great run game of Navy, which ran for 246 yards per game last season, was met by a stacked linebacking core for the Golden Domers. Notre Dame held the run-heavy Midshipmen to roughly half of that total. The outstanding play of Jack Kiser, JD Bertrand, and Marist Liufau was one of the better performances by an entire position group of all of college football that day.
The trio totaled 18 tackles in a brilliant performance that showcased their ability to read the option play, avoid getting washed down the edge by the offensive line, and either set the edge or shoot the gap depending on the defensive read. The play of these three should be the tape every high schooler should watch when preparing for a triple-option offense.
It appears as if Notre Dame has all of the tools to compete at the highest level in college football this season. The offense played great and dominated at every level. The defense really came to play, too. The only thing we did not get to see much of was the pass defense, but with the Irish playing Tennessee State next week, expect Notre Dame up big early and Tennessee State having to throw the ball a lot in the 2nd half. We should get our first good look at Benjamin Morrison and company then.
