Fighting Irish prepared to face mystery Midshipmen

One player knows the place where Notre Dame opens the 2023 season better than most. 

Graduate student linebacker JD Bertrand’s dad, Jim, grew up in Dublin, Ireland, and was a star secondary school rugby player for Blackrock College. According to The Irish Times, he was Blackrock’s captain in the 1981 Leinster Schools Senior Cup — essentially the Irish rugby version of the NCAA championship — and won the final at Lansdowne Road in Dublin. The younger Bertrand has been to Dublin four times, first when he was 6 and most recently this past March. 

Lansdowne Road was torn down in 2007, and in its place rose Aviva Stadium. That’s where Notre Dame will take on Navy at 2:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, Aug. 26. 

One of Bertrand’s visits was during his sophomore year of high school, when his Roswell (Ga.) Blessed Trinity Catholic team played a game at Donnybrook. His dad had played there as well. 

“I think just for our guys, it’s really cool to get this opportunity that many teams don’t get,” Bertrand said. “Most guys maybe haven’t traveled outside of the country. It’s just an opportunity to learn about a new culture. I think that’s the cool thing about Notre Dame. They give you these kinds of opportunities.” 

Bertrand missed Blessed Trinity’s game seven years ago due to injury, so his family and friends in Ireland haven’t seen him play there yet. He’s expecting 15, along with 15 more from back home. 

They’ll join the approximately 40,000 Americans expected to travel for the game, which will go down as the largest migration from the U.S. to another country for a sporting event ever. 

“I think there’s gonna be a ton of energy and excitement,” Bertrand said. “That’s the coolest thing.” 

As the anticipation builds, so does the tension. Notre Dame enters the season with sky-high expectations, brought on by a proven quarterback in Sam Hartman and a talented roster. 

Those expectations will be put to the test in a matchup the Irish have to win. And not only is it the first game of Notre Dame’s season, it’s the first game of the college football season in general, and a standalone game in its time slot on national television. 

Suffice it to say every college football-starved fan will tune in to see what this Notre Dame team is made of. Irish head coach Marcus Freeman, while discussing younger players getting more reps in practice, put it best. 

“You can’t simulate the pressure that’s going to be on with the stadium packed in Dublin, Ireland,” Freeman said. 

Mystery Midshipmen

When Bertrand traveled to Ireland in March, senior wide receiver Chris Tyree, junior running back Audric Estimé and graduate student defensive end Nana Osafo-Mensah joined him. Osafo-Mensah was asked if his trip, one of two he took this year, helped him and the other Irish veterans feel more comfortable going there on business. 

“For sure,” Osafo-Mensah said. “Easily.” 

What might not make Osafo-Mensah and company comfortable is a new-look Navy offense. The base will still be the triple option, but approximately two-thirds of the playbook is brand new. 

Most believe Navy’s run-pass splits, which made them the second-most run-heavy team in the country behind Air Force, will move sharply toward the national average. 

“We’re still a triple-option team,” senior offensive lineman Lirion Murtezi said at a press conference July 29. “But being able to throw all the different, creative things around the triple option is gonna make us a very explosive team on offense this year, and I’m really excited for that.” 

First-year Midshipmen coach Brian Newberry brought in Kennesaw State offensive coordinator Grant Chesnut to run the new variation of the classic Navy system. Newberry and Chesnut are obviously keeping the changes close to the vest, so no one outside of Annapolis, Md., knows exactly what it will look like. 

“The way that we’ve evolved… I love what we’re doing,” Newberry said. “I think it’s creative. I think it’s unique. I think it’s different from what anybody else in the country is doing. It’s our own.” 

According to Capital Gazette reporter Bill Wagner, one of the aspects the coaching staff is adding to its offense is the tight end position, which Navy traditionally did not use in the passing game. Chesnut and new tight ends coach Jon Williams are trying to change that. 

The Midshipmen will also mix formations much more than their opponents will be used to seeing from them. 

“[It’s] the appearance of what we’re doing, being multiple with our formations, the looks that we show people, potentially shifting and doing those things,” Newberry said. “Being able to go from under center to the gun and marry that up.” 

Newberry, who had been Navy’s defensive coordinator since 2019, also lauded the edge and toughness Chesnut brings. From his experience, Newberry said, the offense didn’t have that the past few years. 

Another unknown out of Navy’s fall camp: the starting quarterback. The Midshipmen could trot out senior and returning starter Tai Lavatai, who is coming off a season-ending injury that cost him much of the offseason, or sophomore Blake Horvath.

Notre Dame Offensive Line Prepared For ‘Everything‘

The second half of last year’s Navy game is still fresh in Notre Dame’s mind. It especially lingers for the offensive line.

Navy zero-blitzed Notre Dame to death, and the Irish had no answer. The Midshipmen sacked junior quarterback Drew Pyne five times in the second half alone, holding Notre Dame scoreless in the final 30 minutes to make the game closer than the Irish would have liked it.

“It was frustrating,” graduate student center Zeke Correll said. “They were giving us some tough looks. Cover-zero blitz every play is definitely not your typical defense that you’ll see. They had a good plan for us.” 

Newberry remains in charge of the Navy defense, but he might not attack Hartman the way he attacked Pyne. According to Pro Football Focus, Hartman finished the 2022 season with 9.1 yards per attempt, 25 touchdowns and 5 interceptions when blitzed. He averaged 8.2 yards per attempt with 13 touchdowns and 7 interceptions when not blitzed. 

Whatever it is, though, Notre Dame knows Newberry will have something up his sleeve. 

“I think we have to prepare for everything,” junior offensive tackle Joe Alt said. “Just knowing that, you’ve got to watch the film from last year and you know they’re not going to come with the same thing just because they did it last year, but maybe they’re going to take a couple things. We’ve got to be ready for all of it.” 

The way Alt sees it, the Irish went away from trusting their fundamentals in the second half against Navy last November. They focused too much on the blitzing and not enough on what made them an effective unit in the first place. 

“[Fundamentals are] going to be your home place,” Alt said. “That’s where you’re always going to be safe. Something I take to heart.” 

Junior offensive tackle Blake Fisher blamed communication. When he watched the film, he could see that the front five weren’t talking to each other before the snap and making sure every possible rusher was accounted for. Correll, Fisher and Alt enter 2023 with 3,954 snaps. Communication shouldn’t be an issue for them, but with two new starters at guard, they need to be at the top of their game in the season opener.