Everything Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo said about Notre Dame football

The first time Navy faced a Marcus Freeman-led defense when he was the defensive coordinator at Cincinnati, the Midshipmen piled up 622 yards of offense in a 42-32 victory over the Bearcats in 2017. The story of Navy’s triple-option offense has been written much differently for the Notre Dame head coach since then.

Cincinnati beat Navy 42-0 in 2018. The Midshipmen had 171 yards of total offense against Freeman’s defense. Last year, Notre Dame beat Navy 34-6 in Freeman’s first season with the Fighting Irish. Navy only mustered 184 total yards.

Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo is well aware Freeman has his number.

“He’s a really good football coach,” Niumatalolo said. “He’s given us a ton of trouble, a ton of issues since he’s taken over. We had that one year when he was at Cincinnati when we did really, really good against them. It was probably the worst thing to do because it’s like they had a summit against option football. They’ve come back with some really good stuff. The defenses he’s led against us have pretty much shut us out. He’s done a really nice job.”

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Here’s everything else Niumatalolo said about Freeman and Notre Dame.

On the Navy vs. Notre Dame rivalry

“The history of this rivalry is pretty special and shows you what both schools are about. Obviously, the Naval Academy helped out Notre Dame and Notre Dame has commitment in continuing on this series. There are a lot of people who want to play Notre Dame. We are grateful for a chance to play such a storied program.

“We wish we had a couple more W’s on our side of the ledger, but considering the history it’s really special.”

What playing Notre Dame does for the Navy football program

“It’s useful in recruiting. Some of the places we play, obviously playing in South Bend is a special, unique, iconic sports arena in American sports. But also some of the venues we’ve been able to play, NFL stadiums, playing in Ireland — although the last time we went to Ireland it didn’t fare too well for us.

“It’s really a special deal for us. We’re grateful for it. We recognize who they are as an iconic football program, and it’s a challenge to play them every year.”

On this year’s venue

“It’s exciting to be able to play at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. Really close to the Naval Academy. We also recognize there will be a lot of Notre Dame fans, too. It’s great to have it here, and it’s going to be exciting at a great NFL venue. It’s more than that to us.

“We’re trying to win, too. We’re not coming just for the spectacle. We’re going to give it everything we got.”

On Notre Dame in 2022

“Looks like they’ve picked it up lately. Beating Clemson in the fashion they did is pretty impressive. In sports, it’s what have you done for me lately. That’s the only Notre Dame team we look at; the team that we saw recently on tape.

“That was really impressive, the thorough beating they gave to Clemson was real impressive.”

On the Irish’s improvement

“It seems like they’ve done a lot of good things in special teams. Blocked a lot of kicks. They’ve been stout that way. They’ve been pretty stout defensively the whole year. They’re coming into their own offensively, finding their identity.

“That’s been the big part of it. Really good on special teams. Stout on defense. Offensively, they got a ton of weapons. Obviously at tight end, the best in the country. They’re catching a groove offensively as the season goes on.”

On the differences in preparing for a game like this vs. others on the schedule

“We recognize who they are. But we came from playing Cincinnati, too. Cincinnati was in the final four last year. Our guys recognize that some of the guys we’ve been playing are really, really good. Obviously Notre Dame is really good. But Cincinnati was ranked to start the season. Coming against a really good team like Cincinnati, who actually beat Notre Dame last year, hopefully we kind of see the caliber of football and type of players you’re going to see.

“The Notre Dame talent level, if it is not the top it’s second best we play. Probably last year was the first time in Cincinnati we played a team that might have been a little better than them. But normally it’s Notre Dame. Normally Notre Dame is the best team we play. This year this will be the best team we play, too. That won’t change.”

On the 2008 game vs. Notre Dame in Baltimore

“We had a chance at the end. We had the ball at the end. Trying to remember what the final score was (27-21), but we had the ball at the end with a chance to score. We had a smash route. Ricky (Dobbs) threw some tremendous balls. We had a stutter in-goal when he hit Tyree Barnes for a touchdown. It was a heck of a throw. We felt like he had Shun White on a corner route wide open and we didn’t throw the ball so well.

“But he threw some great balls, but that one slightly missed him. We get that one, we win. But obviously that was a long time ago. I think these guys were in kindergarten at that time. But we had a chance. We had a chance in 2008.”

On Notre Dame’s time of possession

“I remember watching them vs. BYU, they were running the clock down to the very last second. They’re checking plays late. They’re trying to get into the right play. They’re snapping the ball at the last possible second. I don’t know if that is by design, the late checks.

“But that’s the nature of their game. A lot of it is shorter passing game, but a lot of times they’re snapping the ball with not many seconds on the clock. Kind of like what we try to do.”

On the Irish’s blocked punts

“It’s definitely an emphasis. We’re pretty exotic with our punt team. We’ll put pressure on you, too. They put pressure on you trying to come after you, but we’ll put pressure on you too with our formations. If you don’t line up correctly, especially against these guys, we’re definitely not afraid of going for it. They’re really good at coming after kicks. We’re really exotic in what we do.

“We see if they line up correctly to us. If they don’t, we have checks where we can run the ball (on a fake). We had one against Tulsa. We probably had one last week we could have done. What we do on punt team is for teams like this that are really good at blocking kicks. We try to stress them another way. We’re going to force you to line up to us. If you don’t, what do we have to lose? We’re going to use our fakes.”

On going against the Notre Dame defense

“We just have to do our best. Use our fundamentals, use our schemes, try to help us the best we can. It’s going to be tough. It always is.”