Notre Dame Has Turned Its Attention Toward Navy

Training camp officially wraps up this week for the Notre Dame football team. The Fighting Irish started earlier than usual this season (a July 25 report date and July 26 first practice) due to their Week Zero season-opening game on Aug. 26 against Navy in Dublin, Ireland.

“Now is just fine tuning the foundation that’s been built,” Irish head coach Marcus Freeman said after Saturday’s team scrimmage. “That’s kind of got to be our focus. The true, physical part of fall camp is over. We’ll have some good...we’ve got to have good practices when we get into next week, but the true, physical part is over. Now we’re going to get into more scout work and really focus on our opponent.”

The focus for the first two-plus weeks of camp was about the Irish. It was about finding out what they have and how good they can be in different areas. They are more comfortably deep (and disruptive) than many thought they would be on the defensive line, where the rotation could go to 10 if not 11. But now the focus shifts to their first actual opponent of 2023.

“Defensively, it’s time to really turn your attention to Navy,” Freeman remarked. “We’ve been doing normal defensive things that you’ll see for the majority of the year...to defend the majority of the year. We have not been doing much Navy-specific defense. So, now your attention will truly turn to defending the triple option and what Navy’s offense will present.

Saturday’s scrimmage even began with a look at Navy’s triple option offensive attack.

“We started the scrimmage off with five full-speed live one defense versus Navy scout team and I thought it was good just that our defense could get a feel for the speed that we’re hopefully going to be practicing against,” Freeman explained. “I’m not ready to say who’s going to be the starters on the defense versus Navy. That’s still to be determined, but we have a good idea of the guys we’re going to count on for that game.

"It isn’t like we haven’t done Navy,” Freeman continued. “I’ve been working with the Navy scout team the entire fall camp. We do it at night. You know, me and a couple GAs. I think the Navy scout team are ready to go.”

Offensively, the Fighting Irish had what Freeman called “an up and down first 14 practices”, but that changed with Saturday’s scrimmage, which the offense won.

Sam Hartman is the known commodity. The Wake Forest grad transfer was named one of the team’s four captains for the season this past weekend. Left tackle Joe Alt, who could go in the first round of next year’s NFL Draft, is a captain as well, along with cornerback Cam Hart and linebacker JD Bertrand.

Freeman is confident in his Hartman-led offense and the group of young and relatively inexperienced receivers he will have as targets. Two offensive line spots, both guard positions, must still be settled before next week’s game and that is likely the most important question Freeman’s team has to answer before they fly to Ireland on Aug. 23.

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