Notre Dame & ‘The Week After’ Playing Navy

Many years ago, 1991-96 Purdue head coach Jim Colletto — later Notre Dame’s offensive coordinator in 1997-98 — was asked if it was advantageous to have a bye the week before playing the Fighting Irish.

“I’d rather have the bye the week after playing them,” he replied.

The reasoning was simple: So much was invested into preparing for Notre Dame that the week following their matchup was even more challenging both physically and emotionally, and made the drained team more vulnerable to a letdown.

Believe it or not, Navy has been that way for Notre Dame the past decade. It’s not that the Midshipmen are an annual superpower, but the emotional and physical investment of preparing for the triple option has had a residual effect, specifically on the Irish defense.

Oddly enough, last year was a notable exception with the 44-6 route of Army West Point. That was in part because the Black Knights also ran the triple option and were dominated by the more well-versed Irish defense that limited them to 229 rushing yards and a meager 13 passing yards.

The defense recalibrating to a more conventional offense like Stanford’s might sound simple, but it often hasn’t turned out well in the contest after the Midshipmen. In fairness, most of the opposition was pretty darn good, which can be said about Stanford this year as well. The 8-3 Cardinal is ranked No. 20 in this week’s Associated Press poll and has won six of the last eight meeting versus the Irish, including the last two. They also have won four straight at home against Notre Dame.

Here is a look at “the week after” Navy, dating back to 2007:

• In 2015, Notre Dame rallied in the fourth quarter to defeat USC 41-31, although the Irish did permit 590 yards of total offense.

• In 2014, the 49-39 win versus Navy was followed by a 55-31 defeat at No. 11 Arizona State in which the Irish fell behind 34-3 — similar to the opening salvo Miami fired at them this Nov. 11.

• In 2013, the back-and-forth 38-34 victory versus Navy, in which there were a Notre Dame school-record nine lead changes, was draining and possibly showed the next week when the Irish were upset 28-21 at Pitt (which had lost to the Midshipmen).

• In 2012, the Irish needed a field goal with seven seconds left to defeat Purdue 20-17 the week after defeating Navy 50-10 in Ireland.

• In 2011, following a 56-14 win over the Midshipmen, Notre Dame trailed at halftime at Wake Forest before rallying to a 24-17 win.

• In 2010, the 35-17 debacle against the Midshipmen carried over with a 28‑27 home loss to Tulsa.

• In Charlie Weis’ final three seasons as Notre Dame’s head coach (2007‑09), the week after Navy also was a problem with losses to Air Force (2007) and a 2-8 Syracuse team at home (2008). The Navy loss in 2009 (23‑21) was the first of four defeats in a row to end his career with the Irish.

Head coach Brian Kelly said Sunday that because Stanford is the regular-season finale, he is not worried about a lack of focus. There will be no more Notre Dame games for at least another month, so everything can be invested into this contest, followed by getting some time to recover.

“The bigger shift was this [past] week — mentally get them away from the Miami game,” Kelly said of the 41-8 loss to the Hurricanes. “The Navy game I thought was a bigger challenge this week, quite frankly. They’re going to be happy to get away from this Navy game and get back to a traditional sense of football.”

Furthermore, it is understood that a victory against Stanford will put Notre Dame in as an at-large selection for one of the “Big Six” bowl games — and the Irish have not won such a contest since the 1993 campaign.

“They know what’s at stake,” Kelly said. “Let’s go play the last game of the year with a lot on the line.”

What can’t be overlooked is Stanford has its own gauntlet to run in the final five regular season games of 2017 when it traveled to now 1-10 Oregon State and survived a 15-14 scare, lost 24-21 at Washington State and followed with a 30-22 victory against then-top-10 Washington.

This past weekend it eked out a 17-14 victory against archrival Cal — but star running back Bryce Love, the nation’s No. 1 rusher — has been hobbled by a bad ankle in the past month and sat out most of the fourth quarter against the Bears.

Also, whereas the Irish don’t have any conference playoff game to worry about after Stanford, the Cardinal still has a chance to play in the Dec. 1 Pac-12 championship contest versus USC, who they lost to 42-24 Sept. 9. If Washington State loses to Washington this Saturday, then Stanford will be the North Division representative in the title game.

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