Nov. 20—SOUTH BEND — A matchup that goes back nearly as far as the game itself, Notre Dame and Army will add a new-age feel Saturday to a historic rivalry that once dominated the sport.
The No. 6 Irish (9-1) will pay the No. 19 Black Knights (9-0) a visit when the two schools meet at Yankee Stadium to register the latest matchup between two football programs. This time, the talk of College Football Playoff contention — for both teams — is getting in the way of what was originally scheduled as the 100th anniversary of the 1924 matchup that gave birth to the “Four Horsemen” tagline.
Sportswriter Grantland Rice donned the Irish backfield of Harry Stuhldreher, Don Miller, Jim Crowley and Elmer Layden as the Horseman and Notre Dame beat Army 13-7 at the old Polo Grounds in 1924.
Nowadays, the modern game has swept through and both the Irish, and Black Knights, are chasing playoff seeding. The run game, however, still lives strong in both program’s soles. Army leads the nation with an average of 334.9 yards per game and Notre Dame is 11th with a total of 216.7 yards per game.
It’s come to be expected from the Jeff Monken-led Knights, who utilize the triple option like other military institutions, but Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman made his analysis clear.
“I met with the defensive staff, and the first thing we said is the biggest mistake we can make is think this is Navy 2.0. It’s not,” Freeman said. “It’s a different offense. They do some different things. They’ve got a different identity and present a different challenge.
“Yes, it’s still a version of the triple option, which you see with some of the military schools, but they run it with different personnel. They’re led by their O-line. They come off the ball, they’re physical, they’re big — bigger than what you usually see when you play academy schools.”
Army remains just one of three unbeatens in the country, joining No. 1 Oregon (11-0) and No. 5 Indiana (10-0). The Black Knights have the Irish and UTSA left on the schedule, but Army has also clinched a spot in the American Athletic Conference championship game, likely to face No. 20 Tulane (9-2). If the Knights win out, they’d be sitting at 12-0 and should have a strong chance of making the 12-team playoff.
That field would be selected on Dec. 8. Army would still play Navy on Dec. 14. The whole plan hinges on the prospect of shocking, and knocking out No. 6 Notre Dame, which has won eight-straight and continues to look more and more like a serious playoff contender.
For the Irish to earn its fourth-ranked victory, or, its second against currently ranked programs, third down is likely to play a big role.
“What we gotta do is be better at [not] hurting ourselves,” Freeman said. “I think we had five drives in the first half that did not end in touchdowns. As you look, three of those five had some type of penalty: holding penalty, hands to the face penalty, which put us in third-and-extra-long situations. No offense, Notre Dame’s offense isn’t going to be great when you put yourselves behind the sticks. So, we got to eliminate those mistakes that are really slowing us down from moving the chains.”
The Irish have a third-down conversion rate of just .377. That’s good enough for 89th in the country. Notre Dame has also committed 62 penalties this season, a line that ties them for 71st in the FBS.
Against Virginia last week, the Notre Dame offense committed several three-and-outs in the first half. Like Freeman mentioned, easily avoidable penalties were the culprit.
Army, which possesses the third-best rushing defense (82.6 yards per game allowed), could really grind the Irish offense, which relies on its loaded backfield and run-heavy QB Riley Leonard, to a stop.
“I think one is personnel,” Freeman said when asked about the Knights rush defense. “They got some good D-linemen. They do a good job. They do a good job of simulating some pressures where you might be thinking a five-man pressure’s coming, a six-man pressure’s coming and it ends up being four guys. They just do a good job of saying, ‘We’re not going to let you run the ball.’ And we got a mindset that, hey, we still want to run the ball.”
Kicking could also come into play. The Irish have been nursing an injury to Mitch Jeter in the latter portion of the season. Jeter kicked a few extra points on Saturday, but the Irish held him out of both unsuccessful field goal attempts.
“We gotta do a better job in our field-goal unit,” Freeman said. “I know the one before half we knew was a little bit of a stretch, but we gotta make the makeable field goals. Missing one from 42 yards is unacceptable, so we have to address that and we gotta get it fixed immediately.”
This is the 52nd all-time meeting between Notre Dame and Army. The Irish have won the last 15 games since No. 3 Army topped No. 4 Notre Dame 14-2 in South Bend in 1958. That was also the last time both teams played as ranked foes, until the No. 6 Irish and No. 19 Black Knights kick off on Saturday at 7 p.m.
ALL IRISH
This is the 12th edition of the Shamrock Series since it debuted in 2009. Notre Dame is 11-0 in the series, which has typically been played out of state, playing once in the Hoosier State. The Irish have played four ranked opponents in the series and No. 19 Army will be the fifth and also the fourth consecutive.
During the series, Notre Dame has played Army twice and has also made trips to Bronx, N.Y. for a visit to Yankee Stadium. In 2010, the Fighting Irish beat Army 27-3 at the home of the Yankees. Notre Dame also played Army during the series in 2016 at the San Antonio Alamodome, beating the Black Knights 44-6. Neither the Irish, nor the Knights, were ranked in either matchup.
The one other trip to Yankee Stadium by the Irish during the course of the series was when No. 3 Notre Dame beat No. 12 Syracuse 36-3.
Reach Matt Lucas at 574-533-2151, ext. 240325, or at matt.lucas@goshennews.com.
