Notre Dame Football: Worry About the Navy Midshipmen, Not the USC Trojans

Notre Dame Football awaits the second half of their season, hoping to finish strong with six wins to earn their fourth BCS Bowl appearance. 

While most Irish fans anxiously await the arrival of the USC Trojans to Notre Dame Stadium on November 22, Notre Dame Nation should be more concerned with Navy Midshipmen than the Trojans.

When the Trojans enter South Bend for their contest against the Irish, Notre Dame will face a USC team limping onto the field.  It's offensive line is battered.  Its running game behind Mark Tyler is neither solid, nor explosive.  The secondary is 98th in the nation against the pass.  And, the Trojans have struggled against very bad teams, including an atrocious Minnesota Golden Gophers team and a one-win Arizona Wildcats team that just fired its head coach Mike Stoops. 

This Lane Kiffin-coached USC team looks more like 1990's Southern Cal versus the Pete Carroll media darling college football has recently become accustomed to.

Compound USC's woes with the fact that the Irish are riding high coming out of a bye week with a four-game winning streak, and one may recognize a recipe for a garnet and gold disaster. 

The Irish are eighth in total offense, including 1,641 yards through the air to rank 15th in passing.  Ignoring Notre Dame's 21st-ranked ground game, USC will struggle to stop the Irish passing game, alone. 

Add to the mix Andrew Hendrix and his style of running Brian Kelly's spread offense and the Trojans are in for a nightmare game if they can't thwart the Irish defensive front seven from getting to quarterback Matt Barkley.

No, the Irish have a much more daunting task against Navy whose rushing attack ranks third in Division I.  Last year's game was a mess, and it appears Notre Dame defensive coordinator Bob Diaco attempted to defend Air Force's triple option the same way he unsuccessfully attempted to defend Navy's attack last year. 

Instead, Diaco should take note of his predecessors' work and his own work against Army, in Yankees Stadium, to understand how to stop the Midshipmen. Forcing plays back inside and allowing Harrison Smith to run the alleys is the only way to stop Navy from marching the ball down the field. 

Whether it was David Bruton or Glenn Earl, Irish free safeties have relentlessly had a field day racking up tackles against the Midshipmen.  Diaco, however, appears not to have learned his lesson from last year's blowout. 

If not, the Irish will have to rely on Tommy Rees and Andrew Hendrix to outscore Navy, who will certainly drop eight or nine defenders into pass coverage.  A slow and methodical Navy team is more likely to be Notre Dame's downfall than a Trojans team looking for a shootout.

While USC has been Notre Dame's traditional nemesis, the program has stumbled through the early part of the season and has significant needs it must address. 

Navy, on the other hand, has been successful against the Irish, recently, and Diaco's ineffective ability to properly scheme for the triple option is cause for concern. 

While the Trojans have been powerful in years past, Navy is Notre Dame's most formidable threat to a nine-game winning streak going into Palo Alto against the Stanford Cardinal.