NOTE: This is a live blog. Most current updates will be shown at the top once below the introduction.
Navy (3-6) and Notre Dame (6-3) meet for the 95th time on the gridiron when the two square off on Saturday at 12-Noon at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. This will be the 23rd time Navy and Notre Dame have played in Baltimore and the first since 2008. This is the fourth time the Navy-Notre Dame game has been played at M&T Bank Stadium. Saturday’s contest is presented by Navy Federal Credit Union and Navy Mutual.
The two programs are among the winningest FBS teams in college football history. Notre Dame ranks fourth all-time with 935 wins, while Navy ranks 25th with 732 wins.
The two schools had played 93 consecutive times, which was the longest intersectional rivalry in college football, until 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic caused the game to be canceled. Navy and Notre Dame were originally scheduled to open the 2020 season in Dublin, Ireland. Travel restrictions, however, forced the game to be moved to Annapolis for what would have been the first game in series history to be played at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium before the contest was ultimately canceled. The 2023 Navy-Notre Dame game will be played on Saturday, Aug. 26 in Dublin. It will mark the third time the Mids and Irish have met in Ireland and the first time with Notre Dame as the home team.
Notre Dame leads the series 80-13-1 and has won four in a row over the Mids.
ABC will televise Saturday’s game with Dave Flemming (play by play), Dan Orlovsky (analyst) and Kris Budden (sideline) on the call.
Scott Wykoff will host a two-hour Navy Insider preview show on WBAL Radio (1090 AM) on Friday night at 7 PM
The Navy Football Pregame Show with Pete Medhurst, Joe Miller, Keith Mills, Wykoff and special commentary from John Feinstein will get underway at 11:00 am on the Navy Radio Network, followed by game action beginning at 12-Noon with Medhurst, Miller and Mills on the call.
GAME DAY FESTIVITIES
The March-On of the Brigade of Midshipmen will begin at 11:41 am.
The National Anthem will take place at 11:51:30 am, followed by a flyover at the conclusion of the national anthem.
Saturday’s flyover will feature 2 Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornets from the “Fighting Omars” of Fighter Squadron Composite Twelve based out of Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia Beach, Va. Piloting the lead aircraft will be Lt. Cmdr. Nathan Davey, USNA Class of 2008. The wing aircraft will be piloted by Cmdr. Wayne Irons, USNA Class of 2005 and a former defensive back for the Navy football team. Providing ground control will be Lt. Chad Theriault, USNA Class of 2009. The Fighting Omars are the Navy’s premier TOPGUN adversary squadron. The squadron’s mission is to provide the most professional, aggressive and accurate threat simulation, along with tactical expertise from a cadre of the finest Super Hornet pilots in the world.
There will be 3 parachute jumpers that will jump out of their plane at 11:54 am and land on the field at 12:01 pm.
The Naval Academy Drum and Bugle Corps will perform at halftime.
THE NOTRE DAME STORY
Without Navy, Notre Dame may not still exist. Notre Dame fell on hard times in World War II. The school’s population dwindled to a depression era number of 2,623 students in 1943 and a 20 percent reduction in 5 years led to stark financial problems for the school. Then the Navy came to Notre Dame’s rescue.
According to then Notre Dame president Hugh O’Donnell, the school “offered all of the facilities of this institution to the government. In April of 1943, the V-7 Indoctrination School was created and the first group of 900 men, all college graduates enlisted for one month as apprentice seamen.”
The late Notre Dame Vice President Father Edmund Joyce also shared the same sentiments of Navy’s importance to the school. “All I can say is without the Navy during the war, this institution would have gotten down to a few hundred students. Instead of that, we were almost twice our normal size during the war, and we were able to contribute something to the Navy.”
The Navy signed a contract with the South Bend-situated school at the time, guaranteeing $487,711 for its infrastructure needs and administrative expenses.
Notre Dame has never forgotten Navy’s kindness and support in its time of dire need and he two schools agreed to play each other in football each year, or until Navy opted out.
