The first two games in the Marcus Freeman era at Notre Dame were rough, losing to Ohio State and Marshall albeit the loss to Ohio State was expected but the loss to the Marshall Thundering Herd was not. However, the Fighting Irish went on to win nine of their next eleven games including a win in the Gator Bowl against the South Carolina Gamecocks by a score of 45-38 and finishing ranked 18^th in the Coaches and AP Polls respectively.

Navy on the other hand finished with a losing record for the third consecutive season led to a coaching change out with Ken Niumatalolo, who ran a run-heavy system in his 15 yards with the Midshipmen, and in with Brian Newberry who comes in after serving as the Defensive Coordinator since the 2019 season.

BookMaker has the Notre Dame Fighting Irish listed as 21-point favorites against the Navy Midshipmen in a series that has been dominated by the Fighting Irish over the last ten games in the series. The Fighting Irish have won nine of the last ten including the previous five matchups in a row and are 2-1 ATS in the last three games in the series.

This season the Notre Dame Fighting Irish are expected to be a talented team in Marcus Freeman’s 2^nd season as head coach as they enter the year ranked 13^th in the AP Poll and 13^th in the Coaches Poll respectively. Notre Dame may not be one of the favorites to win the National Championship coming in at +2540 to do so on BookMaker but the Fighting Irish have an over/under win total of 8.5 wins.

Meanwhile, Navy has a chance to become bowl eligible this season as their win total on BookMaker is set at 6 wins which is right at the 6-win mark needed to qualify for a bowl game. If the Midshipmen are able to do so it will be their first bowl game in nearly four years and would be considered a good season for Brian Newberry in his first season as the head coach for the Navy Midshipmen.

Not only is Notre Dame the better team and more talented on both sides of the ball, as mentioned previously they have been the dominant team in the series winning nine of the last ten games. 21 points may seem like a large number for a team to cover, however, over the last three games in the series the Fighting Irish have won by 21 or more points in two of those contests including a 32-point victory in one of those games. Notre Dame also has one of the most talented quarterbacks they have had in a long time after Sam Hartman transferred to Notre Dame after playing his last three seasons with the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. Hartman finished last season with 3,701 yards with 38 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are 2-1 ATS in the last three games in the series. As a result, I am taking the Notre Dame Fighting Irish -21 on BookMaker for this matchup on Saturday afternoon.