Lack of fire?
In the aftermath of a devastating loss to the USC Trojans, Notre Dame faced the unenviable task of regaining its momentum against a struggling Navy team. The 1971 matchup between the Irish and the Midshipmen was meant to be a straightforward rebound, a chance to shake off the disappointment and prove that the Irish were still among the elite. Instead, the game became a frustrating reflection of Notre Dame’s struggles, as the team delivered a lackluster and uninspired performance. Despite cruising to a 21-0 victory, the game left fans with more questions than answers. This week’s Throwback Thursday holds special significance for me because Notre Dame is once again facing Navy on October 26th, which happens to be my birthday. To mark the occasion, I decided to flash back to 1971—the year I was born—to revisit this memorable, if imperfect, chapter in Notre Dame football history.
The following excerpt is from the November 30th, 1971 edition of The Scholastic Magazine.
Notre Dame VS Navy
Where do you pick up the pieces after your glittering season has been shattered into worthless pieces by the likes of the SC Trojans? Where do you begin? Why, nowhere else than on the field of battle with the hapless Midshipmen of Annapolis. Only, someone forgot to bring the glue to this game and the Irish could do no better than sweep the pieces under the rug.
The Irish were obviously not “up” for the Middies. The strain of the SC loss and the knowledge that Navy would be a pushover shackled the Irish in an attempt lo rebound from the SC loss. For all apparent purposes Notre Dame’s eleven were just going through the motions in a very mechanical and lackluster win over Navy.
For a while the game tended toward rout proportions. After Navy turned the ball over on a punt to Notre Dame at the Irish 22, the ND offense ground out a 78-yard scoring drive. It was similar to the TD drive that gave the Irish a 7-0 lead over MSU four games ago. Only this time Gulyas, Parker and Huff were the stars of the show. Gulyas capped the march with a 1-yard fourth-down plunge to pay dirt after the Irish had run the Middies’ defense to an apparent early sinking.
The Irish added two quickies in the second quarter to up their lead to a 21-0 count. A 64-yard “grind-it-out” drive ended when Bob Minnix plunged a yard over left tackle at 4:42 of the quarter. On the ensuing kickoff Navy’s George Berry fumbled into the hands of ND’s Ralph Stepaniak at the Middie 36. Once again Minnix closed out a scoring drive on the ground with a 10-yard run around the right side at 3:32 of the quarter.
This was more like it. Two scores in a minute and the Irish looked like they were ready to finish the Middies for good. The crowd was hungry for more points: hungry for an assurance that the loss to SC was only a fluke and that Navy, lowly Navy, didn’t deserve to be on the field with one of the class teams in the nation. The Middies, however, had apparently not read the script. They stubbornly refused to knuckle under at the hands of the Irish.
Notre Dame came close to scoring only once more the entire afternoon. Early in the fourth quarter they moved to the Navy 17, eager to get more points on the board for a better showing. But Greg Hill fumbled in the backfield and Hamrick recovered for Navy on his own 21 to kill the drive.
Notre Dame’s defensive unit had little trouble recording their third whitewash of the year. Navy just wasn’t strong enough to handle Notre Dame. They lacked the quickness of Miami and North Carolina that had brought limited success to those teams in earlier games. Obviously aware that the Irish were vulnerable to the passing attack after learning of SC’s successes with it, the Middies tried to penetrate the Irish secondary for yardage. But the Navy line simply could not give sophomore quarterback Fred Stuvek the time he needed to throw. The Irish front four hounded him all afternoon.
Navy’s only scoring threat came late in the fourth quarter when they drove to ND’s 15. But Stuvek’s fourth down pass to Van Loan was high and wide and the Irish shutout remained intact.
Coach Parseghian was a bit miffed about the team’s performance against Navy. “I thought we played a very good first half today. But,” he added, “we played a very ordinary second half. We made mistakes in the second half that kept us from scoring. I wasn’t satisfied with our offensive performance in the second half.”
It really wasn’t much of a game. The 21-0 win over Navy proved little, if anything at all. People were beginning to doubt, for the first time in many years, the ability of Notre Dame to bounce back. An upset minded Pitt team was next, and the Irish simply did not look ready to play football.
As the Irish prepared for their next test against Pitt, doubts lingered over whether they could rise to the occasion. The victory over Navy, though dominant on paper, lacked the fire and focus needed to instill belief in a meaningful turnaround. Coach Parseghian’s frustrations were evident, particularly in the lack of offensive consistency in the second half. This week’s Throwback Thursday takes us back to that moment in 1971 when, despite the win, Notre Dame’s path forward seemed anything but certain. Would they overcome the challenges ahead, or would the USC loss continue to haunt them? The coming weeks would tell the tale of a team at a crossroads, and this game was a pivotal chapter in their journey.
Cheers & GO IRISH!