This is the Depth Dossier: the Navy Midshipmen, Week 9.

Navy spent thirty minutes making Notre Dame look ordinary, and then spent thirty minutes getting run off the field, and that's how you lose by twenty-two in a game you led late in the first half.

The final was Notre Dame 35, Navy 13, but that score hides what actually happened. Navy led 13 to 7 inside the final two minutes of the first half. Then running back Nolan James Junior broke a 52-yard touchdown run with 55 seconds left, and Notre Dame took a 14 to 13 lead into the break. Navy never got it back, managing just 56 total yards the rest of the game while the Irish scored on three straight second-half possessions. Running back Jackson Gutierrez carried the ball 28 times for 110 yards and a touchdown, but it wasn't enough to stop a 28 to nothing run that closed the game out.

Here's what made the first half so stunning. Navy held the ball for over 23 minutes in the opening thirty, which meant Notre Dame only got three offensive possessions in that stretch. That's almost unheard of in a Notre Dame game. And Navy's ground game backed it up, finishing with 212 yards on 48 carries against a defense that came in ranked third in the country against the run. That's more than three times what Notre Dame had been allowing. On paper, this matchup should not have looked like that.

But explosive plays decided it instead of all that ball control. James' touchdown runs of 52 and 23 yards were exactly the kind of plays Navy's offense is built to prevent by controlling the clock, and the first one hit just 55 seconds after Navy had taken the lead. In under a minute, Navy went from dominating the game to trailing it, and that gap never closed.

There's also a what-if buried in the second quarter. Offensive lineman Hoke Smith the second drew a holding penalty that wiped out a 64-yard touchdown run by Gutierrez. Instead of a lead that might have been nearly unbreakable, Navy settled for a field goal, and that missed opportunity only looked worse as Notre Dame's big plays piled up.

On defense, linebacker MarcAnthony Parker had a strong day, tying for the team lead with eight tackles and adding a tackle for loss and a pass breakup. It just wasn't enough once Notre Dame's rushing attack took over in the second half.

Now, let's get into the depth chart, because there were no injuries reported this week, so the movement here is mostly about who's earning snaps.

Gutierrez's 110-yard day was his fourth straight 100-yard rushing game. Head coach Brian Newberry specifically praised his toughness and how much his decision-making has improved over the last month. He's clearly the engine of this offense. Behind him, running back Michael Barrow keeps quietly producing, with 65 yards on just 11 carries, nearly six yards a carry, for his fourth straight game with at least 60 yards. Barrow also had good things to say about how the offensive line pushed Notre Dame's front, which is worth noting even after the costly holding call.

At receiver, Luke Hutchinson has moved up into a small role, playing somewhere in the five to ten percent range of snaps. It's a modest step, but notable for a passing game that's barely been part of the conversation all season behind Navy's rushing attack.

The clearest job change came on special teams, where Nolan Bartley is now officially Navy's number one kicker, locking down the job he stepped into last week after the previous arrangement didn't work out.

Looking ahead, the thing to watch next week is whether Navy's offense can find any way to sustain drives after halftime. Fifty-six total yards in a second half is the number that has to get fixed, or it's going to cost them another game they controlled early.

This was the depth dossier. For everything college football, be it depth charts, data or dossiers, head over to C F B Depth dot com. We will be back next week. This was an AI-generated podcast from content developed by real human beings passionate about college football.