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Notre Dame placed 20 players on Phil Steele's preseason all-independent team, including 13 on the first team.

BYU was a close second with 18. Army and Navy each had seven.

The usual suspects (Cierre Wood, Manti Te'o, Tyler Eifert) make the first team, as does Notre Dame's entire starting defensive line, even without transfer Aaron Lynch. There are some leaps of faith here, but that's to be expected when picking 52 total players from a pool of just four schools, as many players are unproven. Bennett Jackson and Christian Lombard will likely be first-year starters, and who knows if Davonte Neal will even get the chance to return punts during his first year with the Irish.

Here are all of the Notre Dame players on Steele's preseason all-independent team:

FIRST TEAM

• RB Cierre Wood
• WR Theo Riddick
• TE Tyler Eifert
• C Braxston Cave
• OG Chris Watt
• OT Zack Martin
• DL Stephon Tuitt
• DL Louis Nix
• DL Kapron Lewis-Moore
• LB Manti Te'o
• CB Bennett Jackson
• S Jamoris Slaughter
• KR George Atkinson

SECOND TEAM

• WR TJ Jones
• OT Christian Lombard
• LB Prince Shembo
• S Zeke Motta
• K Kyle Brindza
• P Ben Turk
• PR Davonte Neal

The best Big East rivalry may never be played again, now that expansion has changed the face of college football.

Pitt and West Virginia had made a living hating each other, a bitter rivalry that really transcended the Big East and became one of the most heated in the entire country. Think of rivalry games, and think of the Backyard Brawl.

No future meetings between the two schools have been scheduled, with West Virginia beginning play in the Big 12 in 2012 and Pitt on its way out to the ACC. So what does that leave the Big East in terms of true league rivalries?

The longest running one remaining is Pitt-Syracuse. The two schools first met in 1916 and have played 67 times, including every year since 1955. But alas, those two schools are on their way out of the Big East.

So turn your attention to Cincinnati-Louisville. These two schools first played in 1922 and have met 52 times, with the rivalry starting back up in 1996 after a three-year hiatus. Cincinnati leads the series 30-21-1 and has won the last four.

But that could very well change in 2012.

While there may not be much national cache to the rivalry game between the two programs, all the ingredients are there for the intensity to ratchet up another notch between the two.

• The game already has a nifty trophy. The "Keg of Nails" has been handed out to the winner of this game since 1929, when fraternity chapters on both campuses decided the victorious players were tough as nails. The trophy is a replica of a keg that was used to ship nails and features the logos of both schools and the scores of every game. This rivalry is not merely contained to the Big East, either. The two were also Missouri Valley and Conference USA rivals.
• They are virtually neighbors. In the newly far-flung Big East, that counts for something. The two schools are a mere 106 miles away from each other.
• The two programs are on the rise, with coaches on the rise. Both Louisville coach Charlie Strong and Cincinnati coach Butch Jones head into their third seasons as Big East champions, and it seems pretty clear that neither one is going to stop at one, either. Louisville is expected to contend for the Big East championship this season; Cincinnati may have lost a bunch of starters but there is plenty of talent on the roster. Both coaches have become "hot" names in coaching circles because of their successes, and both have pledged their commitment to their respective programs. You can definitely see this game having pivotal implications in the race for the conference championship in the years to come.

While it is true that both schools have other rivals (Louisville has Kentucky; Cincinnati has Miami (Ohio) and Pitt), nobody says rivalries have to be exclusive. Michigan has Michigan State and Ohio State; Florida has Tennessee, Florida State and Georgia; Florida State has Florida and Miami; Oklahoma has Texas and Oklahoma State; Texas has Oklahoma and Texas A&M.

In the cases of all those rivalries, the greater the stakes, the greater the intensity, the greater the scrutiny. Florida State-Miami has lost a bit of its luster, compared to the 1980s and 1990s. If Cincinnati and Louisville are competing for Big East and national championships every year, the game will grow in national stature.

Here are a few other potential rivalry games in the new Big East:

USF vs. UCF: The War on I-4 has been played four times, with USF winning all meetings. Bulls fans will say this is not a rivalry because they have dominated the series, last played in 2008. There is no question the hatred is there, one of the key components to any good rivalry. USF fans look down at UCF as being a whiny little brother; UCF fans think USF fans are entitled for no apparent reason. Let the rivalry resume!

Temple vs. Rutgers: Having the schools in close proximity to one another certainly helps, along with the natural rivalry between New Jersey and Philadelphia. Rutgers fans will tell you a rivalry can't exist until Temple is on the same playing level. But Temple fans will tell you the Owls are already there, with three straight winning seasons. Watch out for some major recruiting clashes between the two as well.

Navy vs. SMU: There already is a trophy for the winner in this game. It is named after Frank Gansz, who played at Navy and later served on the coaching staffs at SMU and Navy. The trophy was established in 2009, and Navy has won it three times. The two are set to become conference rivals in 2015.

1. The Penn State Board of Trustees released another explanation Monday of its decision to fire Joe Paterno. After board members said in January that he failed to meet a moral obligation to do more when informed of the child-abuse accusations against former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, the board said Monday that Paterno showed a “failure of leadership.” How long before the board issues another explanation in its continuing attempt to deflect responsibility for its failures?

2. Of the 58 seniors in fall sports awarded a $7,500 postgraduate scholarship by the NCAA, only three play FBS football. That means three players out of about 12,000 on FBS rosters had the chops to earn this scholarship. Let’s hope that is less a commentary on the state of FBS academics than it is a compliment to BYU running back Bryan Kariya, Ball State wideout Briggs Orsbon, and Navy guard John Dowd. Make what you will of this: Kariya and Orsbon both have 4.0 GPAs and are married. Dowd, the slacker with the 3.91 GPA, already has won an $18,000 postgraduate grant as a Campbell Award finalist.

3. When I visited Arizona last week, Virginia Tech running backs coach Shane Beamer came through to watch Rich Rodriguez’s Wildcats. Beamer is part of one of my favorite stories regarding coaches making spring visits to other staffs. In spring 2003, as a graduate assistant at Tennessee, Beamer and other Vols coaches visited Texas A&M. Head coach Dennis Franchione welcomed everyone, and then threw Beamer out of the meeting. Why? That fall, the Aggies would play the Hokies, coached by Beamer’s dad Frank.

I had a chance to catch up with Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo about his program's future in the Big East. He already made headlines for his opinion on the future of the Commander-In-Chief's Trophy. Here is a little more of what he had to say.

What impact does moving to the Big East have on you from an on-the-field football perspective?

Ken Niumatalolo: It’s already helped us in recruiting. Academically, we’re still going to recruit the same kids but what this has allowed us to do -- we’ve always sold you can come and play Division I football and get a world-class education but now we can sell that you’re going to play in a BCS conference. Every kid always has the dream of playing football on the highest level. With the guys we’ve recruited, it has opened doors already we wouldn’t have gotten into if the Big East wasn’t a part of that.

Are you looking for a different type of football player now?

KN: We’re trying to find the biggest, fastest guys, good football players that are good people that can fit into the academy. We’re not going to beat Stanford and Northwestern and the Vandys of the world on kids, but we may steal one kid. They can’t sign everybody. We’re hoping maybe we can get one of those guys and if you get a couple of those guys like that, they change your program. In size and speed those are the things you’re looking for. Maybe with us being in this environment will help us. Having said that, I know it’s going to be hard to compete in the Big East on a week in and week out basis. I was just concerned about the other side of it, where do we go? I understand what’s going to happen. We’ve played very good football programs -- Ohio State, South Carolina and people like that. But we didn’t play them every week. I don’t know if the guys we’re recruiting are going to be bigger and faster. We think it’s going to get us into those homes more. We know we’ve got to try our best, but they’re going to be long years in the Big East. We have to make sure we can be as competitive as we can be.

You mention that grind, which is something that you guys haven’t had to do.

KN: Well, really every game that we play is a grind. Everybody that we play is bigger than us. Delaware is bigger than us. We play I-AA teams that are bigger than we are. We’ll try our best to get up to caliber but continue to recruit the same type of kids. I don’t want to compromise who we are. We’re not trying to lower academic requirements. I feel like there are enough good football players around the country that have good enough grades to get into the academy. We’re going to recruit nationally. Most of these schools might recruit regionally. Maybe we’ll be ready for the grind. The grind of the academy allows us to compete right now. If it wasn’t for the grind of the academy, the lives that they live, academic requirements -- we have some tough-minded kids here. Hopefully we can get a little better player, take them through the process, toughen them up for the grind, and we’ll see what happens.

What is your No. 1 concern with the move?

KN: The preparation factor. We need a couple more strength coaches. We’ve never had a full time recruiting coordinator. We’ve had a recruiting coordinator, but he’s also a part-time coach. We’ve never had a football operations guy. So things like that I’m thinking we have to do like all the other BCS programs have so our football coaches can concentrate on coaching. We’ve had some success here in the past. I don’t think we need to reinvent the wheel but we have to refine our skills. Where can we improve, how can we be better? I’m in discussion with our athletic director to improve our facilities. Those are the ways I’m thinking about to help us compete. What we do from an offensive and defensive standpoint will give us a chance to compete. If we go into that league and run a conventional offense, it would be very difficult for us to compete.

What can you take away from what Air Force has done in a conference, and what did not work for Army in Conference USA?

KN: We looked at both situations …. The thing Air Force was done when Fisher [DeBerry] came or even before that, they got an offense that fit them. They understood who they were; they ran the option and didn’t care about what was the trend of the day. They did something that gave them a chance. They were strong enough in who they were and they believed in it. They run a 3-4 scheme (on defense), just have to have one big guy at the nose and the rest can be more outside linebacker type guys. Size-wise it gave them a chance to compete on defense.

What happened to Navy and Army, both ran option but succumbed to public pressure -- we need to throw the football. Both went and got conventional pro-style coaches who are great coaches but quickly realized the academies are different. If anything can be taken away from Air Force, I commend them and applaud them for being strong in who they are, and saying this is what allows us to win. They stayed true to their schemes. They tweaked it and so will we, but the core of who they are in the option still remains in place and that has allowed them to have a foundation. … I’m looking more toward the future, not looking at what Army did with C-USA. Looking ahead that landscape is going to change. The signs are all over the place. I wish things would stay the same. We love being independent. It was a perfect match for us. But before we get caught outside without any shelter, we wanted to make sure we protected ourselves.

What is the ultimate goal as members of the Big East?

KN: Obviously we always want to win. As a team if your goal isn’t to win a conference championship, you shouldn’t go into a conference. But I’m realistic. If we happen to go 7-5 and get to a bowl game, we should have a parade because that’s going to be hard to do. I understand better than anybody how difficult that’s going to be. So you always start with your goals, to shoot for the stars, be a competitor and always do your best.

Our Mark Schlabach took another crack at his way-too early top 25 today. In response, we'll try again to rank Notre Dame's 2012 opponents.

1. USC (Nov. 24, away): Virtually every early outlook has the Trojans slated as the preseason No. 1 or No. 2 team, and rightfully so. Matt Barkley enters 2012 as the Heisman front-runner and USC will return to the familiar position of having the target on its back throughout the season.

2. Oklahoma (Oct. 27, away): Considering Notre Dame is the only current official, penned-in game that is absolutely going to happen for the Big 12 favorites next season, I'd imagine the Sooners would get up for that.

3. Michigan State (Sept. 15, away): A growing defense will keep Sparty plowing ahead in Year 6 of the Mark Dantonio era, which may just begin with MSU as the Big Ten favorite.

4. Michigan (Sept. 22, home): A number of early polls suggest Michigan as the leading Big Ten contender, but I think some of its losses on defense will be tough to replace. Nonetheless, any team with Denard Robinson under center has a chance to make big things happen, as Notre Dame fans are all too aware of.

5. Stanford (Oct. 13, home): Who needs Andrew Luck when you have that much time in the pocket? Throw anyone under center behind that offensive line and he'll have all the time he needs to make something happen.

6. Miami (Oct. 6, Chicago): The Hurricanes make the biggest jump from the last time we looked at the Irish's opponents. An experienced defense and a great recruiting year for Al Golden suggest this program is back on the rise, pending NCAA sanctions.

7. BYU (Oct. 20, home): I said it before and I'll say it again: If Riley Nelson has a big year, watch out.

8. Purdue (Sept. 8, home): This contest scares me if I'm an Irish fan. First game back from what is sure to be an exhausting season-opening trip in Dublin, with a hungry in-state rival waiting for them and looking to build on momentum following a strong 2011 finish and weak 2012 opener (Eastern Kentucky).

9. Wake Forest (Nov. 17, home): Jim Grobe teams usually perform better than they should, but the Deacs must recover from a weak finish in 2011.

10. Boston College (Nov. 10, away): No more Luke Kuechly means happier offenses everywhere. The Eagles just hope that means theirs, too, which will be in its first year under coordinator Doug Martin.

11. Navy (Sept. 1, Dublin): The Midshipmen have a brutal start to the 2012 schedule, facing the Irish in Dublin before going to Happy Valley to face Penn State, but things get easier afterward. Can they put the awful luck of 2011 behind them and beat the beatable opponents?

12. Pitt (Nov. 3, home): Paul Chryst seems like the right fit, but asking him to lift the Panthers out of their underachieving ways in Year 1 is a bit much.

Ivan Maisel and Beano Cook discuss the historical perspective of signing day, the future of Rutgers and Navy joining the Big East.

Navy announced Tuesday it would become a football-only member of the Big East in 2015, but a new conference slate won't affect its rivalry with Notre Dame.

The Midshipmen will continue to meet the Irish every year, along with Army and Air Force.

Navy and Notre Dame is the longest, continuous intersectional matchup in FBS football, having gone on every year since 1927.

"It is important to the U.S. Naval Academy, as a premier source for producing the next generation of Naval and Marine Corps officers, that Navy football remains relevant, as well as highly visible on the national stage," Naval Academy Superintendent Vice Admiral Michael Miller said in a statement. "This has proven to be the case over the last decade and it will perpetuate itself with this new affiliation."

Navy beat Notre Dame three out of four years from 2007-10 before this past fall, when the Irish routed the Midshipmen, 56-14. Before 2007, Notre Dame had beaten Navy 43 straight times.

The teams will open next season in Ireland.

For over 100 years, Navy has gone it alone, making football independence work.

The Midshipmen succeeded where so many others could not, because, quite simply — they have a national brand, a national following, and a history that few programs can match. But the shifting winds of collegiate athletics have made even the strongest of independents weak in the knees.

Facing an uncertain future, scheduling restrictions and the prospect of being left on the sidelines, Navy has embarked on a program-changing course with its entry into the Big East beginning in 2015. There is a chance Navy will make conference affiliation work the way Air Force has in the Mountain West. There is a chance conference affiliation will fail, the way it did with Army in Conference USA.

Nobody is quite sure how this new era will work out, for Navy or the Big East. Both are taking incredible risks in their respective makeovers, hoping the convenience of joining forces will allow them both to be players in the future.

"We feel really strongly that it's clear to us the future of college football is in a conference, and that's the bottom line," Navy athletic director Chet Gladchuk said in a conference call Tuesday. "There's strength in numbers, there's strength in the market, strength in branding, strength in resources a conference can bring to the table."

Strength and the Big East do not exactly go together these days. The long-tortured season of expansion has left the Big East without founding members Syracuse, Pitt and West Virginia, in a court battle against the said Mountaineers, and in the middle of its second league makeover.

Boise State, SMU, San Diego State, Houston, UCF and SMU come on board in 2013, and commissioner John Marinatto reiterated Tuesday that the league plans on adding one more program to get to 12. The buyout for any departing team has now increased from $5 million to $10 million for current members, and goes into effect for new members once they join the conference. So yes, that means teams like Boise State or Navy could back out at any time and face no financial penalty.

Meanwhile, there are no answers about the future of the BCS and whether automatic qualifying status will still apply. None of that screams "strength." But this is not a decision Navy came to hastily.

In fact, conference affiliation has been kicked around for about 10 years at the Naval Academy. The expansion craze of the last two years has shifted perspective. Several studies were done, meetings were held. Navy looked at what Air Force and Army did with conference affiliation. It weighed the pros and cons.

Gladchuk clearly explained why Navy would make such a move now, and everything he said made sense.

There are scheduling concerns as an independent. A shift to nine-game conference schedules mean fewer windows for independents to get games, particularly in October and November. Bowl opportunities are sure to change in the next BCS cycle. The money is shifting toward teams in major conferences as well, creating even more disparity between the haves and the have nots. The idea that the Big East has reconfigured itself, increased its buyout for departing members and is up for a television renegotiation allowed Navy to feel now was the right time to make this decision.

"If this had happened at any other time, I don't know that I'd be for it," Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo said. "In college sports, there's a hurricane getting ready to come and those that are in homes don't worry about it. It's the people on the outside looking in that need a place for refuge. That's why I was on board with Chet from the standpoint it's been great for us being independent, but with the college landscape changing we're out in the open trying to fend for ourselves. We feel we found a great home in the Big East for us."

There is no doubt the Big East and Navy feel they need each other. In adding Navy, the Big East gets to expand its media footprint and add a program that has been to eight bowl games in the last nine years. It has a national reach far larger than anybody left in the conference. In the Big East, Navy feels it gets security, the ability to expand its brand and an opportunity to put itself on better financial footing.

The risk is much greater for Navy, however.

"I'm not sure what's going to happen, but we feel like for us, this is road we need to go," Niumatalolo said. "We have to up our recruiting, up our facilities without compromising ourselves as an institution. As we maintain those parts of our mission with allowing us to compete at this level, we feel like we can do it. Are we biting off more than we can chew? I don't know, but we're excited about what the Big East has to offer."

It's official: Navy will join the Big East in football only beginning with the 2015 season.

The academy and the conference have agreed to a three-year phase-in period, where a scheduling partnership will be created leading up to a full schedule of eight games in 2015. During that period, Navy will continue its current television partnership with CBS and postseason bowls. However, Navy will be included in all future television, marketing, promotion, and bowl negotiations by the Big East effective immediately.

Here are two statements. Stay tuned for more following a conference call later this afternoon.

“After careful consideration, we believe this affiliation to be in the best interests of the Naval Academy, our athletic programs and the Brigade of Midshipmen," said Naval Academy Superintendent Vice Admiral Michael Miller, USN. "While our independent status has served Navy football well to date, Big East conference affiliation will help ensure our future scholar-athletes and athletic programs remain competitive at the highest levels for the foreseeable future.”

“When people look back, they will mark this as a truly historic day for the Big East Conference,” said Commissioner John Marinatto. “America’s first national football conference is adding a program with true national appeal. Navy’s decision to make the Big East its first football conference home after over 100 years of independence demonstrates the value of our new expansion model and the long-term viability of our football product. The Big East is truly proud to be associated with one of the most prestigious academic institutions in the country and one of the most storied programs in college football.”

The addition of Navy would bring the Big East up to 11 football-playing members, with the hopes of adding one more. Navy has been a football independent since it began playing the sport in 1879. Of the three service academies, Army would be the only one remaining as an independent.

One other important note: Navy will continue to play Army, Air Force and Notre Dame as part of its schedule.

With 2011 in the rearview mirror, here is an early look at Notre Dame's 2012 opponents, with the game date and site in parantheses.

1. USC (Nov. 24, away): Matt Barkley's return makes the Trojans a trendy preseason national title pick and Barkley a likely preseason Heisman frontrunner. They host the Irish in the regular-season finale, and how sweet it would be for Notre Dame should they knock their rivals off with the highest stakes on the line.

2. Oklahoma (Oct. 27, away): Like the Trojans, the Sooners return their prized quarterback (Landry Jones) and will, at the very least, enter 2012 as the Big 12 favorite.

3. Michigan State (Sept. 15, away): Kirk Cousins and Keshawn Martin are gone, but the Spartans return four offensive linemen and plenty of production on the defensive side of the ball as they go for a third-straight 11-win season.

4. Michigan (Sept. 22, home): Denard Robinson and several key skill players likely return, but the Wolverines lose a lot on each line and will rely on several young players to fill the void.

5. Stanford (Oct. 13, home): Perhaps the biggest mystery entering 2012. We just don't know how much this team will drop off following the likely loss of Andrew Luck. Time will tell.

6. BYU (Oct. 20, home): Another wild card. Much will depend on the growth of dual-threat QB Riley Nelson and the Cougars' offense.

7. Purdue (Sept. 8, home): The Boilermakers finished 2011 with back-to-back wins for the first time this season and have a bit of momentum under Danny Hope. Some see them as a darkhorse Leaders Division contender in 2012.

8. Miami (Oct. 6, Chicago): The Hurricanes will likely be led by a defense that returns eight starters for Al Golden's second year.

9. Wake Forest (Nov. 17, home): Quarterback Tanner Price is back, but the Demon Deacons must eliminate the mistakes that cost them five of their final six games and two assistants their jobs.

10. Boston College (Nov. 10, away): The Eagles got better as the season went on and hope new offensive coordinator Doug Martin can bring the unit up to speed with the defense, which loses Luke Kuechly.

11. Navy (Sept. 1, Dublin): Can Trey Miller build off 2011, when he was forced in midseason for the injured Kriss Proctor?

12. Pitt (Nov. 3, home): New coach Paul Chryst will have his work cut out for him on a team with quarterback, protection and, at least in the past calendar year, coaching issues.

The Good: Notre Dame took whatever remaining frustrations it had out on the field Saturday, beating Navy 56-14. The win, for now, quelled all the commotion about a potentially divided locker room, and it came after Navy had beaten the Irish in three of the previous four years.

The Bad: Two more turnovers -- albeit one in garbage time -- couldn't have been pleasing to Brian Kelly. One was self-inflicted, as Tommy Rees' pass in the flat in the second quarter was dropped, recovered by Navy and eventually reviewed and ruled a fumble. Rees tossed a fourth-quarter interception as well, after the game was out of hand.

The Ugly: We know Navy's an option team, and we know it had a quarterback making its first career start, but 33 passing yards? That's all? You'd think the number would be a little higher given that the Midshipmen were playing from behind much of the game, but the Irish defense came to play Saturday.

Turning point: Rees found Michael Floyd for a 56-yard touchdown pass on the first play of the Irish's fourth drive, making it 21-7 after Navy had just scored. Any thoughts fans had of this becoming a close game died right then and there, as the Irish were well on their way to a rout.

Call of the day: Walk-on special-teams ace Chris Salvi was named captain, and he was nearly in tears at the Friday night pep rally. Kelly always talks about finding players who love to play the game no matter what, and having someone like Salvi lead the Irish after a drama-filled 48 hours sent the right message.

Next up: Notre Dame travels to Winston-Salem, N.C., to play Wake Forest in what will be the first of three consecutive games against ACC opponents. The Demon Deacons are coming off a 49-24 loss to North Carolina, but did take down Florida State this season.

Everyone hates Mondays -- except for Halloween. Here, we spice things up with a spooky look at Notre Dame's season and what remains of it as the calendar turns toward November.

Haunted House: We've been calling it the Big House of Horrors here for quite some time, so it has to be Michigan, right? Notre Dame has lost its past three games in Ann Arbor, including a 38-0 defeat in 2007. That may actually be better than losing on last-second touchdowns, the way the Irish have in their previous two trips to Michigan Stadium.

Scary movie: The Irish's opener was straight out of a horror flick. The lights came on, the sun went down and nearly three hours of thunderstorms rained on Notre Dame fans' parade, culminating in a five-hour, 59-minute contest that everyone in South Bend would like to forget. Five turnovers and a quarterback change plagued the Irish in a 23-20 Week 1 loss to South Florida.

Boo: Notre Dame has been relatively lucky injury-wise, except on the defensive line. There, senior end Ethan Johnson (sprained right ankle) hasn't played since the first snap Oct. 1 at Purdue and fellow senior Kapron Lewis-Moore (knee) is gone for the year. The third season-opening starter, nose guard Sean Cwynar, missed two games and has been limited much of the season because of a broken right hand, though he is now at full-strength and no longer has to play with a club on it.

Witchcraft: These were Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo's words following his team's 56-14 loss Saturday: "We tried to mis-direction him, tried to get him lost, tried to do some different things with eyes and that kid was dialed in. Like I said, we tried a lot of different blocking schemes and we couldn't get him blocked." He was talking about Manti Te'o, who has continued to puzzle offenses all season long. His 82 tackles, 11 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks all lead the Irish.

Monster Mash: The Irish's Nov. 26 game at Stanford will be, if nothing else, a great chance to see where this team stacks up with the nation's elite. Stanford could be playing for a spot in the BCS title game then. And who knows, given all of the upsets that have happened the past two weeks -- maybe there's a shot, albeit a very slim one, that an 8-3 Notre Dame team is playing for a potential BCS bowl bid as well.

1. Winning is the best medicine of all: This week will be a lot easier for everyone associated with the Notre Dame football program following a 42-point win against a team that beat it three times in the previous four years. The USC loss is in the rearview mirror and, at least at the moment, the fallout from Brian Kelly's comments Thursday seems to have come and gone, with the Irish responding in convincing fashion Saturday. Now comes the ACC portion of the schedule, with Wake Forest, Maryland and Boston College up next.

2. The Irish have done a solid job against the option: Notre Dame's defense put on a very impressive performance against the nation's third-ranked rushing team Saturday, holding Navy to 196 yards on the ground. To put that in perspective, the Midshipmen averaged 325.14 rushing yards per game entering Saturday. The defense's performance forced a pair of turnovers against an Air Force offense that chunked up plenty of yards but had little to show for it against the Irish's first-team. Notre Dame has come a long way from its eighth game of last year, a 35-17 loss to Navy that featured 367 rushing yards from the Midshipmen.

3. Floyd will get his: Games 7 and 8 looked an awful lot like Games 4 and 5, didn't they? At Pitt five weeks ago, Michael Floyd was held to four catches for 27 yards before tallying 12 catches for 137 yards a week later at Purdue. Last week Floyd had four catches for 28 yards, responding Saturday with a six-catch, 121-yard performance in which he scored a rushing and a receiving touchdown. Floyd can be held in check every now and then, but there is no key to stopping him on a consistent basis.

4. Jonas Gray is having himself quite the farewell tour: Seriously, Gray didn't have a single career touchdown before Week 4 at Pitt. He's scored in every game since, including three Saturday, giving him eight touchdowns for the season to tie Cierre Wood for the lead among Irish backs and receivers. Gray's 12-carry, 69-yard effort Saturday actually lowered his yards per carry average from 8.5 to 8, though the senior likely isn't complaining.

A return to the win column means a return of more helmet stickers for all, as the Irish routed Navy 56-14.

Michael Floyd: The senior rebounded from a sub-par performance against USC, eclipsing the 100-yard mark in the first half and even adding the first rushing touchdown of his career, albeit on a pass play (that was officially ruled a lateral). Floyd finished with six catches for 121 yards and had a receiving touchdown as well.

Jonas Gray: Hard to believe the senior did not have a single career touchdown before Week 4 at Pitt. He scored in that game and in the four since, including a three-touchdown performance Saturday, which actually hurt his yards per carry average since they were all from short-range. Gray got the start and didn't disappoint, rushing for 69 yards on 12 carries.

Cierre Wood: We can't forget the junior, who bounced back from a rough showing against USC by going for 66 yards on 11 carries, scoring twice. The run game looked like it did in the four weeks before facing the Trojans, with lots of open space to work with.

Manti Te'o: On the first two drives alone, Te'o finished with seven tackles. His final tally was a game-high 13 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss and 0.5 sacks. Who knew the junior linebacker — among the finalists for seemingly every national defensive award — had another level to take his game to?

Harrison Smith: His four tackles and one break-up don't make too big of a dent in the box score, but the fifth-year safety and lone season captain rallied the team in a drama-filled 48 hours leading up to the game. He keyed a defense that held Navy's rushing attack to more than 100 yards below what was third-best in the nation entering the game (325.14 yards per game).

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Harrison Smith does not have a Twitter account, which at this point may put him in the minority among college football players.

But the fifth-year captain did not need to be a social media buff to catch wind of the chatter among Notre Dame players Thursday night following controversial remarks by coach Brian Kelly.

"It was kind of a full-range, I would say," Smith said of the team's temperature. "I don't remember like specifics, but there was definitely a full-range. Everybody's human at the end of the day, so you're gonna get that."

The team had a hashing-out session Friday, one that included an apology from Kelly. On Saturday, the Irish exorcised their demons against a Navy team that had its number in recent years, beating the Midshipmen 56-14.

It was no coincidence.

1"I honestly think it had a big impact on it," Smith said. "Not that it went into the gameplan or went into the scheme or anything. But I think it just kind of showed that we're all in this together, that we all play for each other and for Notre Dame. It's not about individuals."

Another of the defensive leaders, Manti Te'o, appeared to play with a bigger chip on his shoulder than usual, finishing with a game-high 13 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss and 0.5 sacks.

Te'o, who was not available for postgame interviews, made seven of those tackles on Navy's first two offensive possessions, which ended with a missed field goal and a punt.

The Irish offense scored touchdowns on five of their first six possessions, never leaving the Midshipmen a chance to play catch-up.

"Well, I can tell you that, you know, as a family, we all have good days and bad days," Kelly said. "And you work through that as a family. And we had to work through some things this week. But at the end, like all families, if there's a disagreement, if there's any kind of need to communicate, it needs to get done and we did that. We communicated with each other as a team and as a family, and you saw it today. You saw a team that played together.

"I told our team that's the best collection of plays relative to all 11 players playing together. It was part and parcel of all of those things; it was a family coming together. And like I said, those specifics I won't get into, those are family matters. But we're certainly pleased by the way our guys played together today."

Forty-eight hours earlier Kelly, in his second year at Notre Dame, made comments about the players he recruited that rubbed many of the upperclassmen the wrong way. Twitter became an outlet for players past and present to make their voices heard, and on Friday they made their opinions clear in person.

"There was nothing in particular," Jonas Gray said of what the players needed to hear from Kelly. "We just wanted to make sure that he was aware of how we were feeling and I think that he was. And that was pretty much it. He did a great job of handling it, our team did a great job of handling the whole situation. We're definitely unified from the top to the bottom."

"We had some things we needed to hash out," Gray added later. "We got that across to Coach Kelly and he did a great job of hearing us out and we just went from there."

Gray, making his first start of the season and second of his career, rushed for 69 yards on just 12 carries and scored three touchdowns, helping to resurrect a run game that was non-existent for much of last week's game against USC.

Cierre Wood added 66 yards on 11 carries and a pair of touchdowns himself. The Irish finished with seven rushing touchdowns, their most in one game in 19 years.

And then there's Chris Salvi, a walk-on special teams ace chosen as a game captain, who became emotional Friday night at the team's pep rally before joining season captain Smith on the pregame walk to the coin toss Saturday.

"That was just awesome, that's the only way I can describe that," Smith said. "Nobody deserves that more than Chris Salvi does. That guy brings it every day, everything he does. And his love for not only the game and for the team but for this university is something that's just awesome."

Salvi embodied that passion for the game Kelly so often talks about looking for in his players, who cleared up any confusion hours before the walk-on was named their leader Friday. They followed the next day by channeling their emotions to rout a team it lost to in three of the previous four years.

"I mean, I think any time you're in a business like we are, where you're around your guys all the time, that you need to be honest," Kelly said. "You need to be communicating, and that occurred. And like I said, those family matters, we've all been in them. The most important thing is what happens, and what happened today was our football team played together and played great football."