Marcus Freeman shares Notre Dame's scout team plan for Navy

Navy is running their option offense as well as they have in years with them still undefeated this season.

With that, Marcus Freeman has to imitate that style again to prepare Notre Dame’s defense for a Top-25 matchup between them and the Midshipmen. That starts with who on their roster would be replicating their quarterback in Blake Horvath on the scout team.

“You’re asking me if (Tyler) Buchner is going to be the scout team quarterback?” Freeman smiled.

“(Buchner’s) going to get some scout team quarterback reps along with Anthony Rezac, who’s been the scout team quarterback ever since CJ (Carr) has been out,” said Freeman in his press conference earlier this week. “So both of those guys will simulate the Navy quarterback.”

Through the 6-0 start at Navy, the offense is posting 44.8 ppg.. That number is fourth-most in the nation behind only Indiana, Miami, and Boise State. That would also be their highest total in school history after several seasons in the past two decades of quality numbers out of the Wing-T.

Horvath is the focus of that as the team’s leading passer and rusher out of the option. When passing, Horvath is 46-72 (63.9%) for 888 yards, 10 touchdowns, and only one interception. Then, when rushing, he has 621 more yards on 79 carries, good for 7.9 a run, for 10 more scores. Add it all up and that’s an average of just over 250 yards per game on his own, good for 13.6 yards a play, and 20 TDs.

The Fighting Irish, though, have these quarterbacks to recreate what Navy is doing. While Rezac is also an option, Buchner is an interesting one as the former starting quarterback for their offense just two seasons ago with some ability as a dual-threat.

Notre Dame also has one of the better units in the country with their defense. Still, with the issues that this attack can present, they’ll have really focused on this scout this week to be best prepared for kickoff tomorrow in New Jersey.