2007 Navy vs. Notre Dame

[GreatAmerican]

<p>[Navy’s</a> streak-ending ship finally comes in - USATODAY.com](<a href=“http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/saraceno/2007-11-04-navy-nd_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip]Navy’s”>http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/saraceno/2007-11-04-navy-nd_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip)</p>

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The military service academy’s players were smaller and slower, nary a blue-chipper among them in a roiling sea of anointed gold helmets and grand tradition. On paper, Notre Dame — even the can’t-get-out-of-their-own-way 2007 version — should beat Navy every year from now until they stop building billion-dollar warships. On real grass, it sometimes doesn’t happen that way.</p>

<p>Notre Dame is an educational-institutional giant that used to double as a college football factory. This season, it has cranked out losses, eight in nine games, as if they are widgets. Still, the notion of losing to Navy, which had just lost to Delaware, was unthinkable to those wearing green-tinted shades. Luck surely wouldn’t be needed on this day because the Irish were faster, bigger, stronger and had two weeks to prepare for the game at South Bend, Ind…

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