If you’re any sort of college football aficionado, Notre Dame vs Army SOUNDS big.

At the very least, it sounds cool. It sounds like old school college football. It sounds legendary – even if you don’t know the meaning of 0-0 in 1946 – and …

It sounds like a Notre Dame blowout if the Irish do this right.

These two first played in 1913 – a 35-13 Notre Dame win – but it’s not like Notre Dame vs Navy, which has taken on a more recent life of its own. The last game against Army was a 44-6 Irish win in San Antonio back in 2016.

Notre Dame has won 14 in a row with the last Army win coming in 1958.

Thiis time around, it’s the second-to-last game for the Irish with just the trip to USC to finish up the regular season. So from the Bronx, New York one week to Los Angeles the next, Notre Dame will be busy before what should probably be a big post-season of College Football Playoff games.

Months in advance of the late November game, here are 5 things you need to know about the 2024 Army football team.

You know the curveball is coming, but can you hit it?

Once again, Army will be the team that doesn’t have the talent, the size, or the ability to hang around with a team like Notre Dame, but if the option style – modified as it may be – is working on the right day … uh oh.

If the Army thing is working, blink, and all of a sudden there’s one minute left in the first half and the score is 7-6 with Army controlling the time of possession in cartoonish fashion.

As will be the case with a ton of Notre Dame games this season, focus will be everything. Start thinking about the USC game for one second, and there’s a problem because …

Of course you won’t be seeing a slew of Army offensive linemen in the NFL, but this year’s line has a bit more bulk and size. Even so, you know how this all works – Army always fills in the gaps and does what it does to get the ground game working.

The line is quick, technical, and won’t make a slew of mistakes.

There wasn’t much of an Army pass rush last season and there likely won’t be anything big happening this year, either. No pass rush, more pressure on the secondary, fewer picks and big plays.

To hammer on the same point here in several different ways, there’s no need for Notre Dame to take a slew of big chances. Take the opportunities that are there against a secondary that will be experenced by this point in the season, but has to find playmaking corners.

The Fighting Irish have to run well.

It’ll be easy to throw on this Knight secondary, but the idea is to rely on the talented offensive line, don’t take any massive chances, and grind and control the clock. Basically, be Army.

The Knights don’t have a lot of bulk on the defensive front and will once again rely on a rotation, but they had problems last year when teams were able to run for 155 yards or more on them.

Yeah, no duh.

Army running the ball is like McDonald’s serving hamburgers. That’s what they do. But it’s actually more than that.

Army can’t just run, it has to really run well to have any sort of a shot. It’ll try to do more throwing, but to blow this out, that’s like McDonald’s serving salad. Army has to run for a gajillion yards, or it’s not happening here.

The Knights were 5-0 when running for 205 yards or more last season, and was 1-6 when it didn’t.

How many times did Army allow more than 205 rushing yards last year? Zero.

There are two ways this could go.

Either Notre Dame’s head is already on a plane to LA, and this is an annoying 17-13 game early in the fourth quarter and the panic kicks in, or it’ll be total annihilation.

Notre Dame won’t mess around here.

It’ll pound away for a few early scores, Army won’t be able to control third downs, and this will likely start to slip away fast.

Notre Dame 41, Army 13
– Army 2024 Preview
5 Things To Know
– Aug 31: Texas A&M
– Sept 7: Northern Illinois
– Sept 14: Purdue
– Sept 21: Miami Univ.
– Sept 28: Louisville
– Oct 12: Stanford
– Oct 19: Georgia Tech
– Oct 26: Navy
– Nov 9: Florida State