Dame Game

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Great spectacle. Pity about the game.Yesterday, Notre Dame and Navy served up football -- American style. They brought out cheerleaders, marching bands, mascots and two squads filled with enough players to fill a few Irish villages.But in the end, all they could produce in front of 38,651 spectators at Croke Park was the great American blowout: Notre Dame 54, Navy 27.It was Notre Dame's 33rd straight victory over Navy, the longest winning streak in NCAA history. The 19th-ranked Fighting Irish -- rushed for 303 yards and forced three turnovers to improve to 5-2 and keep alive their hopes for a major bowl berth.

If Navy athletic director Jack Lengyel is successful in his negotiations, the Midshipmen could play their two biggest football games -- against Army and Notre Dame -- in the Baltimore-Washington area in the 1998 season.Lengyel already has initiated talks with Maryland Stadium Authority chairman John Moag about the possibility of playing Notre Dame at the new football stadium to be constructed at Camden Yards.Yesterday, Lengyel confirmed a report by the Washington Post that he met with Washington Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke two weeks ago about playing the Army-Navy game in 1998 at the 78,600-seat stadium to be built near Landover.

The Maryland Stadium Authority has begun negotiations with the Naval Academy in an effort to hold the 1998 Navy-Notre Dame game at the football stadium to be constructed at Camden Yards.John Moag, chairman of the Maryland Stadium Authority, met last week with Navy athletic director Jack Lengyel to outline the city's proposal."[Moag] made a nice presentation, but we didn't discuss all the details," Lengyel said yesterday."We always have a few cities interested when we're scheduled to be the home team against Notre Dame.

After losses to Top 25 teams Louisville and Notre Dame ended its bowl ambitions, Navy has changed its focus to trying to complete its first winning season in 11 years.The Mids (4-4) now will play teams of their own caliber, beginning tomorrow against Vanderbilt (3-5) in Nashville, Tenn. Navy then will play host to Southern Methodist before playing Army at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on Dec. 4."Our goal now is to win our last three games," said junior linebacker Shane Halloran, who had 17 tackles in the 58-27 loss to Notre Dame on Oct. 30, when the Mids surprisingly led at the half, 24-17.

Forty-eight hours and counting. . .Florida State coach Bobby Bowden says, "I'll be surprised if more than three points separate the teams" while discussing Saturday's showdown between his No. 1 Seminoles and second-ranked Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind.Then he quickly indicates that he thinks it'll be a lot closer than that. Asked if he thinks the 1:35 p.m. matchup on NBC has a chance of living up to its hype and proving a classic, he replied, "It's certainly got a chance. I think it can be right up there with the Michigan State-Notre Dame game of 1966 or the Army-Notre Dame of 1946."

When Florida State meets Notre Dame on Saturday, it will mark the 28th time in NCAA history that a No. 1-ranked team has tangled with a No. 2-ranked team.Notre Dame has played in exactly one-third of those games. Though this will only be Florida State's second such matchup, it will be the Seminoles' third "Game of the Century" in as many years.Notre Dame and Florida State know about big games, enough to know this one in many ways is huge."I've had vibes on how big this game is, going back since we got by Miami, and they got by Southern Cal," Florida State coach Bobby Bowden said.

Navy coach George Chaump wiped a fake tear from his eye and tried to hide a smirk.He had listened to Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz recall the close friendship they enjoyed as assistant coaches under Woody Hayes at Ohio State in 1968, sharing car rides and sandwiches at McDonald's and ending their day in their favorite Columbus piano bar.Then he heard Holtz praise Navy's controlled passing game and aggressive defense that had proved so troublesome to the unbeaten...

ANNAPOLIS -- Annually, almost without fail, a fairly large group of truth-seekers shows up at the Naval Academy the week of the Notre Dame game almost in a state of mourning."

Joe Paterno had to chuckle at the suggestion. His Penn State team is playing Notre Dame before 96,500 tailgaters and half the nation's TV football fans Saturday and someone wanted to know if the fact the Irish got upset last week by Tennessee took some of the luster off the game."

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- As a former captain of the Navy football team, Rear Adm. Thomas C. Lynch, now superintendent at the Naval Academy, looked forward to each year's game against Notre Dame."