Yahoo Sports’ Caroline Fenton, Jason Fitz & Adam Breneman look ahead to this Saturday's clash between two teams who have real chances of qualifying for the College Football Playoff. Hear the full conversation on the “College Football Power Hour” podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.

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Video Transcript

Notre Dame.

Navy is the game of the weekend.

No, no, none of this sec talk, none of this sec.

The Notre Dame is the game of the weekend.

This game has, has serious playoff implications serious for both teams too for both teams.

Uh, Notre Dame needs to win out to make the playoff.

Navy has a chance to win the A AC probably the favorite right now to win the A AC right up there with Army.

And if Boise State loses one of those games in the Mountain West champ to UN LV, then the A AC champs got a chance to be the, the automatic seed for the, for the group of five teams.

So this game is huge.

The world gets to see what I see calling these Navy games now.

And Notre Dame's kind of been quiet since the northern Illinois loss and not a lot of people talking about them.

They handle Louisville but they haven't played anyone near the top 25.

Uh, now, one thing is for certain, Notre Dame has not seen an offense like what Navy will do.

Uh, this is not your grandparents, naval Academy, this is Navy football that throws the football around through for three touchdowns against Charlotte.

Their quarterback, Blake Horvath is an unreal player.

Uh, he, the, you guys will see him play.

He's so gritty and tough and takes hits and throws the ball and commands that offense.

The Navy's defense is really good.

It's a must win for, for Notre Dame, I mean, Notre Dame has to win this game, but Navy is going to be one of the toughest opponents that they see this season.

And so it'll be a fun one to watch.

II, I have a feeling this game is gonna be pretty tight and I don't think Marcus Freeman feels is like this, this ain't a game.

Notre Dame is like we're gonna walk all over Navy.

This is gonna be a close game.

Yeah.

And by the way, this game should be tight because I think Navy is a lot better than people realize.

And you mentioned, I mean, Navy just the amount of times it feels like their quarterback is getting just hammered and then still gets rid of the ball like it is, it's delightful to watch.

There's a toughness to this Navy football team but an openness to the offense.

I I, you're right, the world is going to discover the look, I'm not going to call this air raid, but the world's, the world's gonna discover that they are capable of throwing the ball all over the field.

It's a real, real challenge.

For Notre Dame and Navy deserves this respect.

I, like I said it last week, I, I think it's dumb.

The game day didn't go to this game.

I don't care that it's at the Meal lands or it's in New York.

I should say.

I don't care, I don't care what stadium it's in this one to me, feels like it hits different and it's a real chance for the service academies to shine.

I love that pick by you.

Yeah, I don't disagree with you.

But if I can, you know, poop on this party a little bit, Temple has the 84th ranked defense in college football.

Memphis has the 59th UAB, the 91st Air Force, the 85th and Charlotte the 110th.

Those are all the teams that Navy has beaten.

Notre Dame has the 10th ranked total defense in college football.

It's crazy how you came prepared just to trash on Navy in this segment.

I would never trash on our servicemen and women.

We got out of this story that Caroline's anti-american.

That's what we just figured out like that's fine.

She, she gave her receipts too on the, on the It's a good point.

They have not played many teams, which is why I'm excited to see what happens.

I think, I think, I think Notre Dame will struggle but it is a fair point.

They haven't played the toughest slate of games and neither had Indiana to be fair and then they dropped 60 on Nebraska.

So if Navy can do the same thing, then that color me impressed.

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