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Notre Dame defensive backs coach Corwin Brown, who is also an associate head coach and co-defensive coordinator, did not appreciate Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo's assessment of why the Midshipmen had success on offense in last Saturday's 23-21 victory at Notre Dame Stadium.
Navy never trailed in their second win in three years over Notre Dame, and the Midshipmen ran for 348 yards.
"He didn't want something to be misconstrued, and he said it, regarding how we prepared and what we prepared to do," Brown said Wednesday. "I'm going to tell you this, we came out in the second half, minus one mess up, they don't get anything. But whether you think it's the right thing to say or not, in this profession and all the classy guys I watched and played under and studied, they would never say a thing like that. To say that we didn't prepare well or we didn't have a good game plan, that's crazy."
Niumatalolo, whose team was held to 178 rushing yards in last season's loss to Notre Dame, did try to soften what he said about the Irish's defense after Saturday's game.
"I think the one thing that helped us, and I really hope this doesn't come across wrong, but I think the thing that helped us this year was last year because we knew that they'd line up the same way," Niumatalolo said. "We didn't execute very well last year, and coming into this year they did a great job against us last year defensively, so we had a pretty good clue that they were going to come back and do the same things as they did last year, and we had a few things. We were expecting that same defense that we saw last year.
"But it was still a grind. I mean, they're still a great defense, and we thought we had some alignments in some of our formations. But it was a grind to get yardage against them even though we thought we had some numbers advantages in certain formations."
Brown also attacked the way Navy plays on offense. He criticized the Midshipmen's blocking style and was angry about the hit cornerback Robert Blanton took on Navy's 24th play of the game, according to Brown.
Navy's Nick Henderson was penalized for a personal foul on the play, costing the Midshipmen five yards.
"What I think is crazy is a lack of imagination for what they do. I don't ever get up here and talk about the illegal cut blocks. They hit (linebacker Brian Smith) illegally last year and put him out. The hit on (Blanton) was one of the most malicious plays I've ever seen since I've been playing. I called him about it. I told him I thought it was very poor. He probably thought I called because we lost. I was going to say something to him before the game, but I didn't. Very malicious. And in this game, which we are supposed to be playing for our kids and we are working for our kids, you don't let your players do something like that. "
When asked about what his conversation with Niumatalolo was like, Brown said he didn't want to get into that.
"To me, if you have to say something and preface it by saying I hope this is not misconstrued or taken the wrong way, it's probably going to be taken the wrong way. So don't say it," Brown said. "In this profession, everybody game plans well."
Brown wouldn't say if he felt Niumatalolo was being malicious when he commented on the Irish's defensive game plan.
"I don't know him that well," Brown said. "I just know I wouldn't do something like that, and I'm not the best person in the world."
Notre Dame will play Navy next season on Oct. 23 at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J.
And Brown had one word when asked if he was looking forward to that meeting.
"Absolutely," Brown said.
