Navy vs. No. 13 Notre Dame college football odds, trends: Irish taking heavy action in Ireland as Sam Hartman's Heisman campaign begins

The 2023 college football season kicks off from Dublin, Ireland, on Saturday afternoon (2:30 p.m. ET) as Navy faces No. 13 Notre Dame, which is the official home side and surely will get most of the fan support. To no surprise, this game is taking by far the most action of any Week Zero matchup with the Fighting Irish three-touchdown favorites on the SportsLine consensus. New starting quarterback Sam Hartman will make his Notre Dame debut. Click here for model picks. 

At BetMGM, 65% of the bets and 76% of the money are on Notre Dame at -20.5. The Irish are taking more spread action overall than any of the 14 teams in action Saturday. At +800 on the moneyline, Navy is taking 73% of the bets and 18% of the money. Over 49.5 points has taken 59% of the bets and 64% of the money.

That total has dropped in the past 24 hours and so have the leans, most likely because rain is expected in Dublin on Saturday morning. It should clear in the afternoon before raining again in the evening. This game kicks off at 7:30 p.m. local time. The low is expected to be around 52 degrees with winds WNW at 10-15 mph.

Sister-site 247Sports ranked Hartman as the No. 7 transfer in the portal from the past offseason, and that ranking may have been low. He was a stellar quarterback at Wake Forest and had an ACC-record 110 touchdown passes, which ranks in the top 20 in FBS history. Hartman also threw for the second-most yards in ACC history with 12,967, which also ranks in the top 20 in FBS history. Hartman ended his Wake career with 34 consecutive games in which he was responsible for a touchdown, the active FBS record.

DraftKings gives Hartman over/under season totals of 2900.5 passing yards and 26.5 TD passes – he threw for 3,701 yards and 38 TDs in 2022. Notre Dame likely will not be as pass-happy as the Demon Deacons were, though. Hartman is +1600 to win the Heisman Trophy. It's hard to believe Notre Dame still hasn't had a winner since Tim Brown in 1987. Notre Dame, Ohio State and Oklahoma are tied for the most Heisman winners with seven each.

It's the head coaching debut of Navy's Brian Newberry, who was promoted from defensive coordinator when long-time Middies coach Ken Niumatalolo was fired after last season's 4-8 mark, the school's third straight losing campaign. Niumatalolo was the winningest coach in program history at 109-83, but he also stopped beating Army and that was the last straw.

Navy might have fewer pass attempts in Saturday's entire game than Hartman will in the first quarter. The Midshipmen will remain a triple-option team under new OC Grant Chesnut, who arrives from Kennesaw State. Last year, his Owls ranked 10th in the FCS in rushing at 232.2 yards per game and threw for only 136.8 yards per outing. That would be a huge step up for Navy, which averaged only 85.8 yards through the air in 2022.

Maybe it's a good thing if Navy doesn't throw the ball much, as the Irish are 14-0 in the past two seasons when they intercept at least one pass, tied for the best streak in FBS with Georgia and Coastal Carolina.

Notre Dame leads the series 81-13-1 and has won five in a row, barely escaping 35-32 last year in Baltimore. Newberry looks to become the first head coach in school history to beat a ranked opponent in his first game. The last time Navy beat a ranked Irish team was in 2009 in South Bend.

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