Navy Dealt Crushing Blake Horvath Injury News vs Notre Dame

The 7-1 Navy Midshipmen are set to face off against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in a highly-anticipated college football matchup on Saturday night.

Unfortunately for the visiting Naval Academy, the team will not be at full strength when they kickoff at Notre Dame Stadium.

Just before kickoff on Saturday night, Navy quarterback Blake Horvath was officially ruled out with an upper-body injury. The third-year signal caller attempted to give it a go in pregame warm-ups, according to a report from college football insider Brett McMurphy.

Horvath has been excellent for the Midshipmen through the first eight games of the season, rushing for 926 yards and an AAC-leading 13 rushing touchdowns as the orchestrater of Brian Newberry’s option offense.

Horvath also has 1,143 yards, seven touchdowns and five interceptions through the air - completing 63.6% of his pass attempts.

Notre Dame was already listed as a heavy favorite over the visiting Midshipmen, and this QB injury news only furthers the expected margin between these two teams.

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Horvath suffered his upper-body injury late in last Saturday’s loss to North Texas - the Midshipmen’s first loss of the 2025 college football season. The injury is not considered longterm and Horvath could return for next weekend’s matchup against USF, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

Junior backup Braxton Woodson will get the start for Navy against Notre Dame. In his first career start against ECU last year, Woodson led his team to a 34-20 victory - recording 125 rushing yards, two rushing touchdowns, 165 passing yards and one passing touchdown.

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Marcus Freeman and the Fighting Irish have won each of their last six games since suffering back-to-back season-opening losses to the Miami Hurricanes and Texas A&M Aggies. The team likely needs to win out in order to keep their College Football Playoff hopes alive.

Saturday night’s game will kickoff at 7:30 p.m. ET.

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This story was originally published November 8, 2025 at 4:22 PM.