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    • The Notre Dame-Navy game at MetLife Stadium brings NJ players home
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    The Notre Dame-Navy game at MetLife Stadium brings NJ players home

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    Colin Ramos and Kyle Jacob have added North Jersey power to the Navy football team’s linebacker corps.

    Saturday, the Midshipmen’s schedule takes them back to North Jersey for an afternoon kickoff with 6-1 Notre Dame at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford. Several starters from the Garden State are employed at both colleges.

    Ramos, a Wayne senior and 2020 Don Bosco Prep alumnus, made 68 tackles (5½ for losses) during Navy’s 6-0 start.

    The team’s No. 2 tackler? That would be fellow inside ‘backer Jacob (45, plus one interception), who played for Paramus before graduating four years ago.

    “Personally, I think the type of guys that come out of New Jersey are tough guys who play hard and are athletic,” Jacob said during a Zoom news conference on Tuesday. “There’s a lot of good guys coming out of New Jersey, and it’s really an underrated state for football.”

    Maybe not from what Irish eyes see. Their defense responds with All-American Howard Cross III (St. Joseph Regional) and Duke transferring RJ Oben (St. Peter’s Prep) on the defensive line, plus Irvington’s Adon Shuler at safety as a sophomore.

    “A couple of guys I knew, friends around me in high school, were Notre Dame fans,” Jacob said. “There are quite a few Notre Dame fans from New Jersey. And I played with Howard Cross in high school…he’s a good player.”

    Cross, a Paramus native, concluded his varsity career at MetLife Stadium in 2018. That year, his St. Joseph Green Knights defeated Bergen Catholic – and current Irish backup QB Steve Angeli – for the Non-Public Group 4 championship . The final score of 13-0 is still the subject of friendly settlement.

    Ramos played for a Non-Public Group 4 title at the Meadowlands in his high school finals, though things didn’t go so well for the Ironmen.

    “It was a close game, but we lost to St. Peter’s,” Ramos recalled in a one-on-one interview with NavySports.com on Tuesday.

    He emerged from the 2021 Army-Navy Game — sorry, Navy-Army — with happier memories. The Midshipmen posted a 17-13 win at East Rutherford.

    “I love MetLife Stadium,” Ramos said. “It feels like everyone is on top of you, as is the case with (almost) 85,000 fans. … I’ve been there a lot to Giants games and stuff, so I always enjoy that stadium.

    Jacob and Ramos were both All-North Jersey selections as high school players in 2019. The former was a second-team running back (after setting the Paramus career record at 2,934 yards), and the latter was a first-team linebacker (108 tackles). , eight pockets).

    But as close as the on-field lineup was, they couldn’t be further apart, figuratively speaking, until they met at the Naval Academy Prep School (NAPS) in 2020.

    “NAPS has been a weird time because of COVID,” Ramos said. “We didn’t have a football season, we didn’t have a lot of traditional things. Kyle and I didn’t really become friends until at least our first year here (at USNA).”

    Now they have a lot more in common than just being Giants fans. Their tough defense has helped Navy hold their first six opponents to 19.7 points per game, while the offense is scoring 44.8 points.

    Although Notre Dame plays the Midshipmen annually (and leads the all-time series, 49-8-1), they have faced each other only twice in East Rutherford since 2000. The Irish prevailed at the old Giants Stadium 20 years ago, 27-9, while the Navy won the first game at MetLife, 35-17, when it was still called New Meadowlands Stadium in 2010.

    For a handful of players on both sides, this meeting will go down in history as Homecoming Day.

    “It’s a great opportunity for both me and Colin,” Jacob said, “but most importantly for our team, just to go out in this environment and play Notre Dame. I’m excited.”

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