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Game Preview: Navy

Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo
Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo (USA Today Sports)

Last year was Navy’s time to shine.

The Midshipmen set a school record for wins (11) and earned their highest final ranking (No. 18) since the 1963 season. A large part of that success came from star quarterback Keenan Reynolds, who in his final season at Navy broke the record for most career total touchdowns in NCAA history with 88 and most rushing yards by a quarterback with 4,559.

All that was gone entering this season. Navy lost 15 starters from last year’s team that played Houston for the American Athletic Conference West division title game, including 10 on offense.

So the fact that Navy briefly creeped into the Top 25 and boasts wins over AAC powers Houston — which was ranked No. 6 in the country at the time — and Memphis is a surprise to some, despite a 52-45 loss to South Florida last week.

But according to Mike James, the publisher of TheMidReport.com, which covers Navy athletics for the Rivals network, it was just a matter of the pieces coming together.

“It’s not that the team wasn’t capable of this or no one thought they could, it’s that no one knew what they were dealing with with this team since they lost so much from last year,” James said.

The Midshipmen were ranked 43rd by Phil Steele in the preseason, 61st by College FootballNews.com, 63rd by Lindy’s, 67th by Athlon and 81st by ESPN’s Football Power Index.

So how is Navy this good? Well, James said it has a lot to do with recruiting, downplaying the idea that the Midshipmen can simply plug-and-play with their option offense. Navy joined the AAC in 2012 (it played its first year in the league in 2015), which boosted recruiting for the Annapolis, Md., school.

Though it doesn’t show in the recruiting rankings — Rivals has the 2017 class 84th while many prior classes were not in the top-100 — it’s paying off on the field.

“The first classes that knew Navy was going to the AAC, they’re juniors and seniors last year and this year, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that last year and this year that Navy is ranked,” James said. “Joining a conference just opened a few doors because people kind of associate Navy with Houston or Memphis and know they’re going to be able to play these teams and it’s an increased profile.

“Navy is just recruiting better, there’s just more depth, and when someone goes down, it’s a more talented guy than they’re used to having. It’s kind of a new world for Navy in that sense, but a lot of the old stereotypes about Navy and service academy football don’t completely apply anymore. There’s some changes, it’s a different program.”

More depth means injuries are less devastating. That’s particularly the case when a team loses a quarterback, such as senior Tago Smith in the first game this season against FCS Fordham. Smith suffered a season-ending knee injury, and his appeal to the Naval Academy for a fifth-season of eligibility was denied, the Capital Gazette reported.

Luckily for Navy, Will Worth was ready to step in. In his limited work, the senior has won four games and amassed 1,187 total yards and 15 touchdowns. In the upset of Houston Oct. 8, he rushed 32 times for 115 yards and a touchdown. He connected on three of his five pass attempts for 76 yards and two touchdowns.

“He and Tago have kind of been coming up side by side all along, so if you’re going to lose a guy, the coaches had already been talking about the progress that Will Worth had made,” James said. “If there’s a silver lining, it’s having a guy that’s ready to step in and he was it.”

Worth is more of a power rusher, while Reynolds and Smith were more slashers. Navy has tailored the offense to Worth strengths, and it has paid off. Even running behind a brand new offensive line that didn’t return a single starter from last year’s team, the Midshipmen are winning games.

James said Navy platoons many of its starters and backups, rotating in several slot backs, fullbacks and offensive linemen. The physical, run-heavy scheme necessitates that.

“Navy runs two huddles in practice, so they might not have been starting together last year, but they’re seeing a unit that was essentially together for all practices last year,” James said of the offensive line, which has paved the way for the No. 4 rushing offense in the country through seven games, averaging 293.2 yards per game. “They worked together as a group, so stepping into a game wasn’t as difficult a transition because they’d all played together, at least in practice.

But Navy’s season likely would have been dramatically different had the Midshipmen lost head coach Ken Niumatalolo after last season. Niumatalolo, a mormon, met with BYU and was offered the job. His son, Va'a, is linebacker at BYU. But ultimately Niumatalolo elected to stay in Annapolis and continue building the Navy program.

Though James expected offensive coordinator Ivin Jasper would have gotten the head coaching job had Niumatalolo left, it’s a situation that Navy fans don’t have to worry about.

“Him staying around, I don’t know if you could find a more perfect pairing of coach and school,” James said. “…For Coach Niumatalolo, everyone respects him as a coach, but everyone respects as a man just as much. For a school like the Naval Academy where they really kind of sell that and alums are kind of drawn to that, it meant a lot for him to stick around.”

Niumatalolo is currently having one of the most successful streaks in Navy history. After managing just two winning seasons from 1983 through 2002, Navy has thrived during the current triple option era under head coaches Paul Johnson and Niumatalolo — the Midshipmen have posted winning records capped by bowl berths in 12 of the last 13 seasons.

Simply add the victory over Houston to the list of accomplishments.

“These are huge milestones for the program potentially, so when you see a win like that it does kind of re-energize a program and open your eyes to what the possibilities are,” James said. “There’s a lot of football to be played and a lot of goals that are still on the table that can be met.”

Facts & Figures

Date: Nov. 5, 2016.

Site: Everbank Field (67,164).

Kickoff: 11:30 a.m.

Television: CBS.

Radio: This broadcast can be heard live on SIRIUS Satellite Radio (channel 129).

Series Facts: This is the 90th all-time meeting between Navy and Notre Dame. The Irish beat the Midshipmen 41-24 in last year’s matchup at Notre Dame Stadium.

Coaches: Navy — Ken Niumatalolo (5-2, ninth season); Notre Dame — Brian Kelly (58-28, seventh season).

Noting Navy: Notre Dame is 47-7-1 all-time against the Midshipmen at neutral site venues … The last time Navy beat the Irish was in 2010, a 35-17 defeat for Notre Dame … The 51-year-old Niumatalolo played quarterback at Hawaii from 1987-89. While with the Rainbows, he ran an option-oriented offense under the direction of Paul Johnson, who was then the offensive coordinator … His father, Simi, was in the U.S. Coast Guard.

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