Four Reasons Why College Football Fans Should Watch The Navy Midshipmen Play At Least Once This Season

The start of the college football season brings with it a few questions that many fans are looking forward to getting answered. For example, what are the odds that Ohio State will win a second consecutive national championship? Will the SEC bounce back as a conference after having a year in which many thought it had taken a step backwards? Can the Pac-12 sustain the momentum they built going into the end of last season and put another team in the playoffs? Any way you look at it, this is shaping up to be an interesting season on many levels. But as far as I'm concerned, the one question that is most pressing on my mind is how will Navy do in their first year of conference play after being an independent for the past 134 years?

For the average college football fan, Navy does not even represent a blip on the radar screen. Believe me, I totally get that. After all, they are a middle tier Division I football program with no chance at winning a national championship. The only time people outside of the alumni might be inclined to watch them is when they play Army in their last game of the year, and that might be partly because it's the only Division I game on TV that afternoon. But I'm telling you, if you're a fan of college football and have never seen Navy play, this might be the year to start. Here are four reasons to do just that.

Reason #4: Navy Has A New Home

When the college football landscape began to change three years ago as a result of conference consolidation, the natural question that came up was whether or not the independent teams could remain relevant. At the time, those teams were Notre Dame, BYU, Army and Navy. For Notre Dame, the answer was clearly yes. The Irish definitely have the gravitas to survive on their own.  After all, they had enough juice to negotiate their own television contract with NBC. Why would they even bother with a conference affiliation?  But even the Irish chose to join the ACC as a partial member, scheduling five games per year beginning with this season. Coaches in the ACC want to see them go all in, but that hasn't happened yet. The truth of the matter is that they don't really need to at this time.

The same can't be said for BYU. They were in the Mountain West Conference until 2010. Though some pundits think that they can continue to thrive as an independent, there are others including their own AD who say that joining a Power 5 conference is just a matter of time. Which one they land in seems to be the only question.

That left Army and Navy. After enjoying some modest success in the mid-'90s, Army decided to join Conference USA in 1998. It turned out to be a big mistake. They proceeded to go 12-67 over the next seven years including an 0-13 year in 2003. The truth was they simply did not have the athletes to compete. Team speed is king in college football, and the Cadets were sorely lacking in that department. Compared to the other teams in Conference USA they looked like they were running in wet cement half of the time and in quicksand the other half. In 2005, Army came to their senses and became an independent again. It took them about five years to get their program back to a decent level of respectability, so it's understandable if they don't want to go down that road again.

The same factors were no doubt weighing on Navy's mind when the American Athletic Conference approached them in 2011. The AAC was made up of teams from the old Big East Conference as well as Conference USA. As an independent, Navy did enjoy a certain amount of flexibility when building their schedule because they weren't locked into a certain number of conference games. They would be giving that up if they joined the AAC. But the larger question was whether they could remain competitive playing their style of football. Some doubted it, but a closer look at Navy's performance lately shows that they are more than capable of holding their own. The Midshipmen own a 14-3 record against current AAC teams over the last 10 years. So it's not likely that conference opponents will be overlooking them on the schedule. The other thing working in Navy's favor is that they will be in the AAC West Division. That means they will be playing two teams from Texas (Houston & SMU) on a regular basis. From a recruiting standpoint, you couldn't ask for a better situation. Coach Ken Niumatalolo and his staff have a strong track record of recruiting in Texas. Their increased presence now that they are in the AAC West should help them out even more. The bottom line is that Navy is in a position to be competitive right away, and they can remain that way if they take advantage of the increased exposure in recruiting hotbeds like Texas. So, playing its first year as a member of a conference is one reason why college football fans should take some time to check out the Midshipmen.  Let's take a look at another one.

Reason #3: The Triple Option Offense

In 2001, Navy had just come off the worst year in their history. They finished an abysmal 0-10 and had only chalked up one win in their previous 21 contests. That's when they made the decision to hire Coach Paul Johnson (the offensive coordinator at Navy in the mid-90s) away from Georgia Southern. Bringing Johnson back proved to be one of the two best decisions the Navy AD Chet Gladchuk has made with respect to Navy football. Coach Johnson resurrected a program that was pretty much on life support by installing his own version of the triple option offense, and the results during his tenure were nothing short of amazing. The team took their lumps in the first year learning it, but after they destroyed Army 58-12, Navy fans had a reason to be optimistic when the 2003 season began.

They were not disappointed. The Midshipmen went 8-5 that year including wins over Air Force and Army. Navy's triple option gave opposing teams nightmares when trying to prepare. Many called the offense gimmicky, and that it wasn't real football. My contention is that those types of comments usually came from fans who had just watched Navy embarrass their team. The fact is when the triple option is executed properly, it can absolutely shred a defense. And when you see the fullback, quarterback or slotback break a long run a few times a game, it can be just as entertaining as watching some of these spread offenses that are so en vogue now. Defending the option requires the highest form of discipline. Otherwise, a good option quarterback can just make an opposing team look silly. The Midshipmen used this offense to catapult them back to respectability. From 2002-2007, Navy was consistently among the top 5 Division I football teams in average yards rushing per game, and in 2004, they recorded their first 10 win season since the Roosevelt Administration . . . that would be Teddy Roosevelt.

After the 2007 season, Johnson left to coach Georgia Tech. That's when Gladchuk made the second of his two great decisions as Navy's AD. Less than 24 hours after Johnson announced he was moving on, Gladchuk promoted assistant coach Ken Niumatalolo to head coach. Niumatalolo had learned the triple option when he was a quarterback at Hawaii. Johnson was the offensive coordinator there at the time. Gladchuk recognized that maintaining the stability of the program was the key to Navy's success moving forward, and that meant sticking with the triple option offense. Since his hiring, Coach Niumatalolo has gone on to become the winningest coach in Navy football history. His resume includes two wins over Notre Dame, three bowl wins, and a perfect record against Army to date.

As Navy begins a new era as part of the AAC, look for Coach Niumatalolo to continue to expand and tweak the triple option. Part of that will include further developing the passing game. The good news is that Navy's success has allowed them to attract better and better athletes who can excel in this system. Take this next guy, for example.

Reason #2: Keenan Reynolds

On October 6, 2012 Navy was battling Air Force with their season hanging in the balance. They had stumbled to a 1-3 start, and the offense was sputtering. Ball security was a major issue. Their quarterback, Trey Miller, was really struggling, and Coach Niumatalolo had basically put him on notice, letting him know that things had to improve or they were going to make a change. Ironically, Miller wound up playing pretty well against Air Force, but the Mids were still down 21-13 in the fourth quarter when he had to leave the game with an ankle injury. At that point, I figured it was pretty much over. In came the back up quarterback. His name was Keenan Reynolds . . . and he was a freshman. I buried my head in my hands. Seriously? Now I really knew it was over. I didn't see any way possible that a freshman could come into a pressure situation like that and turn things around.

Never in my life have I been more happy to be so wrong.  Reynolds led Navy down the field executing the triple option to perfection. When he was asked to throw, his passes were sharp, and he made plays with his feet time and again.  The kid was absolutely unflappable. He scored from about 12 yards out and then executed a perfect pitch to the fullback for the two point conversion to tie the game. Navy eventually won it in overtime. Reynolds has been Navy's starting quarterback ever since. They finished the regular season 8-4, including a big win over Army that went down to the final seconds.

Over the last three years, Keenan Reynolds has practically rewritten the Navy record books. He is a shifty runner with above average speed, and his arm is both strong and accurate, which essentially gives Navy a pretty viable fourth option offensively. But his strength as a quarterback lies in his decision making. The Mids have had some very good quarterbacks running the option over the years, but Reynolds is in a class all by himself. His reads are quick and his decisions are rarely incorrect. Even when teams key on stopping him from running, he can usually make the defense pay a heavy price for ignoring the fullback and slotbacks. He is one of the most unselfish players I have ever seen, and barring any significant injury during his senior season, Reynolds has a very good chance to break the record for the most rushing touchdowns in Division I college football. He is currently 13 shy of tying it. But you know what?  I honestly believe that he couldn't care less about that. And that's because Reynolds and every other player has bought into a culture that brings me to the biggest reason fans who aren't familiar with Navy should watch a game or two this season.

Reason #1: "It's Not About Me"

That is the team's mantra. It's also referred to as "INAM" (pronounced E'-nahm). This mindset is on display every week that Navy takes the field. They are out there because they love to compete as a team. It certainly isn't because they are trying to improve their draft status or hoping to attract a sponsor in order to land a fat shoe contract. That isn't their reality. Just about all of these guys know that their football careers end when they play their last collegiate game. But that's okay. They knew all of that when they came to Navy. It's not about them. It's about the guy next to them. That's who they play for, and that's what makes them so much fun to watch.

The triple option is the epitome of a system that rewards selflessness. If one option isn't there, you go to the next one. But that next option  or the one after that won't work unless all eleven players are fully committed to doing their job. And when Navy has that offense firing on all cylinders, there are very few teams in the country that can keep them out of the end zone.

The INAM philosophy is even more true on defense. In almost every game Navy is giving up at least 30-40 pounds per man on the line. That means everyone else needs to be quick to the ball. Otherwise it's going to be a long day. No one can afford to take a play off. If the ball isn't coming their way, defenders need to get to it as soon as possible to help bring down the ball carrier even if they have sprint all the way from the other side of the field. Navy defenders are very good gang tacklers. They have to be. In a way, it's a matter of survival. Coach Niumatalolo said it best after Navy upset a heavily favored Missouri team 35-13 in the 2009 Texas Bowl. "We're going to have 11 guys running to the football. We're like 11 hyenas -- we're going to take down an elephant sooner or later, and we're going to get on you." That statement is even more true today. On defense as well as offense, it's all about selling out for the guy next to you.

So there you have it, four solid reasons to watch the Navy Midshipmen play this college football season: a conference affiliation for the first time ever, an entertaining (if not unconventional) offense that gives defenses fits when executed properly, a special quarterback who comes along maybe once in a generation, and a team philosophy that represents college football in its most pure form. For these players, there will be no guaranteed NFL contracts in their futures; nor will there be any big time endorsement deals. Instead they will be be serving their country as commissioned officers in the United States Navy or Marine Corps. It's a chance to once again be part of something that is much bigger than themselves. And they relish the opportunity; because like all Navy football players say, "It's not about me."

Until next time . . .


Karl