Midshipmen ready for competition as 2024 season draws near

While the Army Black Knights were in the locker room celebrating a win last Dec. 9 at Gillette Stadium, site of the 2023 Army-Navy game, a disappointed Brian Newberry stepped into a classroom deep in the bowels of the stadium to address the dozen or so media members who were present.

“Obviously, a tough night. Your heart breaks for your team, especially your seniors. I really wanted this for them more than anything,” said Newberry, the Navy Midshipmen head coach, after the 11-17 loss. “Those guys deserved to win today and, unfortunately, we couldn’t get it for them. We knew the game was going to be a dog fight, it always is. Can’t turn the ball over twice in a game like this and expect to win.”

The Midshipmen finished the 2023 campaign with a 5-7 record, nowhere near the goals that were laid out when Newberry took the helm after Chet Gladchuk, Naval Academy director of athletics, relieved Ken Niumatalolo of his head coaching duties following the 2022 season. Newberry spent four seasons as the team’s defensive coordinator before being promoted to head coach.

After the Army-Navy game last year, Newberry knew that there were changes that needed to be made in order to get the program moving in the direction that he was aiming for. Just a month after the season ended, Newberry announced that former Mercer head coach Drew Cronic was coming aboard as the new offensive coordinator, along with two of his assistants, Jay Guillermo and David Cole, being added to the offensive coaching staff. Guillermo is to join Tommy Laurendine as an offensive line coach, Cole is the new tight ends coach, and Ivin Jasper is coaching both quarterbacks and fullbacks.

Cronic has been a head coach for eight seasons and has compiled a 75-23 career record with three different teams during that span. He is considered to be one of the most innovative-minded offensive coaches in college football, who should provide a much needed change of pace for the Navy offense.

“To win football games around here, we’ve got to be elite in the intangibles. We’ve got to play harder than everybody else. We’ve got to be a more disciplined football team than everybody else,” said Newberry. “We talk about being fixated to the details. We weren’t that at times last year. It’s on me to get that corrected. That’s been a tremendous emphasis for us.”

Newberry, now in his second year, said that the goals for the team this year remain the same as the goals for last year.

“That’s the expectation around here,” he said when asked about hitting certain benchmarks. “To win the Commander-in-Chief’s trophy and to go to Bowl games is something that we should be doing every year. That’s a realistic goal for us. That’s what we want to do.”

“We talk a lot about deserving success around here. It doesn’t mean you’re going to get it, but we are going to do everything possible that we can to deserve that. These guys have done that up to this point,” Newberry added.

Fullback Daba Fofana and linebacker Colin Ramos, both seniors, were named the team’s captains for the 2024 season. They are joined by 14 position captains on the team’s leadership council.

“Well one of these things that we talked about is having a winning mentality because these past few years we haven’t been winning a lot,” said Fofana. “So just instilling that at practice to ensure that we’re starting out fast and that we always talk about going to a Bowl game, the Commander-in-Chief’s trophy and all of that.”

Quarterback Blake Horvath has only played in four games for the Midshipmen but was announced as the team’s starting quarterback after having strong performances in the spring practices. He has started one game, against North Texas on Oct. 7 last year, but was forced to the sidelines with an injury sustained in the second quarter. He gives the coaching staff credit for getting him prepared for the upcoming season.

“Coach Cronic does a great job at teaching us exactly what his vision is. It’s easy to see what he wants more out on the field by looking at the defense, and run a play,” said Horvath. “The biggest thing is that I felt comfortable. I was able to be free. It felt more like I can make plays instead of acting like a robot.”

“Sometimes you get stuck doing the same thing, thinking that you have to put your foot here, run here, do this, but sometimes improvising just makes you feel more free and you can run the offense better. I think the biggest thing in leading this team is just keeping that level of comfortableness for our offense. We need to have quarterback play on this team where we can get the ball in the right spots, make good decisions, and not turn the ball over,” he added.

As a fullback, Fofana is happy to see the level of depth that this offensive squad has.

“It’s great to see because having depth, you know, a lot of great teams have great depth. If we have a lot of young guys being able to do their jobs well, then it helps us older guys too because it creates competition. It just builds a fire for our offense, for sure,” Fofana said.

Defensively speaking, this will be the second season with P.J. Volker as the defensive coordinator. Volker came to Navy in 2019 to serve as the linebackers coach under Newberry, and was promoted to defensive coordinator when Newberry became the head coach.

“When I got here in ’19, I knew we had to be different on defense. We’ve always been unique offensively in what we do here at the Academy. It’s an equalizer. We wanted to find ways to have an equalizer on that side of the ball,” said Newberry.

“Coach Volker and I have been together awhile, going back to our days at Kennesaw State. We built the system out together. One of the best things about getting promoted may be being able to promote P.J. to defensive coordinator. I think he’s exceptional. If I was to take over the defense again, there’s a lot of things that I would do that P.J. has done [that I would do],” Newberry said.

Newberry heaped on the praise for his defensive coordinator.

“He’s exceptional. He’s a high energy guy. Players love him. They feed off of his energy. He’s creative as well. When you’re a coordinator, you want to have some creative freedom in what you do. I was allowed that in ’19 when I got here and I’m allowing P.J. that too,” he added.

Ramos, the other team captain, is appreciative of Volker’s teaching as a defensive coordinator.

“We know what we’re capable of but we have plenty of things to continue to work on,” said Ramos. “At camp, this is a great opportunity to work on elite things that are extremely important for our winning culture that we are trying to develop, and we’re just going to continue to do that.”

“It’s a culture of accountability. We know what it takes to win. We know what we need to do to get it, so that’s what we’re going to do,” Ramos added.

Defensive end Justin Reed credits Volker with his growth as a player.

“Coach Volker always talks about ‘No matter where you are on the depth chart, you have to treat yourself like you’re the starter.’ That was the mentality I had every time I got reps out there,” said Reed. “I never saw myself as a backup. To me, when I had great leaders above me, I tried to play on the same level as they did. I think that helped me improve my game physically and mentally to know and understand the game of ball. I think that allowed me to be better on the field.”

“I never try to overcomplicate things. I just try to do my job. When you do your job, the ball just shows up there. I’m grateful and fortunate to be able to make those plays and have those opportunities to make plays,” Reed added. “But for me, I just try to keep it as simple as possible. Just doing my job and doing my one-eleventh out there makes me play fast and allows me to be successful on the field.”

Special teams will be led by punter Riley Riethman. Kicking duties will be performed by Nathan Kirkwood, with Rayne Fry serving as the long snapper. Eli Heidenreich will be returning punts while Tyler Bradley is the kick returner.

Navy opens up their schedule with three consecutive home games starting with Bucknell at Noon ET today. Navy leads the series 9-4-1 in a series dating back to 1898.

Next week they host Temple. The series, which dates back to 1988, is tied 9-9.

Navy finishes their three-game home stand on Sept. 14 with a game against Memphis. The first meeting was in 2015, and Memphis holds a 6-3 series lead.

“It’s important to get off to a fast start. I don’t think we’ve done that the last several years for whatever reason,” said Newberry. “We’ve talked about it at our first team meeting. ‘Listen guys, this isn’t spring ball. This isn’t the time to just focus on the techniques and fundamentals. We have to have a sense of urgency to get ready to play a game.’”

“We’ve got a good group of freshmen. We’re not slowing things down for freshmen. They’re playing catch up. That’s just the way it is around here. It’s critical. Absolutely critical,” Newberry added. “I like the way the schedule plays out. It’s absolutely critical that we get off to a fast start. Our guys know it and there’s a different sense of urgency about that right now.”

While the start is important, so is the finish. Navy plays at Air Force on Oct. 5 in their first game in the Commander-in-Chief Trophy competition, and then travels to Army on Dec. 14 for the 125th Army-Navy game. Navy leads the series 62-55-7. The first game was held Nov. 29, 1890. Even though they travel to Army, the game is typically held on a neutral site. This year it will be held at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Md., which is not far from the Naval Academy. The last time Navy won the Commander-in-Chief Trophy is 2019, the first year that Newberry and Volker were with the program.

“It’s convenient,” Newberry laughed. “I don’t care where we put the ball down for that game. Play it in a parking lot, it doesn’t matter to me. It’s nice to have it close by. As nice as the facility was up there [Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Mass.] last year, it’s a little further away. It’s nice to have it in our backyard.”

Horvath echoed this sentiment.

“It’s not where we play. It’s who we’re playing, and the type of game that it is,” said Horvath.

The Navy football season opens at Noon ET today when they kick off against Bucknell at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Md.