State of the Program: Navy

[Drew]

State of the Program: Navy football

During one of Navy’s first spring football workouts, head coach Ken Niumatalolo wanted one offensive player and one defensive player to come forward for a sprinting competition.

Quarterback Malcolm Perry raised his hand to represent the offense, but the coach wasn’t having it.

“You ain’t running, brother,” he told Perry.

The Midshipmen had planned to start spring drills earlier this year, but offseason foot surgery meant Perry wouldn’t be ready. So Niumatalolo delayed the start of spring ball almost entirely for the quarterback position. That’s a sign of just how important Perry is to Navy and how high its hopes are for him.

Perry started at slot back as a sophomore last season. Late in the year, he moved to quarterback and was a revelation, rushing for 728 yards in three-plus games before suffering a foot injury in the Military Bowl against Virginia. Now he’ll spend an entire offseason working as a quarterback, and Niumatalolo has described him as the best pure runner he’s ever had.

really good read if you subscribe to The Athletic. Pretty remarkable the job Coach Niumatalolo has done there.

 

[gtcam]

Coach N is a remarkable coach and has developed one heck of a program
Almost every damn P5 program would love him at the helm

 

[huskypantz]

Navy has carved out a nice niche for themselves. I like everything about their program except the cut blocks.

 

[whaler11]

Almost every damn P5 program would love him at the helm

No they wouldn’t.

Maybe a couple of hopeless programs would like to be the poor man’s Georgia Tech?

That list is a lot shorter than ‘almost every’.

 

[RedSoloCup]

No they wouldn’t.

Maybe a couple of hopeless programs would like to be the poor man’s Georgia Tech?

That list is a lot shorter than ‘almost every’.

Gotta agree with that...

He's a great coach for the Naval Academy, he runs a system that can do well with the players that they will get there.

For programs that may have more recruiting options, it has to be a tough system to transition to, and then from if he leaves.