September 1, 2024 • 23 mins
Can Navy football overcome last season's scoring struggles with their new Hybrid Wing-T offense? Join me, Karl Darden, as we break down Navy's home opener against Bucknell in their first meeting in nearly a century.
We’ll take an in depth look at some of the key players on both sides of the ball and check out how the Navy offense executed Coach Cronic's new scheme.
The defense turned in another strong performance, looking to build on last year. You’ll get a glimpse into the key moments and player performances that defined the game and we'll also hear some of your comments.
We've got all of that plus our Question of the Day and Mid Watch segments, so please, join us!
Related Links:
We want your answer to our Question of the Day. Here is the one for this episode:
Since 2002, what is the most number of years in a row that Navy has won their first game of the season, either at home or on the road?
A. 3
B. 4
C. 5
D. 6
You can answer by sending us a text message using the link at the top of the show notes. I'll also post the question on our group Facebook Page.
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Check out the Navy Sports Nation group page on Facebook!
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- Seven In Music (Intro)
- Alexiaction (Deep Dive)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Karl (00:14):
Hi everybody, my name is Karl Darden and I'd like to
welcome and thank all of you forjoining us today on Navy Sports
Central.
I'm your host and this is theofficial podcast of the Navy
Sports Nation, where we take adeeper dive into Navy sports.
It has been over eight and ahalf months since the Navy
football team's final podcast ofthe Navy Sports Nation, where
we take a deeper dive into Navysports.
It has been over eight and ahalf months since the Navy
football team's final game ofthe 2023 season.
We all know what that resultwas and I'm not kidding you when
I tell you it still stings alittle.
(00:34):
But next year has finallyarrived and in this edition of
Navy Sports Central, we'll takean in-depth look at the Mids
home opener against Bucknell.
In fact, we're going to try alittle experiment in this
episode's deep dive segment.
I talked a little bit about iton the Navy Sports Nation group
Facebook page, so we're going tosee how all that works out.
We've got all that, plus ourquestion of the day and the
athletes we'll be tracking inour Midwatch segment, so please
(00:55):
stick around.
All right, it is great to haveyou with us today as we get
ready for another season of Navyfootball.
So, whether you follow the showor this is your first visit,
thanks for taking the time.
(01:16):
Let's go ahead and get rightinto it.
I don't know how much you allknew about the team Navy faced
in their first game, and thatwould be Bucknell, and it is a
program that Navy is veryfamiliar with in just about
every other sport exceptfootball.
As fellow competitors in thePatriot League, the Mids and the
Bisons square off against eachother in at least 16 different
sports.
But because Navy competes atthe Division I level in football
, the two teams have not crossedpaths that often.
(01:36):
In fact, the last time theyfaced each other, calvin
Coolidge was president, charlieChaplin was one of the most
famous actors in the country andthere are only 48 states the
year was 1925, and the Mids wonthat contest 13-7.
Saturday was the 15th meetingbetween the two programs, so
let's see how they matched uphead-to-head.
We can start with the pointspread Now.
Navy was favored, which weshould all have expected, but
(02:01):
the line was 32.5 points 32.5.
Now, granted, bucknell is notas strong an FCS program as, say
, like Delaware, or even NorthDakota State, who almost beat
Colorado, but I'd be verycurious to know how the
oddsmakers landed on that number.
Don't get me wrong.
It's great that the bettinggurus thought so highly of the
mids, even though they enteredthe game with so many questions
(02:22):
on offense.
But we hadn't seen this newhybrid wing tee offense in real
time.
And if you factor into that,you know first game jitters and
an opponent who wasn't makingthe trip to Annapolis just to
get embarrassed, 32 and a halfpoints seemed like a lot.
And then, going back to lastyear, the mids averaged just
over 17 and a half points a game.
So with an offense that wassight unseen, the folks in Vegas
(02:42):
were saying that this newsystem could at least double the
team's point production againstthis FCS opponent.
I just don't know if I couldhave gone out on that limb, but
I will say that I'm 100% okaywith being wrong on this one.
All right, now let's take a lookat who we saw on both sides of
the ball.
Obviously, blake Horvath gotthe start at quarterback.
I don't think that came as muchof a surprise.
Horvath has done a solid joblearning Coach Kronick's system
(03:04):
going back to the spring, andthat continued into the
preseason practices.
His passing has gotten a lotmore accurate.
He's making good decisions withthe football and he's got good
running instincts.
We'll get into how he did alittle bit later.
Moving on to the all-importantoffensive line, that group, you
all saw, was led by seniorConnor McMahon at left tackle.
He is extremely durable, havingstarted in each of the team's
(03:24):
last 22 games.
Mcmahon is joined by hisclassmates Brent Self at center
and Javon Boughton at righttackle.
Junior Ben Purvis will be atthe left guard, while sophomore
Cam Nichols earned the startingjob at right guard.
Just like any other offensivescheme, the hybrid wing tee's
success will depend on how wellthe offensive line can execute
consistently on each play.
Last season, pre-snap penaltiesresulted in the mids getting
(03:44):
behind the sticks early and theyhad a tough time digging
themselves out of that hole.
That lack of discipline droveboth the coaching staff and the
fans crazy.
In their best seasons theoffense had several games where
they might have gotten flaggedfor maybe five or ten yards a
game.
Last year we saw them get hitwith at least three or four
pre-snap penalties each contest.
As a whole, navy averaged 46yards in penalties per game,
(04:05):
which was nearly twice as muchas their opponents.
That just can't happen anymoreif they want to have a winning
season.
So we'll break down how thingswent in this game and see if
there's any adjustments thatneed to be made.
Now let's talk about the oneposition that underwent a name
change.
The Navy slotbacks, or theA-backs, are now called snipes.
So you've got a snipe A and asnipe Z, and even though they
have the same name, theirresponsibilities aren't
(04:27):
necessarily the same.
Eli Heidenreich is currentlythe starter at the snipe Z
position.
He goes at six feet 201 pounds.
Cronic mentioned mentioned inhis last interview that he likes
to have someone a little longerand heavier at the snipe Z
position because he'll be askedto do some things that the other
snipe doesn't have to do.
But no matter what, they bothhave to be playmakers and
Heidenreich definitely has thatgoing for him.
(04:47):
Last year, he averaged nearly 8yards per carry, including a
46-yard TD early in the season.
He also did a lot of damagecatching the ball, co-leading
the team in receptions with 19.
He also led the team in totalyards with 382, and the average
yards per catch coming in justat about 21.
His counterpart at the snipe Aposition is Brandon Chatman, who
(05:08):
is also a legitimate threat In2023, he averaged over 13 yards
per catch and matchedHeidenreich's 19 receptions on
the season, while gaining nearlyfour yards per carry running
the ball.
So in our deep dive segmentwe'll check out how Coach Cronic
used these guys againstBucknell.
And keep in mind, in thishybrid wing tee, this game is
designed to be played on theperimeter, so you've got to
(05:28):
figure that the snipes are goingto have a pretty big role in
this scheme.
Now let's see who we've got atthe wide receiver and tight end
positions.
Those of you who follow theshow should be very familiar
with Nathan Kent.
His mom, Maura, has been aguest on a couple of occasions.
According to Coach Cronic,Nathan did a nice job in
(05:50):
preseason practices and I'mreally looking forward to seeing
if he gets targeted more thisyear, because when that guy gets
the ball in his hands, goodthings usually happen.
We also saw sophomore LukeHutchinson on the field at wide
receiver Last week.
Horvath specifically mentionedhim in an interview as someone
to watch this year.
And then, finally, cron Myersand Turner Stepp, who is a
converted linebacker, are alsolisted on the depth chart at
wide receiver.
At the tight end position, CodyHoward earned the number one
(06:10):
spot during the preseasonpractices Last year.
We kept waiting to see how thisposition would be folded into
the offense under Coach Chestnut.
That never really materialized,though, and I'm not exactly
sure what Coach Cronic has inmind for these guys, but maybe
this first game gave us somewhatof an indicator.
Now, at fullback, we've got twoknown quantities in Alex Tecza
and Senior Captain Daba Fofana.
Tecza did lead the team inrushing last season, but most of
(06:32):
those yards came earlier in theyear.
Either the defense keptfocusing more on the fullback
starting in November or the playcalling went in a completely
different direction.
Either way, it was not a goodresult.
The Mids have way too muchtalent at this position to let
it go to waste, and I don't seeCoach Cronic letting that happen
.
All right, that pretty muchcovers the offense.
Certainly, there are a lot ofquestions surrounding this new
system, and in our deep divesegment, we'll see how many of
(06:56):
them got answered againstBucknell.
Now, even though there might besome questions on offense, as
far as the defensive side of theball goes, there shouldn't be
that many.
I am very confident in the Navydefense's ability to keep
things close, even against someof their tougher opponents.
The Mids put up three shutoutslast year.
They fielded a pretty youngteam and even though that
relative experience did show upagainst teams like Notre Dame
and SMU, I really think they'llbe that much better because of
that experience that they had.
(07:17):
So let's check out who was onthe field against the Bison.
On the defensive line, you hadJustin Reed at left end coming
off a pretty solid year.
Lendon Robinson took over atnose guard after Donald
Brainyard aka Biscuit graduatedlast spring, and then Kendall
Whiteside is on Robinson's rightat the defensive tackle
position.
The linebacker core is anchoredby senior captain Colin Ramos
(07:39):
at one of the inside linebackerspots, and then Jackson Campbell
got the start at striker.
Luke Pires, who had a terrificbreakout season last fall,
played the Raider position, andKyle Jacob is at the Mike
linebacker spot.
The defensive secondary tookthe field with three seniors,
and BT Williams plays at thebandit position, deshaun Peel is
at boundary corner and RayuanLane is at free safety.
The field corner position willbe played by sophomore Ira Oniha
(08:02):
.
With the exception of Oniha,the rest of the defense saw
significant playing time inCoach Volker's system.
As a result, they've come totrust each other, and that is
super critical for a defense tofunction well as a unit.
I got to tell you I'm reallyfired up about watching them
play this year.
Obviously, they'll face biggerchallenges than Bucknell, but I
think they'll be up for it.
We could actually be in storefor a pretty special season if
(08:26):
they can stay healthy.
Let's go ahead and finish upwith the special teams.
Nathan Kirkwood will start theyear handling field goals and
extra points.
Senior Riley Reithman is thepunter and he's also on a couple
of preseason watch lists.
And then, finally, heidenreichChapman and Tyler Bradley will
take care of returning kickoffsand punts.
So that is a look at the Navy2024 football team.
When we come back for our deepdive segment, I'll break down
(08:47):
how they did against Bucknell,so don't go anywhere.
All right, we are back to takea look at what I would call a
(09:08):
solid 49-21 win for the Mids intheir home opener.
Before I get to it, though, Idid want to jump back to that
point spread.
At game time it had jumped backto 33 points from 32.5.
And I'll be honest with youwhen I saw it the other day, I
thought whoever set those oddswere smoking a crack or
something, because I just didn'treally think that there was any
reason to favor the mids bythat much, but I'll be darned if
(09:31):
they didn't pretty much get itright.
The mids by that much, but I'llbe darned if they didn't pretty
much get it right.
The mids were up by 35 withless than about 30 seconds to go
and Bucknell just happened topunch it in for a touchdown on
that last drive.
So I hope there weren't toomany of you who picked the mids
to cover, even though theyprobably should have.
I mean, this game is a primeexample of why I don't bet on
sports.
One minute it looks like you'regoing to win a bunch of big
(09:51):
bucks and then in the nextsecond it just all disappears.
So no thanks.
I did get one text messageduring the game and that came
from my classmate Ginger Riceand Ginger's down in Raleigh,
north Carolina, which,coincidentally, I used to live.
But anyway, I'll go ahead andread it for you and then I'll
make my comments as well.
So Ginger says watching thegame and really enjoying A few
(10:16):
comments Too many penalties,especially on the chop blocks,
and obviously we need to work onthat.
Passing game looks pretty good.
Nice block on the field goalattempt.
Obviously Bucknell is not avery strong team, but I think we
look a lot better than lastyear, and certainly that's true,
especially if you go ahead andcompare apples to apples,
because I remember last yearwhen the Mids played Wagner yeah
, they did win the game 24-0,but it was kind of an uneven
performance.
The offense didn't look allthat smooth, but they did tack
(10:37):
on one final touchdown in thefourth quarter.
Defense played great, you know,shutting them out, but
certainly on offense the teamwas a lot more productive and a
lot more efficient than theywere against the FCS opponent
last year.
So, ginger, thanks so much forthe text message and you are
spot on when it comes to thepenalties.
I had a chance to look at thata little bit.
The mids were penalized seventimes for 55 yards, including
(10:59):
those two illegal chop blocksthat you mentioned, and then you
had another one for holding andone false start.
The other three were defensiveoffside.
So clearly there's a lot toclean up there, and that has to
happen before we face Temple,otherwise it could be a real
long afternoon.
Now we can go ahead and work ourway through the game, and what
I did was I had my phone out andI was basically just kind of
making some comments here andthere, just so I could remember
(11:21):
what I wanted to talk about.
And I can tell you, after thefirst I don't know four or five
minutes of game time, I'm justlike thinking, oh my God, here
we go again Because you know,because kickoff goes out of
bounds, right, and then they gotthe Bison on the third and six
and there's the miscommunicationon defense that resulted in
(11:41):
that first TD.
I mean, that guy couldn't havebeen more wide open.
There was not even a defenderin the screen.
So now they're down, seven,nothing.
They get the ball back and thenbam three and out, just like
that.
And the first thing that poppedinto my mind was here we go.
It's Delaware all over againfrom two years ago.
And luckily that didn't turn outto be the case, because once
(12:01):
you kind of started getting intothe game itself, you could see
the defense getting into theirrhythm right.
And I don't know, maybe withabout five or six minutes to go
in the first quarter I got thesense that the defense was
pretty much in sync and I justdidn't think that the Bison
would give them many moreproblems the rest of the way,
and that's pretty much whathappened they were held to 160
yards, passing the rest of theafternoon, and a good chunk of
(12:24):
those came in that very lastdrive, when the game was already
decided.
The Navy defense allowedbasically 3.4 yards per carry on
the ground, and then they alsorung up seven tackles for a loss
and four sacks.
On top of that, they forced twoturnovers that led to a couple
of touchdowns on offense.
So as far as I'm concerned, themids pretty much did what we
all expected on defense, andI'll go ahead and highlight a
(12:45):
couple of the individualstandouts a little bit later on.
Now, moving over to the offense,obviously there was a lot of
anticipation around CoachCronic's new scheme, and the one
thing that I noticed almostright away was the emphasis on
attacking the perimeter, whichis the whole idea behind this
hybrid wing tee.
I actually lost track of howmany jet sweeps the mids ran,
and most of them were prettyeffective, especially when they
(13:07):
ran to the right.
Horvath also picked up goodyards when he followed the
fullbacks on a similar play.
The bottom line was that phaseof the run game worked pretty
well and we saw the kind ofimpact a player like Eli
Heidenreich can have.
That touchdown he scored in thethird quarter was just a really
nice piece of running.
I knew the guy had speed but Ididn't realize that he was so
(13:27):
shifty, especially in traffic,and his partner, brandon Chapman
, at the other snipe position,had a big play on that screen
pass that went for 42 yards anda touchdown.
Now, when I went through thedepth chart in the previous
segment I mentioned that bothHeidenreich and Chapman were
playmakers and they certainlylived up to their reputations.
In this first game the two ofthem accounted for 170 of the
team's 437 yards on offense.
(13:49):
The other thing I wanted tomention on the offensive side of
the ball was the mids' abilityto extend the drives.
Other thing I wanted to mentionon the offensive side of the
ball was the mids' ability toextend the drives.
Last year their third downefficiency was just horrible and
I don't remember where theyranked in the FBS, but it was
not good.
But against Bucknell theyconverted on 10 of 17 third down
opportunities and also theywere one for one on fourth downs
(14:11):
.
So certainly a huge improvementthere in game one.
Obviously that's not a big dataset, but hopefully they'll
continue to improve on that asthe season goes on.
So from here let's go ahead andtalk about the quarterback play
.
I mean there's no way we canbreak down a game without
looking at that and overall Ithought it was pretty decent.
Blake Horvath did a nice jobrunning things.
I did wince just a little bitwhen I saw him miss a wide-open
(14:32):
Heidenreich in the end zone inthe second quarter, but to his
credit he came right back to himon the very next play and he
threw a really nice pass.
I mean it was much tougher toexecute than the previous one.
He dropped it in right over thedefender and Heidenreich went
up there and got it.
So that was a nice job.
Horvath has shown that he canmake the throws and now he just
needs to be more consistent.
Braxton Woodson also ran theoffense pretty well after
(14:54):
Horvath had to leave the game inthe second half due to leg
cramps.
You know, the first thing Inoticed when he started throwing
the ball was comparing how bothhe and Horvath delivered.
I mean, there is definitelyless reaction time when Woodson
is throwing it to you, and I'msure that the receivers have to
get their minds right when hecomes in, because that ball is
going to get there very, veryquickly.
(15:14):
Anyway, it was a veryproductive day for Horvath.
He was 7 of 12 through the airfor 108 yards and a couple of
touchdowns.
He also ran for 33 yards on 7carries.
Woodson completed 3 of 7 for 65yards and the 1 TD to
Heidenreich that I had mentionedearlier.
(15:44):
No-transcript.
I didn't want to forget aboutthe fullbacks.
Both Daba Fofana and Alex Teczawere really tough running the
ball and they also made someoutstanding blocks in front of
Horvath on a couple of thoseruns around the right side.
I did think it was pretty funnythat the guys calling the game
took so long to realize that itwas Fofana that scored that
(16:04):
first touchdown instead of Tecza.
I know that the numbers 45 and46 are pretty close and it's
easy to mix them up, but theydidn't catch that mistake until
Tecza scored early in the secondquarter and it was actually
pretty obvious that somebody hadto point it out to him.
I mean, they didn't catch it ontheir own.
So anyway, I just had to throwthat in.
Let's jump back to the defensereal quick and I wanted to
specifically address how theMids did on their Get Six goal
(16:27):
that Coach Newberry establishedwhen he got here five years ago.
And just to refresh yourmemories, get Six means that any
combination of three and outs,holding a team on fourth down or
turnovers that total six ormore, the mids usually have a
pretty good chance of winningthe game.
So, looking at this gameagainst Bucknell, the mids came
up with two turnovers and bothof those actually led to
touchdowns, and they forced four, three and outs, as well as
(16:49):
holding the Bison on fourth downtwice.
So that comes to a total ofeight, which serves to validate
Coach Newberry's theory.
Once again, Colin Ramos andJaxson Campbell led the team
with 10 tackles each, and LukePirres had one and a half sacks
and recovered a fumble that ledto a touchdown.
I swear that guy's got a crazynose for the ball.
I mean, every time it's up forgrabs he always seems to be
around it and he, along with therest of the defense, made it
(17:10):
just a miserable day forBucknell quarterback Ralph
Rucker.
After that first drive, ruckerdidn't look like he was having a
whole lot of fun, and I'mhoping that there are quite a
few more opposing quarterbackswho get that same feeling when
they go up against this defense.
The one area that makes me alittle bit nervous is special
teams.
They got that nice block on thefield goal attempt, so that was
good, and I actually thoughtthe Mids were pretty good
returning kickoffs and punts aswell, but on the coverage side,
(17:32):
they gave up a 52-yard kickoffreturn and then another one of
29 yards to go along with a puntreturn of 24 yards, so I know
they can't be too happy aboutthat.
It's an easy fix, though,because all they need to do is
just wrap up the guy and bringhim to the ground, rather than
thinking that the hit alone isgoing to be enough.
So, overall, this game went theway I hoped that it would.
The offense took a couple ofseries to find its rhythm, but
(17:54):
you can definitely see thedifference in Coach Cronic's
system compared to the tripleoption that we'd gotten so
familiar with over the past 20years.
There are still some kinks thatneed to be worked out, but it
was nice to see the offense putup 28 points in the first half.
I mean, that hasn't happenedsince the Mids beat Tulsa a
couple of years ago 53-21, andthey scored 36 by halftime in
that game.
But we all saw how much of astruggle it was for the team to
(18:15):
score last year, and it was justkind of nice to see, once they
got on track how the offensestarted to flow.
That said, you can bet that thecoaches are going to be honed
in on reducing those mentalerrors in practice this week.
They didn't cost the team toomuch in this game, but there's
little doubt that similarmistakes against conference
opponents could be thedifference between celebrating a
win or stewing over a loss.
(18:36):
Right now it's all aboutincremental improvement, and if
the mids can do that, they'vegot a good shot against Temple
next week We'll be right back.
(18:59):
Thanks for staying with us onNavy Sports Central, Karl Darden
, here with you.
And now it's time for ourquestion of the day.
Let's go ahead and check outthe responses from the one on
our last episode.
You may recall that Coach KeithPuryear from the women's tennis
team joined me to talk abouttheir terrific championship
season.
And here's the question I putout there what is the longest
home match winning streak forthe Navy women's tennis team in
dual meets?
Is it A 11, b 17, c 20, or D 23?
(19:25):
It looks like the highest votegetter was C 20 matches.
67% of those who responded wentwith that number.
17% chose A 11, followed by 16%who selected B, and that was 17
matches.
There were no takers on D,which was 23 matches, and
actually that turned out to bethe correct answer.
The Mids began that home matchwinning streak on February 2nd
(19:47):
2013, and they didn't loseanother one for the rest of the
year.
In fact, it stretched into thefollowing season before they
finally dropped a close match toJames Madison on February 8th
2014.
So thanks to all of you whoanswered that question, and I
wanted to give a special shoutout to my classmate, tom
Callahan, who responded bytexting the show directly.
The company that hosts mypodcast is always coming up with
(20:09):
cool ways to increaseengagement, and I really like
this one, because it's a chanceto get your thoughts about the
game and include them in theshow.
So don't be shy.
I'd love to hear from you.
Now let's look at the questionfor this episode.
Those of you who watched theNavy Bucknell game heard that
the win over the Bison was thefirst time since 2019 that the
Mids had won their opening gameof the season.
So here's the question, goingback to 2002, when Coach Johnson
(20:31):
took over the program what wasthe most number of years in a
row that Navy's won their firstgame of the season, either at
home or on the road?
Is it A of the season, eitherat home or on the road?
Is it A 3, b, 4, c, 5, or D 6?
Take some time to think aboutthat one and you can get back to
me either by texting the showor going to the Navy Sports
Nation group Facebook page.
(20:51):
I look forward to hearing whatyou guys have to say on that one
.
Okay, before we finish up, I didwant to pass along the names of
the athletes we will betracking throughout the fall in
our mid-watch segment.
For the women, it will beAmanda Graziano.
She is a senior who plays bothforward and midfield position
for the women's soccer team.
Amanda started 15 games lastyear and finished tied for
fourth on the team in points.
This season.
(21:12):
She's off to a pretty quickstart, picking up two goals and
an assist through five games.
Her ability to play twopositions gives coach Karen
Gabarra some really nice options, so I'm looking forward to the
impact that Graciano is going tohave throughout the year.
For the men, we'll focus on thesprint football team and we're
going to cover two guys namedLuke.
One is a sophomore who willtake over at quarterback.
His name is Luke O'Connell andhe's from Darien, Connecticut.
(21:33):
He takes over for BrandonAtwood, who graduated last
spring after a great career atNavy.
The other player we're going tobe watching is Luke Wagner.
He is a senior running backfrom Edmond Oklahoma.
Last season, Wagner gained 220yards, while averaging over
seven yards per carry.
He was part of a consistentrushing attack that helped take
the Mids to their third straightcollege sprint football
championship.
We'll see how they do this yearas they try for a fourth one.
(21:55):
That's going to do it for thisedition of Navy Sports Central.
Thank you all so much forjoining us Now.
If you like what you've heard,please be sure to hit that
follow button wherever you getyour podcasts, and remember to
get the word to all the otherNavy fans out there.
Once again, I'd like to thankGinger Rice and Tom Callahan for
texting into the show.
I think we can really have alot of fun with that.
Now that the football seasonhas started.
(22:22):
Our question of the daycontinues to be a show favorite.
You can get in on that byjoining the Navy Sports Nation
group Facebook page and givingyour answer to this week's
question.
You can also respond by sendingus a text.
All you need to do is click onthe link in the show notes.
And just a quick reminder theviews expressed on Navy Sports
Central are my own and do notreflect those of the US Naval
Academy or Navy Athletics.
By the way, the music used inNavy Sports Central comes to you
courtesy of Audio Jungle.
(22:42):
This is a great site forpurchasing the rights to use the
music from thousands of artistsaround the world, and those
featured in the podcast will becredited in our show notes.
Talk to you soon, everybody.
Until next time.
This is Karl Darden Go NavyBeat Army.
Hi everybody, my name is Karl Darden and I'd like to
welcome and thank all of you forjoining us today on Navy Sports
Central.
I'm your host and this is theofficial podcast of the Navy
Sports Nation, where we take adeeper dive into Navy sports.
It has been over eight and ahalf months since the Navy
football team's final podcast ofthe Navy Sports Nation, where
we take a deeper dive into Navysports.
It has been over eight and ahalf months since the Navy
football team's final game ofthe 2023 season.
We all know what that resultwas and I'm not kidding you when
I tell you it still stings alittle.
(00:34):
But next year has finallyarrived and in this edition of
Navy Sports Central, we'll takean in-depth look at the Mids
home opener against Bucknell.
In fact, we're going to try alittle experiment in this
episode's deep dive segment.
I talked a little bit about iton the Navy Sports Nation group
Facebook page, so we're going tosee how all that works out.
We've got all that, plus ourquestion of the day and the
athletes we'll be tracking inour Midwatch segment, so please
(00:55):
stick around.
All right, it is great to haveyou with us today as we get
ready for another season of Navyfootball.
So, whether you follow the showor this is your first visit,
thanks for taking the time.
(01:16):
Let's go ahead and get rightinto it.
I don't know how much you allknew about the team Navy faced
in their first game, and thatwould be Bucknell, and it is a
program that Navy is veryfamiliar with in just about
every other sport exceptfootball.
As fellow competitors in thePatriot League, the Mids and the
Bisons square off against eachother in at least 16 different
sports.
But because Navy competes atthe Division I level in football
, the two teams have not crossedpaths that often.
(01:36):
In fact, the last time theyfaced each other, calvin
Coolidge was president, charlieChaplin was one of the most
famous actors in the country andthere are only 48 states the
year was 1925, and the Mids wonthat contest 13-7.
Saturday was the 15th meetingbetween the two programs, so
let's see how they matched uphead-to-head.
We can start with the pointspread Now.
Navy was favored, which weshould all have expected, but
(02:01):
the line was 32.5 points 32.5.
Now, granted, bucknell is notas strong an FCS program as, say
, like Delaware, or even NorthDakota State, who almost beat
Colorado, but I'd be verycurious to know how the
oddsmakers landed on that number.
Don't get me wrong.
It's great that the bettinggurus thought so highly of the
mids, even though they enteredthe game with so many questions
(02:22):
on offense.
But we hadn't seen this newhybrid wing tee offense in real
time.
And if you factor into that,you know first game jitters and
an opponent who wasn't makingthe trip to Annapolis just to
get embarrassed, 32 and a halfpoints seemed like a lot.
And then, going back to lastyear, the mids averaged just
over 17 and a half points a game.
So with an offense that wassight unseen, the folks in Vegas
(02:42):
were saying that this newsystem could at least double the
team's point production againstthis FCS opponent.
I just don't know if I couldhave gone out on that limb, but
I will say that I'm 100% okaywith being wrong on this one.
All right, now let's take a lookat who we saw on both sides of
the ball.
Obviously, blake Horvath gotthe start at quarterback.
I don't think that came as muchof a surprise.
Horvath has done a solid joblearning Coach Kronick's system
(03:04):
going back to the spring, andthat continued into the
preseason practices.
His passing has gotten a lotmore accurate.
He's making good decisions withthe football and he's got good
running instincts.
We'll get into how he did alittle bit later.
Moving on to the all-importantoffensive line, that group, you
all saw, was led by seniorConnor McMahon at left tackle.
He is extremely durable, havingstarted in each of the team's
(03:24):
last 22 games.
Mcmahon is joined by hisclassmates Brent Self at center
and Javon Boughton at righttackle.
Junior Ben Purvis will be atthe left guard, while sophomore
Cam Nichols earned the startingjob at right guard.
Just like any other offensivescheme, the hybrid wing tee's
success will depend on how wellthe offensive line can execute
consistently on each play.
Last season, pre-snap penaltiesresulted in the mids getting
(03:44):
behind the sticks early and theyhad a tough time digging
themselves out of that hole.
That lack of discipline droveboth the coaching staff and the
fans crazy.
In their best seasons theoffense had several games where
they might have gotten flaggedfor maybe five or ten yards a
game.
Last year we saw them get hitwith at least three or four
pre-snap penalties each contest.
As a whole, navy averaged 46yards in penalties per game,
(04:05):
which was nearly twice as muchas their opponents.
That just can't happen anymoreif they want to have a winning
season.
So we'll break down how thingswent in this game and see if
there's any adjustments thatneed to be made.
Now let's talk about the oneposition that underwent a name
change.
The Navy slotbacks, or theA-backs, are now called snipes.
So you've got a snipe A and asnipe Z, and even though they
have the same name, theirresponsibilities aren't
(04:27):
necessarily the same.
Eli Heidenreich is currentlythe starter at the snipe Z
position.
He goes at six feet 201 pounds.
Cronic mentioned mentioned inhis last interview that he likes
to have someone a little longerand heavier at the snipe Z
position because he'll be askedto do some things that the other
snipe doesn't have to do.
But no matter what, they bothhave to be playmakers and
Heidenreich definitely has thatgoing for him.
(04:47):
Last year, he averaged nearly 8yards per carry, including a
46-yard TD early in the season.
He also did a lot of damagecatching the ball, co-leading
the team in receptions with 19.
He also led the team in totalyards with 382, and the average
yards per catch coming in justat about 21.
His counterpart at the snipe Aposition is Brandon Chatman, who
(05:08):
is also a legitimate threat In2023, he averaged over 13 yards
per catch and matchedHeidenreich's 19 receptions on
the season, while gaining nearlyfour yards per carry running
the ball.
So in our deep dive segmentwe'll check out how Coach Cronic
used these guys againstBucknell.
And keep in mind, in thishybrid wing tee, this game is
designed to be played on theperimeter, so you've got to
(05:28):
figure that the snipes are goingto have a pretty big role in
this scheme.
Now let's see who we've got atthe wide receiver and tight end
positions.
Those of you who follow theshow should be very familiar
with Nathan Kent.
His mom, Maura, has been aguest on a couple of occasions.
According to Coach Cronic,Nathan did a nice job in
(05:50):
preseason practices and I'mreally looking forward to seeing
if he gets targeted more thisyear, because when that guy gets
the ball in his hands, goodthings usually happen.
We also saw sophomore LukeHutchinson on the field at wide
receiver Last week.
Horvath specifically mentionedhim in an interview as someone
to watch this year.
And then, finally, cron Myersand Turner Stepp, who is a
converted linebacker, are alsolisted on the depth chart at
wide receiver.
At the tight end position, CodyHoward earned the number one
(06:10):
spot during the preseasonpractices Last year.
We kept waiting to see how thisposition would be folded into
the offense under Coach Chestnut.
That never really materialized,though, and I'm not exactly
sure what Coach Cronic has inmind for these guys, but maybe
this first game gave us somewhatof an indicator.
Now, at fullback, we've got twoknown quantities in Alex Tecza
and Senior Captain Daba Fofana.
Tecza did lead the team inrushing last season, but most of
(06:32):
those yards came earlier in theyear.
Either the defense keptfocusing more on the fullback
starting in November or the playcalling went in a completely
different direction.
Either way, it was not a goodresult.
The Mids have way too muchtalent at this position to let
it go to waste, and I don't seeCoach Cronic letting that happen
.
All right, that pretty muchcovers the offense.
Certainly, there are a lot ofquestions surrounding this new
system, and in our deep divesegment, we'll see how many of
(06:56):
them got answered againstBucknell.
Now, even though there might besome questions on offense, as
far as the defensive side of theball goes, there shouldn't be
that many.
I am very confident in the Navydefense's ability to keep
things close, even against someof their tougher opponents.
The Mids put up three shutoutslast year.
They fielded a pretty youngteam and even though that
relative experience did show upagainst teams like Notre Dame
and SMU, I really think they'llbe that much better because of
that experience that they had.
(07:17):
So let's check out who was onthe field against the Bison.
On the defensive line, you hadJustin Reed at left end coming
off a pretty solid year.
Lendon Robinson took over atnose guard after Donald
Brainyard aka Biscuit graduatedlast spring, and then Kendall
Whiteside is on Robinson's rightat the defensive tackle
position.
The linebacker core is anchoredby senior captain Colin Ramos
(07:39):
at one of the inside linebackerspots, and then Jackson Campbell
got the start at striker.
Luke Pires, who had a terrificbreakout season last fall,
played the Raider position, andKyle Jacob is at the Mike
linebacker spot.
The defensive secondary tookthe field with three seniors,
and BT Williams plays at thebandit position, deshaun Peel is
at boundary corner and RayuanLane is at free safety.
The field corner position willbe played by sophomore Ira Oniha
(08:02):
.
With the exception of Oniha,the rest of the defense saw
significant playing time inCoach Volker's system.
As a result, they've come totrust each other, and that is
super critical for a defense tofunction well as a unit.
I got to tell you I'm reallyfired up about watching them
play this year.
Obviously, they'll face biggerchallenges than Bucknell, but I
think they'll be up for it.
We could actually be in storefor a pretty special season if
(08:26):
they can stay healthy.
Let's go ahead and finish upwith the special teams.
Nathan Kirkwood will start theyear handling field goals and
extra points.
Senior Riley Reithman is thepunter and he's also on a couple
of preseason watch lists.
And then, finally, heidenreichChapman and Tyler Bradley will
take care of returning kickoffsand punts.
So that is a look at the Navy2024 football team.
When we come back for our deepdive segment, I'll break down
(08:47):
how they did against Bucknell,so don't go anywhere.
All right, we are back to takea look at what I would call a
(09:08):
solid 49-21 win for the Mids intheir home opener.
Before I get to it, though, Idid want to jump back to that
point spread.
At game time it had jumped backto 33 points from 32.5.
And I'll be honest with youwhen I saw it the other day, I
thought whoever set those oddswere smoking a crack or
something, because I just didn'treally think that there was any
reason to favor the mids bythat much, but I'll be darned if
(09:31):
they didn't pretty much get itright.
The mids by that much, but I'llbe darned if they didn't pretty
much get it right.
The mids were up by 35 withless than about 30 seconds to go
and Bucknell just happened topunch it in for a touchdown on
that last drive.
So I hope there weren't toomany of you who picked the mids
to cover, even though theyprobably should have.
I mean, this game is a primeexample of why I don't bet on
sports.
One minute it looks like you'regoing to win a bunch of big
(09:51):
bucks and then in the nextsecond it just all disappears.
So no thanks.
I did get one text messageduring the game and that came
from my classmate Ginger Riceand Ginger's down in Raleigh,
north Carolina, which,coincidentally, I used to live.
But anyway, I'll go ahead andread it for you and then I'll
make my comments as well.
So Ginger says watching thegame and really enjoying A few
(10:16):
comments Too many penalties,especially on the chop blocks,
and obviously we need to work onthat.
Passing game looks pretty good.
Nice block on the field goalattempt.
Obviously Bucknell is not avery strong team, but I think we
look a lot better than lastyear, and certainly that's true,
especially if you go ahead andcompare apples to apples,
because I remember last yearwhen the Mids played Wagner yeah
, they did win the game 24-0,but it was kind of an uneven
performance.
The offense didn't look allthat smooth, but they did tack
(10:37):
on one final touchdown in thefourth quarter.
Defense played great, you know,shutting them out, but
certainly on offense the teamwas a lot more productive and a
lot more efficient than theywere against the FCS opponent
last year.
So, ginger, thanks so much forthe text message and you are
spot on when it comes to thepenalties.
I had a chance to look at thata little bit.
The mids were penalized seventimes for 55 yards, including
(10:59):
those two illegal chop blocksthat you mentioned, and then you
had another one for holding andone false start.
The other three were defensiveoffside.
So clearly there's a lot toclean up there, and that has to
happen before we face Temple,otherwise it could be a real
long afternoon.
Now we can go ahead and work ourway through the game, and what
I did was I had my phone out andI was basically just kind of
making some comments here andthere, just so I could remember
(11:21):
what I wanted to talk about.
And I can tell you, after thefirst I don't know four or five
minutes of game time, I'm justlike thinking, oh my God, here
we go again Because you know,because kickoff goes out of
bounds, right, and then they gotthe Bison on the third and six
and there's the miscommunicationon defense that resulted in
(11:41):
that first TD.
I mean, that guy couldn't havebeen more wide open.
There was not even a defenderin the screen.
So now they're down, seven,nothing.
They get the ball back and thenbam three and out, just like
that.
And the first thing that poppedinto my mind was here we go.
It's Delaware all over againfrom two years ago.
And luckily that didn't turn outto be the case, because once
(12:01):
you kind of started getting intothe game itself, you could see
the defense getting into theirrhythm right.
And I don't know, maybe withabout five or six minutes to go
in the first quarter I got thesense that the defense was
pretty much in sync and I justdidn't think that the Bison
would give them many moreproblems the rest of the way,
and that's pretty much whathappened they were held to 160
yards, passing the rest of theafternoon, and a good chunk of
(12:24):
those came in that very lastdrive, when the game was already
decided.
The Navy defense allowedbasically 3.4 yards per carry on
the ground, and then they alsorung up seven tackles for a loss
and four sacks.
On top of that, they forced twoturnovers that led to a couple
of touchdowns on offense.
So as far as I'm concerned, themids pretty much did what we
all expected on defense, andI'll go ahead and highlight a
(12:45):
couple of the individualstandouts a little bit later on.
Now, moving over to the offense,obviously there was a lot of
anticipation around CoachCronic's new scheme, and the one
thing that I noticed almostright away was the emphasis on
attacking the perimeter, whichis the whole idea behind this
hybrid wing tee.
I actually lost track of howmany jet sweeps the mids ran,
and most of them were prettyeffective, especially when they
(13:07):
ran to the right.
Horvath also picked up goodyards when he followed the
fullbacks on a similar play.
The bottom line was that phaseof the run game worked pretty
well and we saw the kind ofimpact a player like Eli
Heidenreich can have.
That touchdown he scored in thethird quarter was just a really
nice piece of running.
I knew the guy had speed but Ididn't realize that he was so
(13:27):
shifty, especially in traffic,and his partner, brandon Chapman
, at the other snipe position,had a big play on that screen
pass that went for 42 yards anda touchdown.
Now, when I went through thedepth chart in the previous
segment I mentioned that bothHeidenreich and Chapman were
playmakers and they certainlylived up to their reputations.
In this first game the two ofthem accounted for 170 of the
team's 437 yards on offense.
(13:49):
The other thing I wanted tomention on the offensive side of
the ball was the mids' abilityto extend the drives.
Other thing I wanted to mentionon the offensive side of the
ball was the mids' ability toextend the drives.
Last year their third downefficiency was just horrible and
I don't remember where theyranked in the FBS, but it was
not good.
But against Bucknell theyconverted on 10 of 17 third down
opportunities and also theywere one for one on fourth downs
(14:11):
.
So certainly a huge improvementthere in game one.
Obviously that's not a big dataset, but hopefully they'll
continue to improve on that asthe season goes on.
So from here let's go ahead andtalk about the quarterback play
.
I mean there's no way we canbreak down a game without
looking at that and overall Ithought it was pretty decent.
Blake Horvath did a nice jobrunning things.
I did wince just a little bitwhen I saw him miss a wide-open
(14:32):
Heidenreich in the end zone inthe second quarter, but to his
credit he came right back to himon the very next play and he
threw a really nice pass.
I mean it was much tougher toexecute than the previous one.
He dropped it in right over thedefender and Heidenreich went
up there and got it.
So that was a nice job.
Horvath has shown that he canmake the throws and now he just
needs to be more consistent.
Braxton Woodson also ran theoffense pretty well after
(14:54):
Horvath had to leave the game inthe second half due to leg
cramps.
You know, the first thing Inoticed when he started throwing
the ball was comparing how bothhe and Horvath delivered.
I mean, there is definitelyless reaction time when Woodson
is throwing it to you, and I'msure that the receivers have to
get their minds right when hecomes in, because that ball is
going to get there very, veryquickly.
(15:14):
Anyway, it was a veryproductive day for Horvath.
He was 7 of 12 through the airfor 108 yards and a couple of
touchdowns.
He also ran for 33 yards on 7carries.
Woodson completed 3 of 7 for 65yards and the 1 TD to
Heidenreich that I had mentionedearlier.
(15:44):
No-transcript.
I didn't want to forget aboutthe fullbacks.
Both Daba Fofana and Alex Teczawere really tough running the
ball and they also made someoutstanding blocks in front of
Horvath on a couple of thoseruns around the right side.
I did think it was pretty funnythat the guys calling the game
took so long to realize that itwas Fofana that scored that
(16:04):
first touchdown instead of Tecza.
I know that the numbers 45 and46 are pretty close and it's
easy to mix them up, but theydidn't catch that mistake until
Tecza scored early in the secondquarter and it was actually
pretty obvious that somebody hadto point it out to him.
I mean, they didn't catch it ontheir own.
So anyway, I just had to throwthat in.
Let's jump back to the defensereal quick and I wanted to
specifically address how theMids did on their Get Six goal
(16:27):
that Coach Newberry establishedwhen he got here five years ago.
And just to refresh yourmemories, get Six means that any
combination of three and outs,holding a team on fourth down or
turnovers that total six ormore, the mids usually have a
pretty good chance of winningthe game.
So, looking at this gameagainst Bucknell, the mids came
up with two turnovers and bothof those actually led to
touchdowns, and they forced four, three and outs, as well as
(16:49):
holding the Bison on fourth downtwice.
So that comes to a total ofeight, which serves to validate
Coach Newberry's theory.
Once again, Colin Ramos andJaxson Campbell led the team
with 10 tackles each, and LukePirres had one and a half sacks
and recovered a fumble that ledto a touchdown.
I swear that guy's got a crazynose for the ball.
I mean, every time it's up forgrabs he always seems to be
around it and he, along with therest of the defense, made it
(17:10):
just a miserable day forBucknell quarterback Ralph
Rucker.
After that first drive, ruckerdidn't look like he was having a
whole lot of fun, and I'mhoping that there are quite a
few more opposing quarterbackswho get that same feeling when
they go up against this defense.
The one area that makes me alittle bit nervous is special
teams.
They got that nice block on thefield goal attempt, so that was
good, and I actually thoughtthe Mids were pretty good
returning kickoffs and punts aswell, but on the coverage side,
(17:32):
they gave up a 52-yard kickoffreturn and then another one of
29 yards to go along with a puntreturn of 24 yards, so I know
they can't be too happy aboutthat.
It's an easy fix, though,because all they need to do is
just wrap up the guy and bringhim to the ground, rather than
thinking that the hit alone isgoing to be enough.
So, overall, this game went theway I hoped that it would.
The offense took a couple ofseries to find its rhythm, but
(17:54):
you can definitely see thedifference in Coach Cronic's
system compared to the tripleoption that we'd gotten so
familiar with over the past 20years.
There are still some kinks thatneed to be worked out, but it
was nice to see the offense putup 28 points in the first half.
I mean, that hasn't happenedsince the Mids beat Tulsa a
couple of years ago 53-21, andthey scored 36 by halftime in
that game.
But we all saw how much of astruggle it was for the team to
(18:15):
score last year, and it was justkind of nice to see, once they
got on track how the offensestarted to flow.
That said, you can bet that thecoaches are going to be honed
in on reducing those mentalerrors in practice this week.
They didn't cost the team toomuch in this game, but there's
little doubt that similarmistakes against conference
opponents could be thedifference between celebrating a
win or stewing over a loss.
(18:36):
Right now it's all aboutincremental improvement, and if
the mids can do that, they'vegot a good shot against Temple
next week We'll be right back.
(18:59):
Thanks for staying with us onNavy Sports Central, Karl Darden
, here with you.
And now it's time for ourquestion of the day.
Let's go ahead and check outthe responses from the one on
our last episode.
You may recall that Coach KeithPuryear from the women's tennis
team joined me to talk abouttheir terrific championship
season.
And here's the question I putout there what is the longest
home match winning streak forthe Navy women's tennis team in
dual meets?
Is it A 11, b 17, c 20, or D 23?
(19:25):
It looks like the highest votegetter was C 20 matches.
67% of those who responded wentwith that number.
17% chose A 11, followed by 16%who selected B, and that was 17
matches.
There were no takers on D,which was 23 matches, and
actually that turned out to bethe correct answer.
The Mids began that home matchwinning streak on February 2nd
(19:47):
2013, and they didn't loseanother one for the rest of the
year.
In fact, it stretched into thefollowing season before they
finally dropped a close match toJames Madison on February 8th
2014.
So thanks to all of you whoanswered that question, and I
wanted to give a special shoutout to my classmate, tom
Callahan, who responded bytexting the show directly.
The company that hosts mypodcast is always coming up with
(20:09):
cool ways to increaseengagement, and I really like
this one, because it's a chanceto get your thoughts about the
game and include them in theshow.
So don't be shy.
I'd love to hear from you.
Now let's look at the questionfor this episode.
Those of you who watched theNavy Bucknell game heard that
the win over the Bison was thefirst time since 2019 that the
Mids had won their opening gameof the season.
So here's the question, goingback to 2002, when Coach Johnson
(20:31):
took over the program what wasthe most number of years in a
row that Navy's won their firstgame of the season, either at
home or on the road?
Is it A of the season, eitherat home or on the road?
Is it A 3, b, 4, c, 5, or D 6?
Take some time to think aboutthat one and you can get back to
me either by texting the showor going to the Navy Sports
Nation group Facebook page.
(20:51):
I look forward to hearing whatyou guys have to say on that one
.
Okay, before we finish up, I didwant to pass along the names of
the athletes we will betracking throughout the fall in
our mid-watch segment.
For the women, it will beAmanda Graziano.
She is a senior who plays bothforward and midfield position
for the women's soccer team.
Amanda started 15 games lastyear and finished tied for
fourth on the team in points.
This season.
(21:12):
She's off to a pretty quickstart, picking up two goals and
an assist through five games.
Her ability to play twopositions gives coach Karen
Gabarra some really nice options, so I'm looking forward to the
impact that Graciano is going tohave throughout the year.
For the men, we'll focus on thesprint football team and we're
going to cover two guys namedLuke.
One is a sophomore who willtake over at quarterback.
His name is Luke O'Connell andhe's from Darien, Connecticut.
(21:33):
He takes over for BrandonAtwood, who graduated last
spring after a great career atNavy.
The other player we're going tobe watching is Luke Wagner.
He is a senior running backfrom Edmond Oklahoma.
Last season, Wagner gained 220yards, while averaging over
seven yards per carry.
He was part of a consistentrushing attack that helped take
the Mids to their third straightcollege sprint football
championship.
We'll see how they do this yearas they try for a fourth one.
(21:55):
That's going to do it for thisedition of Navy Sports Central.
Thank you all so much forjoining us Now.
If you like what you've heard,please be sure to hit that
follow button wherever you getyour podcasts, and remember to
get the word to all the otherNavy fans out there.
Once again, I'd like to thankGinger Rice and Tom Callahan for
texting into the show.
I think we can really have alot of fun with that.
Now that the football seasonhas started.
(22:22):
Our question of the daycontinues to be a show favorite.
You can get in on that byjoining the Navy Sports Nation
group Facebook page and givingyour answer to this week's
question.
You can also respond by sendingus a text.
All you need to do is click onthe link in the show notes.
And just a quick reminder theviews expressed on Navy Sports
Central are my own and do notreflect those of the US Naval
Academy or Navy Athletics.
By the way, the music used inNavy Sports Central comes to you
courtesy of Audio Jungle.
(22:42):
This is a great site forpurchasing the rights to use the
music from thousands of artistsaround the world, and those
featured in the podcast will becredited in our show notes.
Talk to you soon, everybody.
Until next time.
This is Karl Darden Go NavyBeat Army.
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