Playmakers & Disruptors: An Early Look at the 2025 Navy Football Team

Episode Transcript
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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.
To the official podcast of theNavy Sports Nation, where we
take a deeper dive into Navysports.
We are rapidly approaching theend of the spring sports season,
so I will do my best to get youall caught up on how things

(00:34):
look right now.
I'll also do a quick recap ofsome of the team and individual
standout performances over thelast couple of months, and in
today's deep dive segment, we'regoing to take an early look at
the 2025 Navy football team, nowthat spring practices have
finished up.
We've got all that, plus ourquestion of the day and
mid-watch segments, so don't goanywhere.
All right, it is great to haveyou guys with us.

(00:58):
Thanks so much for dropping in.
I really appreciate you takingthe time.
I want to get to some greatstories in our sports update, so
let's go ahead and start withthe men's outdoor track and
field team.
They just won their 11thstraight Patriot League title
yesterday, cruising past Army bya score of 236 to 201.
Boston University was a distantthird.
The team was led by Nathan Kent, who was named the Outstanding

(01:20):
Athlete of the Meet afterwinning the 400 meters, the 200
meters and also helping the teamwin the 4x100 meter and 4x400
meter relays.
It was really a terrificperformance by Kent.
I was following the resultsyesterday while I was traveling.
His time of 20.56 in the 200meters broke a 10-year-old
school record and in the 400, heposted a time of 46.77, which

(01:41):
broke the meet record and is theninth best time in program
history.
The 4x100 meter relay team madeup of Marcel Jackson Kent,
Jonah Johnson and Tyler Urichbroke the meet record in winning
that event.
Their time of 39.64 also tied aschool record, and the 4x400
meter relay squad of Pete DeJongKent, Simon Alexander and
Jacques Guillaume broke the meetrecord in that event with a

(02:03):
time of 308.11, and that was thesixth best time in school
history.
And, by the way, Guillaume alsowon his third straight
400-meter hurdles title.
Other standout performancescame from Sheldon Ulmer, who won
the high jump by clearing aheight of 6 feet 11 inches,
while Murphy Smith and AlexanderKirkland finished 2-3 in the
5,000 meters.
So great job to Coach Cook andthe men's track and field team
on winning yet another PatriotLeague title.

(02:24):
Next up for them are the ECACand IC4A championships in a
couple of weeks, followed by theNCAA regional qualifiers in
Jacksonville in early June.
Next, I wanted to give a shoutout to a couple of sports that
don't get a ton of exposure, butthat doesn't mean they don't
have their own elite athletes.
I've mentioned one of them onthe show on a few occasions, and

(02:45):
that's the Navy Rifle Team.
Back in March, senior MarleighDuncan took part in her fourth
NCAA championship.
After qualifying in the smallbore rifle, she posted a score
of 579 out of a possible 600points.
Coach Mike Anti calls Duncanone of the best rifle athletes
in the history of the program,and it's easy to see why.
She won the Great America RifleConference small bore title as
a freshman and going into thisseason, she was ranked in the

(03:07):
top five in career scoringaverage for both the small bore
and air rifle.
Duncan also earned All-Americahonors in the small bore
competition this year, havingbeen recognized by the College
Rifle Coaches Association.
But she wasn't the only onemaking some noise this year.
Isabella Baldwin joined her asan All-American in both the air
rifle and small bore.
In fact, the two shootersfinished either first or second

(03:27):
in nearly every match this year,and just last month, Baldwin
won the air rifle competition atthe USA Shooting Junior
Olympics, and she will go on torepresent the United States at
the Junior Pan Am Games inParaguay coming up in August.
And, by the way, baldwin isonly a sophomore, so there's no
telling what she can accomplishby the time she's finished with
her career at Navy.
All right, now let's move on tosquash.
Last month, Alexander Orr andRamsey Killinger teamed up and

(03:51):
went undefeated to win the 2025US Intercollegiate Doubles
Championship in Philadelphia.
Orr and Killinger played at anextremely high level the whole
weekend.
It was Orr's second doublesappearance and the first for
Killinger, and it was Navy'sseventh squash doubles
championship and their firstsince 2019.
And, by the way, the mids alsograbbed second place, with a
freshman, Wenging Tang, and hisclassmate, Michael Tierney Jr,

(04:12):
joining Orr and Killinger on thepodium.
And finally, we're going to wrapup this sports update with some
really fantastic news.
I am recording this segment ofthe podcast the day after the
Navy women's lacrosse teamdefeated Loyola 14-13 in
overtime to win the PatriotLeague Championship, and that,
of course, qualifies them forthe NCAA tournament.
It was an amazing win for themids.
They trailed early in the thirdquarter 11-6, before going on

(04:35):
to score seven of the next ninegoals to score the game at 13
and send it to overtime.
And two minutes and 45 secondsinto OT, Mikayla Williams beat
her defender and fired ascorching low bounce shot that
beat the Loyola goalie to theright side, and that was a game
winner.
Now, some of you may rememberthat last year, the Mids
suffered an absolutelyheartbreaking overtime loss in
the championship game to theGreyhounds, and they also had a

(04:56):
chance to hand Loyola theirfirst ever regular season
conference loss.
But the Hounds also managed towin that game in Annapolis after
being taken to double overtimeabout a month and a half ago.
Back in February, I posted onthe Navy Sports Nation group
Facebook page that, with thetalent the Mids had returning in
2025, I felt like they had agood chance of knocking off
Loyola and winning their firstleague title since 2018.
And that's exactly whathappened.

(05:17):
I'm telling you.
You couldn't have scripted itany better.
I do plan to spend more time onthis game in a separate episode
, and I'm going to check with mywomen's lacrosse guru, Cynthia
Lisa to see if I can get her onthe show to break down the game
.
So stay tuned for that.
Okay, our sports update is nowcomplete and our deep dive
segment is coming up next.
Stay with us.
We are barely four monthsremoved from last year's Navy

(05:54):
football season and, believe itor not, the 2025 spring
practices just wrapped up acouple of weeks ago, so I
figured this might be a goodtime to get a sneak peek at what
might be in store for Navy fansthis fall.
So I figured this might be agood time to get a sneak peek at
what might be in store for Navyfans this fall.
Now, by way of introduction, Iwill tell you that my guest on
our Deep Dive segment is someonewho I've known my entire life.
We spent quite a bit of timeover the years talking football,

(06:14):
so I thought it'd be fun tohave him help me take an early
look at the Navy football teamnow that spring practice is over
.
He's my older brother, jamesDarden, and he is joining us
from Los Angeles.

James (06:25):
So, james, welcome to Navy Sports Central and thanks
for taking the time.
Hey, thanks a lot.
Thanks for having me.
I appreciate it.
Hopefully I can provide somedecent information.
I am not a soothsayer or expertby any means.
I just enjoy watching the gameand I like the excitement, I

(06:47):
like the I guess you'd call itpageantry or whatever compared
to professional ball.
But yeah, yeah, that's.

Karl (06:53):
The only requirement here is just that you're a fan,
because that's what makes theconversations the most fun.
And, by the way, for those ofyou guys listening, my brother
and I, when we were growing up,we were raised Catholic and,
like most Catholic boys, we kindof did the altar server thing
and our first priority duringfootball season anyway, was

(07:14):
getting the right schedule interms of serving mass, because
it would interfere with thefootball games because we lived
in Florida, and obviously theone o'clock games.
You didn't want that 1230 massbecause that would interfere
with uh, with uh, that first,that first round of games.
So I don't know, James, if youremember this, but my main thing
was I I didn't really like theSaturday evening masses,

(07:37):
although I would take thembecause it did kind of cut into
your weekend.
But uh, of course you had theeight o'clock masses on Sunday
which were basically a no-go.
Nobody wanted to get up thatearly.
So I think we agreed betweenthe two of us that the that the
gouge mass was the 10 AM mass,because you didn't have to get
up too early and you were doneby like 11, 1130.

(07:59):
And we get home in time towatch football.
Is that the way you remember it?

James (08:03):
Yeah, but I also remember somehow we always get roped
into doing that early morning.
Nobody else wanted to do it andif for some reason we would get
tapped and we couldn't.
We couldn't weasel out of it orwhatever you know.
But yeah, those, those werekind of like red eye flight yes,
man, you just get up leery-eyed.

(08:24):
We would ordinarily most of thetime just ride our bikes to the
chapel.
Those were not fun, for somereason.
Anyway, this is definitelygoing off track here.
I'm sure if any of yourlisteners most of the listeners
are probably Naval Academypeople they'll appreciate this

(08:46):
story.
It was second class year and itwas spring and we were
approaching June week and therewas somebody who was supposed to
stand watch at the gate Rightand this person was nowhere to
be found and I just happened tobe in the company area and the
company adjective was there andhe's like well, we need somebody

(09:10):
to stand watch at the gate.
The gate was I think it's thegate where they have the visitor
center now yeah, gate one,whatever gate that is.
Anyway.
So that was the gate.
I was supposed to stand watchand I don't even remember who
was supposed to be there.
And I'm like, well, where'sso-and-so?
It was like, well, he's nothere, he might be on weekend or
whatever.
And I'm like, well, I'm notdoing it.

(09:32):
And the guy pleaded with me, hestarted negotiating and said,
okay, well, if you stand thiswatch, you know you'll get like
an extra weekend or somethinglike that.
Man, I was so mad, but somehowI just got collared into doing
this thing.
And it was only because Ihappened to be in the company
area at that time.
If I was nowhere around, itwouldn't have happened.

(09:54):
So I'm like, oh my God, this islike going back to the altar
boy days, but I digress.
Days, but I digress.

Karl (10:05):
So in our calls and texts back and forth over the last
couple of years, we usuallytalked about pro football, but I
know that, at least somewhatrecently, we've been discussing
a lot of college ball as well.
So I was wondering when youstarted taking a bigger interest
in college football and what?
Well, we kind of talked alittle bit about what in
particular drew you to it, butif you could go into a little
bit more detail, that'd be great.

James (10:24):
Well, we kind of talked a little bit about what in
particular drew you to it.
But if you could go in a littlebit more detail, that'd be
great.
It was actually only the lastcouple of years, and what kind
of got me inspired to do it?
I have a friend, a really goodfriend, that works upstairs
where I work at UCLA.
She was really, really big inthe college ball.
I mean to the point where shewas like involved in betting and
stuff like that.

(10:44):
But it kind of consumed so muchof her time that she eventually
just stopped.
She doesn't really pay thatmuch attention to it anymore.
But you know, a lot of peoplewould say college ball is so
much more exciting, it's faster.
You know, you got the band andto me in the beginning it was
like man, it's just too manyteams, too many conferences.
How can anybody keep up withall of this stuff?

(11:06):
But most recently I startedwatching the Rich Eisen podcast.
And the reason I startedwatching that one, that specific
one, as opposed to like PatMcAfee or God, if you name any
of the other ones Dan.

Karl (11:23):
Dan Patrick.

James (11:25):
Dan Patrick, yeah, name any of the other ones, um, dan
dan patrick, dan patrick, yeah,or pat mcafee or any of these
other guys was because I used towatch nfl network and eisen was
used to do the, uh, the sundaynight um game day final, and it
was hilarious because and itturns out, you know, he used to
do stand-up when he was incollege, although that
definitely was not his call, buthe still kind of has that

(11:48):
little bit of a comedic vibewhen he does his, his, his show.
And you know, I mean he's donea couple of spots here and there
on different TV shows andthings like that.
But when I was watching him onon NFL Network I was really
disappointed when they changedtheir format and he was no

(12:09):
longer on Game Day Final but hewas on the Game Day Morning Show
, which came on super early inthe morning.
But when I found out he starteddoing a podcast, I started
watching it on Roku.
So I started kind of getting myrich eyes unfixed again after
that.
And then a couple years ago Istarted watching one particular
episode and he's a Michigan alum, so I mean he basically bleeds

(12:34):
maize and blue, so he wastalking about the whole
Michigan-Ottawa State rivalryand things like that, and I've
watched documentaries on it andit is super intense State
rivalry and things like that andI've watched documentaries on
it and it is super intense.
So I thought, well, shoot, letme start.
You know, I'll at least watchthat game.
And that's how it all started.
I watched Michigan, ohio State.
I think it was 2022.

(12:57):
Yeah, 2022.
And well, they won last yearnot, and they were severe
underdogs last year.
But 2022 was the one that Ithink Harbaugh was.
He was kind of frozen out.
He couldn't, he couldn't, hecouldn't coach like three games
or something like that.
He had to sit out for threegames because of that whole

(13:19):
scandal.
And then there was somethingelse, but anyway, they ended up
winning that and they ended upwinning the national
championship that year.
But that's basically how it allstarted.
So then I got a YouTube TVsubscription and I just started
kind of recording differentgames here and there.
And you know there's a certainnumber of teams that I'll watch
Michigan, alabama, oregon, ohioState.

(13:40):
You know I'm not married to anyone particular team.
I just like to see good actionand pretty good contests.
If a game's kind of a blowout,you know, then I'm like, well,
if it's a team, I'm kind of likeleaning towards, and that's all
fine.
Otherwise, you know, I justkind of like to see good
competition and that's about it.
So you know, I paid moreattention to Colorado ball when

(14:04):
Deion Sanders was given the headcoaching job there.
Colorado football wasn't reallyall that relevant.
They had some pretty decentteams here and there but they
didn't gain as much mediaattention as this particular
event.
So I started paying a littlebit more attention to that team
not quite as much.
I don't keep track of recordsand who's doing what and all

(14:26):
that sort of thing.
Basically I'm just watching theaction.
You know, I might remember someplayers here and there and when
they enter the draft, kind ofsee where they go and that sort
of thing, but it's mostly justto watch.
I'll record the games and I'lljust kind of watch them, based
on the different matchups andstuff like that.
So if it looks like a decentgame, I'll watch and that's

(14:48):
basically how it goes.
I'm not like a super, superrabid fan who gets involved in a
lot of the finer nuances of thegame.
You know, as long as I'm seeinga pretty good game, then that's
good enough for me, right,right.

Karl (15:02):
Okay, Now I tell you one of the things I like about the
college game, and we weretalking a little bit about this
before offline.
You don't see, you see somepretty weird finishes and some
pretty amazing finishes in theNFL, but I just think maybe it's
just because there's more teams, but you just see more of them
in college football.
And one of the ones that cameto mind for me and you'd

(15:23):
probably have to go back, let mesee, it's 2025, so I'd probably
have to go back at least 12years.
I can't remember exactly whatyear it was.
It was the Iron Bowl gamebetween Alabama and Auburn, and
it was right in the middle ofNick Saban's heyday with the
Crimson Tide.
But you know how rivalry gamesare Auburn typically plays them
tough, and this year wasn't anydifferent.
By the way, the year was 2013,and Alabama was undefeated at

(15:45):
the time, while Auburn had onlydropped one game.
They were 10-1.
But towards the end ofregulation, the game was tied at
28, and Alabama was lining upfor what turned out to be a
56-yard field goal attempt withjust a few seconds left.
And if they miss, they go toovertime and have a pretty
decent shot at winning.
If they make it, they winaltogether.

(16:08):
The only way that they couldlose in regulation was if Auburn
managed to score by running themissed field goal attempt all
the way back, and that's exactlywhat happened.
Chris Davis caught the ballnine yards deep in the end zone
because the field goal attemptwas short and he ran it back all
the way for a touchdown, justusing all of his blocks and

(16:28):
cutting up the right, the leftsideline, and and they won the
game.
The one thing I remember Iheard a local call of that game
on YouTube and the announcersfor Auburn were just going
bananas.
It was pretty funny.
So, with that said, are thereany games that you can remember
that had a really wild finish?

James (16:47):
um, wild finish.
Well, I mean, there's alwaysthe.
What was that?
The classic boston college game.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, thatfluty game, the fluty game.
Um, what was the one with the?

Karl (17:03):
uh, the band is on the field that was was Cal and
Stanford and that was I think itwas John Elway's senior year.

James (17:10):
And then there was the Alabama-Georgia game, where Tua
throws the Hail.

Karl (17:15):
Mary, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah , that was in the national
championship.

James (17:20):
Yeah.
So there's actually a funnystory behind that.
I don't know if you ever heardit, but he was interviewed on
Eisen's show because on Eisen,during the Super Bowl, they'll
bring out a bunch of celebritiesand NFL players and things like
that and they'll kind of, youknow, chop it up a little bit,

(17:46):
lot of like the uh, the alabamaalums.
He'll ask him was thereanything that you did that made
saban really, really mad?
So tua was telling him aboutthe national championship game
and he had taken a sack theprevious play.
That's right.
So so the next play was thehill mary throw and they ended
up winning.
So he's telling him them.
He's telling them oh yeah, hewas, I took that sack and he was

(18:08):
really, really mad.
I mean, he was, he wassqueezing his headphones so hard
, and then, you know, came thepass, and so he's like so we're
in the locker room celebratingand all of this stuff, and he
was like well, you know, well,what were you thinking, you know
, when you took the sack and hegoes?
Well, coach, I was justthinking I think we needed a

(18:30):
little bit more room.
And he's just kind of joking.
And Saban looks at him and hegoes.
That's not funny.
So after that he just kind oflike walks off.
So you know stuff like that.
And then um shoot I think itwas like last year texas,

(18:51):
arizona state.
Texas went out ahead like inthe first gosh.
They scored 16 points in inless than two minutes at the
outset of the game.
And um shoot arizona justclawed their way back into the
game and shoot.
Arizona just clawed their wayback into the game and tied it
and took them into doubleovertime.
They ended up Arizona ended uplosing the game.
But I mean the fact that theywere even able to come back and

(19:15):
tie the game, you know was waspretty amazing.
So those, those are the thingsthat you know I like about
college ball.
You can, unless it's a, unlessit's a sure fire blowout, you
can never really count a teamout.

Karl (19:30):
Yeah.

James (19:31):
You know, sometimes something will happen.
There'll be some events, somemoment in the game and and the
momentum will change and, um,things will just kind of start
clicking and you just never know, could be a couple of costly
mistakes, and they just exploitit.
And next thing, you know, likeI said, you're looking at
overtime and a team might win ona field goal or something like

(19:52):
that.
I mean, we've seen that happena lot.
You don't really see that toomuch in pro games, not so much
as in college, yeah.
So for me that's kind of whatmakes it fun to watch.

Karl (20:06):
Yeah, so transitioning over to Navy football, last
year's Army-Navy game didn'thave exactly a wild finish by
any stretch, but I think that alot of people were kind of
surprised at the outcome Not somuch the fact that Navy won the
game, but these games aretypically nail biters.
For the most part, at least,they have been the last three or
four years or so, and I'm surethat a lot of fans were figuring

(20:27):
on the same for this year.
What I want to do is kind oflook at some of the key players
from that game that are going tobe returning for next year and
just kind of discuss their skillsets and their impact on the
system that they play within,whether it's offense or defense,
and what does that say fortheir potential next year in

(20:48):
terms of just getting back tothe same number of wins and that
sort of thing.
Of course, you know we'realways going to figure in
injuries and stuff like that.
So what I want to do is we'lltake three players on offense
and three players on defense andjust kind of want you to give
me your take on their skill sets.
What makes them so effective?
You know that sort of thing.
If you want to kind of allude tosome part of the Army game that

(21:10):
illustrates what you're talkingabout.
That's cool too, so let's goahead and get started.
On offense, we're going to talkabout Blake Horvath, alex Teska
and Eli Heidenreich, threebig-time playmakers who are all
juniors, so they will all bereturning for their senior year.
So let's start with BlakeHorvath.
In your mind, you don't get achance to watch him too much
because I know you don't see alot of Navy on the West Coast

(21:32):
there, unless you have CBSSports Network or something like
that.
But you may have seen him playagainst Air Force.
And then, of course, there wasthe Army game.
So what do you think makes himso much of a threat when he's
out there with the ball in hishands?

James (21:45):
well, well, just based on what I witnessed at in the uh
army navy game and somehighlights on on some other
games, I mean this kid is, it'spretty fearless when he's got
the ball in his hands.
I mean it doesn't matter ifhe's playing under center.
You know they're one of their,their shotgun formations and how

(22:06):
they use their, their optionand and wing T offense or
whatever it's called, the guy'sgot unassuming speed.
You don't really notice howfast he is until he takes the
ball in his hand and he takesoff running.
I mean there was, there's,there were several plays in
theNavy game where you know, allof a sudden, he would, just he

(22:30):
dropped back, maybe he was goingto pitch it, maybe not.
And then next thing, you knowhe's busting through the line
and he's at the next level andhe's probably chewing off 10 or
15 yards and I'm like, well,geez, this kid is pretty fast
and he's quick.
Last fall he had over 1,200yards rushing and you know he

(22:54):
had a couple of 90-yard-plusruns and averaging over seven
yards a carry, which is, for aquarterback, pretty amazing.
And then he's got over 1,300yards throwing, with 13
touchdowns last season, lastseason.
Yeah, so I mean the guys, theguys got speed, he's elusive, um
, he can sell the pitch reallywell and I think we mentioned,

(23:16):
you know, on one of our phonecalls or yeah, basically at one
of our phone calls there was onewhere he took a snap.
It looked like he was going topitch it.
He he just kind of like didthis little little head thing to
his left, things like that.
The defense kind of like reactsto that because they don't know
where the ball is going to go.
And next thing, you know, he'srunning, he's through the line

(23:38):
and as he's weaving, texasthrows a block and that
basically springs him and heends up with this pretty
impressive run.
So the fact that he's able towork that option and, like I
said, he's fearless, he's notreally apprehensive, he'll just
like tuck the ball and run, andhe's got speed, he's got
quickness and he can get throughthe line and get through the

(24:01):
next level Makes him a prettyawesome weapon.
And in an interview he saidthat a lot of teams try to
prepare for the offense thatthey run, but it's kind of like
their great equalizer, rightright.
It's tough for opponents tosimulate, even though they try

(24:22):
to prepare for it, because onceyou get out in real time and
live action, you know you can'treally anticipate the speed and
execution at which they play thegame.
That's true.
I think, for Navy's offense.
I think it's going to be prettyexciting for them.
You know, provided, like youmentioned, nobody gets injured.

(24:43):
These guys are going to beseniors and so they've got
experience under their belt, um,some maturity.
The game has kind of made alittle bit more sense to them,
and because previously they hada couple of different coaching
changes and now they got, youknow, the same coaching staff
that they had last year, isgoing to make things a little

(25:04):
bit easier for them to kind ofdevelop as an offense, and some
of the things that he wants tobe able to do is just kind of
get better with his accuracy andunderstand protections and
things like that and where thepressures are coming from and
that sort of thing.
So you know, if he can improvethose kinds of things and these
are goals that he's setting forhimself, he says and if he can

(25:25):
do those kinds of things, I meanthat could cause some pretty
big problems for their schedulethis year.

Karl (25:30):
So we'll see what happens to carry off the deception piece
of the wing T, the hybrid wingT, that Coach Kronick has put in

(25:51):
place, because that is so muchof it.
I mean there was a couple oftimes there where he had
linebackers and defensive backsgoing in opposite directions
because they just didn't knowwhere the ball was going, you
know.
And then on top of that he'sgot just those fast twitch
muscles.
I mean he basically just frozehis safety and just put his foot
in the ground and cut and justleft him clutching air as he was
off on another one of his 35 or40 yard runs, you know, and I

(26:15):
think I actually was listeningto an Army podcast after the
game and I mean it was brutal.
I mean they were just basicallyjust tearing the Black Knights
apart and these were Army fansdoing this.
You know, basically just tearingthe Black Knights apart, and
these were Army fans doing this,you know, and one of the things
they said was they weresurprised at how fast Horvath
was.
I mean they couldn't believe hewas beating cornerbacks and

(26:39):
safeties to the edge on some ofthese runs and stuff and it
really really put them on theirheels and they just didn't know
how to react.
So yeah, definitely, he'ssomebody that is going to be a
key part of their game and, youknow, hopefully we can kind of
keep him upright and, you know,with a relatively clean jersey,
so to speak, so that the offensecan flow.

James (26:58):
But anyway, yeah, I was watching the highlights of the
University of Alabama-Birminghamgame and I don't, you know,
don't quote me on the quarter orhow much time was left or
whatever, but I mean they werein the red zone, basically just
outside of the red zone, and youknow, he took the ball and went

(27:20):
to the right and he didn't havea lot of room to get inside of
the pylon but man, his speedjust kind of just got him there.
He just squeaked by a defenderhe was probably a safety or
something and he just kind oflike squeaked by him and got the
ball inside there and at firsthe got up, he motioned himself

(27:41):
that it was a touchdown.
You know the call was notofficial until maybe a fraction
of a second later, but I wasimpressed in how fast he was
able to hit the edge and turnthat corner and get in there.
That kid is the truth man.
So I mean it'll be interestingto see how they do this year.

Karl (28:00):
Yeah, yeah, okay.
Number two on the list is AlexTecza.
He is Navy's returning fullbackand he had some really
unbelievable games early in theseason in terms of him carrying
the ball.
This game he had a couple ofimpact plays, but interestingly,
Tezca was involved in a few bigplays where he didn't even have
his hands on the ball.

(28:20):
But I did want to touch on thefirst one, which was basically
the screen pass in the firstquarter that set up Navy's first
touchdown.
I will tell you that I havenever seen a screen pass with
that kind of misdirection beforethe pass was finally thrown,
and then, you know, it wasexecuted so well.

(28:41):
So what was your take on that?

James (28:43):
Yeah, I mean that was pretty exciting because I
thought, ok, well, this guy'snot going to have too much room
to run because there wasn'treally that much turf there
before he went out of bounds,but he had a good wall of
blockers in front of it and sothat enabled him to get the

(29:03):
yardage that he got.
I mean, and the guy you know asa fullback you don't really see
that much speed out of afullback, but I don't know,
maybe it's because ServiceAcademy guys are a little bit
smaller, so they're lighter anda little bit quicker and faster.
But I mean he had 12 catcheslast year for almost 230 yards,

(29:24):
so I mean, and two touchdowns onreceiving catches.
So he's just like Horvathcoming back senior year.
There's some things that hesays he wants to work on.
One of the things he wants todo is position himself where
they just challenge defensesmore, because the way they run
their offense and stuff it'sfast and it's versatile and if

(29:47):
he can get involved a little bitmore that way and maybe pick up
what some other people aredoing, maybe they could utilize
him in other ways and kind ofmake their offense a little bit
more dangerous.
But yeah, I mean some of thethings that he wants to work on
is just being consistent andlearn the offense more, kind of

(30:08):
like one of those situationswhere if you're on a team or if
you're in a group, you kind oflearn what the person ahead of
you, above you and below you aredoing, so then that way, if
something happens, your next manup, you can kind of take up the
slack.
So I guess some of the thingshe says he wants to be able to
do is learn how other peopleplay their positions and stuff,
and so maybe he can be utilizeda little bit more.

(30:30):
Right, but yeah, man, so eventhough he wasn't he may not have
been hugely involved in thegame there are a couple of
couple of plays that he wasinvolved in that block that he
threw on on a defender, they gotthat sprung.

(31:02):
Horvath on one of the longestruns was pretty good because as
Horvath was coming through thebut then there was another guy
that was on a trajectory thatwas going to basically could
have taken him out pretty hard.
Texter was right there to kindof like disrupt his path, just
enough for Horvat to kind of cutleft and get behind the block,
and then that basically sprunghim loose.

(31:22):
He does the job that a fullbackis supposed to do when it comes
to blocking and things likethat.
So what I've noticed about alot of these guys is that
they're pretty unselfish abouttheir job.
They know the job that they'resupposed to do and they just go
out there and execute it, andI'm sure the coaches drum that
into their head.
Plus, considering they're at aservice academy, it's kind of

(31:44):
one of those things that's kindof like drummed into your head
day in and day out.

Karl (31:47):
Anyway, Right right.

James (31:48):
Off the field.
It's all about teamwork andmaking sure everybody does the
job the way they're supposed todo it.
Otherwise, you know and we'renot just talking about football,
I mean, we're talking aboutwhat your life, what your career
, is going to be- Right, right,exactly so, yeah, right, exactly

(32:12):
, so, yeah.

Karl (32:12):
And when it comes to to to Tecza, he one of the things
that I like about him is, evenas a fullback he's got pretty
decent hands and I wouldn't mindseeing him, like to your point,
being used a little bit more inthe offense as a receiver in
different situations.
And you know, it depends onwhat the scenario is, obviously.
But it never hurts, especiallyin in an offense like that,
where I mean, you don't, it'snot a pass happy offense, but
it's an offense where the moresure handed receivers you have,

(32:32):
the better off you're going tobe, and having having somebody
like him out there available asan option certainly doesn't hurt
.
Okay, next we got EliHeidenreich, another rising
senior and again somebody whohad a terrific season, and he
plays what we call, what we usedto call, the slotback position.
But in this new offense theykind of refer to it as a snipe,

(32:54):
and I guess that just comes fromthe guy who coaches him.
He just kind of likes that name.
And just to give you a littlebit of history around the
slotback now, snipe position atNavy, typically those guys who
run about 5'9", 5'10" andsomewhere between 160 and 180
pounds.
In fact, Brandon Chatman fitsthat bill exactly.
He's 5'9", 167.
Now add three inches andanother 34 pounds and you've got

(33:16):
Eli Heidenreich.
I mean, this guy is a load tobring down and at six feet tall
and 201 pounds, he doesn'tsacrifice anything when it comes
to speed and quickness, asyou've probably seen if you've
watched him play.
But a thing that impresses meabout him is his balance.
Uh, I don't recall ever seeingtoo many guys get a clean shot
at him first, where it justbasically knocks him down.

(33:37):
And even though he didn't havea ton of touches in the game, uh
, he had a big one.
That was a response to, let'ssee, army was.
It was in the third quarter.
Army kicked the field goal toclose to 14 to 10.
That's what it was, yeah.
And then Navy got the ball backand they were driving down the
field.
In fact, that was their onlypossession in the third quarter

(33:58):
and they were just looking topick up a first down and there
is like a I don't know thirddown, third and four or whatever
, and they're just going for alittle out pass to get the first
down and Heidenreich turned itinto a big play.
What did you see on that play.
I mean, the first thing you seeis, oh, the defensive back
really blew the tackle.
Well, yeah, but if we look atit again and I looked at it a

(34:20):
couple of times and I noticedsomething about how Heidenreich
was positioned as he wasgathering in the ball, do you
know what I'm talking about?
Did you see anything particularthere?

James (34:31):
Yeah, I mean the guy's got pretty good vision because
when he caught the ball his backwas turned, but I mean, as he
was catching the ball he waskind of like rotating to his
left a little bit, where thedefender was already on a path
to tackle him.
So I guess with, with uh, fromthe standpoint of his peripheral

(34:53):
vision was pretty good.
So he was able to basicallyslip this guy.
He had the announcer said, yeah, it was a bad tackle, bad poor
tackle execution or whatever.
But I mean I think he was ableto utilize his, his spatial
awareness and his body control,which is what he's.
He's.
He's been known for other orother sports writers and people

(35:16):
who've kind of assessed hisabilities and stuff has said
he's got good body control, goodspatial awareness, and which
was clearly evident on thatparticular play, because he was
able to position himself andmove quickly enough to get past
the guy.
Maybe the guy wanted to tacklehim, maybe it was poor tackle
execution, I mean, but give theguy some credit, he can move and

(35:37):
he can elude, so yeah, so, um,I'm willing, I'm willing to go
err on the side of the guy's gottalent.
He was able to slip a tacklebecause he's just good at his
job and good at his position.
Yeah, 65 carries, almost 450yards last year, three TDs.

(36:02):
Any average is almost sevenyards a carry.
I mean the guy's no slouch.

Karl (36:06):
Yeah, I mean that's what I see too, because on that play
it was like you were saying.
He was just kind of as hecaught the ball, he was rotating
his body and he saw this guyand I just think that he was
prepared to make a jump cut assoon as his toes touched the
ground and as soon as he gotpast that guy.
Again, the dude's speed reallycatches a lot of people off
guard.
I mean he doesn't look thatfast, but the fact is I've never

(36:29):
seen anybody chase him downfrom behind, so he's just
definitely a huge weapon cancatch, can run.
By the way, heidenreich wasalso the mids' leading receiver,
with 39 receptions and 671yards.
He also caught six touchdowns.
So when you look at his rushingand receiving stats,
heidenreich was responsible forover a thousand yards of the

(36:50):
mids offense last year.
Okay, we're going to go aheadand take a short break now, but
before we do that, I did want togive you all a couple of ways
to stay up to date on Navysports.
The first is to join the NavySports Nation group Facebook
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I've got a link to that in theshow notes.
Just click on it, answer acouple of questions and you'll
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Just hit the follow button onwhichever platform you're

(37:12):
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It can be Apple Podcasts,spotify, iheartradio it doesn't
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I'm looking forward to havingyou join us.
We'll be right back.

(37:48):
Thanks for staying with us onNavy Sports Central, Karl Darden
here with you, and I'm joinedtoday by my brother, James.
He is a big college footballfan himself, and we are taking
an early look at some of the keyplayers who will likely have an
impact on the mid-success inthe upcoming season.
Okay, so we've highlightedthree playmakers on offense, and
now I'd like to move on to thedefense.
The first guy I want to talkabout is Landon Robinson, and

(38:12):
he's Navy's nose guard, Again ajunior, so he's coming back for
his senior year, and in the Armygame that guy was just all over
the place.
He got on the field quite a bitin 2023, both at nose tackle
and on special teams.
But last season he had thestarting job all to himself and
he had an absolute monster of agame against the Black Knights.
I the starting job all tohimself and he had an absolute

(38:38):
monster of a game against theBlack Knights.

James (38:40):
I mean, they just had no answer for him.
What, in particular, caughtyour eye when watching Landon
Robinson play?
Can I just say, and this is nounderstatement, this kid is big.
He's huge.
Um, bruce fellman, who writesfor the athletic, I think, put
him on his his beast list orsomething like that.

(39:01):
I think that's what he calledit.
I mean the guy's 280 pounds,squats almost 700, has a 33 inch
vertical leap, which is prettyamazing for a guy that big, and
benches almost 450 pounds.
And he's fast.
I mean, he's incredibly fast.
They've clocked him anywherefrom 18 to 20 miles an hour.

(39:21):
So for a guy that big to beable to move that fast, I
wouldn't want to be looking athim as he's, especially if I was
a quarterback.
I would not want that guy.
I would not want to be lookingat him as he's, especially if I
was a quarterback.
I would not want that guy Iwould not want to be looking and
seeing that guy coming in myfield of view, but some of the
stuff I noticed from the game isthat he plays the double team
well and there were severaltimes I don't know you know I

(39:44):
can't count them all, but I meanthere was several times he was
literally triple team and Inoticed that even in those
situations where he may not bein the play maybe the play is
going in the opposite directionof where he's at he doesn't quit
.
One of the things I've heardfrom a lot of football coaches
and stuff, when you watch a lotof this behind the scenes stuff,

(40:06):
is they always emphasizefinishing the play because you
just never know what's going tohappen.
I mean, he's getting doubleteamed and stuff, but some
players might just decide, ok,well, this play is over, I'm
just going to like dial it backand just kind of see what
happens.
But some of the stuff that Iwas watching he's still pursuing
, he doesn't, he doesn't quitand you know so everybody today,

(40:32):
a lot of people like metricsand things like that, and so you
know when I was when I heardthat he's running like at 20
miles an hour, when they didthat, when they executed that
fake punt and he he took offrunning, I was like, oh my God,
this guy, they don't seem to beable to catch him.
But yeah, I mean he's, he's big,he's fast and he's got.

(40:57):
He's got a lot of stamina, sohe's got a big motor.
He doesn't really tire out inthe fourth quarter like a lot of
guys, and that's some of thestuff that he wants to be able
to work on this year is just hisconditioning.
The stuff that he wants to beable to work on this year is
just his conditioning.
He knows his conditioning lendsitself to the defense that they
play.
What was mostly impressive wasthe fact that last year, I think

(41:22):
was his only second year atthat position.

Karl (41:28):
Right, yeah, they converted him over.
I believe he was a defensivetackle and they converted him to
nose guard.

James (41:33):
Yeah, and you know, and then, being a first year, all
American athletic conference,you know, I mean the guys he's,
he's racking up a pretty decentresume 43 tackles last year, 17
solo tackles, 26 assists.
Yeah, yeah, I mean he's a forceto be reckoned with, in my
opinion.

Karl (41:53):
Yeah, I think that some folks may not, if they don't
watch football a lot, and theysay, okay, this guy's a nose
guard.
What does he actually do?
The nose guard does have aprimary responsibility of just
clogging up the offensive line,and you're commenting that he
does a really good job taking ondouble teams.
Yeah, and he's the reason why.
And granted, in Navy system, interms of tackles, it's pretty

(42:18):
heavily slanted towards thelinebackers, because the way
that that system is designed isthat you get the nose guard in
particular just tying upblockers and that allows the
linebackers to come in and makethe plays behind them.
But because Robinson is just sostrong and quick, he's able to
defeat two blocks at one timeand get in there and create all

(42:40):
kinds of problems for thequarterback, which is what he
did all during the Army game.
I mean, you could see the levelof frustration on the Army side
of the ball, and this was anoffensive line that was voted
the best in the country in 2024.
Navy's defensive line justbasically schooled them, so I
thought that was prettyinteresting.

James (42:54):
Yeah, Army was known to average over 300 yards a game,
roughly 300 yards a game, andyou know, with him being there
they held them to 113 yards.

Karl (43:05):
Yeah.

James (43:06):
So there was one where he I mean he just like blew
through the offensive line andtackle the guy for a loss.
That was like in the firstquarter.
And there there were otherplays where he kind of he's,
he's a huge disruptor, let's putit that way.

Karl (43:21):
Right, yeah, for sure.

James (43:22):
And on a defense, you need a guy like that because
when, when teams prepare,they're going to be looking for
you and, um, something I learnedfrom watching football is like
if there's a double teamsomewhere, somebody's left
unattended.

Karl (43:39):
That's right.

James (43:41):
So if he can disrupt an offensive line enough to draw a
double or triple team, thenthere's always going to be
somebody that's going to be ableto exploit that and take
advantage of it.
Somebody is not going to bekeyed on if one of your top guys
, if the offensive coordinatorand the coaches they're trying
to like.
Well, this guy is reallydangerous.

(44:02):
And this guy he can really giveus a problem all game long.
So you know we're going to haveto really kind of focus on him.

Karl (44:15):
Well then, if that's the case, there's going to be
somebody that they're not goingto be looking out for.
Yeah, and that's exactly whatNavy defensive coordinator PJ
Volker wants to do.
I mean, you mentioned the worddisruption.
That is the cornerstone of hisentire defensive philosophy,
because obviously you're talkingabout athletes who measure up a
little bit differently comparedto the power.
I guess for now, schools orwhatever you want to call them.
But yeah, I mean you'll seeblitzes coming from different
directions and a lot of thatsuccess depends on whether or

(44:37):
not guys like Robinson can tieup the offensive line and give
those linebackers and safetiesand cornerbacks a chance to
break through into the backfieldand just wreak havoc with the
quarterback and the fullbacks.
So, all right, we've got acouple more here Luke Pirris and
Andrew Duhart.
Pirris plays the Raiderposition and in the Army game he

(44:58):
had four tackles.
But more importantly, he alwaysseems to be around the football
, and that was the case in theArmy game as well, because he
had an interception right at theend that basically put the game
on ice.
But a little bit of backgroundon this guy.
I don't know how often you'veseen him, but he started I
forget who got hurt at theRaider position last well, two
seasons ago, when he was asophomore, and it was a classic

(45:20):
next man up situation.
And I'll tell you what, withPirris in there, the Navy
defense did not miss a beat.
I mean, he picked up thatscheme very, very quickly and
started making so many big playsearly in his career that the
Navy coaching staff found ithard to keep him off the field.
But anyway, I think what reallybenefits Navy you know good
Navy defensive players likePierce is that they are very.

(45:43):
Their football IQ is justbasically off the charts.
And I think that one of thethings that has impressed me
about him is that he knows hisassignment and I'm pretty sure
at this level he knows everybodyelse's assignment but he just
does his and, like I said, thatusually puts him in a position
to make a really good play, justlike it was in the Army game.

(46:05):
Now, granted, by the time thatpart of the game was up.
Now I can't rememberspecifically which four tackles
that he did have, but I do knowthat, like I said, he, he, he
usually is in a position to makea significant impact regardless
.
But one of the things Iappreciated about when he
intercepted the ball.
It kind of proved his, his, uh,the, the football IQ.

(46:26):
I was talking about when thearmy quarterback went back to
pass and he threw it.
Do you remember what'm talkingabout here?
yeah, yeah, I mean, it was likeum roughly about three and a
half minutes left in the gameyeah, yeah, yeah, right towards
the end of the game and, uh,well, the thing that noticed
that I noticed about it is itlooked like he already knew the

(46:47):
route that the receiver wasrunning because he beat the
receiver to the ball.
So I don't even think thereceiver knew where the ball was
by the time he was out of thequarterback's hands.
Pierce was already on top ofthe ball and he like grabbed it,
was going the other way beforehe realized what happens.
And that, to me, just like Isaid, I guess I just come with
film study and just kind ofknowing tendencies and so forth,

(47:09):
because he broke on that ballso quickly, it just seemed like
he knew what the play was goingto be for that situation.
Yeah, and I just thought thatthat was a really impressive
play.
That spoke to his football IQthat I mentioned before.

James (47:20):
Yeah, yeah, I mean that's exactly right, because I mean
he got an amazing break on theball and it was almost as if he
was the intended receiver.
I mean, I've watched a play andI've slowed it down.
Like about a couple of yearsago I discovered that you could
slow down YouTube by hittingshift, comma and shift period.

(47:43):
You know the up arrows and youcan slow the game.
You could slow or speed up theplayback.
So a lot of these plays I'vewatched and I just kind of slow
it down to like half speed ormaybe one quarter speed and then
you just kind of hit the L, hitthe J or the L key and you kind
of inch it forward or inch itback.
So plays like that I've watchedin slow motion just to kind of

(48:07):
get a sense of what this guy wasdoing and how he knew to be
where he was at the time thatplay was being played.
And so, yeah, you watch it andyou watch it at regular speed
and then you kind of slow itdown and I mean it was like I'm
guessing he was probably justwatching the quarterback's eyes
because, the quarterback knewwho he was going to throw it to

(48:30):
and he just kind of picked up onit and with his speed and
everything he was able to justget in there and, like I said,
it was almost like he was theintended receiver.
So that could have been like yousaid, it could have been just a
product of film study, scoutingof previous Army games and just
sheer experience.

(48:50):
You know, some of these guyshave been playing this game
since they were four or fiveyears old.
But you know, as you mature andyou can kind of like grow into
the position, you understandcertain tendencies and things
like that and you know how toplay your man.
Just maybe just give themenough of a cushion and,
depending on the person you'recovering, depending on their hip

(49:11):
movement and their footwork andstuff like that, you can kind
of like just stay on them.
But yeah, I mean that was apretty amazing interception, you
know.
I mean I think it was justbasically the nail in the coffin
.

Karl (49:22):
Yeah, yeah, all right.
Our last guy is Andrew Duhart.
He plays cornerback for theMids and I don't know if he's a
field corner or a boundarycorner, but one thing I do know
is he's going to be the mids'most experienced defensive back
returning, because MbitiWilliams, Rayuan Lane and
Deshaun Peele will all be lostto graduation.
I mean, those were three guyswho've been absolute mainstays

(49:43):
in the Navy defensive backfieldever since they were sophomores.
So, yeah, Duhart will be asenior.
In fact, if you look at the topthree positions on the depth
chart for the four defensivebackfield positions, those being
the cornerback, the safety andthe bandit positions Duhart's
contribution to the Army game.
I know that he had a couple ofpass deflections, including one

(50:03):
that resulted in an interceptionthat led to Navy's final field
goal.
But again, he's another guy.
They will use him on blitzes alot and I think that he's got a

(50:28):
real good tendency to be able to.
You know, if he doesn't get thetackle, he at least creates
enough havoc so that you knowlinebackers can come in behind
him in the backfield and securethat tackle as well.
So that's just basically mytake on him.
I don't know what you had, ifyou had anything to add to that.

James (50:43):
Yeah Well, just kind of to your point about him
disrupting a play to the pointwhere the rest of the defense
can close, basically close outthe play In the fourth quarter
just under eight minutes.
He slipped the block and heslowed down.
The guy's last name was Noah.

(51:06):
I can't remember his.
I don't know if it was his lastname or his first name, but
anyway he was the Army receiverout in the corner that caught
the ball.
Oh, okay.
But Duhart was able to slip ablock, grab him by the ankles,
but the guy got away.
But he slowed him down enoughwhere the rest of the Navy

(51:26):
defenders or tacklers could getin on it Maybe two guys, maybe
three guys and put them back forlike a maybe a two or three
yard loss.
There was another play.
It was slightly thrown overheadto an army receiver but it had
had the ball had a slightlydifferent trajectory.
He probably you know he hejumped up for it and it was just

(51:49):
out of reach but he probablycould have got a pick out of
that, and the one that youmentioned was he did cause a a
pass deflection and his teammatemcshann picked it up.

Karl (52:02):
That was the one that kind of like bounced off of him.

James (52:05):
He caught it or he deflected it and there was some
question of whether or not theball touched the ground, but it
didn't and as he was rolling,the ball kind of like flipped up
into the air and then McShannwas able to pick it up and that
was considered the interception.
Now he's not credited for theinterception on that play, but I
think he's credited for a passdeflection or something like

(52:29):
that.

Karl (52:30):
Yeah, yeah, he did get credit for the pass deflection
for sure.

James (52:32):
Yeah, some of the stuff that he's in a recent interview
he's talking about.
He wants to really work on hisone-on-one coverage, maybe get
some reds up safety and justkind of get a better feel for
you know what the defense isdoing at a higher level, because
once you can kind of get morecomfortable in that position and
you start seeing things a lotmore.

(52:54):
I've heard that the game slowsdown.
A lot of these guys refer tothe game slowing down for them.
They get to the point wheretheir their maturity and their
IQ for whatever position they'reat the plane and even the game
as a whole, it kind of gets alittle bit easier for them.
So those are the kinds ofthings that he that he wants to
kind of work on and then passrush and things like that.

(53:23):
So, yeah, I mean, I thinkoverall, when we talk about
these six guys and even peoplethat we have not mentioned,
there are guys that are outthere that are contributing to
the team and contributing to thegame, because if you watch any
of the highlights, there arenames that are called that you
don't necessarily see as much.
All in all, I think it's goingto be a pretty exciting season
for them and considering howpiggybacking on their
performance last year beatingArmy, getting the CIC trophy and

(53:45):
winning the bowl game so youknow we'll see Coaching staff.
There hasn't been any realmajor fluctuations in that
regard.
From what I'm hearing, springball went went pretty well, yeah
.

Karl (53:58):
So when they start getting ready for the season and they
start strapping on the pads andthings like that spring ball I
was actually watching CoachNewberry's press conference the
other day and his main focus wasbuilding on depth, and keeping

(54:20):
injuries to a minimum Depth issuch a huge component when it
comes to Navy football,especially on the offensive line
, and last year they were veryfortunate with injuries,
particularly on the offensiveline, and they just had a very,
very experienced group.
This year they're losing threestarters to graduation and they
got some great talent coming inbehind them, but it's going to
be up to Coach Chronic andeverybody to coach them up and

(54:43):
hopefully they'll be ready to goonce preseason practices are
wrapping up and they get readyto take the field.
I think their first game isagainst VMI or something.

James (54:52):
Yeah, yeah, I think their what their first three games
are at home, something like thatyeah, that definitely does help
.

Karl (55:00):
So, but anyway, that's going to take us to the end of
our conversation.
James, thanks so much forjoining me today to talk a
little bit about Navy football.
We'll see how things turn outin the fall, and I'm also
looking forward to ourdiscussions when the season
starts.
So again, thanks for taking thetime.

James (55:15):
Yeah, thanks for having me, man.
This was nice.
Should be a pretty excitingyear this year.
So, yeah, thanks for having meon the show and good luck with
your future.

Karl (55:26):
All right, thanks, man Take care.

James (55:28):
All right, I'll talk to you later.

Karl (55:30):
All right, folks, we are closing in on the end of another
episode, our question of theday, so let's go ahead and look

(55:59):
back at the one from our lastepisode.
You may recall that we werediscussing the navy rowing
program and the question ispretty straightforward.
It was simply how many irachampionships has the navy
heavyweight rowing Team won?
Is it A, 7, b, 9, c, 11, or D13?
Now I want to say right nowthat I owe you guys a huge

(56:19):
apology, because I gotsidetracked when publishing the
last episode and somehow I neveractually posted the question to
the group Facebook page, whichof course meant that none of you
had the opportunity to answer.
So all I can do is provide thecorrect response, which in and
of itself is a little bitconfusing.
I show that Navy won 11 IRAchampionships, with 1984 being
the last one, but the mids arealso in the record books in 1992

(56:43):
as co-champions with Penn andDartmouth.
In that championship race itwas Harvard who actually won,
just barely edging out Dartmouthby inches, and the mids came in
fifth, nearly four secondsbehind third place finisher Penn
.
However, penn filed a protestclaiming wake interference from
a nearby motorboat, and I'mstill not sure how that boosted
Navy all the way up to a tie forfirst considering where they

(57:04):
finished.
But that's the story.
In any case, I had notaccounted for that.
So the number I came up withfor the total number of
championships was 11.
The record books show 12,counting that 1992 result.
So I tell you what I may haveto reach out to Andy Bigelow or
Chuck Melcher to find out thedetails on that.
Anyway, let's move on to thisweek's question, which has to do

(57:26):
with football.
Blake Horvath finished 2024,with over 1,200 rushing and
passing yards in the same season.
He was the third Navyquarterback to hit those numbers
.
Another one was Kenan Reynolds.
So the question is who was thefirst to accomplish that feat?
Was it A Roger Staubach, BChris McCoy, C Craig Candido or
D Ricky Dobbs?
Go ahead and take some time tothink about that, and I

(57:46):
absolutely promise I'll get thatquestion up on the Navy Sports
Nation group Facebook page.
And, by the way, you can alsosend in your answer by texting
the show.
There have been a handful ofyou who've used that option in
the past and it works prettywell too.
So just look for the link inthe show notes.
Now it's time to close thingsout with our mid-watch segment.
You may recall that we werefollowing Gia Anderson and
Murphy Smith.
Both athletes compete on thetrack and field team.

(58:08):
After her strong performancethat helped the mids win the
star at the indoor meet inFebruary, anderson followed that
up with a win in the 60-meterhurdles at the Patriot League
Indoor Championships.
Then she rode that momentuminto the outdoor season.
Last month, at the star meet upat West Point, anderson won the
200 meters with a time of 24.97.
She also picked up a secondplace finish in the 100 meters,

(58:29):
clocking in at 11.96, justbehind her teammate Annie
Lemelin.
Anderson's last two events ofthe meet were both first place
finishes.
The first was in the 100 meterhurdles, where she clocked a
time of 14.02, just about ahundredth of a second ahead of
Lemelin.
And then, finally, she helpedthe 4x100 meter relay team post
a win over the Black Knights, asthe women took the star for the
10th consecutive year.
And at the Patriot LeagueChampionships that just

(58:52):
concluded this past weekend,anderson racked up 26 points,
which was good enough to leadall athletes at the competition.
She crossed the finish linefirst in the 100 meters with a
time of 11.76, and then she wona second straight championship
in the 100 meter hurdles byposting a time of 13.73 in that
race.
And then, finally, andersonanchored the 4x100 meter relay

(59:13):
team to a second place finish,barely getting edged out by
Boston University.
It was a terrific season forAnderson and she'll return for
her senior year as she continuesto establish herself as one of
the best track and fieldathletes we've ever seen at Navy
.
She currently owns nine of thetop 10 times in the 60 meter
hurdles, including the firsteight, and she also owns the
best 200 meter indoor time inprogram history.

(59:33):
And if you look at herperformance in these outdoor
Patriot League championshipsthat just finished up, anderson
looks ready to make her presencefelt even more next year.
Okay, now let's check in withMurphy Smith.
Going back to the PatriotLeague indoor championships in
March, murphy finished second inthe 3,000 meters.
To the Patriot League IndoorChampionships in March, murphy
finished second in the 3,000meters and then he won the 5,000

(59:58):
with a time of 14.04.85.
During the outdoor season,smith again won the 5,000 meters
at the Army Star Meet and atthe Patriot League Championships
he took first in the 10,000meters with a time of 30 minutes
56.08 seconds, and the next dayhe followed that up with a
second place finish in the 5,000meters, which I mentioned
earlier in the sports update.
So Smith, who is a senior fromCharlotte, north Carolina, wraps
up his Navy track career instyle as the Patriot League

(01:00:19):
champion in the 5,000 metersindoors and the 10,000 meters
outdoors.
He also owns the two best10,000 meter times in program
history.
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.

(01:00:40):
Once again, I'd like to thank mybrother, james Darden, for
joining me today to talk someNavy football.
We are both looking forward towhat could be another strong
season for the mids next year.
Our 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.

(01:01:01):
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.
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.

(01:01:22):
Until next time, this is KarlDarden.
Go Navy Beat Army.

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