Mid-Term Grades: The Navy Football Report Card

Welcome to Navy Sports Central, the official podcast of the Navy Sports Nation!

Today, we take a look at how  Navy Football is doing at midseason We will shine a spotlight the playmakers driving a 6–0 start, and pinpoint what must tighten up before the team's toughest stretch of games. 

Before that, we'll check on some of the other sports in the yard, including k water polo, women’s soccer, and men’s cross country

Finally, you'll hear the story of Luke Lombardo's dramatic singles win over his opponent in golf that delivered Navy’s 1200th victory over Army across all varsity sports.

Follow Navy Sports Central wherever you get your podcasts:

Check out the Navy Sports Nation group page on Facebook!

Music is provided courtesy of Audio Jungle. Artists featured in order:

• Seven In Music (Intro)
• Alexiaction (Deep Dive)
• Loka Music (Navy Golf Lead In)
• Cinematic Alex (Closeout Music)

Join the Navy Sports Nation group on Facebook. Hit the follow button on your podcast app to get every episode downloaded to your directory. Share your grade for the Mids by sending fan mail using the link in the show notes

Chapters

• 0:14 Welcome Back And Season Setup
• 1:02 Sports Update
• 6:50 Deep Dive Segment: Grading the Navy Football Offense, Defense & Special Teams
• 19:43 Navy Golf Takes Beats Army, Taking the Star
• 23:08 Closing Credits And Sign-Off

Transcript

Karl: 0:13

Hi everybody, my name is Karl Darden, and I'd like to welcome and thank all of you for joining us today on Navy Sports Central. I'm your host, and this is the official podcast of the Navy Sports Nation, where we take a deeper dive into Navy Sports. We are well into the fall sports season, and that means we've got quite a bit to cover today. Unless you've just crawled out from under a rock, you know that the uh football team is off to a 6-0 start, but uh things are gonna get much tougher from here. Of their six remaining opponents, uh, one of them, South Florida, is still undefeated in conference play and two are ranked. So we're gonna take a look at how the team has performed through the first half of the season and then assign some midterm grades to the offense, defense, and special teams. And we'll also catch you up on some of the other false supports going on, so don't go anywhere. We are just getting started. Alright, it's great to have you guys with us. Thanks so much for dropping in. I really appreciate you taking the time. It is great to be back after a longer than anticipated break, and um I'll speak to that in just a minute, but I can tell you right now that getting thrown off schedule, especially during football season, has been a real drag. Now, those of you who are part of the Navy Sports Nation Facebook group may recall that I began dealing with some pretty debilitating low back pain about two months ago. There have been times in the past where I've had to deal with the occasional sore back or you know also some some back spasms here and there, but uh this was completely different. Uh when I looked in the mirror, I noticed that my hips were completely out of whack. The uh right one was clearly tilted higher, and when I walked, I had this noticeable left lean to keep the pain to a minimum. Um I guess that over time I developed this crazy muscle imbalance that had pulled my lower spine out of alignment. And finally, my back decided it had had just about enough. Forget about sitting down. That was out of the question. The only way I felt 100% comfortable and pain free was when I was flat on my back. Needless to say, I wasn't having a whole lot of fun. And uh this is how bad it got. Uh yeah, I'd be lying down on the floor watching TV or something, and then of course I'd get hungry. So now I've got to ask myself a question. Is getting something to eat gonna be worth the pain I was gonna experience when I pulled myself off the floor and limped over to the kitchen to fix myself something to eat? I can tell you that at least half the time I'd just say to myself, nah, I'm good for a few more hours, and considering how much I like to eat, that's that's really saying something. But I'm doing much better now. I found this really good training program that does a terrific job strengthening the uh the deep core muscles that attach to the spine. I do those exercises every morning, and they've made a huge difference. Now I'm no longer walking around looking like a question mark. Anyway, it feels great to be just about back in fighting shape, so let's get you caught up with some of the sports going on in the yard. We will get to our mid-season grades for the uh football team in our deep dive segment, but uh we can start things off by talking a little bit about water polo, women's soccer, and men's cross country. So here we go. Okay, uh taking a look at water polo, the mids are currently 15-7, and they also have a 7-1 conference record. Um, about a month and a half ago, they defeated Air Force uh to hold on to the Freedom Vase. That was a pretty exciting match. It was 15-14. Uh Mids got off to a pretty good lead and had to hold off the Falcons down the stretch to win by one goal. And right now, the Mids are in the middle of a three-game winning streak. And uh as far as individual players go, Kiefer Black, uh, who is a junior, is the Mids' leading scorer and also their leading points producer. He's got uh 53 goals on the season to go along with 42 assists for a total of 95 points. The conference championship starts in about a month, and the uh mids will be looking to get back to the finals. Uh last year they were taken out by Fordham, so we'll see if the Mids can't turn the tables on them this season. Moving on to uh women's soccer, uh, they are currently 9-5-3 with a 2-2-3 conference record. And uh right now they're sitting in fifth place in the uh Patriot League. Um their uh leading scorer is uh Marlee Heaven. She is a senior from Rockville, Maryland, and she currently has here, nine goals, three assists, and that's for a total of 21 points. Uh you recall when they calculate points in soccer, you get two points per goal and then one point for the assists. Um conference tournament starts on November the second. Now, the one thing I will mention here is that uh in the annual star match against Army, uh the Mids ended up with a 2-2 tie. And you know that one had the sting a little bit because they jumped out to a two-zip lead. And um actually, let's see, this yeah, they were up one-zero at halftime, picked up the second goal fairly early in the second half, and then Army got one back, and it was two to ones going back and forth, back and forth, and then right at the end, I might it was like with less than 30 seconds left in a game, Army got the uh game tying goal. So that one went down as a tie. But the good news is they didn't take the loss, which was important when it comes to the Star Series because what that means is instead of 14 wins uh to secure the um the competition this year, the Mids only need 13. And um, so although it wasn't a win, it's certainly better than taking the loss. Um okay, so that does it for soccer. Uh women are actually playing pretty well this year. So they, I mean, they sit in fifth, but there's a bunch of teams that are kind of tied for like second, third, and fourth there. So there's a pretty good chance if they get on a hot streak, they could uh they could go pretty deep into the tournament and maybe even come away with it. Who knows? But uh Army's gonna be tough to beat. They're pretty good this year. Okay, we're gonna finish up with men's cross country. And the good news here is that they uh just picked up their seventh consecutive star over Army in their annual meet, which took place uh this past weekend. It wasn't easy though. Uh the score was uh 26 to 29, and just to refresh your memory, remember the low score wins in cross country because they just add up the points based on how the uh runners finish. Justin Mumford, who is a senior, took the individual title. In fact, he he took charge of the race pretty much halfway through and won by a solid 15, I think it's like 15 to 20 seconds. Um teammate Patrick Gandini was second, so that was a nice strong start for the mids. Uh, and then the remaining points came from James Partlow, who uh finished sixth, Logan Flement, who finished eighth. Uh Logan, I hope I'm pronouncing your last name correctly there. And then uh we had Jackson Nguyen who finished uh ninth. So those last two spots were critical because if an Army runner had finished eighth and then bumped Partlow and N guyen down to ninth and tenth, the Black Knights would have won the meet. So uh congratulations to the men's cross country team on another terrific win over Army. Uh they will be looking to defend their Patriot League title on October 31st at Lehigh University. Okay, that's gonna do it for the sports update. Um, our deep dive segment is coming up next where I will be handing out some midseason grades to the football team, so you will definitely want to stick around for that. So I thought it would be interesting to hand out some grades seeing how the brigade just finished up midterm exams. First of all, I wanted to give a big shout out to the Navy coaching staff. Uh, one of the things I've learned since starting this podcast is that coaching at all the service academies adds a layer of complexity. Um, not every coach is a good fit, and right now I think the football team is fortunate to have a staff that understands what it takes to mesh the goals of the team with the overall physical mission of the academy. So I just wanted to point that out as the mids head into the second half of the season, and uh judging from the teams left on the schedule, it's gonna be quite a grind. Now let's get to the grades starting with the uh offense. First up is the uh offensive line. Um I will say that this group has been a really nice surprise overall. Uh the team lost some good experience last year when Brent Self and Connor McMahon graduated, but the reps that the underclassmen got during key games is really paying off this year. Uh Ben Purvis at left guard, Cam Nichols at center, and Hoke Smith at right guard make up the core of the interior line, and they've been doing a terrific job. Purvis is a senior while Nichols and Smith are juniors. And uh by the way, I didn't want to forget Sean Crowley at left tackle and Jalen Acevedo at right tackle. Uh they are both sophomores. The only thing I would like to see tightened up during the rest of the season is the pre-snap penalties. Um they weren't that much of an issue over the first four games. It's only been the last couple that they've been kind of piling up, but those penalties have a way of really killing drives, and the Mids aren't going to be able to afford that against teams like South Florida and Memphis, not to mention Notre Dame. Uh on balance though, I'd say the offensive line has definitely stepped up despite losing two key players from last year, and they are the big reason Blake Horvath has been so productive. Through six games, he's got 640 rushing yards, and that averages out to be about 106 per game. He's also run for eight touchdowns. And as far as passing goes, he's thrown for 980 yards and seven touchdowns while completing 64% of his passes. More important than all of that, though, is the fact that Horvath consistently makes good decisions. And uh yeah, there've been a couple of passes that have gotten away from him, but overall, his accuracy has really improved compared to last season. Uh he does a great job of putting the offense in the right play, and what I like the most about Horvath is that he is really patient when it comes to setting up his blocks. On that touchdown against Temple, they got them within a point. He waited for Ben Purvis to pull around to the right and then exploded through the hole as soon as Purvis sealed off the linebacker. Alex Tecza took care of his guy, and so did Cody Howard downfield. And in fact, nobody laid a finger on Horvath on his way to the end zone. So he is doing a fantastic job running Coach Cronic's offense. Okay, jumping over to uh Eli Heidenreich, um, looking at his rushing numbers, he's got 266 yards, averaging about 7.6 yards per carry and three touchdowns. He's also caught 23 passes for 485 yards and four scores. In fact, the uh the last touchdown he caught, which uh came against Air Force, made him the career leader in touchdown receptions at Navy with 14. Heidenreich is extremely productive. Uh anytime he gets his hands on the ball, he is a legitimate threat. Um right now he's averaging about 21 yards per catch. So I'm looking for him to really continue uh having the same kind of impact for the rest of the season. Okay, now let's get over to uh Alex Tecza. So far this year, he's got 409 rushing yards. That works out to be about 6.4 yards per carry. Um he's gotten into the end zone five times, and on top of that, he's added uh six catches for 71 yards. And of course, the biggest one there was the uh two-point conversion he caught from Horvath against Temple that uh put Navy ahead, and of course, the uh defense was able to close things out. Tecza has been a little bit banged up this year, but I'm hoping the bye week gave him the chance to get all healed up. Um, the offense is really going to need him over the last couple of months. But again, uh here's a guy who consistently comes up with big plays when the team needs him. And not only that, but he's one of the best blockers out there amongst the uh the uh fullbacks in the receiving core. The last person I wanted to mention was Brandon Chatman at the snipe position. He's currently at 152 rushing yards, averaging about 6.1 yards per carry, but it is his blocking that I find the most impressive. Um Chatman is listed at 5'9, 174 pounds, and and that might be a little bit generous, but um, here's a guy who puts his body on the line. I've seen him do this so many times over the last two seasons, and and most of the time he's giving away at least 40 pounds. That doesn't seem to phase him though, and and as a result, he's wound up springing Horvath, Tecza, and Heidenreich on some huge gains. So um, I would like to see him actually get his hands on the ball a little bit more often. He made a really nice catch against Air Force, and uh, whenever he gets his hands on the ball, it's pretty exciting to watch him run. All right, let's just finish up with some general stats for the team. Uh, offense, in terms of rushing, they're ranked first in the country at 305 yards per game. And the red zone offense is ranked 11th, so that's uh that's pretty efficient there. And as I mentioned before, one of the things I'd like to see the offense kind of tighten up a little bit is the untimely pre-snap penalties, which put them behind the sticks and really create a lot of problems for them. So, overall grade for the offense, I'm gonna go with A-I think that uh they've done a terrific job, but there's definitely some room for growth there. And I'm hopeful that these last couple of weeks uh they've had a chance to really get dialed in and focus on this next game against Florida Atlantic, putting everything together in that game and seeing where they can go from there. Now let's talk a little bit about the defense. Um, starting with Landon Robinson, he is having another strong year. Uh currently he is third on the team in tackles with 33, and uh he leads the defense in sacks with five and also tackles for a loss with six. And um, I gotta say that uh I'm continuing to be impressed with Robinson's athleticism. I mean, I if you guys remember that game against Air Force uh in that last drive that the Falcons had, Jackson Campbell had deflected that pitch up into the air back in uh Robinson's direction, and he actually dove for it and caught it out of midair. So I mean that was pretty impressive because he was in the process of fighting off a block at the same time. So uh again, great job by him and helping secure that win for Navy over Air Force and uh just a phenomenal athlete in terms of uh what he's doing at nose guard there for Mids this year. Uh next up we have Luke Pierrus. He is uh second on the team in tackles with 45 and third in tackles for a loss. And he's also got a fumble recovery this year. Um, in fact, he always seems to be around the football. And and one thing that really illustrates this is the number of assisted tackles he's got. Uh, out of his 45 uh tackles total, I think 30 of them are assisted. So basically he's he's always around the football and always looking to make a big play. And then uh the third guy I wanted to point out today was uh Marc Anthony Parker, who is a sophomore linebacker. He actually leads the team in tackles with 52, and he also has one and a half sacks. Now, I believe that Parker has a chance to add his name to what is becoming a very long list of great Navy linebackers. This guy's IQ when it comes to defense is really off the charts. Uh I was listening to a post-game interview, I think it was after the I want to say the rice game, maybe. The uh question he was asked had to do with the defensive schemes that uh Coach Volcker was running in that game. And he made a really interesting comment. He said that one of the things that I really work hard at doing is just focusing on my job and not getting bored with it. Because the second you stop getting bored with your job, you start looking to do other people's jobs. And uh and that's when explosive plays can occur and you end up giving up a big score. So I thought that was some pretty good insight from a guy who's who's only a sophomore, so he's got a really big future here at uh Navy, and uh I'm actually wondering how high his ceiling is. So those are three players that I think are really excelling right now on the field for the Navy defense, and uh they do have some things to tighten up, though. Um, as you guys know, they lost most of their secondary to graduation. So uh that's been a little bit of an adjustment getting those guys up to speed, but it's coming along. Um, I think communication on the field, especially when the offense shifts into um different alignments prior to the snap, that's caused some problems on defense, especially coverage breakdowns, and it has resulted in some explosive plays. Uh Coach Volker also mentioned the need to improve um, you know, some basic fundamentals as they relate to the different schemes that the defense employs. So we'll see how things go in the coming weeks. I hope that the uh bye week did them a lot of good and that that things really improve on the communication side in the last half of the season. So as I'm looking to assign an overall grade, um, I was gonna say C plus, but I did want to give them credit for the key turnover that helped secure the Win over Air Force and really standing their ground against Temple with the game on the line. So I think that gets them to a B minus. What I think they need to do to bring that grade up to an A is to get to the point where they are making the offense react to what they are doing. In other words, just becoming real disruptors again. That hasn't been the case as much this year. Um certainly I think they're they're doing well against the run. I believe they're ranked 45th against the run. So that's you know, top third in division one, so that's pretty respectable. And um I did want to mention that the mids are ranked 20th in red zone defense, so that's really good. But uh yeah, it's the pass coverage breakdowns that have been giving the uh the defense some problems. So hopefully they can get that cleaned up uh over the last half of the season. Okay, now on to special teams. And I know when people think this uh category, they think strictly field goal kicking, but we're gonna talk about punting and also uh kick returning as well. Um Nathan Kirkwood's been Navy's kicker for the last couple of years, and uh this year he's not had a lot of opportunities, but he has made the most of them. Uh currently he is five of six with a long of 48 yards, and that one came against Temple. You guys remember that one? He was looking like uh a PGA tour player there, drawing that ball in from the right to the left, squeezing it inside the upright. But uh his only miss has been beyond 50 yards. And with Kirkwood, leg strength has never been an issue. It's always been the accuracy. And the uh the one thing I can tell from this year compared to last is that uh his accuracy has really improved. Last year, Kirkwood only connected on uh five of nine attempts, and he had a I think he had at least one miss inside of 40 yards. So that that was a little bit iffy. Um Coach Newberry has said that he feels a lot better about the kicking game this year based on uh Kirkwood's improvement. So that's that's really great to see. So now let's go ahead and talk about punting with uh Jacob Carlson. He is a sophomore from Plano, Texas, and he's currently averaging 44.6 yards per punt. Um he's been on the field 15 times this year. Six of his kicks have been longer than 50 yards, and seven have been inside the 20. So those numbers are pretty consistent with the ones that uh Riley Reithman was uh putting up last year. Okay, now let's look at the uh kick returners, and the uh guy I want to focus on there is uh Isaiah Bryant. Uh he is averaging a solid 21 yards per return, and his longest has been uh 43 yards against Air Force. I think Bryant's got a real shot at taking a kickoff back for a touchdown before the year is out based on what he's done so far. I mean, last year he almost broke one against the Army, and he he's come close a couple of times this year besides that uh return he had against the Falcons. So uh you never know. We'll we'll see what happens. Uh as far as an overall grade for the special teams, I'm gonna go ahead and assign a B. And I think that's largely due to the uh nice improvement that Kirkhood has made with his accuracy and also the uh consistency that uh Carlson and Bryant have shown in the uh punting and uh kickoff return games, respectively. So uh great job to the special teams. Just to kind of sum things up here, if I'm gonna uh give the team an overall grade, uh taking into account offense, defense, and special teams, I think B is appropriate. Um the offense has definitely met expectations in my view. And granted, there's some things that can kind of tighten up there a little bit, but uh overall I think you'd have to be pretty pleased with that. And then special teams, they've done slightly better than I thought. The uh defense hasn't been up to its usual standard when it comes to consistently causing disruption, but uh they have a lot of talent and they just need to build that chemistry up that they had uh last year. So uh the way to do it is basically what's happening right now. I mean, there's no experience like game experience. Uh right now the Mids are in first place in the uh in the American conference. Uh South Florida and Tulane also have no conference losses. So it's basically one game at a time from here on in. Um I'm I'm curious to get your take on how the season has gone so far. What grade would you give the Mids? Uh let me know. If you're part of the Navy Sports Nation group, go ahead and uh you know give me your comments there. You can uh also leave me a message by uh clicking on the link in the show notes. I'd like to hear what you think. Okay, we're gonna go ahead and take a short break now, but before we do that, I did want to give you all a couple of ways to stay up to date on Navy sports. The first is to join the Navy Sports Nation group Facebook page. I've got a link to that in the show notes. Just click on it, answer a couple of questions, and you'll be good to go. The second way takes even less time. Just hit the follow button on whichever platform you're listening to this podcast right now. It can be Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, it doesn't matter. Once you do that, every episode will be downloaded to your directory when it's released, and you can listen to it whenever you're ready. So please consider becoming a member of our group, and you can actually tap that follow button right now to show your support for the podcast. I'm looking forward to having you join us. We'll be right back. This is the second day of the annual star match against your arch rival army. You are the fifth of seven singles matches that are being played today. Following the four-ball competition that took place yesterday, your team was tied with the Black Knights at two points apiece. The team that wins at least four of the seven points available in singles would earn that much coveted star. So far, things have gotten off to a good start. Your teammates have taken three of the first four matches to go up five to three, with three more on the course. But there's still a long way to go. Coming off the 14th green, you find yourself down two holes with four left to play. You also know that your other two teammates still on the course are trailing in their matches, so Army seems to have the advantage. This match is extremely important to you. Navy has not defeated Army in golf since 2021. You entered Annapolis in the summer of 2023. This means you have not yet experienced the feeling of beating Army, which is arguably the most important thing to every Navy athlete. You did have that opportunity two years ago. As a freshman, you held the lead in your singles match, but it slipped away down the stretch and your opponent went on to win in extra holes. That resulted in the Black Knights taking home the star for the second year in a row. As you make your way to the 15th T, you try to stay focused. Coming back from a two-hole deficit this late in a match won't be easy, but you've been playing golf long enough to know that things can change in a hurry. Sure enough, you fight your way back, winning two out of the next three holes. And by the time you and your army counterpart are ready to hit your drives at the 455-yard 18th, the match is all square. The gallery begins to sense that it is this contest that will decide which team wins the star, because the two teammates still on the course with you continue to trail their opponents. But that's not what's on your mind. All you want to do is put the ball in play and give yourself a chance to close out this match. Your t-shot isn't exactly what you wanted on this challenging final hole, but it is playable. Then, things change dramatically when your opponent hits his drive out of balance. After taking a penalty stroke, he teases ball up again and hits his third shot into the fairway. You punch your second shot out of the left rough to the fairway, but you're still 120 yards from the pin. Meanwhile, your fellow contestant winds up hitting his fourth shot wide of the green. You follow with your third shot, which lands just short of the putting surface. But you still have some work to do. After your rival gets his fifth shot onto the green, he misses his putt for double bogey. And when your chip shot stops inside of three feet, he concedes the hole, giving you the win. The feeling of being able to come through after being down late in the match is absolutely incredible. You helped the Navy earn its first star of our army in four years, and after shaking your opponent's hand, you go celebrate with your teammates. Luke Lombardo's one-up win over Army's Matthew Duke in the Mid's annual star match with the Black Knights ended a four-year drought, and he did it in dramatic fashion, coming from behind to win in the last four holes. Not only did the victory get Navy on the board in this year's star competition, it also marked the 1200th overall win against Army across all sports. The uh total count is 1200 wins, 918 losses, and 46 ties. So, congratulations to the coaches and players on the men's golf team for their terrific win over Army and for posting Navy's first star in this year's competition. That's gonna do it for this edition of Navy Sports Central. Thank you all so much for joining us. Now, if you like what you've heard, please be sure to hit that follow button wherever you get your podcast, and remember to get the word to all the other Navy fans out there. I would definitely like to get your thoughts on this episode, and you can share those by uh joining the Navy Sports Nation Group Facebook page or sending me a message via fan mail, and you can find that link in the show notes. And just a quick reminder: the views expressed on Navy Sports Central are my own and do not reflect those of the U.S. Naval Academy or Navy Athletics. By the way, the music used in Navy Sports Central comes to you courtesy of Audio Jungle. This is a great site for purchasing the rights to use the music from thousands of artists around the world, and those featured in the podcast will be credited in our show notes. Talk to you soon, everybody. Until next time, this is Karl Darden, Go Navy, beat Army.