Since 2004, Navy football has had one season in which a quarterback has thrown for more than 1,500 yards.
That year was 2010, Ken Niumatalolo’s third season at the helm of the Midshipmen. Ricky Dobbs threw for 1,527 yards, helping lead Navy to a 9-4 record and a win in the Poinsettia Bowl against San Diego State.
Productive passing games have long been a rarity in Annapolis, falling in line with the other service academies, but the 2024 season has been a stark contrast from seasons past.
Drew Cronic was hired as the Mids’ offensive coordinator in January after he posted a 28-17 record as the head coach at FCS Mercer. He explained shortly after he was hired that he would bring a “hybrid Wing-T offense” to Navy, which had largely struggled on offense since the graduation of quarterback Malcolm Perry following the 2019 season.
“In this system, when we can be efficient throwing the football, then we can be a problem for people,” Cronic said in late September. “… When you’re at the Naval Academy, you have to be able to run the football. You have to be different, but it’s certainly good to know that our quarterback can make throws and we can execute the things that fit our offense.”
The running game has remained potent, averaging 295.6 yards per game on the ground through the first five games of the season. But along with that, Navy also averaged 169.8 passing yards per game during that span.
Much of it is due to the success of junior Blake Horvath, who has taken quite a leap in his first year under center for the Midshipmen. The 6-foot-2, 195-pound quarterback looked like a Heisman Trophy candidate early on, posting 1,349 yards of total offense and 17 total touchdowns through his team’s first five games.
From playing on the scout team as a freshman to suffering a thumb injury that limited his opportunities as a sophomore to now, the journey has been long but fulfilling.
“I couldn’t be more impressed with the way that he’s playing,” head coach Brian Newberry said. “I wouldn’t say it’s a surprise, but he’s playing at an extremely high level. His improvement over the course of a year has been tremendous.”
Horvath, however, is far from the only weapon in Navy’s offense. Four other players scored multiple touchdowns through the first five games.
One of those players is junior slot back Eli Heidenreich, who has been a big beneficiary of this dynamic offense. He led the Midshipmen with 449 receiving yards and five touchdowns through five games.
“I think this is just a really talented football team, especially with our skill players,” Heidenreich said. “Coach Cronic has done a great job of getting the ball to those players in space.”
Navy still prides itself on its running game, but the passing game has allowed the entire offense to flourish.
“That’s something that when he first got here at Navy, he made it apparent that we were going to be spread out more, throwing it downfield more,” Heidenreich said. “It’s been cool seeing it come to fruition through spring ball, fall camp and now on [the] field during the season.”
The most important part is that none of this has been forced. It’s just worked.
“It has to be a fit,” Cronic said. “It has to fit within our system. … If somebody takes one thing away, you have to have an answer for that, so we hope we’re able to do that weekly.”
This hot start is a possible sign of things to come, but even with the early-season success, Navy believes it is far from operating at peak efficiency. Reaching that 100 percent threshold is something few teams can say they’ve done, but the emphasis has always been to get better each week.
The Midshipmen emerged early on with an outside chance of making the new 12-team College Football Playoff, but getting better throughout the course of the season is the only way they will reach that point.
“Maybe the closest we’ll get is 99 percent because there’s always one or two things that we can get better at,” Heidenreich said. “However, I do think we’re getting close to our top potential.”
Photo Credits: Courtesy of Navy Athletics and Kenya Allen/PressBox