The college football landscape has often been referred to as the “Wild Wild West” in recent years, with players able to seek out NIL opportunities, transfer without sitting out a year and take advantage of extra eligibility stemming from the COVID-19 years.
That climate has created an era of constant turnover in college football, but the Naval Academy has largely been insulated from that environment. Has Navy football coach Brian Newberry heard from jealous colleagues around the game?
“Quite a few,” Newberry said on Glenn Clark Radio Aug. 22. “I’ve got a lot of friends out there coaching in a lot of different places and have really good jobs at a lot of places. But certainly, it’s frustrating times for coaches and rightfully so. You get in this profession to build relationships, to make an impact, to make a difference — not that it’s impossible to do right now, but it’s become more difficult, for sure.”
Coaches in all sports at the Academy can develop their players in a more traditional way than their counterparts who are knee-deep in the portal, NIL and now revenue share. Midshipmen who are in it for the long haul sign a “2 for 7” contract at the end of their sophomore year, tying them to the Academy for two more years and to the Navy or Marine Corps for five years after graduation.
Navy football went 10-3 in 2024, taking home the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy and winning the Armed Forces Bowl against Oklahoma. The Mids’ top contributors from a year ago are either back in Annapolis, on an NFL roster or serving their country.
“These days with the transfer portal, certainly we have guys who could have put their name in there and had some options and been able to make some money,” Newberry said. “But they see the value in a degree from the Naval Academy, they love their brothers here. They know that while we don’t do NIL and those kinds of things here, the NIL here is on the back end of getting that degree and serving their country and it’s something that’s going to last them for the rest of their lives.”
The 2024 campaign marked Navy’s first winning season since 2019, when the Mids went 11-2 behind a brilliant season from quarterback Malcolm Perry. Navy went 16-30 from 2020-2023, with the offense proving to be the primary culprit for the struggles. The Mids ranked at or near the bottom of the AAC in scoring offense in each of those seasons.
But in 2024, Navy found the right combination in offensive coordinator Drew Cronic and quarterback Blake Horvath. The Mids scored 31.3 points per game, a big improvement from the previous four years. Cronic’s hybrid Wing-T system brought more variety to the offense. Horvath (1,353 passing yards, 1,246 rushing yards, 30 total touchdowns) was one of the country’s breakout stars.
Horvath is back in Annapolis for his senior year, as are top weapons Eli Heidenreich and Alex Tecza.
“Guys know that we’re not going to sneak up on anybody. We’re going to have a little bit more of a target on our backs now,” Newberry said. “The message was going back to January, ‘Hey, we’re still the hunter. We’re still the team that’s the underdog. We’re still the team that has a chip on our shoulder, something to prove all the time. We’ve got to play with an edge. We’re going to have to fight and claw and scratch for everything that we get.’ There’s only a few times this year where we’re going to be as talented as the teams that we’re playing, and our guys know that. There’s a formula to win here and our guys know exactly what that is.”
Navy opens the 2025 season against VMI at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium on Aug. 30, then opens American play at home against UAB on Sept. 6. Other key matchups include Air Force (Oct. 4 in Annapolis), Notre Dame (Nov. 8 in South Bend) and Army (Dec. 13 in Baltimore).
The 2024 season gave the Mids a taste of what they’re capable of, but everyone starts the 2025 season fresh.
“Past success doesn’t determine future success. It’s important to understand that, but it certainly does create a sense of expectation in your program of what you’re capable of doing when you do things the right way,” Newberry said. “I had a good feeling going into last season about our team, about the character of our team, about the work they put in [during] the offseason. I felt like we did all the right things to prepare, embrace the process and work the way that we needed to. I thought we were a team going into the season that deserved to have some success. Obviously didn’t know what that was going to look like, but turned out pretty good.”
For more from Newberry, listen to the full interview here:
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