Navy football didn’t enter its Senior Day matchup against South Florida on Nov. 15 expecting its backup quarterback to steal the spotlight, but junior quarterback Braxton Woodson delivered the type of performance that can define a season.
Woodson came off the bench to run nine times for 103 yards and two touchdowns in the Midshipmen’s 41-38 victory, including a 64-yard score with less than four minutes remaining to seal the win and send Navy to 8-2.
The moment was the biggest of Woodson’s young career, but the Altamonte Springs, Fla., native said it was simply the result of preparation.
“We really work hard at practice,” Woodson said on Glenn Clark Radio Nov. 18. “We try to go over any situation we can. I’m getting a pretty good amount of reps, basically the same amount of reps that [starter Blake Horvath] does.”
That readiness showed. When Horvath was twice sidelined with cramping, Woodson stepped in without hesitation.
“I feel like I was ready to go. It’s always good when you feel like your coaches trust you and they believe in you. They didn’t seem worried. My teammates, they were patting me on the back, telling me, ‘Let’s do it.'”
Woodson had just seen action at Notre Dame on Nov. 8, an experience that helped calm his nerves when he entered against South Florida.
“I didn’t feel like it wasn’t anything I haven’t seen already, or anything I haven’t been in already,” Woodson said. “I just prayed a little bit. Thank God for giving me the opportunity and I was ready to go.”
Despite being a backup, Woodson said contributing in a meaningful way to Navy’s strong season means a great deal. The 6-foot-3, 215-pound quarterback has played in eight games this season, running for 414 yards, throwing for 110 yards and accounting for six touchdowns.
Woodson’s bond with Horvath is symbolic of a quarterback room that he describes as unusually tight-knit.
“Blake is an amazing guy outside of football, just an amazing guy. We text each other often. We have a group chat with all the quarterbacks where we send jokes and pictures and stuff like that,” Woodson said. “So I feel like we have a really good relationship, me and him and the rest of the quarterbacks as well. So that really helps, especially in those moments where you feel like you come off the sideline, you can ask him what he saw or what he feels like we should have done better.”
Football runs in Woodson’s family. His father played the sport at Auburn and his uncle and cousin played at Alabama. But he didn’t commit fully to football until later in high school, after realizing his other sports weren’t pulling him the same way.
“My first two years of high school, I was going back and forth between football and baseball. But football started to take a little bit more precedence,” Woodson said. “I was more excited about the football games than the baseball games. And truth be told, I couldn’t hit a curveball.”
Woodson said it was the Academy’s reputation beyond football that ultimately guided him to Annapolis.
“They’re putting out not necessarily the first-round draft picks or anything like that, but they’re putting out officers and leaders and people who are going to go back to their communities and do something for a change, actually help people in their area,” Woodson said.
He also valued the chance to play quarterback, a position he’d invested years into mastering.
“It mattered a pretty good amount to me. Because, I mean, that’s what I worked my whole life for, to play quarterback,” Woodson said.
For more from Woodson, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox