State of the Program: Navy Midshipmen

Head Coach: Brian Newberry is entering his 3rd year as the head coach of the Midshipmen with a 15-10 record. There were some growing pains year 1 but things took off last season with a 10-3 record. It’s a tough task to replace someone who meant so much to the program like Ken Niumatalolo, but after this past season it’s clear Navy has succeeded at doing so.

Program Outlook: I’ll say this on each of their previews but service academy football is very unique and it’s truly one of the elements that sets College Football apart. In this era of NIL, the players at Navy are still true student athletes. In fact, football is the easiest activity they’ll do in a given day. This of course means there’s challenges, Navy will never recruit to the level of their conference peers but you also know this will be a disciplined team that runs a scheme that is very difficult to stop. Newberry has got his program up and running the way he wants and most notably picked up a massive win over Army last year to win the prestigious Commander-in-Chief trophy. Now they look to defend it, and perhaps win their conference + reach the playoff on the way too.

How does the 2025 Roster look?: Service Academies are frequently senior heavy when it comes to who starts, this typically means you’ll see them lower in returning production. Navy is bucking the trend on this because they ranks 39th in the country returning 61% of their production per Punt and Rally’s returning production rankings. Key players absolutely starts with QB Blake Horvath, he was absolutely electric last season and it wasn’t just running he could throw the ball pretty well too. Fullback Alex Tecza and slot back Eli Heidenreich was a special weapon for this offense both running and receiving. Yet the anchor to this offense is a strong interior Oline led by Ben Purvis, Hoke Smith and Cam Nichols. Nose tackle Landon Robinson is extremely good on the inside of the defense but there will be some new parts especially with Rayuan Lane, a rare Navy player that was drafted in the NFL and Dashaun Peele gone. The defense is aggressive and will try to manufacturer negative plays, if they don’t succeed at that they will often struggle to get off the field.

Screenshot from FBSchedules.com

2025 Schedule Thoughts: Navy’s schedule is definitely the tale of two parts. The first half is very manageable, but once the calendar turns to November, each game is tough. Navy’s non-conference doesn’t carry much variability, it’s basically set each year with Army, Air Force, Notre Dame and a FCS opponent. Navy’s FCS for of choice this year is VMI which is really awesome, I’d really like to see more of Navy and Army playing VMI and The Citadel more. Navy’s AAC schedule is highlighted by games against Memphis, USF and North Texas as their biggest challenges. They will also face 5 of the conference’s rebuilding programs which is favorable, this includes playing ALL THE OWLS this year. Navy can very easily be 7-0 heading into November but their season will be determined after that point when the big challenges come in.

Final Thoughts: It’s great to see Navy good again. The Midshipmen are absolutely a contender to win the American and with an 11-1 record with a competitive loss to Notre Dame they could reach the College Football Playoff. It will be up to the offense to remain steady, the wheels briefly came off late October into November last year in large part because of turnovers. They can’t put themselves in a chasing position if their defense struggles to get stops early in a game.