Navy vs. San Jose State: Will Recent Improvements Lead to Another Win?

It was looking pretty grim for Navy football fans back in October.  

Somehow, the coaching staff worked some magic and remarkably, the team now seems back on track.

After suffering key injuries (SB Aaron Santiago and QB Kris Proctor), playing opponents that cracked the top 25 (South Carolina, Southern Miss, and Notre Dame), and losing four games by a combined total of eight points, the Mids looked to be snakebit and spiraling out of control.

At stake was an opportunity to play in a ninth straight bowl game, and the very real possibility that "The Little Program That Could", which had stood tall against perennial powers like Ohio State and South Carolina, and even beaten Notre Dame three of the previous four years after decades of failure, had simply run out of steam.

After a blowout loss to Notre Dame in Rockne Stadium, coaches and players took stock.

And what they found out was, well, anti-climatic. It could have been that the talent to compete at the Division I level just wasn't there this year.

Or maybe veteran opposing coaches had deciphered the offensive and defensive schemes so painstakingly crafted by former Coach Paul Johnson and others.

Or was it bad officiating, selfish players, or even something intangible, like Mojo and swagger, that plagued the Goats? The coaching staff saw something else.

Niumatalolo was asked in a press conference following the SMU game if he had "yelled more" at the players, exhorting them in a new way. "You guys have been at practice," he answered. "You know nothing has changed." No, he concluded, the problems creating the losing streak were part circumstantial and part personnel related.

To be sure, the defense was young and untried when the season began, and it took a toll. Defensive Coach Buddy Greene rotated four cornerbacks through the defensive set before finally elevating freshman Chris Ferguson to a starting role, and the rest of the defense just wasn't playing with fire.

But when linebackers started dropping back into proper coverage, lineman held off blocks, and defensive backs anticipated passing routes, things began to change. "That's just the way we play Navy football," said defensive captain Jabaree Tuani." "It's hard-nosed football," he concluded - we just keep coming at you." "Flying to the football", an instinct that disappeared during the six-game skid, had returned to the Navy defenders.

So the coaches stayed the course. Practice length, intensity, and makeup remained essentially the same. They avoided wholesale personnel shifts. End-of -practice drills emphasized the fun of playing football, reminding the players that it was, after all, just a game.

So by the time Troy got off the bus at Navy-Marines Corps Memorial Stadium, Navy looked like a team possessed. The defense emerged to get pressure on the quarterback and make timely stops on third downs—both painfully absent over the previous six games. The offense chipped in to the "new" look with their own third down conversions, sustained drives that ate up clock time, and a new-found success in the Red Zone. Transformation had come to Annapolis.

So now what? Will Navy revert to mid-season form, or continue on their upward trajectory? Chastened by the longest losing streak in nine years and rejuvenated by a return to basics, the latter seems more likely. The Mids, however, next face a long, cross country flight, the temptation to look ahead to Army and, perhaps most importantly, another spread offense with a losing record but a ton of great offensive stats. The talking heads would call it "a classic trap game."

Next up: San Jose State.