SMQ Previews Navy

Fellow Blog Sunday Morning Quarterback has released its "Absurdly Premature Assessment" of the 2006 Navy football team.

The highlights of the preview? Well, like most previews for next year's team, SMQ begins with a mention of former QB Lamar Owens. The preview then moves to cover the ground attack of PJ's Triple option, with props to Reggie Campbell, Adam Ballard, and Matt Hall. A witty comment about Reggie's 43 yard per game average overlooks his amazing 9.0 yards a rush and 26.2 yards a catch, but since it's SMQ, I'll let it slide.

However, a sly comment about a still easy schedule irked me a bit, so I felt compelled to comment:

Notre Dame is well, Notre Dame. Tulsa and Rutgers are Top 30 caliber, and Stanford (which already is decent-good)may very well have a breakout season (Trent Edwards is getting a lot of offseason praise, apparently his progression has really picked up). East Carolina is much improved, and some analysts are already predicating a Bowl and challenging for the C-USA title. Air Force, UCONN, and Army are all not great to decent, but UCONN could be in position to have a winning season. Duke, Temple, and E. Michigan all suck, but I wouldn't rate them In the bottom 10, that's reserved for the entire Sun Belt.

SMQ also highlights the defensive concerns of the team, which are real, and rightly points out the top players in Tidwell and Caldwell. A barrowed line about Adam Ballard from Pitch Right was perfectly acceptable, and I can assure SMQ (who did not see Ballard play) that the Junior Fullback packs a significant punch. At 6-1 and roughly 240, he's both bigger and stronger AND faster then former pro prospect Kyle Eckel, and as stated numerous times on this very site, could develop into a very special player (yes, I'm talking NFL caliber special). After being compared to a Mom and Pop hardware store, SMQ puts Navy's win total at 8.

I was generally impressed with the preview. SMQ actually did some homework, and didn't rip us (playfully) as much as some of the other teams that have been previewed thus far.

In other news, CFN previewed E. Michigan today, so for all of you advanced scouts, I’d get on that…