Brian Hampton will Get Better

While Hampton ran like an Abrams Tank all night long (149 yards), he obviously struggled on some of his pass attempts in Saturday's win. His two completions for six yards on six attempts doesn't look so hot, but even more worrisome were the three long, sure-fire touchdown passes he overthrew. Keeping in mind this was only the first game though, and that a little rust, nerves, or even the wind may have had something to do with it, I don't think it's time to start worrying. Coincidentally, Coach Johnson highlighted that point in his post-game press conference...

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The Importance of the ECU Win

For most teams, beating a middle-of-the-pack Conference USA Team isn't a big deal. But for this year's Navy team, it's huge. Why? Well, all one has to do is look at Navy's schedule to see the importance. With six very difficult upcoming games, Navy can't afford to lose this early and put it's Bowl aspirations on the line. Once more, if East Carolina goes on to win 5, 6, 7 or more games this year (as some have predicted), it'll prove to the skeptics that Navy can win against decent programs.

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"D" Holds Our for the Win

It wasn't always pretty, but the Navy Defense came up with the stops when it had to in last night's 28-23 win over the East Carolina Pirates. Holding the Pirates high powered passing offense to just twenty three points was no small task, especially after two Navy turnovers in the third quarter looked to give Skip Holtz's offense a spark. Yet after a day of timely and physical defense, I guess it was no surprise when, in spite of Navy's offensive miscues, the defense held out in the second half to deliver the win.

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(AP Photo, as seen on GoMids.com)

Navy's Offense too Much for ECU

Well, we won. And while our 28-23 performance wasn't exactly executed with midseason form, it was nevertheless a great start for the 2006 season. More thoughts to come later today, but here's the morning write-up from the Fan House.

Skip Holtz still has some work do.

After months of anticipation, Navy and East Carolina finally squared off yesterday, and as I predicted, the Midshipmen came out on top, winning a thrilling 28-23 contest that came down to the last drive. While not as pretty as I think many of us Navy fans would have liked to see, a win is a win, and their certainly were many positives Coach Johnson can take into the season.

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AP Photo

I'm off to the game, which starts at 5:30 EST (CSTV) in case you needed a reminder. I'll be back tonight with my thoughts, and tomorrow will get some photos up.

You can read my prediction hyah...

GO NAVY

BEAT ECU

Navy Pass Offense Vs. ECU Pass Defense

Because of the nature of Navy's offense, this is by no means an assessment of talent or ability, which is often the case when talking about passing game scenarios. East Carolina's corners and safeties should have their hands full trying to dissect the option, and will likely be be susceptible to play-action and option pass plays. This should give the Navy receivers and slotbacks the ability to draw one or (as we saw in the Poinsettia Bowl) no-man coverage.

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Navy Rushing Offense vs. ECU Rush Defense

Last season Navy lead the Nation in rushing while Easy Carolina finished an abysmal 112th against the run. As you would expect, East Carolina Head Coach Skip Holtz has taken steps to address this issue during the off-season. One of his main actions was to bring in three highly touted JUCO linebackers, including Orlando Farrow, Fred Wilson, and Quentin Cotton. The question here will be whether or not the changes made by Holtz and his staff will be able to effectively counter this veteran Navy offense. The short answer is simple; they will not.

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Observations

Here are some more random observations from last night's games.

• Toledo nearly showed the Nation it had the ability to opened a mid-level BCS team in Iowa State. The Cyclones, who arguably have the best skill position players in the Big 12 North, survived the scare 45-43 in triple overtime. If they wouldn't have waiting to pass the ball to Todd Blythe until overtime, I think all this pointless drama could have been avoided.
• You're probably wondering how Navy's future opponents did last night? The short answer, quite well in fact (although I've already sicussed Temple) as UConn destroyed Rhode Island 52-7 and Tulsa beat Stephan F. Austin 45-7. I'll have more on this later.
• Good to see Northwestern win in their first game back. Horrible to see Michael Wilbon in the jersey on PTI however.
• New Mexico State won against SE Louisiana, keeping their National Title hopes alive.
• Central Michigan will win the MAC this year after an impressive performance against Boston College. Mark my words.
• Why does Steve Spurrier smile when he's mad?

Wow. Like, wow

Pardon me, but I'm still fighting off the excitement from last night. The Buffalo Bulls, a perennial bottom five team, just spanked the Temple owl's, a perennial bottom two team. In this battle of 117 vs. 118, this colossal struggle of heavyweights , it seemed only fit that the two teams fight it out in overtime. Sure enough, they did. And get this, Buffalo won! As a lifelong Bills fan, and someone who's entire extended family lives/has lived in Western New York, this was a good thing. As a Navy fan though who desperately needed Temple to at least win one friggin game this year for SoS reasons, this didn't please me. Nevertheless, here are some observations I made.

• Temple's defense sucks. They don't tackle well, the linebackers are slow, the linemen are fat, and all they got going for them is that the University of Buffalo looks way too similar to the Buffalo Bills in the redzone.
• Buffalo's got some athletes. QB Drew Willy has some nice moves and has an absolute cannon. Too bad this is the worst pass blocking offensive line I've ever seen.
• Temple's offense looks almost exactly the same as last years. Short, underneath in-routes and play action to the tight end, very predictable stuff for an armchair defensive coordinator like me. I was screaming for the DBs to jump just one route, and when the dude finally listened to me, he dropped a sure interception for a touchdown return.
• Temple can't tackle, except when they get their 700 hundred pound linemen to sit on people.
• James Starks is either really fast or Temple defense is really slow or really tired.
• Buffalo can't make a field goal. Images of Scott Norwood are brutally and painfully repressed inside of my soul.

It should be known that I viewed this game over the Miss. St/South Carolina game. Why watch two mediocre SEC teams play when you could just watch two God-awful teams play? I'm not the kind of fan who believes his team can beat anyone easily, but let's just say that after Temple lost last night, I'm not going to lose much sleep when it comes to Navy's showdown with the Owl's in November.

Linebacker Preview

The key to Navy's success on defense isn't exactly a top-secret Pentagon code. In fact, the strength of this defense pretty much revolves around how the linebackers play, since they are the focal point of Buddy Green's 3-4 scheme. Fortunately for Coach Green it is a very good, and very deep group...

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Defensive Line Preview

One of Navy's biggest concerns coming into the 2006 football season is the play of the defensive line. While the 2005 defensive line consisted of several very athletic players, it was apparent that against teams with especially large offensive lines (Maryland, Stanford, Notre Dame), the front three of the Midshipmen just couldn't get the job done against the run. Navy's 3-4 defense is designed around a linebacker corps that is capable of making every single play on the field, while the defensive line is called on to use it's speed on the edges to provide pressure on the quarterback.

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Caldwell Wants to Hit Somebody

Rob Caldwell is ready to bust some heads. Naturally, this pleases me, as I continue to hear the constant chatter about how Navy is overrated and about how athletic and fast this East Carolina offense is. What, do they think Navy is just going to sit around and let Jame Pinkney and the ECU offense just march up and down the field? Of course not, and just as ECU will be ready to try to stop Navy's triple option, so will the Midshipmen defense be ready for Pinkey and company's passing attack.

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Offensive Line Preview

Several months before the start of the season, a fan discovers that his beloved team will face off against the Navy Midshipmen. This fan, thinking of himself as a rather curious fellow, decides to do some research on the Navy team. Somewhere between laughing his butt off at the diminutive size of the Navy slotbacks or the lack of prize recruits, said fan discovers that Navy's offensive line is rather small. With only one linemen over 300 pounds, and with the smallest linemen in Division I-A (Antron Harper, 5'11, 249), this enterprising young fan proclaims that Navy's offense must completely suck, and is no more then a "gimmick" offense that manages to beat the very dregs of Division I by only the smallest of margins.

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5 Freshmen Who Will Be Stars

Just in case you missed the memo, Navy brought in a stellar (or, for our tennis fans, superlative) recruiting class last season. No longer ranked behind such powerhouses as Temple and Florida International, Navy's latest class features several stud players that I expect to help continue the winning ways established by Head Coach Paul Johnson. In no particular order, here are a few of the players I belive will make the greatest impact...

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Johnson has Mids "Playing Scare"

Playing on the edge certainly describes last year's team. After losing all but two starters, most people were certain it was going to be a tough rebuilding year for Johnson and the Mids. Yet Navy rallied around a group of incumbent Juniors and Seniors, winning eight games and standing toe-to-toe with BCS middleweights Maryland and Stanford. With such success is what was a "rebuilding" year, it's not difficult to see why the experts are projecting Navy as high as 30th in the country.

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Where have all the posts gone...

...to AOL of course.

As I said a month or two ago, I signed up to work as the Navy blogger over at the AOL Sports Fan House. I know, I know. AOL has a sports page? Why yes, of course. And while the multi-gazillion dollar internet company isn't exactly known for their football coverage, the Fan House is an attempt to change all that. It's really quite impressive you know, covering all 32 NFL teams and over 50 college teams. Lucky for me (and hopefully you), the guys in charge of this Endeavour (including Jamie Mottram) thought Navy should be represented.

So here I am, having neglected a weeks worth of blogging on Pitch Right to instead spend some time over at the Fan House. The next couple of weeks are going to be very hectic for me, so you'll be seeing most (if not all) of my non-BlogPoll posts over there. I will however provide a picture, link, and small excerpt from each entry I make over there on a post over here. I'd like to take this time to thank Chris Dalton for graciously allowing me to use his scrimmage photos. Without him I'd be left posting the same picture of Reggie Campbell everyday.

While the college Football Fan House doesn't "launch" for another week or so, feel free (in fact I implore you) to read my daily entries for Navy Football.

Time for a New Poll

Yea, I figured most anyone who cared already voted in the mini poll at the side of the page. The poll, which asked "Beside Notre Dame, which team are you most worried about next season" was only marginally successful. 98 total votes were cast, with Stanford leading the way with 42 votes (43%). Rutgers was second with 19 (19%), followed by Tulsa with 12 (12%), and Air Force with 9 (9%). UConn received 7 votes, while Army came in with 3 and East Carolina with 2. UMass, much to my own surprise, received 4 votes, although I'm fairly sure at least one of those was a joke and at least one other came from Frank over at the UMass Football FanZone. I was the first person who voted in the poll, and voted for Stanford.

Anyways, as you may or may not have guessed, the new pole question if "Will Navy beat ECU on Saturday?" Likewise, each week the question will be whether you believe Navy will beat the team it's slated to play that week. I certainly encourage you to cast your ballot, and if you'd like to explain/defend your reasoning, by all means hit the "comment" button!

Game Week: We Have Arrived

Six more days.

Let me say that again. Six more days until Navy and East Carolina open the season at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium (and only 4 days until the college football season officially begins.)

We've spent our spring and summer waiting, waiting for some tidbit of information that could shed a light on our team's upcoming campaign. We've suffered through the cold, desolate months and were reborn- if for only a few weeks- with the prospect of spring practices. We've all read our preseason publications countless times and our Phil Steele magazines are falling apart at the spines. We've heard the 'experts' weigh-in and we've debated the scenarios amongst ourselves. We've watched the practices and seen the scrimmages, all attaching ourselves to a particular mindset but all hoping for the same final outcome. And now, we wait. We wait as if we were waiting for a play, living in the seconds between the snaps, waiting in anticipation of the runners first cut, holding our breathes between the passes and the catches. Here anything is possible, a victory is never of reach. Here all 119 teams has a chance to win; each Div I-A team, from the powerhouses of Ohio St. or USC, to the flailing programs of Temple or Buffalo, have the potential to be something more, something special. This is college football. This is the pageantry, the excitement, the action, the rivalries, the drama, the violence, and the spirit of competition. Here is everything that draws us to this great game and so much more, and today I am happy to say welcome, and I'm glad you're along for the ride.

-Adam

Land-Mine Games

Ok, you knew it was coming. Finally something interesting and worth analyzing from CFN.com. Today the college football mega-site released its "Land-Mine Games." According to CFN, these are basically your standard "let-down games" that you can't count on party-loving 21 year olds to fully show up for.

Navy's letdown game, according to CFN, is Duke. Unfortunately, I think CFN got this one wrong. You see, with Zach Asack at QB this was a letdown game. Now it's just a game against a team with a talented defense but no offense to speak of. I think that Navy's landmine game is instead against Air Force out in Colorado Springs. Considering that everyone and his brother is ready to write Fisher DeBerry off, I would be weary of of this Air Force team, especially if Navy comes in undefeated, and Air Force comes in winless.

So, what of teams who face landmine games against Navy? Well, CFN seems to think Tulsa and UConn face tough battles against the Midshipmen, which i would have to agree with. However, how can Navy be the landmine game for Duke when Duke is the landmine game for Navy? A better pick would have been the opener against Richmond for Duke.

Tuesday Walkthrough

An interesting article out this morning, naming Brain Hampton one of the "Top 10 Querterbacks You
Haven’t Heard Of." Hampton is named 5th on the list, with the following writeup:

Hampton is built like a tank, has a stronger arm than his predecessors and most importantly, is a senior very familiar with Paul Johnson’s triple-option offense.
Navy’s running game is where they make hay and Midshipmen quarterback coach Ivin Jasper told The Washington Post that Hampton runs like mid-90s record breaker Chris McCoy. The running game sets up the pass, which averaged over 20 yards per completion last year, a total that Hampton could boost with his arm strength this year.

A more or less accurate assessment, and no, I don't feel like he's getting too much hype. When you look at the other guys on the list, this should instead be the "Top 10 QBs You REALLY have never heard of." To be honest with you, I had only heard of four guys on the list beside Hampton, and had only really "known of" two others (Cubit and Rowe). Nobody is saying (yet) that Hampton or any of these guys are stars, but that they have the potential to lead teams to winning seasons and put up good numbers in doing so. While I'm not to sure about the McCoy reference (although I will say Hampton has some nice moves), I was pleased to see this article. (HT Phatphelix at GoMids)

There is also an interesting preview up of the matchup between East Carolina and Navy, albeit from a biased source on the CUSA-Fans website. Thomas "Bubba" Rosenbaum does a good job breaking down the matchup, starting with injuries and going down to intangibles. Although the statement about ECU's work ethic, and how it's the best in the NCAA, is outrageous and most likely untrue, the article represents a fairly honest assessment of what the game should be like.