End of Season Awards

Offensive MVP: Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada

I don't know if you can say enough good things about Kaipo and his continued development within the system. After an impressive ending to the 2006 season much was expected of the Hawaiian signal caller in 2007, and by all accounts he delivered. Statistically Kaipo shined, completing over 50% of his passes for 952 yards and eight touchdowns, while rushing for another 12 touchdowns and 834 yards. But it was what didn’t show up in the statistics which made all the difference. It was his decision making and knowledge of the system which allowed Navy’s offense to reach it’s highest output in year’s, while it was his leadership and energy which helped to keep the team together even in tough situations.

Honorable Mention: Reggie Campbell, Antron Harper, Eric Kettani

Defensive MVP: Irv Spencer

One can only wonder what Navy’s defense would look like in 2008 if Irv Spencer had another year. The senior from Oakwood Village, Ohio was a force in the middle for the Mids this past year, recording 95 tackles (team lead), 57 solo tackles (tied for team lead), 8.5 tfl (second on team), and a team high seven pass breakups. Simply put, Irv was a beast on an otherwise uninspiring defense for Navy this year, and brought a refreshing energy and enthusiasm to the defensive unit.

Honorable Mention: Matt Wimsatt, Michael Walsh, Chris Kuhar-Pitters

Defensive Breakthrough Player: Wyatt Middleton

In a season which saw the secondary undergo a complete transformation due to injury and inconsistency, the Navy defense did get a pleasant surprise with the emergence of freshmen free safety Wyatt Middleton this past season. Middleton, a plebe who attended NAPS last year, finished second on the team in total tackles with 88 and tied Irv Spencer for the lead in solo tackles with 57. While he did not record an interception on the season, he showed consistent improvement against both the run and the pass as the year progressed. I’ve heard a number of people say how Middleton seemed to be out of position for as many good plays he made. I don’t particularly buy that notion, and even if he was you have got to ask the question of “who wasn’t.” In a year which could probably best be described as a “learning experience” for the defense, Middleton was at the top of his class.

Honorable Mention: Ross Pospisil, Blake Carter, Ram Vela

Offensive Breakthrough Player: Eric Kettani

Coming into this season we all new Eric Kettani was good, but c’mon, who actually thought he’d lead the team in rushing? Eric had a monster year in 2007, rushing for 880 yards and 10 touchdowns on an outstanding 5.8 yards a carry. The fact that he virtually usurped Adam Ballard (who had been talked about as having pro potential in his own right) speaks for itself, as Eric brought explosiveness and shiftiness to the fullback position. He’s brought the physical tools of a pro-style running back to the Navy backfield, and has become one of the offense’s most dangerous players.

Honorable Mention: Zerbin Singleton, Anthony Gaskins, Paul Bridgers

Offensive Unsung Hero: OJ Washington

You may be asking why Antron Harper’s name isn’t here. It very well could be, but to me an ‘unsung hero’ is a guy who doesn’t get enough credit for the job he’s done, and if you ask me we’ve all been quick to identify Antron Harper as one of Navy’s best and most productive players. One player who often slips the spotlight however is OJ Washington, the senior receiver from Tacoma, Washington. Ok, so he dropped a few balls throughout the course of the year, but he’s been that solid blur on the outside of every play stalk blocking the wide receiver and allowing for those big holes we see the slotbacks running through. He’s greatly improved his route running over the past couple of years, and even gets into the action receiving (12 catches, 248 yards, 1TD.) He’s been a solid contributor on this team for the past three seasons, and despite returning a fairly veteran group of wideouts next year his services will be missed.

Honorable Mention: Josh Meek

Defensive Unsung Hero: Michael Walsh

The term high-motor is trite and cliché for undersized defensive lineman, and often used to denigrate a player's natural athletic ability and explain away his production by effort alone. My question is why we have to view such explanations as a bad thing. With 57 tackles (t0 TFL) and three sacks Walsh may be a walking cliché for Navy defensive lineman, but something tells me he wouldn’t have it any other way. He was Navy's best defensive lineman in 2007, and returns to lead what should be a much improved line in 2008.

Honerable Mention: Greg Thrasher

Special Teams Player of the Year: Zerb Singleton

I’ll be honest; it wasn’t a great year for the Navy special teams unit, but then again I may have just wanted an excuse to sneak Zerbin Singleton in here somewhere. I am of the firm belief that Zerbin cannot be praised enough for everything he has both overcome and accomplished on and off the field. He’s a bright spot in a sport which is constantly bombarded with cheating scandals, off the field suspensions, and over the top on-the-field antics. He’s a solid all around player in every aspect of the game; a disciplined tackler, determined runner, and heady receiver. He is, to borrow a phrase from the heading of this blog, one of those few players who makes this game “most nearly itself.” It’ll sure be weird not seeing #28 out there next year, but we all know that bigger and better things await him.

Honerable Mention: Reggie Campbell, Corey Johnson, Craig Schaefer

The Paul Johnson Files

EDIT: Since writing this post Bill Wagner (the only journalist I trust at this point) has written an excellent blog post updating us on the situation at hand. Block quoting doesn't do justice to the work Mr. Wagner has put into tracking Johnson's movements, so head over to the Capital to get the full story. The short story is though that nothing is a done deal, and there are many factors standing in the way of Johnson leaving at this point.

Every year when I'm doing Q&A's with various blogs, I typically receive a question somewhere along the lines of "How long will Johnson be at Navy," usually followed by something akin to "When do you think he will leave?"

I've never really known how to answer those questions. After all, I've heard the man speak a grand total of one time (at a football camp in 2003) and only been face to face with him once ("uh, can I get your autograph") so how can I accurately judge a man's career aspirations? Unlike other Navy fans, I don't have a compendium of knowledge on his days at Hawaii or Georgia Southern, and aside from the usual message board chatter, I really no very little about the man outside of what I see on Saturday's.

The point is, I can't tell if we're nearing the end of Paul Johnson era at Navy, and unless you've got some actual, no BS-ing around "sources" I don't know if you can tell either. Yes, it is true that Paul Johnson met with his agent Jack Reale on Monday in Atlanta, and it is true that while down there he likely also met with representatives from Duke, SMU, and presumably Georgia Tech. Heck, it might even be true that Georgia Tech has made an offer to Johnson, although I personally would take anything Dennis Dodd of CBS Sportsline said with a grain of salt. Also within the past 24 hours, we've learned that Duke could be close to offering Johnson, which David A. of GoMids.com writes could be more dangerous for Navy fans then we may think.

So where are we at right now? Well, we're at a junction, obviously, but it's not an unfamiliar one. Coach Johnson entertained offers last year, and for the better part of a week we were being told (quite insistently at times) that our beloved Head Coach would be taking a job somewhere else. After all, with both the UNC and NCST jobs opening up after the 2006 season, it looked as though the born and bred Carolinian in Johnson would have to go fix one of those programs. Fortunately for us however it didn't work out that way, and when it was all said and done we still had our coach. This year, in my mind anyways, seems much to same, and if we've learned anything from last year it's that Paul Johnson's name will be popping up for jobs from now on. We've said it before, but I don't think we've realized it until now; it's part of the territory of having on-the-field success, and it’s something we as fans just need to deal with.

There are people out there (quite a lot actually) who feel it necessary to speculate on the nature of these openings, and to predict where Johnson will go. Aside from not being sure if he will go at all (remember, he *hearts* this job) I feel compelled to point out that just because someone says he's going somewhere doesn't mean he will. If that were the case, Johnson would be in Dallas right now, or at least so says Dennis Dodd. It's a waiting game, but it doesn't need to spent in perpetual anxiety. We'll likely know where the team stands within the next 48 hours, and, with or without Johnson, the team will have to move on and prepare for the Poinsettia Bowl.

I have faith in the program. I have faith in the staff and administration to not sit idle and watch the program sink back to where we were in 2001, and I have faith in the players, who always seem to get overlooked with the discussions of systems and coaches. But most of all, I have faith in Coach Johnson, and faith that he will try to do what’s best for both the program, despite wherever his own career may take him. And that, I think, is enough to keep me back from the edge everyone keeps talking about.

Despite 3-9 Record, Army No "Gimme"

For the past five seasons the majority of Navy fans have penciled in the final regular season game of each year as a "W." Oh don't tell me you haven't done it at least once, after all we can talk about the greatness of the rivalry and all it symbolizes all day long (and certainly with good reason) but when it comes to the Army-Navy games of late, Paul Johnson and the Midshipmen have dominated. In fact, from the years 2002-2005 Navy outscored Army 176-54 in a series of games that for all intensive purposes were not even close. That was until last year when, in Robby Ross' final game, the Black Knights put on an inspired first half performance and came within several late offensive miscues of beating the Midshipmen. This year Navy once again comes in with a winning record and having already cliched a bowl game, while Army limps in with only three win on the year. Like last year, however, Army will be no "gimme" for the Midshipmen, who are looking to extend their winning streak over the Black Knights at six games.

Army is not a very good football team, but on Saturday they will be an extremely motivated football team, and when you couple that with their ability to at least be competitive this year with Navy's defensive struggles, you get a recipe for a closer than expected game, if not an outright upset. It's cliche, but it's true; you have to throw out the records in a game like this, and when you don't you risk overlooking an opponent with a lot to play for. And with a group of seniors who have never beaten Navy and the eyes of the nation upon them, I'd say that Coach Brock's group has a lot to play for.

Maybe Paul Johnson's "coach speak" is starting to wear off on me, but after what we saw last year I'm nervous about this game. Remember, last season Navy came into this game at 8-3, fresh off poundings of Eastern Michigan and Temple. The triple option was unstoppable, and it looked like Navy would coast to another big win over Army, just as the Mids had done each of the past four seasons. After all, Army limped into the game at a paltry 3-8, having dropped six straight and smack in the middle of what many fans would tell you was a football program in crisis. It made perfect sense then that for three quarters the team remained, for all intensive purposes anyway, deadlocked, in a game which probably resembled by-gone days in which each program was in it's glory or in it's misery, mostly depending on who you talked to in the stands. If last year wasn't a reminder to us that anything can happen when it comes to a rivalry like this, I don't know what is.

It's disconcerting to say the least if you're a Navy fan, especially considering the success Army had against the triple option last year, and the glaring fact that it was Navy's defense which won the game for the Midshipmen. That defense is of course long since gone, and despite an offense which is supposedly much better, the concern most Navy fans seem to be feeling today is whether or not Navy's defense can bail the offense out if Army's defense can effectively brickwall the triple option as it did last year. It's an interesting question, and on which I'm really not too sure about. On one hand you have to believe the offense will find a way to keep on doing what it's been doing, but with Kaipo-Noa not having played in three weeks you wonder if he'll be as sharp as he looked in the first half against North Texas. But, unfortunately for us, the problem may not be caused by Navy's offensive play, as when you take a look back at the tape last year it's clear that Army's defense just flat out out-played Navy in the first half last year. Some people have suggested Kaipo's nerves may have gotten the better of him in his first Army-Navy game last year, but to tell you the truth I think that's a cop-out. The reality is that Army's defensive line did a good job stringing out the triple option, and this begins with the play of the defensive end and the disruption of the initial read. In fact, if we look at stopping the triple option in terms of experience, then Army should have an advantage on most of Navy's 2007 opponents.

Once again, as I've found myself saying all season long, Navy "should" beat Army. Army has had some valiant games this season, but they're still 115th in the country in total offense, and 114th in the country against the run. Usually these are the kinds of numbers that jump out at you, but keep in mind the Black Knights are in a similar statistical situation as they were last year, and that didn't stop them from containing the triple option for much of the game. Who knows, Navy may come out guns a blazing and put up numbers reminiscent of 2002 or 2003, but if last year was any indicator, this game will likely start out slowly with both team's getting a feel for one another. Yet if Navy's offense can't get on track by the beginning of the first quarter, the Midshipmen endanger their chances by putting too much pressure on the defense, which, despite the favorable matchups against Army, is still susceptible to giving up big yards. Like last year, the Mids will have to play fundamentally sound defense, and not give up the big play to guys like Jeremy Trimble in the passing game. If the Midshipmen can do that and limit the time of Army's possessions, the offense, slow starting or not, should be able to carry the game. Anyway you look at it though, this game is far from a "gimme."