Kaipo still didn’t practice yesterday, sticking to the stationary bike. Coach Niumat did say that he would be making the trip to Colorado Springs, though, because you never know. That kind of talk doesn’t make me very confident that he’s going to play, which is probably what we all figured from the beginning.

Kaipo rode a stationary bike but didn’t practice yesterday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/29/AR2008092902924.html

The Air Force game notes have just been released. Kevin Edwards, John Angelo, and Kaipo are all listed as “probable.”

In retrospect, I probably worded this poll wrong. I should have made it “most important win” instead of “biggest win.” Oops. Navy’s had some big wins over the last few years. Some didn’t quite make the list: the 2002 Meadowlands Massacre, Vanderbilt in 2003 & 2004, Colorado State in the 2005 Poinsettia Bowl, East Carolina & Stanford in 2006, and Pittsburgh from last year, to name a few. In fact, I probably should have included at least one game against Army on the list, if only out of respect for the rivalry. But oh well. That’s what “other” is for, should you be inclined to vote that way.

Here’s the list of candidates for Navy’s biggest win of the last 5 years:

• Wake Forest, 2008: The highest-ranked team that Navy’s defeated in this period.
• Notre Dame, 2007: I assume this one doesn’t require explanation.
• Air Force, 2003: The first ranked team that Navy beat in this period. Also, the game that broke Fisher DeBerry.
• Rutgers, 2004: Kyle Eckel might still be running.
• New Mexico, 2004: Not only a bowl win, but the tenth win of the season, which propelled Navy into the top 25.

Thoughts?

It’s two days after Navy took down #16 Wake Forest, and I’m not sure how I feel.

I should feel elated. If I sounded upbeat at the end of the game preview, I was. Before the game I was pretty confident about how the Mids matched up with Wake Forest. The offense played well against them last year when Kaipo was in the game, and most of Wake’s same players were returning. Defensively, Wake seemed to play into what Navy did best against Rutgers. The Deacs have not been able to run the ball very well at all this year, so it didn’t seem likely that they’d be able to sustain drives the way Rutgers did riding the back of Jourdan Brooks. That meant that Wake would have to rely more heavily on its short passing game, which Navy defended well against a Scarlet Knight team with a more talented group of wide receivers than the Demon Deacons. With Kaipo healthy enough to finish the game and a defense that was improving from week to week, it looked like the best was yet to come for Navy football.

(I can’t in good conscience pat myself on the back too much, though. When Kaipo went down in the second quarter and started clutching at his hamstring, I pretty much gave up. I actually texted a friend, saying, “No Kaipo, no hope.” Little did I know that Navy’s defense would be so dominating.)

But that brings me back to my mixed feelings. This was as big a win as Navy’s had since the program was resurrected in 2003. But at what cost? Beating a top 25 team is fantastic, but losing Kaipo makes me feel as if this was a Pyrrhic victory. It’s cruel… We get a taste of what this team is capable of when Kaipo is healthy and the defense is born again hard. But just like that, it’s taken away from us. Well, maybe; Coach Niumat described Kaipo as “questionable,” so he didn’t rule out a return this week. But even if Kaipo’s status is up in the air at the moment, it’s hard to imagine that he’ll be available to start on Saturday. Then again, my medical knowledge is even more questionable than my knowledge of football, so who knows. I’m sure I’m just setting myself up for heartbreak by holding out hope.

Anyway, I guess there will be more on that later this week. Right now, it’s time to laugh at people.

LOL at people who say this offense can’t work in the ACC. Not that we didn’t already know. But seriously, it’s laughable how many supposed “experts” that once said the option was dead are now lining up to kiss Paul Johnson’s butt at Georgia Tech. Pretty sure I heard some ESPN talking head say the Yellow Jackets were his pick to get to the ACC championship game since “they’re the hardest team to prepare for.” O RLY? Hop on the bandwagon, everybody. You might as well start worrying about what BCS program is going to scoop up Ivin Jasper to run its offense, Navy fans. It’s going to happen sooner or later.

LOL at people who didn’t see improvement in the defense against Duke. Don’t get me wrong; the Ball State game was pretty bad. But even though the Mids lost to Duke the following week and gave up some big plays in the process, it was clear to anyone with an open mind that the defense was making strides. Now, they’re confident. Safeties are stepping in front of crossing routes and making plays. They’re swarming to the ball and jumping on fumbles that they couldn’t seem to recover last year. Missed tackles are WAY down. Quarterbacks are being pressured. It’s a revelation.

LOL at ACC referees. It’s time to dump the ACC. I know that every fan will probably say that its conference’s referees are terrible. I’m sure that’s partially true, too, as there are good crews and bad crews in any group of refs. Things like the overturned face mask and the no-call on the helmet-to-helmet would probably happen with any conference. But those aren’t the calls that really get to me. The two chop block calls against the Mids on Saturday were atrocious, and a result of ignorance of the rules. I am certain that chop blocks were something the referees were told to look out for before the game. And how often do we see flags for an illegal formation against the Mids thrown by a referee that was simply unprepared for Navy’s unconventional– but legal– formations? The problem with the ACC’s refs is that they are clearly unprepared for and uneducated about Navy’s offense. Now, don’t get me wrong; chances are that the same kinds of calls will be made no matter what conference Navy turns to for referees. The Naval Academy will always be at the bottom of the totem pole vs. actual conference members when it comes to referee assignments. But at some point, enough is enough. Whether it’s Big East, Big Ten, SEC, C-USA, MAC, whoever… It’s time to try someone else. You’d hope that with Georgia Tech running the same offense, things will change in the ACC. I’m not sure it’s worth the wait.

LOL at people saying that the team just isn’t as prepared without Paul Johnson. When Johnson left, I had my worries the same way everyone else did. We all know how hard it is to win at Navy, and how it isn’t something that can be done by just any coach. But holy cow, some people wanted to abandon ship after the Ball State game, saying things like “the team wasn’t ready!” and “the team is flat and uninspired!” and “PJ would’ve had them ready to play!” Sometimes I wonder what people like that actually see to make them say things like that. We still have a lot to discover about how Niumat will handle the long-term direction of the program, but as far as game-to-game preparation? The Mids are fine.

Anyway, back to the game.

There were two things that really stood out about Navy’s performance on Saturday. The first was Eric Kettani. Navy’s fullback averaged 9 yards per carry on the way to a career-best 175 yards rushing. It was clear early on that Ivin Jasper wanted to use the fullback to slow down Wake Forest’s sideline-to-sideline pursuit. The Deacs were focused on Shun White, who once again had double-digit carries (11), but managed only 20 rushing yards. To counter that, Jasper used misdirection with the fullback… In a way, he out-Wake Forested Wake Forest. You can see here how the middle linebacker starts following the flow of the play one way, then gets caught up in a block and is unable to make the tackle when Kettani cuts back in the lane opened for him by Jeff Battipaglia and Anthony Gaskins:

Like many of Eric’s carries on Saturday, this was a designed fullback give, not an option play. Coach Jasper clearly made the fullback a priority.

The other thing that obviously stood out about the game was the performance of Navy’s defense. There have been other great defensive performances in the last few years– last year against Army and the shutout against Tulsa to name a couple– but this was arguably the best of the bunch. After shutting out a top-20 team in the first half, the game was placed in the defense’s hands once Kaipo left the game. Things didn’t get any easier, as the fumble on the opening kickoff gave Wake Forest a short field and an easy drive for 7 points. In fact, the majority of the second half was played on Navy’s half of the field, as the offense could do absolutely nothing in the third quarter. But time and time again the defense responded with either a big third down stop or a turnover.

Navy held the Demon Deacons to a mere 43 rushing yards on 31 attempts. The key to that performance was the defensive line, particularly Nate Frazier. Nate was an absolute force on Saturday, drawing double-teams and a holding penalty. It was exactly what you need your nose tackle to do in a 3-4 defense. Jabaree Tuani made the most of his start, getting 6 tackles (two behind the line of scrimmage) and forcing a fumble. The defensive line also played a part in rattling Riley Skinner. Skinner completes a high percentage of his passes, mostly because Wake’s offense uses a lot of short passing. He’s a competent distributor of the ball in the confines of Steed Lobotzke’s offense. But he’s never been much of a downfield passer. Last year Skinner threw 13 interceptions, which is somewhat ridiculous considering the nature of the passing game in his offense. On Saturday, Navy’s defense took full advantage. They forced Skinner out of the pocket and dared him to throw downfield. The result was 4 interceptions. Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether turnovers should be blamed on the offense or be credited to the defense. Wake’s two fumbles might be the former, but I think Skinner’s 4 INTs were a result of excellent gameplanning by Buddy Green and Mids making plays.

Tomorrow is the second installment of the Navy football luncheon series, and maybe we’ll hear more about Kaipo’s status then. Pray for the best, because with a healthy Kaipo and a resurgent defense, there’s no telling what this Navy team is capable of. For now, I’ll enjoy this victory for one more day.

Never have I been
so angry after such a
monumental win.

After the Rutgers game last week, I changed the channel and flipped over to the Wake Forest-Florida State game. I figured, hey, why not take another look at Navy’s next opponent? So I watched for a few minutes, but eventually I just started chuckling to myself. Who was I kidding? What was I going to learn about Wake Forest by watching them play Florida State? I mean, it’s Florida freakin’ State! Sure, they aren’t the Seminoles of years past, but it isn’t like I could notice something the Noles were doing on defense and wonder if maybe Navy could try the same thing. Florida State’s athletes can get away with things that Navy’s athletes cannot. So I watched the whole thing (minus a couple of flips over to LSU-Auburn), but it really wasn’t worth watching with a very critical eye.

Frankly, breaking down how the Deacs played against the Seminoles would sort of be missing the point. The point is that even on a bad day, they’re going to be good. After blowing out Baylor (who has THE ÜBERMENSCH Robert Griffin) in week 1, coming back to beat Ole Miss in their second game, and grinding out a win against Florida State last week, Wake Forest has opened up with wins over Big 12, SEC, and ACC teams. That’s a whole new level, folks. The Deacs are the highest-ranked team in the ACC, and if they can beat Clemson next week they’ll have the inside track to a spot in the ACC championship game and a shot at their second BCS bowl in three years. Wake Forest is the best team on Navy’s schedule, and it really isn’t close.

I doubt that’s what Navy officials thought would happen back when they scheduled this game. Any game against a BCS opponent is tough, of course. But while Navy might have expected a tough matchup, they probably didn’t expect to be facing an ACC title contender. And why would they? Success has historically been difficult to achieve at Wake Forest, a small, prestigious private school in a conference full of giant state universities. Before 2006, Wake’s last ACC title was in 1970; and even that team only went 6-5. Ah, but that was before Jim Grobe. There’s an old saying in football, that good teams either do something different, or they do it better. Navy fans can appreciate that when it comes to winning at a school where money and academic standards make it harder to recruit the same kind of player as most of the other teams on your schedule, that usually means doing something different. And that’s what Jim Grobe has done. He gets talented players at Wake Forest, but the recruiting pool at Wake is smaller than at Clemson or Florida State. You just can’t get the same quantity.  Grobe’s solution? Make up for the talent gap with experience.

Of the 44 players on Wake Forest’s two-deep depth chart, 41 have redshirted. That includes 24 redshirt juniors and seniors (including one grad student), 11 of whom make up the starting defense. Jim Grobe redshirts just about everyone, and by doing so he levels the playing field. You know how the Florida Marlins won the World Series by stocking up on players for a year or two, taking their shot, then having a fire sale to cut salary until they can afford to make another run? This is sort of college football’s equivalent. 33 players on Wake’s roster are in their fourth, fifth, or sixth year in the program. It takes time to develop his players, but sometimes you get that recruiting class or two where everyone pans out. When that happens, it’s like the perfect storm; you get talent AND experience. You have a chance to be really special. And that’s what you have with the Wake Forest defense.

Demon Deacon cornerback Alphonso Smith might be the best individual player on any team Navy plays this year. Smith was first team All-ACC and a third team AP All-American last year after leading the country with 8 interceptions (a school record). Three of those interceptions were returned for touchdowns, including a 100-yard return against Maryland. Smith is more than just a cover corner; he isn’t afraid to make a big hit, and led the ACC with four forced fumbles in 2007. Smith and fellow cornerback Brandon Ghee lock down opposing wide receivers well enough to allow the safeties to play run support. Chip Vaughn returns after leading the team in tackles in 2007. Kevin Patterson is all over the field; he’s third on the team in tackles, leads the team with 3 interceptions already, and has two forced fumbles and a tackle for loss. That secondary, combined with excellent linebackers in Aaron Curry, Stanley Arnoux, and Chantz McClinic, lead a very aggressive and very productive defense.

How productive? Wake’s defense is averaging only 101 rushing yards allowed per game. In 2007, the Deacs held their opponents to less than 100 rushing yards eight times. Florida State never even entered the red zone last week. But the most impressive thing about Wake’s defense are the turnovers. Wake Forest has forced 15 already this year– three against Ole Miss, five at Baylor, and a whopping seven last week in Tallahassee. It’s been a huge boost for the offense, which hasn’t quite played up to expectations so far.  Of the 83 points Wake Forest has scored this season, 34 have been off of turnovers. In 2007, Wake Forest led the country with eight touchdowns scored by its defense… including one against the Mids.

Offensively, Wake Forest has yet to hit its stride. The Demon Deacon offense is about running the ball and throwing quick, high-percentage passes to get the ball to playmakers in space. Quarterback Riley Skinner is connecting on an eye-grabbing 70% of his passes, but only averages about 6.5 yards per attempt since the Deacs don’t try many hard throws. D.J. Boldin leads the ACC with 6.7 catches per game. While the passing game seems to be business as usual, the running game is not. Wake is averaging less than 100 yards rushing per game, including a scant 59 yards against FSU. Then again, that’s FSU. Rutgers couldn’t run the ball either until they played Navy. Josh Adams, last year’s ACC rookie of the year, will certainly be looking to get on track the way Rutgers did with Jourdan Brooks last week.

This isn’t the first time that Wake Forest’s defense dominated Florida State before playing Navy. Last year they just held the Seminoles to 47 yards on 24 carries the week before the Navy game. Still, Navy was able to score on its first three drives of the game with Kaipo at the helm. But after Aaron Curry blitzed on a counter option play and knocked Kaipo out of the game with a crushing hit, Navy scored only once more the rest of the way while committing three turnovers. The Deacs kept things simple at first. They played a 5-man front and attacked the option from the inside out; the give key always took the fullback, the pitch key always took the quarterback, and the secondary played up in run support to take the pitch. Paul Johnson answered by mixing in play-action passes to keep the safeties honest. None of them worked, but they did put a scare into the secondary and freed things up for the slotback a little. PJ also used the counter option quite a bit, but he might have taken a drink from that well a few too many times. The counter option is a tough read for the quarterback because he starts the play with his back to the defender he’s supposed to read. If that defender blitzes, the QB only has the blink of an eye to recognize it and get the pitch off. Kaipo didn’t even have that long, as Aaron Curry is one fast linebacker. If Wake uses the same tactic, don’t be surprised to see the fullback screen a couple of times, and maybe even the double option with the fullback. And of course, more play-action for keeping the safeties in line.

Navy’s defense had no answer for Kenny Moore last year. He was all over the place, bringing in 15 catches for 181 yards. But as bad as the defense was, Wake Forest was far from their worst game. Turnovers and special teams hiccups made things worse than they had to be. Wake’s four offensive touchdowns came on drives started on their own 40 yard line or better. On the five drives the Deacs began from no closer than their own 30, the Mids held them to three field goals. Field position was crucial. That might be a concern this week, as the kickoff coverage had problems containing Rutgers. Obviously, Wake’s short passing game will make tackling particularly important as well. Fortunately, after a relatively solid performance last week, a lot of “ORs” are coming off of the depth chart for the first-string defense. This means that Buddy Green is starting to get confident that he has players on the field who can carry out assignments and make a play. It might also mean that the defensive playbook could start opening up a little more.

Navy isn’t supposed to win this game. Wake Forest is a top-15 team for a reason. But don’t be surprised if the Mids are hanging around with a shot to win it at the end of the game. Both Kaipo and Eric Kettani were caught from behind on runs last week that would’ve been long touchdowns if they were healthy. The team is getting better. Their best football is yet to come.

Because man cannot live on one blogger alone, I bring you Zach from the Wake Forest blog Old Gold & Blog to answer a few questions about this week’s game from the Demon Deacon perspective.

1) So, what’s it like being a fan of a juggernaut for once?

It’s definitely a great time to be a Demon Deacon, but this may be the first time I’ve heard the team called a juggernaut, and I think it sounds pretty good, thanks!

As a relatively young Deac, I know I don’t have as great an appreciation for it as those who’ve been around for decades of poor football. Still, it’s been an amazing ride and the best thing is that it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. I feel like this program is officially on the map, and even though that doesn’t necessarily mean the team will challenge for a conference championship every year, I think they’ve gotten to the point where for the foreseeable future it would be a major disappointment not to go to a bowl.

Support for the team is at an all-time high, and considering things like the brand new Deacon Tower and the retention of head coach Jim Grobe, it’s clear that the school, athletic department, and alumni are all incredibly supportive of this team.

2) What are your expectations for this season?

Expectations for this season are higher than they’ve ever been. There are still some major hurdles on the schedule that have to be cleared, most notably a Thursday night home game against Clemson and a game at Miami, but I really believe we’ll see the Deacs play for an ACC Championship in December, and if they get there I don’t see why they can’t win. It’s been a great start, and I only expect the fun to continue.

3) Just how good is the Wake Forest defense?
 
I’ve never seen them play as well as they did against Florida State last weekend. Forcing seven turnovers in a game is incredible, even for a Wake defense that forces lots of them already. I think the front seven may be as good as any in the country, particularly given the considerable depth at many of those positions. Alphonso Smith is one of the flashiest, and most talented, defenders in the nation and the secondary has performed pretty well as a whole (although I was slightly concerned about them after the close game against Ole Miss). The only other slight concern I’ve had is some mistakes in open field tackling, but all things considered they’re pretty minor complaints. This defense is for real, and they only need to play close to the way they did against Florida State to have a very successful season.

4) On the other hand, the offense doesn’t seem to have clicked as well, particularly the running game. What’s wrong?

The biggest issues is the offensive line. Basically the entire unit had to be replaced after last season, and the new unit hasn’t performed up to par yet. I think they have the ability to get the job done, but they haven’t progressed quite as quickly as I would have hoped. I’d like to see some considerable improvement from this this weekend against Navy.

I can’t let the running backs totally off the hook, though. Both Josh Adams, who was last year’s ACC rookie of the year, and redshirt freshman Brandon Pendergrass are very talented backs, but I think they’ve done too much dancing around the backfield this season. They need to hit the holes faster and harder, and even if there isn’t much of a hole there I’d rather see them get in there and try to pick up a couple instead of trying to make a big play out of nothing.

One final thing I’ll point out is that much of Wake’s short passing game is really part of the running game. Wake uses very short passes to get the ball outside in a hurry, and in many ways these plays function as part of the running game. I think the coaches would tell you the same thing, and it’s part of why Riley Skinner’s completion percentage is always so high. Certainly that doesn’t mean we can ignore what the running backs do between the tackles, but it does make it more bearable.

5) When you look at Navy, what do you see as the team’s strengths and weaknesses?

I had the opportunity to watch a fair amount of Navy’s game against Duke a couple weeks ago, and as always I get a little nervous watching them run the option. I know that a well run option is going to be very difficult to stop no matter what defense is on the field against them. Had Kaipo not been hurt in the game against Wake last season, I think the game would have ended up being much closer than it ultimately was.

So, all that to say, I think the offensive scheme Navy utilizes is one of it’s greatest strengths. Ultimately, though, I think Navy’s biggest weakness is that it doesn’t have enough football talent to compete with the best teams in the country, and I think this weakness outweighs the strength of the offense. Losing Paul Johnson certainly didn’t help, either.

So there you go. Thanks to Zach for taking the time to do this. Be sure to hop over to his site, where I’ve polluted the innernets with my responses to his questions.

I’m not sure how often you get a big-game atmosphere from a matchup between a 1-2 team and an 0-2 team, but the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium record crowd of 37,821 knew what was at stake. Both Navy and Rutgers have pretty high expectations for their seasons; expectations that include a winning record and a bowl game. Whoever lost this game would probably find those goals to be a lot harder to attain, with Navy facing games against Wake Forest, Pitt, and Notre Dame on the horizon and Rutgers potentially being 0-3 with the Big East schedule still to come. So maybe it wasn’t a game that meant anything to the average college football fan, but it was certainlty critical to the faithful gathered in Annapolis on Saturday.

With so much at stake, it was great to see the Mids rise to the occasion and top Rutgers, 23-21. The defense played their best game yet, holding the Scarlet Knights to 337 total yards. More importantly, they also limited Rutgers to converting only 5 of 11 third downs. Eric Kettani finally broke out, running for 133 yards and a touchdown despite only being at about 80%, which he revealed in his postgame TV interview. Shun White ran for 85 yards, and Tyree Barnes made two huge catches for 63 yards and a touchdown.

Lately it seemed that Navy wins have been a matter of the offense carrying the team, but the credit for Saturday’s victory goes the players on both sides of the ball. Neither side was perfect, but neither side had to be. It was refreshingly… normal. I mean, isn’t that how football is supposed to work? Can’t most teams punt once or twice without putting the game in jeopardy? Maybe Navy is finally reaching the point where going for it on every 4th & 1 isn’t a matter of necessity.

I said on Friday that Rutgers would try to get their running game back on track, and that’s what they did. This time, Greg Schiano turned to Jourdan Brooks. Brooks responded with 134 yards and two TDs on 22 carries. He was spelled occasionally by Joe Martinek, who ran for 61 yards on only 8 carries. Unlike a week ago, Navy had trouble stopping the run all afternoon. But Rutgers never tried to take advantage with play-action. Kenny Britt did have 7 catches, but his longest was 17 yards. Tiquan Underwood, the real deep threat, only caught one pass. It seemed that the Rutgers coaches didn’t want to put too much pressure on Mike Teel to make plays after he threw three interceptions against North Carolina. With the holes that Brooks had to run through, they didn’t really need to until the final drive. Actually, with two minutes left, Rutgers probably could’ve kept running the ball. But they didn’t, and Ross Pospisil made them pay.

Wyatt Middleton finished with 13 tackles, mostly because Brooks was getting into the secondary too much. Clint Sovie had 7 tackles even though he didn’t start. My guess is that he will against Wake Forest; after overrunning too many plays in the first three games, Sovie played much more under control against Rutgers and had his best game.

Offensively, Navy opened up with a bang. Shun White had 40 yards on the Mids’ first two carries of the game, prompting Greg Schiano to call timeout. After the timeout, Rutgers had a safety spy on White. Well, sort of. The safety spied on whatever A-back went into tail motion, which was usually White, but not always. Shun had 16 carries, which once again, is too many. Now to be fair, this is the kind of game where Shun probably should get a few more carries than normal. Once Navy switched to an unbalanced line with trips on the heavy side (basically the last 3 quarters of the game), it made sense for Shun to be the inside A-back, with the other slot split out wide between Shun and the wide receiver. If only one slotback is going to carry the ball, it should be Shun. But the problem is that even before Ivin Jasper changed formations, Shun was still the only slotback getting the ball. I could tell which way the play was going based on where Shun was lined up. And if some idiot blogger could see it, you know a coach will see it on film.

As strange as it may sound, the fewer carries Shun gets, the more effective he’ll probably be. While Shun averaged 20 yards apiece on those first two carries, he only averaged 3.2 ypc the rest of the game. Shun’s greatest asset is his speed. He can better utilize that speed when he gets the ball in space. He’ll get more space if the defense can’t key in on him. The other slotbacks have combined for only 12 carries, but they’re averaging 7.8 yards on each carry. Since the Towson game, Shun is actually averaging less– 7.3 yards per carry. And that includes his 71-yard run at Ball State and his 73-yard TD run at Duke. Take those away, and he’s averaging only 4.3 yards per carry. Now, I know you can’t simply dismiss those long runs like that– like I said last week, Shun is the home run threat– but it gives you a better idea of what’s happening on most drives. Is it worth sacrificing consistent yardage in order to swing for the fences? I don’t think so, but hey, maybe that why I’m sitting behind a computer while the coaches are coaching.

Anyway, this was a very entertaining game to watch if you like the coaching chess match. In this case, Ivin Jasper was Boris Spassky while Greg Schiano was the captain of the Broadneck High School chess club. Schiano just had no answer for the adjustments that Jasper made. Some were more obvious than others:

Adjustment #1: The unbalanced line. When Coach Jasper moved a tackle to one side of the formation as a “tight end,” Rutgers countered by shifting their line to line up on top of him. Meanwhile, a wide receiver came in to play tackle. But he was still an eligible receiver, so Rutgers still had a corner lined up & covering what was basically a skinny offensive lineman. That left one less player to worry about.

Adjustment #2: Running the triple option off of the midline. I may post about this later in the week.

Adjustment #3: Passing! With a safety spying on the motion slotback, it meant a lot of man coverage. The first drive of the second half capitalized on that, as Kaipo went 3-4 with 77 yards and a TD.

Along those lines, it’s a shame that Kaipo doesn’t get the appreciation he should for his passing. He makes a lot of hard throws. Maybe it’s his goofy throwing motion, but people don’t really give him credit. They think he gets lucky. But as often as he gets “lucky,” you think that maybe it isn’t luck at all? Food for thought.

Adjustment #4: Blocking. This one was subtle. The option pitch was getting blown up by the safety spying on the slotback. In the second half, the playside “tackle” (aka the wide receiver) changed up his blocking a little bit to help. He’d disengage his first block and engage the safety coming down to make the play. The first guy would end up making the tackle, but it’d usually be 2-3 yards further downfield than when the safety was running free.

One more thing– why does Rutgers block a kick almost every year against Navy? Some years it’s field goals and extra points, others it’s punts. Either way, it’s getting REALLY old.

Anyway, it was great to see a total team effort from the Mids the week before they play the best team on the schedule. At least now we know it’s possible.