Category: navy football

Loose Change 2/22/08

On By MikeIn lacrosse, navy basketball, navy football, navy lacrosse, patriot league5 Comments

Odds & ends you may have missed over the past week:

  • Admit it. You go to eBay once in a while just to look at old Navy football program covers like this one:

If you do, you’ll appreciate this blog entry about Army-Navy covers of years past.

  • The Patriot League lacrosse coach interviews continue with Army’s Joe Alberici and Colgate’s Jim Nagle.
  • UConn football coach Randy Edsall talks about Big East expansion and his desire to play Army here. No comments about why he dropped Navy, though.
  • Wrestling recruit Bailey Whitaker was in the finals of the Tennessee state tournament, as was football recruit Jabaree Tuani-McKissack.
  • Bill Wagner wrote about 3-point rainmaker Chris Harris.
  • Navy baseball starts up this weekend with the Mids taking on Air Force in Millington, Tennessee. The preseason Patriot League favorites will unfortunately have to go a few weeks without the services of all-world pitcher Mitch Harris, who jammed his shoulder in an intra-squad scrimmage last week. If the Supe wants to can Herndon because he’s afraid of injuries, maybe he should consider banning home run trots, too.
  • The lacrosse season is underway, which means that the Sun’s Faceoff blog has finally come out of hibernation. The Sun also talks about Navy’s 2-0 start here. “Well-rounded” is a nice spin, I guess.
  • If you haven’t seen our new lacrosse uniforms yet, you can get a look here.
  • Last weekend, Delaware crunched UMBC in a lacrosse doubleheader held here in Jacksonville to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project. Next year, event organizers want to make it a “service academy challenge.”
  • The ESPN mothership is going to show a regular-season lacrosse game for the first time. AKA an ESPNU infomercial.
  • Don’t tell Chet, but Paul Johnson says that he did “all he could do” at Navy.

Recruiting Update

On By MikeIn navy football, recruiting7 Comments

Bill Wagner talks about Navy’s prep school-bound recruits, including Kevin Eckel, here:

http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2008/02_17-11/NAS

It’s a great write-up on some of our future Mids, and Wags’ list includes several players that we didn’t have on our big board.

Billy Coates     LS      6-5, 220     Pebble Beach, CA
Jake Delvento     K/P     6-0, 180     Toms River, NJ
Kenson Dera     LB     5-11, 205     Naples, FL– We had mentioned Dera, but all I could find on him came from signing day last year. I’m not sure what his story is, but I’m going to take Wagner’s word for it.
John Kelly     DL     6-5, 225     Norcross, GA
Trey Reed     SB     5-10, 185     Texarkana, TX
Nick Ryan     OL     6-3, 270     Tucson, AZ
Kavon Seaton     QB     5-10, 180     Vista Murrieta, CA
Jordan Spriggs     DB     5-11, 155     Renton, WA
Siu Tafuna     DB     6-0, 180     Kahuku, HI  (highlights)
Kyle Widhalm     OL     6-2, 250     Carrollton, TX
Will Wied     LB     5-11, 210     Lafayette, LA

Is it just me, or did Navy recruit the west coast harder than ever? I can’t remember seeing so many players from California, Arizona, Hawaii, Washington, etc. Maybe Steve Johns is a recruiting juggernaut, maybe it’s a result of Ken Niumatalolo’s influence… Or maybe that’s just the way things happened to shake out this year.

Speaking of Hawaii, there is no doubt in my mind that thanks to Coach Niumatalolo, Navy is on the radar of a lot more island recruits. There’s a real us vs. them attitude there, and the locals take tremendous pride in their heritage. It was a remarkable sight at the Poinsettia Bowl luncheon, where many of Utah’s Polynesian players took the time to go to Coach Niumat, shake his hand, and have their picture taken with the nation’s first and only head coach of Polynesian descent. It definitely makes a difference when a Navy coach sits down in a Hawaiian kid’s living room.

This should be it for recruiting news until I-Day.

Loose Change 2/15/08

On By MikeIn football, lacrosse, navy football, navy lacrosse, patriot leagueLeave a comment

Odds & ends you may have missed over the past week:

  • Ron Snyder wrote a great piece on Jordan DiNola.
  • Speaking of the lacrosse team’s defense, Inside Lacrosse says that Navy has the 4th best defense in the land. Why? Because they’re always good! Expert analysis! It won’t be enough, though, according to Lacrosse Magazine; they think that Army beats Navy this year.
  • Ron Snyder was busy this week, as he also previews the first Navy women’s lax team. Those of you excited to see them in action will have to wait an extra week, as the season opener against St. Francis was postponed. The team will begin their season at home next weekend against Longwood.
  • More women’s lax: the Patriot League released its preseason poll, and surprisingly our upstart Navy team isn’t picked to finish last. That dubious distinction belongs to Lafayette. How bad do you have to be to get picked behind a team that’s in its first year of existence? Try 1-15, which was the Leopards’ record last year. Don’t be surprised if the season plays out as the SIDs and coaches predicted, too. Cindy Timchal brings instant credibility to the Navy women’s lax program, and she can find a way to coach the team out of the cellar.
  • Logan West is a lacrosse recruit.
  • Some of you may not have known this, but a professional soccer team made its home at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium last year. Crystal Palace USA, a developmental squad for Crystal Palace FC of The Championship (England’s second division for you soccer noobs), played in Annapolis. You’d never have known it with their lack of marketing. Well, now the team has decided to actually market themselves a little, but they’re moving to UMBC.
  • Press Box has an article on the state of youth football in Maryland. It probably isn’t anything you’re interested in, but it does mention Ben Gabbard.
  • Mike Wahle, formerly of the class of ’99, was cut by the Carolina Panthers in a salary cap move. It didn’t take him much time to find a new home in Seattle.
  • Bill Wagner wrote about the Touchdown Club of Annapolis awards banquet, where Reggie Campbell received the Tony Rubino Memorial Silver Helmet Award.
  • More lacrosse: An interview with Lafayette head coach Terry Mangan.
  • The Sun has a good writeup on the new faceoff rules in college lax this year, including quotes from Richie Meade. And check out the video highlights of the VMI game.
  • And finally, there’s the proposed rule changes in college football. My opinions on these changes more or less echo those of EDSBS. In case you were wondering, here’s the current definition of a chop block:

Chop Block

ARTICLE 3. A chop block is:

a. An obviously delayed block at the thigh or below against an opponent
(except the runner) who is in contact with a teammate of the blocker, is
in the act of disengaging from the first blocker or has just disengaged
from the first blocker but is still confronting him. When in question, the
contact is at the thigh or below (A.R. 2-3-3-I-V).
b. A high-low, low-high or low-low combination block by two nonadjacent
linemen with or without a delay between contacts occurring in the
neutral zone.
c. A high-low, low-high or low-low combination block by any two
offensive players with or without a delay between contacts when the
initial contact clearly occurs beyond the neutral zone (i.e., all involved
players are beyond the neutral zone) (A.R. 2-3-3-III and IV).

More Recruiting News

On By MikeIn navy football, recruiting8 Comments

Navy had one more big recruiting weekend after signing day, and two players who made the trip to Annapolis decided that it wouldn’t be a bad place to call home for four years. Arkansas linebacker James Bornhoft and two-way lineman David Mills from Opelousas, Louisiana, both gave their pledge to Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo to suit up for the Midshipmen. Mills will go to NAPS. No word on Bornhoft, but with a 4.1 weighted GPA and a 28 ACT, he’s probably a good candidate for direct admission (because you know what I say carries a lot of weight with the admissions board). While Mills is all-state on the offensive line, he says he’s being looked at for the defensive side of the ball. Read more about our two newest signees here and here. Bornhoft actually has his own website, complete with highlight video. Congratulations to the future Mids. 

Speaking of websites & highlight videos, here’s one for Josh Fitzpatrick.

Loose Change 2/8/08

On By MikeIn Kyle Eckel, navy basketball, navy football, navy lacrosse, recruiting4 Comments

As it would be expected the week of signing day, this is going to be a recruit-heavy list of links. There are more stories on Navy recruits out there, too, which I might not get around to posting. Seriously, there are a lot of ’em. Those of you who pitched in with links, thanks! In case you didn’t know where the name of this blog came from, scouting for Navy recruits is what “Birddogs” are all about. Anyway, on to the news:

Wagner’s Recruiting Report

On By MikeIn navy football, recruitingLeave a comment

Bill Wagner’s signing day article is up at the Capital:

http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2008/02_07-01/NAS

Along with some details on a few of the players, his list has a name two names we didn’t have:

Ryan Ackerman, LS, 5-11, 180, Clearwater Central Catholic, Oldsmar, Fla.
Austin Hill, LS, 6-0, 195, Mahopac, NY

If a player isn’t on Wags’ list, he’s probably going to NAPS. I’m going to leave the recruit page up until I-Day, when the official list is published.

Signing Day

On By MikeIn navy football, recruiting3 Comments

It’s signing day, the first day that high school football players across the country can sign binding National Letters of Intent and officially commit to their colleges of choice. The service academies don’t participate in the NLOI program, but they still provide their recruits with certificates to sign at their high school’s ceremony so they can participate with their teammates. The Birddog Big Board at the top of the page is up to 38 players this morning, and I will be updating it throughout the day whenever the paying job gives me a chance. If you come across a name we don’t have up there, feel free to drop a name/link in the comments of this thread (you can leave all the fields blank if you want to remain anonymous). And of course we’ll all be waiting for Bill Wagner’s annual recruiting article in the Capital.

UPDATE: Up to 39 40 42 44 45 46 48 50 54 now.

UPDATE: According to this article we’ll have recruits visiting for at least one more weekend. It isn’t over yet! If our normal class is around 60, it looks like that’s about what we’ll hit again.

Loose Change 2/1/08

On By MikeIn air farce, army, lacrosse, navy basketball, navy football, navy lacrosse, navy sports, patriot league, recruiting, videoLeave a comment

Odds & ends you may have missed over the past week: