2023 Ultimate College Football Preview Navy

Welcome to the Ultimate College Football Preview for 2023. Every team in FBS Football will be covered in this daily blog release. All of your favorite teams from the ACC, AAC, Big 12, Big 10, C-USA, MAC, Mountain West, PAC 12, SEC, Sun Belt & even every Independent. Think of these daily college football previews as a cheat sheet going into next year.

2022 Recap:

Yeah Navy sucked last year, that is just the honest truth. Their offense was near the bottom in points per game and the defense was in the bottom half of college football as well. Now Navy isn’t some perennial double digit win team but they are always competitive. Last year they just weren’t losing 6 games by a touchdown or more and finishing with a 4-8 record. Navy even fired their long term coach Ken Niumatalolo after the season. We are just use to Navy being the best service academy yearly and they haven’t been in a while and especially last year. They did have sweet jerseys vs. Army.

Head Coach

With the firing of Coach Niumatalolo, Coach Brian Newberry steps in as the new Head Coach at the Naval Academy. Newberry was the Defensive Coordinator at Navy since the 2019 season and was a former cornerback for Baylor in the 90’s. This will be Newberry’s first time as a Head Coach anywhere, but has been a Defensive Coordinator at several stops since 2001. I honestly don’t know much about Coach Newberry other then being nominated for the Broyles Award in 2019. Also he usually always has a top Group of 5 defense in the country. I am trying to give you the best college football preview but there isn’t a lot about coach Newberry.

Key Players:

When you are talking Navy football, you know you are talking running game. This year maybe a little different with the new rules against cut blocking. That will effect the triple option game Navy has ran for a while. They do have Senior QB Tai Lavatai coming back this year. Even in a run heavy offense Tai had 785 yards in the air with 5 touchdowns. He is the leader of this team and has some help at running back coming back. His big bruising dive back Daba Fofana is back after his 769 yards and 6 touchdowns last year. His wingbacks thought will be new guys in the starting position. The line is mostly back and senior laden for the running game to have better cohesion this year. On defense they are losing NFL talent John Marshall who was an absolute unit on defense last year. Navy will have to replace 96 tackles, 19.5 TFL, 11.5 sacks, 2 forced fumbles and an interception. Marshall was an absolute heat seeking missile for the Naval Academy’s defense. LB Colin Ramos will be a big key for the defense. Last year Ramos had 79 tackles, 8.5 TFL, 4 sacks 2 forced fumbles and an interception.

2023 Prediction:

Navy is always a pain in the ass to practice for with the triple option. Like I stated earlier though, the new rules for cut blocking may come into play and hurt their option game. Looking at their schedule I see them with a few definite wins and definite losses.