Navy took a huge step forward in their season on Saturday when they defeated North Texas in a close game at home. After tough losses to Memphis and USF, head coach Brian Newberry talked about how much this program needed a to win a close game. For a team that was 1-3 coming into the game, with their only win against FCS Wagner, this felt like a must win.
Offensively, Navy executed the way that they were supposed to. UNT came in allowing 6 yards per carry. Navy ran for 331 yards on 58 attempts. The Midshipmen also mixed in the pass just enough to keep North Texas off balance. Senior QB Tai Lavatai, who came off the bench, did a great job, going 4 of 8 for 75 yards. He also had probably his best throw of the season late in the first half for a 26 yard touchdown to receiver Nathan Kent.
Defensively, Navy struggled some early with filling run gaps and allowing UNT to pick up some yards on the ground. However, the defense was able to tackle well for the most part. Additionally, Navy defensive coordinator PJ Volker came up with a great game plan to slow down an explosive Mean Green passing offense. The Midshipmen didn’t have the speed to match up with UNT one on one in man coverage all game. Instead, Navy ran a lot of three and four deep zone coverages to take away any deep passes and brought a lot of disguised blitzes to take away North Texas QB Chandler Rodger’s time to throw the ball.
Much like USF, this was a much improved North Texas team from a year ago. It was a hard fought game and one Navy has to feel proud of.
Brian Newberry said after the game “Hats off to North Texas. Coach Morris has done an awesome job taking over that program. I have a ton of respect for them. I thought they had a really good offense. To hold their guys to 24 points, Coach Volker did a good job with the game plan.”
Navy heads to Charlotte this weekend to take on Biff Poggi’s 49ers.
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