Most college football coaches can point to the moment their careers turned, to a game or a play or even an official's call that might have altered their path.
Navy's new coach, Ken Niumatalolo, can point to a place - a McDonald's near the academy.
It was there, shortly after the 1998 season ended, that Niumatalolo, finishing his fourth year as an assistant coach and second year as Navy's offensive coordinator, was fired by then-head coach Charlie Weatherbie.
"Looking back on it, I made a lot of mistakes," Niumatalolo recalled recently. "I was young, brash. I thought I had all the answers."
At 32, with a wife and three children at home, Niumatalolo was out of a job.
"It was very humbling for me," Niumatalolo said. "I went from being touted as the youngest coordinator in the country to being fired. I know that things have also come full circle for me. I'm living in the house of the guy who fired me. It's weird."
Niumatalolo is aware of something else: If his record turns out to be closer to Weatherbie's (33-48) than Paul Johnson's (45-29), the first Samoan head coach in Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) history will be out of a job again.
Those who know Niumatalolo - Coach Niumat or just plain Kenny to nearly everyone - believe that will not happen.
Navy athletic director Chet Gladchuk certainly doesn't, having promoted Niumatalolo, now 43, the day after Johnson left in December for Georgia Tech.
Neither do Niumatalolo's assistants, eight of whom stayed on after the coaching move was made.
Or his players, who have embraced Niumatalolo's style, which is a little more personal but no less demanding than Johnson's.
"Coach Johnson, you would see him, but he sat back and let the coaches coach the individual positions," senior offensive guard Anthony Gaskins said. "Coach Niumat does that, but he's real hands-on, he runs around and wants to see everything. Even all summer, you'd be lifting and he's right behind you while you're squatting, asking you how are you doing."
Asked about being different from his former boss and longtime mentor in a relationship that dated to when Johnson was the offensive coordinator at Hawaii and Niumatalolo was mostly a backup quarterback, Niumatalolo said: "I can't worry about the way Paul coached or what he did. I'm just going to be who I am. A phenomenal coach had a phenomenal run. Hopefully, we can continue on with what he did and what he established."
