Navy

Of all the changes taking hold over the past few weeks at the Naval Academy, the least popular, at least among midshipmen, might come as a surprise. It wasn't the loss of weekends off-campus, cuts in extracurricular activities, or even the mandatory three meals a day on campus, where they've been served hamburger buns and gravy, frozen hoagies or one slice of pizza for dinner. According to several dozen midshipmen and parents, the most intolerable transition brought about by new leaders Vice Adm. Jeffrey Fowler and Capt.

To some, he has achieved the impossible in a four-year tenure: taking an institution with a lingering hostility to women and moving it with missionary zeal to the forefront of higher education, with far-reaching training and enforcement policies on alcohol abuse and sexual assault. Others see a crusade run amok: a thin-skinned commander who, desperate to appease outsiders, brought flimsy cases to trial and made puzzling disciplinary decisions that favored women over men. Naval Academy Superintendent Rodney P. Rempt, who presides today over his final graduation ceremony before heading into retirement in landlocked Montana, leaves behind a legacy of unprecedented reform - having retooled the curriculum, boosted graduation rates and overseen an improved performance in intercollegiate athletics.

It was practice, not a game, but Navy's starting quarterback, Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada, knew the coaches wanted this practice to emulate game-day intensity, and he also knew he had been encouraged to be more aggressive. So when he was carrying the ball and needed just one more yard for a first down, Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada (KAI-Po-NOAH cay-HAY-ah-coo-en-HOD-un; his friends call him Kaipo) put his head down and went for it. The ensuing head-to-head collision snapped his neck back and set off spasms down the left side of his neck that have sidelined him for the week.

Mayor Sheila Dixon told a gathering of officials and media at an Army-Navy luncheon yesterday at M&T Bank Stadium that although her father was in the Army, she will be a "neutral" observer at the Dec. 1 game that returns to Baltimore for the first time since 2000 and for only the fourth time in history. It was a politically correct remark, and when Army coach Stan Brock took his turn at the microphone, he couldn't help but let everyone know he knew it. Navy vs. Army Dec. 1, noon, M&T Bank Stadium, chs. 13, 9, 1090 AM

Pittsburgh -- The Navy football team is leaving a lot of people winded, including opposing teams such as Pittsburgh, which couldn't find a way to beat the smaller, slower and less-than-perfect Midshipmen on Wednesday night. Navy again found a way to win when all signs said it shouldn't. The Mids won in overtime for the first time - in double overtime - beating Pitt, 48-45, just before the clock struck midnight. It was another wild win, and in its way, an impressive one. "We were due for a win like this," Navy coach Paul Johnson said.

For the first 30 minutes of yesterday's season opener, the shooters on the Navy men's lacrosse team peppered Saint Joseph's sophomore goalie Erik Hotaling, but he kept getting in the way. Once the No. 10 Midshipmen started to solve their nemesis, they cruised by their overmatched opponent. Junior attackman Nick Mirabito scored a game-high three goals, all in the second half, and Navy's hustling defense allowed no goals after halftime, as the Mids rolled to a 10-3 rout at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.

When Navy linebacker Ram Vela took a flying leap over a Notre Dame blocking back with less than a minute to go in regulation of Navy's 46-44, triple overtime victory last Saturday, he became a YouTube star and a role model for an NFL linebacker. It isn't what he planned. "I just wanted to make the play," Vela said. "I had missed a sack [by inches] earlier in the game. I felt like I'd let the whole team down. I thought I had lost the game for us and the weight of the world was on my shoulders."

No. 9 Navy led from start to finish yesterday, as the Midshipmen defeated No. 16 North Carolina (3-1) 19-8 at Navy Marine Corps Stadium, before 5,125 . The Midshipmen improved to 3-0 while the Tar Heels lost their first game after opening with three wins for the first time since 2002. Nick Mirabito and Ian Dingman each had three goals for the Midshipmen, while Ben Hunt led the Tar Heels with three goals and Sean Burke had two goals and two assists. Navy outscored the Tar Heels 5-2 in the second quarter.

The Navy has set a date in the fall for the court-martial of a former Naval Academy doctor accused of videotaping midshipmen having sex in his Annapolis-area home. Cmdr. Kevin Ronan, who worked at the academy until May 2006 as a brigade medical officer and physician for several varsity sports teams, will face the most serious form of military trial Oct. 29, a Navy spokesman said yesterday. He was arraigned Thursday at the Washington Navy Yard on seven counts of conduct unbecoming an officer, three counts of illegal wiretapping and one count of obstruction of justice.

PISCATAWAY, N.J. -- In his first seven starts for Navy, quarterback Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada was a careful custodian of the ball. He threw just one interception in 56 passes. Last night, caution went out the window and Kaheaku-Enhada was intercepted three times - twice in the end zone - as the Midshipmen dropped a 41-24 decision to No. 15 Rutgers (2-0) at Rutgers Stadium. Ball State@Navy Next Saturday, 5 p.m., 1090 AM

Navy (6-2) vs. Temple (5-2) Time: : 3:30 p.m. TV: : CBS College Sports Radio: : 1090 AM, 1430 AM Line: : Navy by 7 Series: : Navy leads 18-13 Last meeting: : Navy won, 33-27, in overtime on Nov. 1, 2008 WHEN NAVY HAS THE BALL: : Sophomore Kriss Proctor will make his second straight start at quarterback in place of Ricky Dobbs, who is sidelined with a knee injury. Proctor rushed for 89 yards and scored the Midshipmen's lone touchdown on a 40-yard run in their 13-10 win over Wake Forest last week.

To get an idea of what Navy senior inside linebacker Ross Pospisil is like, both as a football player and a person, just watch one four-minute snippet from the third quarter of the Midshipmen's 13-10 victory over Wake Forest last Saturday. On one first-down play, Demon Deacons running back Josh Adams runs left, bumps into one of his teammates, then spins around and cuts back across the field. Pospisil, who was a yard away from Adams when he changed direction, pursues him and runs him down from behind, dragging him down after a 25-yard gain.

A service academy football team faces certain challenges whenever it lines up against a team from a major league like the Atlantic Coast Conference. But when Navy hosted Wake Forest on a rainy and windy Saturday afternoon, there was more to deal with. The Midshipmen's top two offensive playmakers - including their quarterback, who was leading the country in touchdowns - were out with injuries, and their back-up quarterback was making his first start, having appeared in 44 fewer games and throwing 1,163 fewer passes than his Demon Deacons counterpart.

Navy junior quarterback Ricky Dobbs did not practice Tuesday after undergoing a magnetic resonance imaging to determine the severity of an injured right knee. Dobbs, who leads the country in touchdowns scored (16), is considered day-to-day, and his status for Saturday's game against Wake Forest will be determined later this week, according to coach Ken Niumatalolo. Dobbs was hurt on the second play of the Midshipmen's 38-35 overtime victory at Southern Methodist on Saturday, Niumatalolo said.

Saturday night Navy football Buckley's kick wins it in OT after second-half comeback Even though Navy's trademark triple option offense sputtered in the first half, quarterback Ricky Dobbs never lost confidence. Dobbs and Vince Murray each ran for two touchdowns, Joe Buckley kicked a 24-yard, game-winning field goal in overtime and the Midshipmen won their fourth straight, beating Southern Methodist, 38-35, Saturday night. Navy (5-2) was held to 11 yards in the second quarter as it fell behind 21-7 in front of former President George W. Bush, who handled the coin toss.

In the four seasons senior center Curtis Bass has spent at Navy, the Midshipmen have played in 12 states and the District of Columbia. But this two-week stretch is special for the Texas native. Bass had more than 50 family members and friends in the stands at Rice Stadium on Oct. 10 to watch Navy's 63-14 victory over the Owls in Houston, and he was expecting to have nearly as many Saturday night in Dallas when the Midshipmen (4-2) faced Southern Methodist (3-2). "We get to travel so much," said Bass, who is from Pearland, just outside Houston.

Last year against Southern Methodist, Navy quarterback Ricky Dobbs ran for 224 yards - the 12th-highest total in program history - and scored four touchdowns to lead the Midshipmen to a 34-7 victory in a driving rainstorm. It was a breakout performance by a third-string quarterback who came into the game having taken a total of 19 snaps in his college career. What Dobbs remembers most about that day, however, is how he felt afterward. "I was as sore as I've ever been," he said. "I had 42 carries.

HOUSTON - - For all of the euphoria felt by Navy's players after last week's heart-stopping overtime victory over Air Force, those on the offensive side of the ball also felt frustration. The Midshipmen struggled to move the ball against a rival that is intimately familiar with their triple-option offense, and it bothered them. They won't have that feeling after overwhelming Rice in a 63-14 victory Saturday. Navy's offense held the ball for 40 minutes, 36 seconds; scored touchdowns on nine of its 11 possessions; and amassed 537 yards, its highest total since the 2008 season opener against Football Championship Subdivision opponent Towson.

Navy (3-2) at Rice (0-5) Time: : 3:30 p.m. TV: : CBS College Sports Radio: : 1090 AM, 1430 AM Line: : Navy by 11 Series: : Rice leads 6-5. Last meeting: : Navy won, 41-9, on Oct. 22, 2005. Murray steps in: : Midshipmen junior Vince Murray will likely get his first start at fullback; sophomore Alexander Teich didn't practice all week because of a sprained left ankle. Murray, who is averaging 3.5 yards per carry, is not as fast as Teich, but he is a more physical runner - "and right now, that's what we need," offensive coordinator Ivin Jasper said.

Giving up football was not easy for Tim Frazier. After a fine career as a quarterback at Poly and at Hampton University, Frazier had an opportunity to play in the Arena Football League, but he decided it was time to move on to a new passion - medicine. He opted for medical school at Virginia to become an orthopedic surgeon. "I know it was the right thing to do. It was still really difficult. I didn't go to a UVa. game for the first few years, because I felt I was still supposed to be playing and I couldn't bear to watch it, but after a couple years, I was like, 'Yeah, those days are done.