Navy Football

There were times in recent seasons when Navy's offense would go weeks without making any huge gaffes. The snaps from center Brady DeMell to quarterbacks Ricky Dobbs and Kriss Proctor would be crisp, and thehandoffs from Dobbs and Proctor to fullbacks Vince Murray and Alexander Teich textbook. Even if the Midshipmen did not run the true triple option, particularly with Dobbs, Navy often played mistake-free. The rushing game was ranked in the top six in each of the last four seasons, including No. 1 in 2008.

College lacrosse Calvert Hall grad Kruger leaves post as Shenandoah coach Shenandoah announced that Mike Kruger (Calvert Hall) has resigned as men's lacrosse coach. Kruger, who led the Hornets to five wins this season - matching the win total of the previous three seasons combined - is resigning to accept a professional opportunity in NCAA Division I men's lacrosse. Kruger came to Shenandoah after two years as an assistant at Washington and Lee. "This is great for Mike," athletic director Doug Zipp said.

To those on the outside, it would appear that much has changed for Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo and the Midshipmen over the past year. After averaging nine wins a season in his first three years as Paul Johnson's successor, Niumatalolo had his first losing record as a head coach. Navy also announced plans last winter that it would be joining the Big East Conference beginning in 2015. It would seem that their first losing season in a decade and their decision to join a league has put a different kind of spotlight on the Midshipmen when they open practice Wednesday for the 2012 season.

After a two-year hiatus, the Navy football team was back at the White House on Friday to accept the Commander in Chief's trophy from President Obama in a ceremony held in the East Room. The Midshipmen had won the trophy - which is presented to the winner of the series among the three service academies - seven consecutive times beginning in 2003, but that record streak ended when Air Force claimed it in 2010 and 2011. Navy has won the trophy 13 times in all. "This never gets old," Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo said.

The 2003 Navy football team will visit the White House Monday, April 19 and will be honored by President George W. Bush for winning the Commander-In-Chief's Trophy for the first time since 1981. "I'm excited about the opportunity to bring our football team to the White House and represent the Naval Academy," said Navy head football coach Paul Johnson. "This team accomplished most of their goals and one of the biggest was to winner the Commander-In-Chief's Trophy and go to the White House."

WASHINGTON -- In a marathon day in court that foreshadowed the key elements of a former Navy football player's military trial on sexual misconduct charges, prosecution and defense lawyers whittled down a potential jury pool from 15 officers to four yesterday. The Naval Academy officers answered detailed, personal questions on a variety of topics, including Navy football, sexual assault at the academy, the definition of "indecent" sex and the credibility of an alleged victim who admitted to drinking alcohol underage and who did not cry out for help while she was allegedly being assaulted.

University of Maryland athletic director Andy Geiger announced yesterday that the university has reached an agreement with WRC (980 AM) in Silver Spring granting the radio station local broadcast rights for football and men's basketball games.WRC replaces WMAL (630 AM), which could not reach an agreement with Jefferson Pilot Communications, to whom the Terps sold their rights three years ago.A spokesman for the Naval Academy confirmed yesterday that WMAL will broadcast Navy football games next season.

Capt. Slade Deville Cutter, a renowned Naval Academy football player and boxer who later as a World War II submariner was credited with sinking a record number of Japanese ships while earning four Navy Crosses, died of heart failure Thursday at the Ginger Cover retirement community in Annapolis. He was 93. "He was clearly one of World War II's great submarine heroes and compiled a magnificent record. He was a top-flight person and an outstanding athlete, and there is no question that he is a genuine hero," said retired Rear Adm. Charles Minter, a friend, and member of the Naval Academy Class of 1937.

It would be difficult at this time in the history of Navy football to contemplate a more serious challenge to its program than that faced by the young Mids at this moment.Thrashed by two national top-25 teams in Virginia and Boston College and coming off of an unusual nine-day preparation period, Navy's future looks bleak indeed.Tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. the Midshipmen face an up-and-coming Rutgers team, which just recently whipped the Pittsburgh Panthers, 21-16. Rutgers is no longer an Ivy League patsy.

On the first day of spring football practice, new Navy football coach Ken Niumatalolo was still answering the same questions that greeted him the day he was hired to replace Paul Johnson. That's what happens when you take over a program that turned much deeper shades of Navy Blue and Gold under your predecessor. So, I guess this is as good a time as any to throw out the obligatory quip about Ken's hard-to-pronounce surname, which I'm pretty sure means "has a tough act to follow" in his ancestral Polynesian tongue.

President Barack Obama awarded Navy's football team with the Commander-In-Chief's Trophy on Thursday afternoon in the East Room at the White House. Here are the president's remarks: Hello, everybody.  (Applause.)  Hello.  Please, everybody have a seat.  Well, good afternoon.  Welcome to the White House.  I want to start by recognizing Coach Ken Niumatalolo, my fellow Hawaiian, for being here once again -- where is he?  There he is right here.  (Laughter.)  Hard to miss him.  Give him a big round of applause.  (Applause.)

Varsity Sandusky retires from Boys' Latin ice hockey Jim Sandusky has formally announced his retirement as Boys' Latin ice hockey coach effective Feb. 28 after a decade of leading the program, according to a news release from the school. Sandusky will continue with the Lakers football program as the associative head coach and offensive coordinator. During the past two seasons, he led the Lakers varsity ice hockey team to runner-up status in 2013 and to a Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association BConference championship in 2012.

Navy football Ferguson a finalist for Uplifting Athletes award Navy sophomore safety Chris Ferguson is one of seven finalists for the 2013 Uplifting Athletes Rare Disease Champion Award. Penn State's Eric Shrive , Oklahoma's Austin Woods , Humboldt State's Dillon Reagan , Florida's Neiron Ball , Southern California's Frankie Telfort and Fordham's Andrew Milmore join Ferguson as finalists. Log on to upliftingathletes.org/vote to read about each finalist's personal story and connection to the rare disease community, as well as to vote for this year's winner.

During Kelly Coppedge's final conversation with her grandfather last Sunday, she says he was still thinking about Navy's football team. "He asked, 'When's Navy playing and who are they playing?" Kelly Coppedge recalled Thursday. J.O. "Bo" Coppedge, a former Navy football player and wrestler who ran Navy's athletic department from 1968 until his retirement in 1988, died Wednesday night - less than three days before the Midshipmen were scheduled to play Arizona State in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl in San Francisco.

Navy football Four seniors invited to All-Star games Navy seniors Brandon Turner , Gee Gee Greene , Tra'ves Bush and Keegan Wetzel have been invited to postseason All-Star games. Turner was invited to both the Casino Del Sol All-Star game on Jan. 11 in Tucson, Ariz., and the East-West Shrine Game on Jan. 19 in St. Petersburg, Fla. Turner will play in the East-West Shrine Game. Greene was invited to the Raycom All-Star Football Classic, which will be played Jan. 19 in Montgomery, Ala., and to the inaugural South Carolina College All-Star Game, which will be played March 23 in Greenville.

Navy linebacker Brye French had never met Brendan Looney, only hearing stories about the former academy lacrosse star and his two brothers from longtime coach Richie Meade. Then one day during French's sophomore year, Meade told his team that the eldest Looney brother had died in Iraq. French, who had come to Navy to play both lacrosse and football, began to understand the reasons he was in Annapolis when he heard about Looney's death in a helicopter crash. It was further clarified for French when the lacrosse team attended the funeral of Navy SEAL from Silver Spring.

Paul Johnson is 27-9 in his three years as Navy's football coach. Navy won the Commander-In-Chief's Trophy this season, finishing with a 10-2 record. Navy ended its season with a 34-19 victory over New Mexico in the Emerald Bowl on Dec. 30. Johnson was also a unanimous selection for the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award. Barbara, Baltimore: Congratulations on such a terrific season and congratulations on the Coach of the Year award. Any ideas on who we're likely to see in key positions next year?

WHEN YOU ATTEND a game at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, you know that you're going to get equal measures of football, military tradition ... and Eastern philosophy? "It was like we didn't have any karma in the first half," said coach Paul Johnson, after the Midshipmen overcame a string of early mistakes to defeat Duke on Saturday night and score their first victory over an Atlantic Coast Conference opponent since 1996. Did he say karma? Maybe for this Saturday's game against Northeastern, Johnson should scrap the pre-game pep talk and just encourage his players to reach a higher level of consciousness before they take the field, which - now that I think about it - might be preferable to his motivational strategy last week, when he publicly called on his team to "play like their hair is on fire."

Ken Niumatalolo noticed the Army guys looking askance as he wound his way through the Pentagon to attend a ceremony for his brother, an Army lieutenant colonel. "I think they recognized me," said the Navy football coach, chuckling. "And I don't think they were too happy to see me. " The Army-Navy football rivalry - set to be contested for the 113 t h time Saturday in Philadelphia - is felt from the halls of power in Washington to the waters and battlefields of the Middle East.