"Navy should never, and I mean ever, beat Notre Dame. Navy isn't as good as it has been under sixth-year head coach Paul Johnson, but Johnson has an excuse. He's been trying to recruit players to the Naval Academy with the country at war. Playing football for Navy today means fighting in a war tomorrow. Playing football for Navy is literally a matter of life and death."
And Doyle continues:
"an appreciation of Navy, which plays a remarkable brand of football despite its inherent disadvantages in college football's highest classification."
And Mike Hutton from the Gary (Indiana) Post Tribune says:
"There are no other options for a team full of undersized guys who shouldn't come within a couple of touchdowns of beating Notre Dame on paper. Ever. Not in 43 years or 143 years."
The bottom line in this victory for Navy...Paul Johnson probably elevated his stock tremendously in the eyes of quite a few BCS schools that will be looking for a new coach this offseason. He took a group of players that had no business being on the same field as Notre Dame and ended the longest lopsided streak in college football. I hope Tom Osborne was watching.
17 comments:
Tom Osborne was probably busy at the time watching the defense formerly known as the Blackshirts cough up 76 points to Kansas. But I'm sure his first thought to fix the problem is to hire a guy who gave up 44 points to the worst offense in all of I-A.
Yes and clearly Mr. Ignoramus, Navy has the talent on defense of the New England Patriots. Nice of you to so blatantly ignore the facts time and time again, regarding what the Navy program is.
Why don't you stop smelling what you're shoveling? I wonder what Bo Pelini's record would be if he was the head coach at Navy?
I agree husker_rh - Navy's athletes on defense are very, very limited. When compared to the baseline of academy talent (e.g., Army), it is clear that Navy's program is outperforming. Congratulations to Paul on the big win yesterday.
Lashing out and calling people names is a really convincing way to make an arguement.
I was as happy as anyone for the Middies yesterday, but let's be real; Navy beat one of the worst teams in college football yesterday. If they were called anything other than "Notre Dame," this game wouldn't even register on anyone's radar screen.
You constantly harp about Navy's lack of talent as if that's a good thing. How can you say that Johnson has brought in Navy's best recruiting classes but still talk about their lack of talent? You can't have it both ways.
I don't care what Bo Pelini's record at Navy would be. I'm not looking for Navy's next head coach, I'm looking for Nebraska's. And after yesterday, I'm looking for defense. Letting the offense ranked dead last in rushing run for over 7 times their average... Are you kidding me? You say that Paul Johnson would just go out and hire an elite defensive coordinator. Wasn't that the plan with Callahan. I prefer not to rely on faith. I also like to learn from my mistakes. Hopefully Osborne does too.
Notre Dame might be bad but they still have perhaps 10x the talent on their team that Navy does. And they had two weeks to prepare, played at home and still got beat by a team they outweighed by an average of 50 pounds a man up front. Anyone who knows anything about college football understands the dynamics of what was accomplished yesterday. It obviously excludes you.
I never once said Navy had great recruiting CLASSES. I said when PJ first arrived he brought in one great recruiting class, by Navy's standards, which means little to nothing in the big picture. Then an interesting thing happened in 2003 and the country went to war. Whatever it is you're trying to claim it just a bunch of BS. Bill Belichik and Bill Cowher couldn't recruit D-1 caliber football players to Navy right now or since 2003. Period.
Do you know anything about college football at all? Ever think that maybe the best defense is a ball control offense that keeps them off the field??
So Paul Johnson has one good class, and that's supposed to be a good thing?
Yesterday, we gave up 76 points to KANSAS. Navy has given up 103 combined points in consecutive weeks to a I-AA team and the last-ranked offense in I-A. And you never have explained why Army and Air Force have better defenses with all the same restrictions that Navy has. Navy's coach is not the answer.
Paul Johnson is a great coach. No one is disputing that. But his system succeeds with quick, undersized players - not I-A caliber athletes, as you attest. But Nebraska has I-A caliber athletes. Nebraska has many superior I-A athletes. Nebraska can recruit as well as anyone in the country. Why would we go to an offensive system designed for inferior athletes? Just 'cause it works for them doesn't mean it will work here.
Christopher-I've seen a lot of ludicrous statements but yours may be one of the most silly I've ever seen.
You're trying to tell me that Paul Johnson's current system only works with undersized and untalented players?? Seriously.
I guess its a pretty sad statement when a coach who does more with less, gets chastized for taking players nobody else in D-1 wants and making them into a competitive and successful D-1 program.
That's not exactly what I'm saying. I'm saying it's a system designed for those players because that's what Navy can get. We can get better players here. Doing more with less does not necessarily equate to doing more with more (why do you think no one's knocking on Mike Leach or June Jones' respective doors).
Think of it this way: Imagine you're Niles Paul. You're a legitimate 5* prospect with NFL aspirations. You're told Paul Johnson is going to be your new coach and offensive coordinator. How quickly do you start looking for somewhere to transfer? The next head coach should not be a "system" guy who will need 4+ years to get his kind of players. We've been down that road and hated almost every minute of it. The next coach must be able to utilize the players we have now. Which quarterback on our roster is as quick as Kaipo? What receiver is going to agree to play slotback? Which fullback will be quick enough to outrun Big XII linebackers? You can't just plug players into a system; you have to have the right kind of players. And right now, we don't have Johnson's kind of players.
Husker fans want to win and win now. Paul Johnson and the flexbone can't do that.
Paul Johnson is what Nebraska needs. The man runs the option now at Navy because it gives him advantages with the players that he currently has. When he was offensive coordinator at Hawaii he threw the ball all over the place in a spread option.
When he was at Georgia Southern he had some of the best athletes in I-AA. In 5 years in won the conference 5 times with two national championships, and received coach of the year awards 6 times.
Paul Johnson has proved that he can coach on any level. We just have to let him coach at the top level of college football, and enjoy the benefits.
Uh, Paul Johnson DID plug in just any players and start winning at Navy. He had one losing season his first year, and then turned it around the SECOND season. With only one recruiting class of his own in. I don't the freshmen made that difference. Did you watch the game Saturday? He is a great game-day coach. He flat out-smarted Charlie Weis. He doesn't work with a sheet of scripted plays. He is watching what the defense is doing, what they're giving and then he takes it. They won the game on a pass play. He doesn't pass at Navy because they don't have the kind of big linemen you need to block for pass protection. And they don't get the prototypical passing quarterback in terms of height and arm-strength. The defense made massive improvement this week. I don't care if it is against the worst I-A offense. They were outsized FORTYFIVE pounds on the defensive line and still got some sacks and made some good athletic plays. The coaches simplified the defense and it worked.
Anonymous' stat is misleading. 44 points. But 16 of those were given up in overtime .... when each team has it on the 25 yardline. Navy's defense gave up 28 in regulation AND stopped Notre Dame following a fumble recovery of Navy's own 30 yardline in the first quarter. But I don't think anything less than Navy's unit morphing into the New England Patriots will convince Anonymous. He's not here to be convinced. He's here to argue. ;-)
Melinda
Notre Dame average 34 rushing yards per game going into the Navy game. They had 235 yards against Navy. Is that stat misleading, Melinda?
I don't expect Navy's defense to be the Patriots. I would at least expect them to be mediocre. But they aren't; they are bad.
When we give up 76 points to Kansas, I really don't give a rat's ass about other coaches' offenses. I want defense.
By the way, Paul Johnson never "threw the ball all over the place." In the 2-3 years that everyone refers to, his quarterback averaged like 200 yards per game. That lasted for about 2 years, and then his offense looked exactly like it does now. I don't have anything against running the ball, but people talk a lot about Paul Johnson's offense at Hawaii without having actually seen it.
I notice you didn't comment on the 28 points?
Yes it is misleading. You are comparing apples and oranges. If Paul Johnson were at Nebraska, he would have much larger linemen to work with which we mean a different defensive philosophy. Different packages could be used instead of a bend don't break philosphy that the Midshipmen currently use. Navy's defense was pretty good last year. You are taking one year and saying that is what Paul Johnson's defenses are always like, and that's not true. And you are overlooking the vast improvement in defense he and Coach Green made in ONE WEEK! They simplified the defense, throwing out disguised coverages, etc. so their players could play to the best of their ability. He is a good motivator, offensive guru, and can get the best out of who he has in whatever situation he has. He isn't a headcase like Callahan and his strong work ethic, blue-collar approach would suit Nebraska to a T. Nobody has hung 76 on Navy this year. That should NEVER happen to Nebraska.
And I didn't mention Hawaii.
Melinda
Navy's recruiting base is VERY, VERY LIMITED. Paul Johnson is able to take 'un-recruited' Div IA prospects and mold them into an offensive dynamo. His offensive schemes/designs can compensate for the lesser talented players that he is limited to. However, the nature of defense, frequently requires 1-on-1 success against offensive counterparts, making a talent gap more devastating. Navy simply cannot recruit defensive players that match-up to BCS offensive players. Consequently, Paul Johnson has implemented a "bend but don't break" defensive strategy, forcing offenses to march down the field in mistake-free manner in order to score. This year, Navy has had horrible luck with respect to their defense. Multiple defensive starters (or tentative starters) left the USNA for various reasons, leaving significant holes in the defense...To make matters worse, multiple defensive starters had season-ending injuries during the first two games. Navy has started 23 different defensive players this season with many being originally 3rd (or not even on) the depth chart when the season started. Having said all of this, Navy has been able to move the ball and score on everybody they have played and have been able to put together enough of a defense to still have a winning record. What would happen if Paul Johnson was at a school where he could recruit blue-chip defensive talent? Now throw in the possibility of recruiting a Tebow-like QB that would truly bring a passing threat to a dominant running scheme?? The first BCS school that takes a chance with Paul Johnson will hit the jackpot! I hate to see him leave Navy, but would be interested to see just how far he could go with BCS-level talent.
One last thing...Navy can only beat the teams on their schedule. If Navy was in the Mountain West or Conf USA, then I feel confident that Navy would have been in the top 1-3 teams in either conference during the past 4 seasons. Over the past few years, Navy has routinely defeated upper-half MWC and C-USA teams. The argument that Paul Johnson doesn't beat any "good" teams, so he isn't that good of a coach is, at best, irrelevant. Navy plays and beats teams in their 'talent-level.' When he was coaching in Div IAA...and winning back-to-back championships, just look at some of the coaches that he was beating on a fair recruiting field. Now look where some of those losing coaches are...and what they are doing with BCS teams.
What would happen if Paul Johnson was at a school where he could recruit blue-chip defensive talent? Now throw in the possibility of recruiting a Tebow-like QB that would truly bring a passing threat to a dominant running scheme??
First, how many Tebow-like QBs are there to be had? Second, most folks who've followed Urban Meyer for some time note that his offense's production has dropped since coming to Florida. Why? There are better defenses in the SEC (LSU and Auburn spring to mind). You can't expect a QB to be your primary running threat without him getting hurt (Pat White hasn't gone through a season healthy, Tebow has shoulder problems). Third, if Nebraska wants to run that kind of offense (which, for its faults, is vastly superior to the flex-bone option Johnson insists on running wherever he'll go) why not hire Dan Mullen or Kyle Whittingham?
Johnson's a great, great coach. No one says otherwise. But his offensive genius is akin to Mike Leach's - it allows inferior athletes to succeed against marginally superior talent. This does not guarantee success at a place with superior athletes (i.e. Nebraska).
I wasn't aware that points given up in overtime didn't count. And the only reason that Notre Dame only scored 28 points in regulation was that there were fewer posessions in the game thanks to both teams grinding down the clock. The simple facts are that Notre Dame, the worst offense in I-A, had easily its best offensive output of the year on Navy. And you want to sit there and tell me how much of an IMPROVEMENT that is?? God help us.
I tried to do an apples to apples comparison, but nobody on this blog wants to explain to me why Army and Air Force have such better defenses with all the same restrictions that Navy does. Until someone does, please stop telling me about all the wonderful things you say Johnson would do with Nebraska's players. It's crap.
And Melinda, some other anonymous commenter brought up Hawaii.
In terms of what you are trying to get across, yes, the overtime points are different. Each team gets it on the 25.... virtually guaranteeing scoring of some kind.
Navy's defense this year has been decimated by injuries to key personnel. Three guys went down in quick succession, who had the experience to move the less experienced personnel into the correct positions and to call coverages. You are taking one bad defensive season and turning it into the only one that counts. Navy gave up an average of 19.5 points in 2006 and 24 in 2005. Compare that to this year's Florida team: 25.2 points per game and Georgia: 22.4 points per game. I would say giving up 28 points in regulation is an improvement over giving up 59 to a Division I-AA school.
And with equal athletes, I watched a Paul Johnson offense hang 58 on Jim Tressel (you know, that guy at Ohio State) and Youngstown State in 1999 while only giving up 14 points to win the National Title.
Melinda
Post a Comment