Mostly
Sunny
As Navy fans embark on
another season in the Paul Johnson-era, they do so with many more questions
off-the-field than on it. Let’s
face it – the forecast is mostly sunny from a football perspective. After all, Coach Johnson is still Navy’s
head coach; Navy still has seven starters returning on offense including
quarterback Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada; fullback Adam Ballard, center Antron Harper and slot back Reggie Campbell; and Navy is relatively healthy on both
sides of the ball to start the season.
But Partly Cloudy
It’s definitely not all
clear skies for Navy though as there are many question marks on and
off-the-field. On-the-field, Navy’s
defense is young and inexperienced, and nobody, including the coaching staff
really knows what to expect out of them.
While it’s easy to say there are expectations that Ballard will play hard
and Campbell will run fast, the same can not be said about a mostly
untested defense. It won’t take
long, however, to figure it out. I
would guess after about 15 minutes into the game, Navy fans will have a pretty
good idea of what the long-range forecast will look like for the defense. In the meantime, let’s just call the
defensive question marks, partly cloudy.
In fact, look for Navy’s young defense and how they perform early against
Temple to be one of the ‘Keys to the Game’ the GoMids.com
staff (and special guest contributors) will be bringing you later in the
week.
And then there is the Unsettled
Weather
Now, as far as the
off-the-field issues go and how they relate to Navy football, let me just say
for starters that the reaction to my interview with
Naval Academy Professor Bruce Fleming has been nothing short of
overwhelming. I have heard from
parents, alumni, Blue and Gold officers and even NAAA (think big-time
donors). A lot of people have
formed their opinions of new superintendent, Vice Adm. Jeffrey Fowler and his
newly instituted policies. Others,
like Coach Johnson have adopted the “wait-and-see” approach. Pencil me somewhere in the middle. I am surmising that much like the
answers to the on-the-field questions that exist, it won’t take too long to
start to draw logical conclusions about the impact the new brigade policies will
have on the Navy football team. It
is very possible that these off-the-field distractions can be an added incentive
for a team who is just looking for a really good way to vent their
frustrations. Or, maybe…well…I’m
not going to the other end of the spectrum - yet. So, let’s just call the off-the-field
forecast ‘unsettled’ for now.
Yard
Notes
- I have received over 100
emails in the past four days from a growing pool of Off the Yard sources and perhaps, maybe
even, dare I say – Off the Yard
fans? I’m still trying to figure
out how best to share some of the thoughts with the GoMids.com audience. There are some fresh perspectives out
there that I think will lend positively to the overall discussion. In the meantime, please keep your ideas,
comments, suggestions and intelligence coming.
- There is still no
official word on how many midshipmen will be attending the
Temple game.
- Pennsylvania Dept. of Transportation reports there are lane closures scheduled on I-95 near
the stadium, starting at 9 p.m. on Friday evening. You may want to use alternate routes (go
through NJ) to get back to Annapolis.
- For those of you who will
be sitting at home watching the Navy/Temple game, be sure to log onto GoMids.com
before kick-off as I am planning on debuting my Press Box Diary (to be formally
named later) live from the game.
That’s right, live observations, from the game. I’ll tell you (or at least that’s my
plan) what you’re not seeing on television.