Birmingham, AL – Navy QB Blake Horvath threw two TD passes and ran for one with 225 passing yards and 84 rushing to lead the Mids to a dominant 41-18 over the UAB Blazers. In the American Athletic clash, Navy led a balanced offensive attack and the Mid defense kept the pressure on UAB QB Jacob Zeno applying pressure and recording three sacks early. The Mids left town with a 4-0 record, 3-0 in AAC play. The Blazers under second-year HC Trent Dilfer, have not made much progress since last season’s 31-6 loss to the Mids in Annapolis. They struggle at 1-3 and start 0-1 in the AAC.
Guest Game Analyst Mike Malinack (USNA) has attended all four Navy games thus far and seen improvement. He attributes it to new Offensive Coordinator Drew Cronic and Horvath who is healthy this year. Cronic comes to Navy after being HC for FCS Mercer in Macon, Georgia. Horvath played four games last season before injuring his thumb. He brings back what Keenan McReynolds and Mason Perry brought to the Midshipmen quarterback position in past seasons.
Navy defense penetrates and punishes
Midshipman DE Landon Robinson halted the first UAB possession with a sack. The Mids took over on downs from their 39. Horvath finished the first Navy possession with a 20-yard TD run. Navy’s other DE Justin Reed sacked Zeno on the next UAB series to force a punt. In the second period, the Mids drove 84 yards with FB Alex Tecza taking it in from the five for a 14-0 lead. UAB got on the board with 1:10 left in the first half on Jonah Delange’s 35-yard FG.
Navy retaliated quickly through the air. Horvath connected with WR Nathan Kent for 77 yards as Kent raced the final 35 yards to paydirt. This was right after a UAB fan sitting behind us showed up late with friends and commented to another, “No wonder why UAB isn’t that good, these players look like a bunch of high school players.” The friend replied, “We’re sitting behind the Navy bench. It seems he figured clean-shaven guys with short hair don’t know how to play football. It just demonstrates how some people just don’t understand the military of U.S. academy football. He finally left in the third quarter when he realized things weren’t going to go UAB’s way.
Relentless Navy attack
Leading 21-3 to start the second half, Navy received the kickoff as they deferred on the coin toss. Horvath lit up the scoreboard once again. He found WR Eli Heidenrich on the fly for a 77-yard scoring strike. The Mids performed dominantly. They took over the next punt at their 23. They moved downfield to set up Nathan Kirkwood for a 45-yard FG and a 31-3 lead. A glimpse of former NFL QB and successful Lipscomb Academy (TN) HS HC Trend Dilfer along the sideline portrayed a baffled look on his face. He must have figured out something eventually. The Blazers started their next drive from the 20. In four plays that included a facemask penalty against the Mids, Zeno hooked up with Iverson Hooks for a 39-yard score.
Despite trailing now 31-10, the Blazers seemed to have some momentum taking place. They held navy to a three and-out. UAB started to drive. Rolling to his left under pressure, Zeno tossed a long, errant pass down field and Navy CB Mbiti Williams made a diving catch. The Mids took over from their 5.
Finishing touches
Entering the final period, Navy marched down the field once again. With 10:32 to play, FB Daba Fofana broke tackles up the middle and put Navy on the board once again with a 16-yard jaunt. The Blazers kept rolling again, too. After a 67-yard pass completion to Terrell McDonald, Lee Beebe scored from the two with 9:09 left. A two-point conversion pass to Kam Shanks made the score 38-18. Navy controlled the ball on its next drive taking 6:55 off the clock before Kirkwood extended the lead 41-18 with his 46-yard FG. The second teams came in for game-time experience, and that was the final.
Week Six College Football Action: Think Army Navy game
UAB takes on another American Athletic contender next Saturday when Tulane (3-2, 1-0) comes to town. This may be our alternative game if we don’t see our other option that’s up in the air right now for next Saturday (see below). Navy has a big archrivalry game next week when it visits Air Force out in Colorado Springs. Air Force (1-3) comes off a loss to winless Wyoming for this one. We saw the Cowboys bounced by No. 19 BYU the week before. However, the Mids can’t take the Falcons lightly. Both teams compete for that Commander-in Chief Trophy. And with Army also at 4-0, the Mids will have to get a leg up for more than just that Hardware. A lot of pride exists to outdo Army in anything. They want to outpace the Cadets in the win column, conference game or not.
There’s even more riding on that game now that the two play in the American Athletic. We’ll see the Mids again on October 26 when they battle Notre Dame in the Meadowlands for our Game 700! One fan also going recently said to me, “We may still see an undefeated team play in that game. Not the one we expected tough.” Besides Air Force, Navy plays Charlotte after them at home. As we know, the Fighting Irish have already fallen to Northern Illinois of the Mid American, now 2-2, 0-1.
Collegefootballfan.com goals to be achieved
Big weekend coming up. We hit three games in three days in order to basically assure that October 26 is officially Game 700. On Thursday night, we go to Troy, Alabama to see The Trojans (1-4, 0-1) host Texas State (2-2) in a Sun Belt showdown. TXST lost their last two non-conference games to Arizona State, 31-28, and a last-minute comeback loss to Sam Houston, 40-39. Head Coach GJ Kinne will have his Bobcats looking to make some noise against Troy and their first-year HC Gerad Parker.
Our Friday night game will feature first year FBS program Kennesaw State (0-4, 0-1) hosting Jacksonville State (1-3, 1-1). Got to go with the JSU Gamecocks here. KSU Owls fell to FCS UT Martin on Saturday. We hope this will be a battle between these two flocks. We go to add the Owls’ Fifth Third Bank Stadium for our goal to attend as many FBS venues as possible. When they get better, we’ll find a more competitive opportunity in the future. For now, we have objectives to achieve. The sooner the better to get this opportunity closed. Like Navy OC drew Cronic, Midshipmen HC Brian Newberry also cut his teeth as a KSU assistant.
Option play?
We are working on arrangements to see an old-fashioned SEC rivalry on Saturday when Auburn visits No. 5 Georgia at Sanford Stadium in Athens. This would be only our second time there. The Dawgs (3-1, 1-1) are reeling now from last Saturday’s loss to Bama. What better way to come back by beating up on Auburn? The Tigers (2-3,0-2) come in looking for some way to turn this season around. What better way, but do they have to horses to do it? They played Oklahoma last week closer than expected in their 27-21 loss. This will be the first game for Auburn on the road. Could be a rocky one. If we don’t get to see this tussle, we’re on our way back to Birmingham for Tulane visiting UAB.
CFF.com September Poll Rankings
For fun, we’ve decided to rank a Top Ten among the 41 FBS teams on our Tentative Schedule in 2024. For now, all intents and purposes, the teams on it are basically set in stone except for aforementioned Georgia. We’ll keep them in our ranking until our October poll comes out late next month. We’re shocked already not only by how many undefeated teams remain in our poll, but by how many we’ve already seen that remain undefeated. Definitely some surprises here:
- Ohio State 4-0
- Georgia 3-1
- Penn State 4-0
- Oregon 4-0
- Notre Dame 4-1
- BYU 5-0*
- Navy 4-0*
- Duke 5-0*
- Boston College 4 -1*
- Liberty 4-0
*Seen play already
-ed. by Steve Koreivo Member of Football Writers Association of America
Author of Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales: The Good, the Fun and the Ugly Click on the title to purchase it and submit a review. Thanks!