‘Another tall order’ as Mids travel to face Central Florida
Out of the furnace and into the fire.
That’s pretty much the situation confronting the Navy football team, which is in the midst of a brutal stretch of the schedule.
Coming off consecutive lopsided losses, Navy must travel to Orlando to take on a Central Florida team that has not lost in two seasons. The Knights are 8-0 and ranked No. 12 in the College Football Playoff poll despite undergoing a head coaching change and graduating considerable talent.
For Navy, which is stranded in a six-game losing streak, facing the team that owns the nation’s longest current winning streak at 21 straight games is a major challenge, to say the least.
“We’re licking our wounds right now. We got beat pretty badly by a good Cincinnati team. We got out-coached and out-played,” Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo said. “We’ve got to bounce back against the best team in our conference. It’s going to be another tall order.”
Navy fell behind 27-0 at intermission en route to losing, 44-22, to Notre Dame two Saturdays ago in San Diego. Cincinnati built a 28-0 halftime lead on the way to a thorough 42-0 rout of Navy this past Saturday.
The Midshipmen are trying to avoid a seven-game losing streak, which would be their longest since the 2002 season that ended with a dismal 2-10 record.
“It’s uncharted waters for us. We have to continue to keep grinding. We have to trust the process and trust each other. This is when leadership comes out,” Niumatalolo said of Navy’s struggles. “Obviously, it gets tougher each week. Last week was probably the worst we’ve played in a long time. When we play like that it’s obviously on me for not having the team ready.”
Niumatalolo is not sure what went wrong last weekend, although there were several possible variables. Navy had to travel for the second weekend in a row following a grueling West Coast trip to and from San Diego. Also, final exams were administered at the Naval Academy last week and that wore on the players, some of whom were taking tests in a ballroom at the team hotel following meetings Friday.
“We haven’t played great this season, but we played really bad on Saturday,” Niumatalolo said. “You have to look at a lot of factors. I don’t know if the travel back and forth from California had an effect. Maybe it was finals. You look at every variable and try to leave no stone unturned.”
Niumatalolo and staff must find some answers in a hurry before heading to Orlando as UCF is on a mission to earn the Group of Five berth in one of the New Year’s Six bowls for the second straight season.
Last year, Central Florida finished 13-0 after winning a wild shootout with Memphis in the American Athletic Conference championship game and beating Auburn in the Peach Bowl. The Knights proclaimed themselves as national champions as the only unbeaten team in the Football Bowl Subdivision.
That massive success landed coach Scott Frost the job at his alma mater of Nebraska. Central Florida also lost a ton of talent with four players – cornerback Mike Hughes, wide receiver Tre’Quan Smith, linebacker Shaquem Griffin and tight end Jordan Akins – being selected in the 2018 NFL draft.
Josh Heupel, who was offensive coordinator at Missouri in 2016 and 2017, was hired to replace Frost as coach. Heupel, the Heisman Trophy runner-up as a senior quarterback at Oklahoma in 2000, has stepped right in and kept the ball rolling at Central Florida.
“Josh has done a good job of picking up where Scott left off,” Niumatalolo said. “It’s impressive that they’ve moved on with a new coaching staff. The players have adjusted to the new culture and continue to win.”
It certainly helps to have a quarterback the caliber of McKenzie Milton, the reigning AAC Offensive Player of the Year who is enjoying another spectacular season. The 5-foot-11, 185-pound junior has completed 136 of 233 pass attempts for 2,109 yards and 19 touchdowns while tossing just five interceptions. Truly a dual-threat quarterback, the Hawaii native has also rushed for 572 yards and three touchdowns.
Milton, who chose UCF over Navy, ranks third nationally in passing yards per completion (15.51), third in points responsible for per game (22.3) seventh in total offense (333.1), ninth in passing yards per attempt (9.05) and 10th in passing yards per game (301.3).
Milton, who has amassed 8,129 passing yards in less than three seasons, is not the only former Navy recruit starring for Central Florida. Tailback Greg McRae, who attended the Naval Academy Prep School, leads the Knights in rushing with 572 yards.
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