First, let’s get the obvious fact out there – winning in college football is hard. It’s not as difficult some weeks, but against quality opponents and even lesser ones at times, it is often a tough task.
That disclaimer goes before assessing the early season for Navy. The Midshipmen are 5-0. It’s the first time Navy has started 5-0 in consecutive years since 1978-79.
All very impressive, but when looking under the hood, something seems a little off.
Winning is winning, and all Navy is worried about is the W, but this team has to be judged for what it is – a serious contender in the American Conference. In addition, Navy is No. 4 in this week’s HERO Sports Group of Five Top 25.
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By those standards then, there are some questions.
Navy opened with a 52-7 rout of FCS VMI. Then the Midshipmen won three straight American Conference games – at home over UAB (38-24), at Tulsa (42-24), and at home against Rice (21-13).
Those three teams are a combined 1-7 in American Conference games. The UAB game was tied at 24 at halftime.
Navy led 21-17 at halftime against Tulsa before also pulling away in the second half.
The Midshipmen were in command against Rice, which kicked a field goal with 24 seconds left to make it a one-score game.
Last week at home against 1-4 Air Force, Navy broke a 31-31 tie on a 34-yard Nathan Kirkwood field goal with 6:47 left. That was the difference in the three-point win.
Navy led Air Force 24-17 entering the fourth quarter. The Midshipmen have won 76 consecutive games at home when leading after three quarters, which is the nation’s longest streak.
One reason so many people have a deep belief in Navy is quarterback Blake Horvath. Against Air Force, he had 469 yards of total offense, which set a program record.
Against Air Force, Horvath threw for 339 yards and ran for another 130, the type of performance that gets a player in Heisman discussion.
For the season, he has completed 46 of 64 passes (71.8%) for 839 yards, six touchdowns, and three interceptions. Horvath has rushed for a team-high 489 yards and six touchdowns.
Also hitting the record books last week was Eli Heidenreich, who caught eight passes for 243 yards and three touchdowns. That tied the single-game program record for most touchdown receptions, and the 243 yards set a single-game mark. He also has a team-record 14 career touchdown receptions.
All this is really impressive, but just one simple question – should Air Force have been hanging around that long?
It’s true that despite being 1-4, Air Force has had a brutal early-season schedule, which has included a road defeat at Utah State and home losses to Boise State and Hawaii.
Still, Navy was nearly a two-touchdown favorite in this one. Again, winning is all that matters. Yet in ensuing weeks, Navy will come up against much stiffer competition, especially on the road.
Even this week, the Midshipmen travel to Philadelphia to face a 3-2 Temple team, which is coming off a 27-21 upset home win over UTSA. This one looked like a gimmie to me at the beginning of the season, but maybe not now as Temple is playing inspired football under first-year coach KC Keeler. As of this writing, Navy is a 9.5-point college football betting favorite, according to BetMGM.
Even after the Temple game, Navy plays FAU at home before facing a brutal stretch at the end of the regular season.
It begins with road games at currently unbeaten North Texas and then Notre Dame. That is followed by a home game with another American contender, South Florida, followed by a game at Memphis, the current favorite to win the American. The final regular season game is Dec. 13 with Army, and nobody has to state how big that one is, although it will be played after the American Conference Championship.
As stated earlier, Navy is a serious contender, but one would like to see a team of that status put manageable opponents away earlier. It could be nit-picking, since Navy has now won eight in a row dating back to last year.
Maybe this is a team that plays closer to the edge than most contenders. We’ll see, as after this week, the second half schedule will be much more challenging than the first half.
