Alabama-Birmingham had a bye last Saturday, but it was not a relaxing afternoon for coach Trent Dilfer.
Dilfer dutifully watched the Navy-Memphis game in order to get a good look at the Mids, who UAB opens American Athletic Conference action with Saturday at Protective Field.
Needless to say, Dilfer came away quite concerned after watching Navy upset Memphis, 56-44 behind quarterback Blake Horvath and 566 total yards of offense.
“You sit there on your bye week and watch Navy dismantle a team that has a massive salary cap and all the resources in the world, a team that everyone thought was going to be a playoff contender,” Dilfer said. “I have to admit I was a little surprised.”
Despite Navy ranking near the bottom of the Football Bowl Subdivision in scoring and total offense last season, one of its better offensive outings came against UAB, totaling 363 yards in a 31-6 blowout. Now the Blazers must contend with the innovative new Wing-T attack that has enabled the Midshipmen to amass 143 points and 922 yards through three games.
The Midshipmen have shown the ability to mount time-consuming drives or score quickly off explosive plays
“The issue Navy creates is that they have a scalpel and a machete. They have the ability to chop you in half with one swipe or they can nick you and make you bleed out. Most offenses are one or the other. Navy can do both,” Dilfer said.
Alabama-Birmingham’s rush defense has proven vulnerable through three games, giving up an average of almost 200 yards. Dilfer acknowledged that has been his team’s Achilles heel and said the coaching staff took a close look at schemes, personnel and technique during the bye week. He said the Blazers must do a better job of destroying blocks and tackling.
Navy ranks fourth nationally with 307.3 yards per game, a figure inflated by numerous long runs.
“To think we’re going to shut down Navy’s run game is probably an unrealistic expectation. You have to contain it and limit the damage. You have to find a way to win big downs,” Dilfer said. “It all starts with all the creative Wing-T slash triple-option stuff. Now they can open you up and play more of the traditional spread game. They’ve done a good job of finding versatile personnel. They have great team speed, great athletes, really fluid athletes. Their players are better than people say they are.”
Dilfer and Navy counterpart Brian Newberry are both second-year coaches and have bonded during various American Athletic Conference meetings.
“I’m not surprised that Brian has done such a good job with the program. I think he’s a great coach who hires really smart people,” Dilfer said. “Navy is so well coached. They do a lot of things schematically that challenge you offensively and defensively. They have systems in place that optimize their players’ abilities.”
Defensive letdown
Defense has been a strength of the Navy football program ever since Brian Newberry became coordinator in 2019. There was no drop off last season when Newberry turned the unit over to top lieutenant P.J. Volker.
Newberry and Volker were both disappointed with their defense’s performance against Memphis, which piled up a whopping 659 total yards. Quarterback Seth Henigan passed for 371 yards and two touchdowns, while tailback Brandon Thomas and Mario Anderson combined for 242 rushing yards and four scores.
Newberry shouldered the blame because he told Volker to primarily play pass coverage after Navy took a 49-30 lead at the 8:22 mark of the fourth quarter. That strategy almost cost the Midshipmen dearly as Henigan directed two lightning-quick touchdown drives that cut the deficit to 49-44. The Tigers got the ball back and were driving in enemy territory when safety Rayuan Lane prevented a complete collapse with an interception he returned for a touchdown.
“We got a little conservative at the end of the game and that’s on me. In retrospect, maybe we shouldn’t have been,” said Newberry, who felt the Mids dropped eight defenders into pass coverage too often.
A big talking point going into the game was to not give up explosive plays and Newberry thinks that may have caused defenders to play tentatively. He said the coaching staff “kind of hog-tied” the players a bit instead of allowing them to play fast and loose.
“We can’t get away from doing the things we do defensively — being aggressive and being multiple,” Newberry said.
Navy elected not to blitz Henigan, who was able to sit comfortably in the pocket and pick apart the pass coverage. The Midshipmen recorded one sack and were credited with seven quarterback hurries, but Newberry acknowledged the game plan was not aggressive enough.
“We weren’t able to generate much of a pass rush. It was like seven-on-seven and he had a lot of time back there,” he said. “I don’t know if we ever made the quarterback uncomfortable over the course of the game.”
Navy had 14 missed tackles, which Volker said was way too much. There were some gaping holes for the tailback to run through, which Volker said was the result of not fitting things properly.
“I’ll tell you the same thing I told the guys: Congratulations. We did what we needed to do to win the game, but it was not up to our standard,” Volker said. “We dared them to take what we were giving them and they did. Then they ended up getting a little more on top of that.”
Newberry and Volker agreed the defense will learn and grow from the embarrassing experience. They believe the Memphis collapse was an aberration and expect the unit to bounce back this Saturday.
“You have to go through the film with a fine-toothed comb and make sure the guys understand the issues and what went wrong. Then we have to work our tails off to fix those issues and make sure we play to our standard,” Volker said.
No rest for weary
It was obvious to everyone at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium that the Midshipmen wore down on defense in the fourth quarter. The Tigers dominated possession down the stretch and ran a remarkable 45 plays in the final frame.
“I’ve never been part of that before. You go into the fourth quarter with a manageable play number and leave with a completely unmanageable one,” Volker said.
Memphis finished with 95 offensive plays and that pushed numerous Navy defenders to the limit. The Mids had eight players log more than 100 plays during the game, combining defensive snaps with special teams repetitions.
Lane and outside linebacker Luke Pirris led the way with 118 plays apiece and were followed by safety Mbiti Williams with 112. Outside linebacker Jaxson Campbell and inside linebacker Colin Ramos both totaled 109 plays, while inside linebacker Kyle Jacob and cornerback Dashaun Peele had 104 each.
Newberry said the entire defensive coaching staff needs to evaluate whether it can find situations during the game when backups can give the starters a rest.
“If it’s a game that is going the way that one did, we’ve got to be able to plug some more guys in. We can’t be afraid to do that. We’ve got a lot of good young players that we can trust to go in and do their jobs,” Newberry said. “We’ve got to do a better job of keeping guys fresh and making sure those guys that are playing a lot of snaps are getting a blow on special teams.”
Exacerbating the problem is the fact the Midshipmen have scored so quickly so often this season. Navy now has five one-play touchdown drives through three games.
Volker agreed that Navy has solid backups that can be utilized on defense and special teams. However, he cautioned that you can’t make wholesale changes and abandon the philosophy of putting the best players on the field.
“You can’t rob your special teams of the best players,” he said. “We’re committed to playing the guys that deserve to play. If that’s 11 guys, then it’s 11 guys. If it’s 30 guys then it’s 30 guys and anywhere in between.”
Volker also pointed out that position coaches may have substituted more liberally earlier in the game had they known Memphis was going to run 45 plays in the fourth quarter.
“It’s hard to make a lot of substitutions with the game on the line in the fourth quarter with guys that haven’t had a lot of game action to that point,” he said.
Nonetheless, Volker said he and the other defensive coaches would explore strategic ways to give the starters more rest.
“It’s something as a staff we have to look at really, really hard. We do have to be able to play more guys,” he said. “We absolutely do have some backups that can play. We have to do a better job as a staff of getting those guys into the game in situations that they can have success so they can earn confidence and trust in themselves.”