Midshipmen aren’t awash in secrecy
Coach believes you don’t have to be paranoid to win
This summer — like most recent summers — has birthed new restrictions in the coverage of our most secretive communal pastime: college football. There’s LSU, which announced it would close all preseason practices to the media. And Notre Dame, which announced new rules on what sort of practice details could be revealed, and when, and at what length. And Texas, which announced a ban on the contemporaneous posting of quotes on social media, although that was later described as a preference.
In that context, an unlikely breeze of openness continues to waft from Annapolis, Md. The Naval Academy — the rare college football program whose players might one day guard actual state secrets — doesn’t approach the sport as if it’s a fully classified endeavor. It doesn’t traffic in paranoia. And somehow, despite keeping its front door cracked open, Navy manages to win.
As in, a lot. Under coach Ken Niumatalolo, the Midshipmen have finished with winning records eight of the past nine seasons. They’ve averaged nine wins a year since 2012. They’ve won more games in those five years than Texas A&M or USC, more than Nebraska or Florida.
“We just wanted to be transparent. And I didn’t really think much about it,” Niumatalolo said. “I always thought that (media members) are helping our program, too, and the exposure’s helping our program and helping our kids. So I didn’t really think anything about it; I just thought it was part of the deal. I don’t know, I guess that’s just my personality. I probably talk too much. But we didn’t have anything to hide. I just feel like, ‘Well, come in our house. You can look in our closets. We don’t have anything to hide.’”
Maybe fans have little interest in this topic, in contrasting the media policies of Navy with, say, Michigan, where Jim Harbaugh is undoubtedly designing khaki straitjackets for the working media.
And it’s not like Navy is running some sort of Pete Carroll-style freefor-all; cameras aren’t permitted during team drills, Thursday practices during the season are closed, and Niumatalolo said he trusts that the small group of regular reporters will not reveal strategic details.
Every preseason practice at the Academy is open to the media. There aren’t restrictions on social media use by reporters. And every assistant coach is available on request.
“I mean, they’re all grown men,” the head coach explained. “If I couldn’t trust them talking to the media, how the heck can I trust them to work for me? The assistant coaches are the lifeblood of your program. They’re the guys that go out and recruit, they’re the guys that actually work with your players. And if you can’t trust them to talk to the media …”
Navy isn’t Michigan, of course. There aren’t media hordes; there isn’t an obsessive fan base hanging on every training camp update; and there isn’t an annual expectation of a national title.
But Niumatalolo, whose name has sometimes been connected to highprofile job openings, said there’s “no doubt” he would feel the same, even at a bigger school.
And his anti-paranoia goes beyond post-practice interviews. In a sport that prizes office sleepovers and 70-hour weeks, Niumatalolo tells his staff to stay home on Sundays. That’s not a hollow suggestion, either. The football offices are closed.
“Like I said, coaches are paranoid ... and sometimes you’re paranoid about trying to come in” to work, he said. “I guess it comes from this: We preach to our guys we want to help them, develop them as young men of character, and help them become leaders and fathers and husbands. I don’t know how you can teach people how to be a father and husband if you’re not tending to your own family and helping out your own family. So Sunday’s a time to go be with your family.”
Perhaps none of this is transferable to the bright lights, where a five-loss season is a tragedy, and scores of media members are on alert for news. But there’s something refreshing about a head coach who isn’t focused on drawing the blinds, who doesn’t think college football must be guarded as carefully as the nuclear football. You don’t have to be paranoid to win.
“Sometimes as coaches we are control freaks, and I guess I am, too, to an extent in a lot of things, but not with the media,” he said.
“I’ve always been a firm believer: People can handle the truth. That’s just been my motto: People can handle the truth, good or bad. And that’s just kind of how I operate.”