Recruiting trail leads back to Ohio

Playing Cincinnati boosts Navy in football hotbed

There was a time when Cincinnati was a major recruiting territory for Navy football.

Roger Staubach, arguably the greatest player in program history, was born and raised in Cincinnati and came out of Purcell High. Staubach was the 1963 Heisman Trophy winner and garnered national publicity as a flashy scrambling quarterback — opening the door for the Midshipmen to get more prospects from southeast Ohio.

Tom O’Brien, a defensive end from St. Xavier High in Cincinnati, remembers watching Staubach play for Purcell in annual season-ending Catholic League doubleheader. O’Brien was recruited to the Naval Academy by assistant coach Lee Corso, best known now as an analyst for College GameDay on ESPN.

O’Brien returned to his alma mater as an assistant under head coach George Welsh and was assigned southeast Ohio as a recruiting territory. He discovered and landed a talented tailback from the Cincinnati area, Napoleon McCallum.

McCallum grew up in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood before moving to the suburbs and graduating from Milford High. At Navy, McDallum became a Heisman Trophy candidate who still holds the school’s career record for all-purpose yardage (7,172, 1981-85).

Current Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo decided a few years ago to reinvigorate recruiting efforts in Ohio. Joining the American Athletic Conference, which includes the University of Cincinnati as a member, provided the impetus to reemphasize that Midwestern state as a prime target.

Niumatalolo assigned assistant Mike Judge to recruit Ohio and the Midshipmen are beginning to see the dividends. There are seven players on this year’s roster that Judge recruited from Ohio and several more attending the Naval Academy Prep School.

“We put Mike exclusively in Ohio because there is good high school football there and we wanted to improve our recruiting in that state,” Niumatalolo said this week.

Judge has been recruiting Ohio for seven years, replacing defensive coordinator Dale Pehrson in that territory.

Freshman cornerback Micah Farrar, who has been seeing action on special teams, is a product of O’Brien’s alma mater — St. Xavier in Cincinnati. Other Navy players from the state are freshman linebacker Griffin Bbaumoel (Canton), freshman cornerback Myke Brooks (Richmond Heights), sophomore quarterback Jake Harrison (Centerville), freshman offensive lineman Sean Rattay (Monclova), junior linebacker Matt Stewart (Mason) and junior fullback Akili Taylor (Columbus). CINCINNATI @ NAVY Today, 3:30 p.m. TV: CBSSN RADIO: 1090 AM LINE: Navy by 111⁄