Navy defense in midst of dramatic turnaround

Five games is a large enough sample size to declare the Navy defense vastly improved.

First-year coordinator Brian Newberry has directed a dramatic turnaround that is evident when one considers the statistics.

The Midshipmen ranked at the bottom of the Football Bowl Subdivision in almost every major category last season. Now Navy stands at the top in those same metrics, which is a major reason for a 4-1 record going into Saturday’s home game against South Florida.

“We’re playing really, really well on defense, and we’re doing it against some good teams,” Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo said. “I couldn’t be happier or more impressed. It’s all come together and we’re playing phenomenal.”

Total defense and scoring defense are the bottom-line defensive statistics and Navy ranks 16th and 21st, respectively, in those departments. The Midshipmen are allowing an average of 18.8 points and 286.2 total yard per game.

It’s a stark contrast from last season when Navy finished 103rd out of 130 FBS programs in total defense, having given up 426.4 yards per game. The Mids were 86th in scoring defense with 33.5 points allowed.

Niumatalolo looked at the numbers and knew something had to be done. Dale Pehrson, who served as defensive coordinator from 2015 through 2018, was nudged into retirement. Before all was said and done, five more defensive assistants departed the program.

Niumatalolo was impressed with the way Army’s defense had developed under coordinator Jay Bateman, who served in that capacity from 2014 through 2018. Bateman was hired away from West Point to become defensive coordinator at North Carolina under head coach Mack Brown.

Bateman was reportedly responsible for pointing Niumatalolo in the direction of Newberry, with whom he’d worked at Elon. Bateman was defensive coordinator at Elon from 2006 to 2010 and Newberry was a member of the staff for four of those seasons.

Newberry moved on to become defensive coordinator at Kennesaw State, where he implemented the same type of aggressive defensive system that Bateman espoused.

“I knew what I wanted, but I didn’t know who did it and I couldn’t really articulate it,” said Niumatalolo, who has always coached on the offensive side of the ball. “As I did my homework, all the arrows pointed to Coach Newberry.”

Niumatalolo managed to lure Newberry away from Kennesaw State and the latter brought two assistants – Kevin Downing (defensive ends, raiders) and P.J. Volker (inside linebackers) — along with him. Jerrick Hall (nose guards, tackles), another assistant with ties to Newberry, joined the staff shortly thereafter.

That gave Navy a coach familiar with Newberry’s system at every level of the defense and together they helped install the somewhat complex schemes during spring camp. Newberry personally tutors the safeties and generally oversees the secondary along with Brian Norwood.

“No question that has helped. We’ve been together a long time and know each other really well,” Newberry said of Downing and Volker in particular. “I trust those guys. They know what I’m thinking. Those two guys could call the defense themselves because they know it well enough.”

Norwood, a 29-year veteran of the profession, previously served as defensive coordinator at Baylor, Tulsa and Kansas State. Rounding out the defensive staff are holdover assistants Steve Johns (strikers) and Robert Green.

Newberry and company made significant progress toward teaching and installing the system during spring practice. During intra-squad scrimmage situations, the offense had difficulty deciphering what the defense was doing.

“I knew going against our defense in the spring that we would be good. We couldn’t move the ball against our defense. We had no clue what was going on,” Niumatalolo said. “Our offensive staff has been together a long time and some of the stuff they did, it was like what the heck was that?”

Most importantly, Navy’s returning defenders saw how effective the schemes could be. Inside linebacker Diego Fagot was attacking the line of scrimmage and blowing up plays inside before they got going. Outside linebacker Jake Springer was blitzing off the edge to sack the quarterback.

“I think our kids bought in during the spring. They saw that what Coach Newberry had installed was working,” Niumatalolo said.