Offseason workout tradition gets carried on by Newberry
First-year coach Brian Newberry is in the process of reshaping the Navy football program in his own image. Newberry has already changed several ways the Midshipmen operate, some fundamental and others cosmetic.
Newberry unveiled one of the alterations during his introductory press conference, closing the session by declaring “Go Navy, beat everybody.” That is a departure from the standard mantra of “Go Navy, beat Army.”
One traditional element of Navy football that was carried over from the previous regime was the infamous “fourth quarter” conditioning sessions. Those pre-dawn workouts during the cold months of January and February are designed to stress the players past their usual limits, both mentally and physically.
Newberry was pleased with the offseason program its results. Navy football has a new director of strength and conditioning in Jim Kiritsy, who oversaw weightlifting workouts and the “fourth quarter” sessions.
“It’s an opportunity for our guys to earn some trust. The trust of their teammates and the trust of their coaches,” Newberry said. “We put them through some pretty tough deals. We want to find out who guys are when they’re tired. We want to see which guys can fight through some things, which guys can pay attention to detail when they’re tired. It’s a way to build some toughness.”
Navy has six on-field assistants who have joined the staff since Newberry was promoted from defensive coordinator to head coach. They were active participants in the strength and conditioning process, challenging and encouraging the players at their respective positions.
Newberry said the offseason program marked the start of the evaluation process for each of the new assistants.
“We’ve been down in the weight room watching guys work out and been out at fourth quarters watching them do conditioning drills,” he said. “It’s important that each of those new coaches has a fresh perspective as far as their evaluation of guys.”
Getting acclimated
Varsity football at the Naval Academy is vastly different from civilian schools because of the academic and military demands placed on the players.
Football players at “Power Five” schools spend most of the day at the team facility with many hours devoted to meetings, film study and other football-related activities. Navy football coaches must hold lunch hour position meetings and most players complete classes just in time to get dressed for afternoon practice.
Newberry wants the six new assistants to get acclimated to the academy and understand that every minute of time working with the players is valuable. To that end, members of the coaching staff have attended classes and eaten breakfast in King Hall with the players. Newberry wanted the new assistants to “get a little bit of the taste of a day in the life of our players” to gain a better understanding of what they go through.
“One of the things we talked about this morning was really engaging our players. We don’t get quite as much time with our guys here. Our players need to know that we care about them and are invested in them,” Newberry said. “A big emphasis for me as we’re working through spring practice is to get to know these guys better.”
Touching all bases
Spring camp is the time for installation with the coordinators overseeing the process of implementing the offensive and defensive systems along with base concepts. Newberry said spring drills also provide an opportunity to experiment a bit.
“You always lay out an installation plan. In my experience, you very rarely get it all in. We need to get our foundation, our base in,” he said. “We’ve laid out a list of priorities — things we need to get done and things we need to touch on. We want to make sure we cover all our bases. We want to emphasize some things we haven’t done real well in the past.”
For the position coaches, these 15 practices provide an opportunity for teaching basic fundamentals and techniques. Players are battling for spots on the depth chart, while simultaneously developing individually.
“You want to see the players compete, but you also want them to understand what we’re trying to accomplish,” Newberry said. “We have four core skill sets at every position that we believe we have to get great at doing to be successful.”
Double duty
Xavier Arline’s goal of playing two varsity sports simultaneously will be put to the test now that spring football has begun.
That attempt to pull double duty did not get off to a good start as Arline is currently sidelined with an injury. He did not participate in the opening football practice on Monday and did not play in the Navy lacrosse loss at Villanova on Tuesday.
While expressing admiration for Arline’s attitude and work ethic, Newberry seemed uncertain as to how things will play out over the course of spring camp.
“I’ve been impressed with Xavier and the way he’s handled both. It’s a lot to juggle,” Newberry said. “We’d like to get Xavier more often than we do, but he’s been around. Unfortunately, he’s dealt with a few injuries from lacrosse that have kept him out of what we’re doing. It will be a touch-and-go thing this spring. Hopefully, he’ll be available for most of our practices.”
Newberry is planning to make the quarterbacks “live” during scrimmage situations this spring, meaning they can be tackled to the ground. Arline might wear a non-contact jersey to help keep him healthy for lacrosse.
“I’m not sure about Xavier just yet. It depends on some other things he’s dealing with right now,” Newberry said. “There’s a little bit of conflict with lacrosse games, but that was part of our agreement. It will be day-to-day as far as what type of live work he’s getting.”