Fullbacks playing a bigger role

Copeland and Swain had 41 total carries, 215 rushing yards in 2OT loss to Toledo

Noah Copeland and Chris Swain were stretching together during a practice early last week when Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo approached his top two fullbacks with a little pep talk.

“Coach kind of called us out, told us we need to show up,” Copeland recalled this week. “We kind of talked about that in the hotel [Friday before facing Toledo], that we need to ball this game, and they’re TV: Radio: Line: going to probably need us. We went out there with a different mentality. We just kept running and doing what we could do.”

By the time Copeland and Swain were finished, they had combined for more yards in a game than any pair of Navy fullbacks in three seasons.

Copeland, a 5-foot-10, 214-pound junior from San Antonio, rushed for a career-high 153 yards on a career-high 28 carries in Navy’s 45-44 double-overtime loss at Toledo, while also catching one pass for a 20-yard touchdown. Swain, a 5-11, 232pound sophomore from Macon, Ga., had 62 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries.

It marked the first time that a pair of Navy fullbacks had combined for more than 200 yards since Alexander Teich and Vince Murray gained 225 — 157 by Teich — in a 76-35 win at East Carolina in 2010.

“I thought they both played well,” said Niumatalolo, whose team still lost by a point after sophomore Nick Sloan missed an extra-point attempt in the second overtime period. “Noah played better. I thought the line blocked better, but it wasn’t good enough.”

After watching tape of the game with teammates and coaches, Copeland ac-

knowledged that his performance was far from perfect.

“I missed a lot of reads,” he said. “I didn’t play as well as I thought I did. Numbers can say a lot of things, but I know I didn’t play as well.”

The fullbacks, and the rest of the Midshipmen, hope to improve today when Navy (3-3) tries to end its two-game losing streak. Navy plays Pittsburgh (4-2) in a 1 p.m. homecoming game at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.

Mike Judge, who is in his sixth season coaching Navy’s fullbacks, agreed with Copeland’s assessment of last week’s performance. He wasn’t about to give his “B” backs, as the fullbacks are called, anything close to an “A.”

“We played hard. We didn’t play well. We left a lot of yards out there,” Judge said. “We didn’t do a good job blocking on the perimeter. We didn’t have a lot of knockdowns. We were asked to do a lot of perimeter blocking, and we didn’t do a good job. It could be a quarterback block or a slotback block.”

Since the early years of the triple-option that is now Navy’s trademark, the responsibilities of the fullback have changed, as have the skill sets of the fullbacks themselves.

“I don’t know if guys in the past could do what we ask them to do now,” Judge said.

Judge said that after having a production line of beefy fullbacks with some breakaway speed such as Kyle Eckel, Adam Ballard and Eric Kettani — each of whomled the Midshipmen in rushing over a four-year period — Navy tried to recruit lighter, shiftier players such as Copeland to play the position.

Swain is something of a throwback, though he’s probably more athletic than many of his predecessors.

“Noah sees things way better than Chris right now, but Chris is also a year behind him in experience,” Judge said. “Chris does bring more of a power element, but we’re still working on some things, getting to run with more power and staying lower to the ground. Noah is going to know where to fit, so that he can hit the soft spot and squirt through and get those extra yards after contact.”

After finishing second on the team in rushing (738 yards on 162 carries) last season behind senior slotback Gee Gee Greene (877 yards on 120 attempts), Copeland put on 10 pounds of muscle.

But he started the 2013 season backing up Swain, who finished his freshman year with a career-high 93 yards in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl.

In the 62-28 loss to Arizona State, Swain had the team highlight — a 46-yard touchdown run.

Still, neither had produced much this season until last Saturday at Toledo.

In the first five games, Copeland had just 66 yards on 25 carries. Swain had gained just 140 yards on 45 carries, but started to show improvement when he rushed for 61 yards on 13 carries in a 35-7 loss at Duke on Oct. 12.

“I expected a lot from myself, too,” Swain said. “I haven’t been like I thought I would, but I’m still working at it, trying to get better every day. I feel like the last two weeks gave me a little confidence, and hopefully I can build on that.”

Swain conceded that moving up so quickly on the depth has been somewhat “overwhelming,” forcing him to perfect his technique in running and blocking as well as reading what the defense gives him.

“Hopefully, I’ll break out one of these games,” he said.

As a result of Copeland’s performance last week, Niumatalolo said, the junior will start against Pittsburgh. Copeland said that doesn’t matter.

“Honestly, you just want to go out there and get the ‘W,’ ” he said.

Copeland hopes Pittsburgh’s defense doesn’t key on the fullback as others have this season — but Toledo didn’t do.

“I like running around,” he said. “It was kind of fun.”