Tulsa in same boat as Mids
Both teams have suffered through similar seasons, runs of bad luck
Two teams with similar resumes and similar results will meet on Saturday at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.
Navy and Tulsa have two wins apiece and are tied for last in the West Division of the American Athletic Conference. It’s been a hard luck season for the Midshipmen (2-8, 1-5) and Golden Hurricane (2-8, 1-5) with several winnable games falling by the wayside. Tulsa has lost four games by nine points or less and narrowly missed upsetting South Florida when it was ranked No. 23 in the Associated Press poll, falling 25-24 in a Friday night game at Chapman Stadium.
Navy has suffered two close setbacks with the most frustrating being a 31-30 overtime loss at SMU, which leads the West Division by tiebreaker after beating Houston. The Midshipmen lost to Temple by a touchdown at home.
Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo agreed wholeheartedly when it was pointed out that Tulsa has also endured a frustrating season.
“I think that is exactly right. I do think we are very, very similar in terms of how the season has gone for both of us,” Niumatalolo said. “They are in some games and maybe have some turnovers that hurt them. That’s a talented team that, very similar to us, is struggling. So this is a big game for both of us as far as trying to finish things off Saturday, 3:30 p.m. TV: CBS Sports Network Radio: 1090 AM Line: Navy by 5 Zach Abey, an Archbishop Spalding graduate, opened the season as a wide receiver and short-yardage quarterback specialist for the Mids. He now is back where he played for most of last season as the starting quarterback. right.”
Tulsa head coach Phil Montgomery agreed with that assessment and believes both programs are better than the combined four wins would suggest.
“For whatever reasons we haven’t gotten the breaks we needed or been able to finish games the way we needed. I don’t think our records are a real good indication of the type of teams we have,” Montgomery said. “I think both of our teams are continuing to fight and grind and trying to come up with wins. We just got to make some breaks and get the ball to bounce our way at times.”
Niumatalolo is the longest-tenured head coach in the
AAC with 11 seasons at the helm of the Midshipmen. Montgomery is the only other head coach who has been in the AAC since Navy joined in 2015.
Navy and Tulsa are also similar in that both schools have run the ball effectively, but struggled in the passing game. The Midshipmen lead the American and rank third nationally in rushing offense with 295.6 yards per game. The Golden Hurricane are No. 33 in the Football Bowl Subdivision for rushing offense and feature two tailbacks with almost identical statistics in Shamari Brooks (797 yards, 6 touchdowns) and Corey Taylor II (748, 7).
On the down side, Tulsa stands113th out of 129 FBS schools in passing offense with an average of 164.8 yards. That is surprising considering Montgomery was the architect of high-powered passing attacks while serving as offensive coordinator at Baylor.
Seth Bonner and Luke Skipper have pretty much split time at quarterback for the Golden Hurricane with neither distinguishing himself. As a result, Tulsa has been unable to showcase the talents of wide receiver Justin Hobbs, a second team All-American Athletic Conference selection in 2017.
The 6-foot-4, 230-pound Hobbs, who is considered a potential NFL Draft pick, leads the team with 32 catches for 397 yards and three touchdowns.
“You look at Tulsa size-wise and speed-wise, they’re going to be every bit as talented as the teams we’ve played,” Niumatalolo said. “Hobbs is as big, physical and talented as any receiver in our league.”
As Niumatalolo noted, turnovers have really hurt Tulsa, which ranks 114th nationally in that category. The Golden Hurricane have lost 13 fumbles and tossed eight interceptions.
Navy has shown absolutely no passing ability this season, ranking dead last in the FBS with just 64.7 yards per game. The Midshipmen have completed four passes or less in seven of 10 games.
On the bright side, Navy’s offense took a step in the right direction during the Central Florida loss. Zach Abey made his second straight start at quarterback and directed three touchdown drives during the second half as the Midshipmen finished with 374 rushing yards, their second-highest total of the season.
“I felt better coming out of this game that at least we had improved,” Niumatalolo said.
Abey was in the midst of a strong season-opening stretch when he led Navy to a 31-21 victory over Tulsa on Sept. 30, 2017. The Archbishop Spalding product rushed for 185 yards and three touchdowns in that game.
“I think Abey is a very productive quarterback. He runs hard, is tough to tackle and operates their offense extremely well,” Montgomery said. “We played Navy last year with Abey at quarterback and he had a big game against us.”
It appeared Navy ran more read tripleoption plays this past Saturday than it has in any game this season. Abey did a solid job of reading the defense and distributing the ball as the Mids displayed balance with the slotbacks producing 185 rushing yards and the fullbacks contributing 105.
Navy has incorporated a lot more inside and outside zone rushing plays this season, but Montgomery said stopping the triple-option element is still a formidable task.
“We have to do a good job of preparing for this offense, which is always hard to do on a short week. We know we’re going to have our hands full. They’ve been running the option a long time and they know all the adjustments and different changes you can make so we have to do a good job of mixing it up and giving them different looks.”
It will be Senior Day at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium with the 34 varsity football players that are part of the Class of 2019 being honored during a pre-game ceremony. This senior class has not been quite as successful as its most recent predecessors, compiling a 27-21 career record and winning just three of seven games against service academy rivals Air Force and Army.
Niumatalolo is hopeful Navy can snap its current seven-game losing streak on Saturday so the seniors can come away as winners in their last appearance at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.
“There would be nothing better than to be able to send our seniors out the right way playing here at our stadium,” he said.
Navy has captured 15 consecutive contests on Senior Day. Beating Tulsa at home on Saturday would take some sting out of a difficult season.
“You love these seniors. Obviously, football is not going the way any of us would want it, but just who they are as people. These seniors are great young men,” Niumatalolo said. “They’ve come to the Naval Academy to serve and in the meantime get a great education and play football.”