As usual, the spotlight was on quarterback Malcolm Perry and the Navy offense following the AutoZone Liberty Bowl.
Perry set a Navy bowl game record by rushing for 213 yards, while wide receiver Chance Warren was on the back end of a couple critical gadget plays as Navy’s offense did just enough to squeak out a 20-17 victory over Kansas State on Tuesday at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium.
Almost all the questions during the post-game press conference were about offense. Perry, the Liberty Bowl Most Valuable Player, was quite naturally the focal point following yet another spectacular performance.
How does it feel to set the Football Bowl Subdivision single season record for rushing yards by a quarterback? Perry finished his incredible 2019 campaign with 2,017 rushing yards, breaking the mark established by Jordan Lynch of Northern Illinois (1,920 yards in 2013).
“My reaction to the rushing record is that I still can’t believe it,” Perry said. “At the same time, I know the guys up front — the offensive line, the slotbacks and the wide receivers — blocked their butts off all season. This is a testament to how hard they worked all season.”
Perry’s breakaway running ability was needed against a tough, physical defense that made the Midshipmen earn every yard. The 5-foot-9, 185-pound speedster set up an early field goal with a 25-yard run off an option keeper, put his team in position for its first touchdown with a 23-yard gain on fourth-and-one and jump-started the second touchdown drive by scrambling 29 yards into enemy territory.
Perry also made a terrific throw to slotback Keoni-Kordell Makekau on a seam route for a 27-yard touchdown. The senior standout later broke loose for a 59-yard run that gave Navy a chance to take a two-score lead midway through the fourth quarter, but kicker Bijan Nichols missed a 38-yard field goal.
Those plays, along with Warren’s 20-yard scoring scamper off a reverse and 41-yard reception off a slotback option, accounted for the bulk of Navy’s 421 total yards.
Take away the big plays and it was tough sledding against Kansas State, which switched back-and-forth between an eight-man front and the 46 defense that is commonly referred to as the “Bear” alignment. Middle linebacker Elijah Sullivan (11 tackles), weak-side linebacker Da’Quan Patton and free safety Denzel Goolsby (eight tackles apiece) spearheaded a hard-hitting outfit that was well-prepared for the triple-option by defensive coordinator Scottie Hazelton.
“I’ll be honest with you, I thought our defense played really well. We had assignment-sound football,” Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman said. “If you were to ask Coach [Ken] Niumatalolo that two of the plays they would score on would be trick plays, I think he would be surprised, too.”
Navy (11-2) probably prepared for a 4-4 alignment with the safety following tail motion because that is what Hazelton employed against Air Force while at Wyoming. Niumatalolo said afterward the offensive staff had a plan for an eight-man front since Kansas State had shown that on tape.
“We weren’t ready for their odd front — the Bear look with the X stack similar to what Houston had done to us. It took us some time to see what they were doing and see how to attack it,” Niumatalolo said. “They’re a good team with a good staff and they had a good option plan.”
Defense stood tall
Here is the bottom line: When you score 20 points and win you should be thanking your defense. Especially when the opponent scored a special teams’ touchdown.
Inside linebacker Diego Fagot recorded seven solo tackles and two sacks to spearhead the Navy defense, which limited Kansas State to 170 yards of total offense. Inside linebacker Paul Carothers notched six tackles for the Midshipmen, who held the Wildcats to just 46 rushing yards — 143 below their season average.
Niumatalolo tried his best to give credit to the defense during the post-game press conference, interjecting comments about that unit into answers about Perry or the offense.
“I love the way our defense played. They kept us in the game,” Niumatalolo said. “To hold [Kansas State] to that amount of rushing yards is tremendous. Our defense played phenomenal the whole time.”
Navy’s defense was nothing short of lights out, throttling talented quarterback Skylar Thompson and an offense that came in averaging 30 points and 375 total yards. The Wildcats want to play smash-mouth football, using a power running game to set up play-action pass.
First-year defensive coordinator Brian Newberry knew Navy needed to stop the run, first and foremost.
“Absolutely. K-State has a big, physical offensive line. It’s an experienced group with 60 starts up front. Everything starts with run game for that offense,” Newberry told The Capital during a telephone interview on Wednesday morning. “I felt if we could stop the run and keep everything in front of us as far as the play-action pass we would have a chance.”
Kansas State offensive coordinator Courtney Messingham looked to establish the run on the game’s opening possession and saw some success. Tailback James Gilbert gained eight yards up the middle on second down and two plays later ripped off a 14-yard run. A false start penalty was a setback, but Gilbert got the Wildcats back on schedule with a 9-yard run.
However, Navy bowed its neck after being pushed into its own territory. Fagot stopped tailback Harry Trotter for a 2-yard gain on third-and-six. Kansas State went for it on fourth-and-four and Navy dodged a bullet when wide receiver Phillip Brooks dropped what would have been a sure touchdown pass.
Kansas State would manage only two other sustained drives the rest of the way. It was a low-possession game as advertised and the Wildcats could not afford to come up empty so often when they only got six true possessions. (Two other possessions do not really count as K-State ran one play on the final series of the first half before time expired and one play on the final series of the game.)
An extremely methodical 13-play, 49-yard march that took almost six minutes off the clock ended with a 39-yard field goal by Blake Lynch that tied the score 10-10 with 2:27 remaining in the first half. Considering how long it was on the field, that was a win for the Navy defense.
Fagot sacked Thompson on third down, while rover safety Elan Nash pressured the quarterback into an errant throw on third down to force the field goal after Kansas State had reached the Navy 18-yard line.
Kansas State’s lone touchdown drive came late in the fourth quarter and tied the score 17-17 with 5:14 remaining. It was the only possession of the entire game in which Thompson got into any sort of throwing rhythm, completing three passes for 75 yards. Wykeen Gill got behind the defense on a post route and Thompson tossed a beautiful ball that hit the wide receiver in stride on his way into the end zone.
Take away that drive and Thompson completed 7 of 11 passes for 49 yards, repeatedly settling for underneath or check down routes.
“I knew we might have a chance if we made the quarterback go to his second and third reads,” Newberry said. “On third down, we showed some different looks and did some things to roll the coverage to try to confuse him.”
Those tactics clearly worked with Thompson saying as much following the game.
“It was different. They did have us out of rhythm,” Thompson admitted. “It’s hard. They did a great job. Hat’s off to them. They had a good game-plan for us. We knew they were a high-pressure team. They did a good job of mixing up their looks, showing from one way and coming from the other way and playing some different looks that I wasn’t really expecting. It just got us off rhythm.”
Klieman seconded that assessment: “Their defense did a nice job of keeping us out of rhythm a little bit,” he said.
Fagot, Pittman lead way
Fagot, who was deservedly voted Defensive Most Valuable Player for Navy, was not surprised when those comments were relayed to him during the post-game press conference.
“I think we played very well on defense. Coach Newberry and all the other defensive coaches prepared us really well for this game,” Fagot said. “We could tell we were confusing [the quarterback] a little bit with our dime packages and the way we were disguising some of our blitzes and coverages. I think we played very well and did our part to help the team win.”
Navy’s outstanding run defense started up front with nose guard Jackson Pittman, who followed a dominant performance against Army with another outstanding effort. The 6-foot-3, 300-pound senior could not be budged by center Adam Holtorf (6-4, 302) with help from guards Evan Curl (6-5, 295) and Tyler Mitchell (6-5, 317).
“Pittman has done a great job all year. He can take on a double-team and not get moved,” Newberry said. “He was doing a good job of holding the point of attack.”
Sophomore tackle J’arius Warren helped plug the middle and made three tackles, while end Jackson Perkins came through with a huge sack on third down.
“Warren holds his own at 260 pounds inside. Jackson was battling as well. All those guys up front did a good job,” Newberry said.
Newberry’s scheme is predicated on being unpredictable and designed to look complicated to the offense. Navy’s defensive players were constantly moving from one spot to another to make it difficult for Thompson to identify who was doing what on a given play.
“We had to stunt and shift as much as possible. We could not play static and take on double-teams. We moved a lot pre-snap and post-snap,” Newberry said. “I think we caused some problems. They had trouble executing.”
Fagot has been the centerpiece of the defense from the day Newberry arrived from Kennesaw State and proved up to the challenge. The 6-foot-3, 240-pound sophomore finished the season with 100 tackles, 12 tackles for loss, 5 ½ sacks and seven quarterback hurries.
“I think Diego is a special player and he’s been good for us all year. We asked a lot of Diego and he responded,” Newberry said.
“Most people don’t realize that Diego has been banged up most of the season. He hasn’t been 100 percent for a while,” Newberry added. “He did not practice the first week for the bowl game because his ankle was so swollen from the Army game. It’s just a testament to character and toughness that he went and played so well against K-State.”
This year’s AutoZone Liberty Bowl was a rock ‘em, sock ‘em affair with both teams intent on being tough and physical. Kansas State thought it could intimidate Navy by delivering some punishing hits, especially early on. Slotback Myles Fells sent a strong message the Midshipmen would dish out plenty of punishment of their own by absolutely destroying strong safety Wayne Jones — lowering a shoulder and sending the defender flying.
“I thought we out-physicaled them on both sides of the football, to be honest,” Newberry said. “I wasn’t sure we could do that. K-State made a living in the Big 12 by being more physical than its opponents."
Newberry was asked if he could have ever imagined holding Kansas State to 10 offensive points and 170 total yards.
“I knew we had to play really, really well just to contain them. That’s a very good offensive football team that scored 48 points against Oklahoma,” Newberry said. “Obviously, our players rose to the occasion and gave a great, great effort.”
It was the latest defensive masterpiece designed by Newberry, whose hiring was instrumental in Navy bouncing back from a 3-10 record in 2018. Niumatalolo has stated numerous times that Malcolm Perry and Brian Newberry are the main reasons why the Midshipmen (11-2) put together one of the greatest turnaround seasons in FBS history.
Navy’s massive across-the-board improvement in every key statistical category was nothing short of remarkable. The Midshipmen finished the season ranked 16th nationally in total defense (314.2 total yards allowed) and No. 34 in scoring defense (average of 22.3 points given up).
“I was really happy that we finished strong. The way we played the last two weeks was impressive,” Newberry said. “We fell off a little bit in the second half against Tulane and against Notre Dame and SMU. It was good to see us bounce back against Army and Kansas State.”
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