Last Man Up: 125th Army-Navy Game is More than a Milestone for Senior Midshipmen

Emily Van Buskirk | 2 Hours Ago

Nov 16, 2024; Annapolis, Maryland, USA; Navy Midshipmen takes the field before the game against the Tulane Green Wave at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images / Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images

College football coaches will be quick to tell you every game on the calendar matters and that they treat every week like Week One.

However, the second Saturday in December is a date that looms large for players and coaches at both West Point and Annapolis - a battle circled in red before regular season games are even scheduled and preseason polls have been tabulated. This year’s 125th Army-Navy Game is no exception.

For Navy’s 23 seniors, it’s the final hill of a roller coaster journey that saw twists of four-win seasons, and turns that included a new head coach and a 2-5 record against service academy foes since the start of the 2021 season. 

“These guys have been through some relatively dark times of Navy Football,” admitted head coach Brian Newberry. “They’ve been through a head coach getting fired, they’ve been through losing seasons, COVID-19, all those things. But they are a great example of what happens when you stick with it, when you fight through adversity and keep working.”

Of the 65 players in the 2021 recruiting class, only 23 made it to the final whistle. Some transferred, others switched sports, one went on a Mormon mission and another chose not to play his senior season. But the guys that stayed - they are a true testament to the current culture of the program. 

Guys like linebacker Colin Ramos, who leads Navy in tackles for a second consecutive year with 110 stops - his 20 tackles vs. Memphis are tied for the second-most in a game inthe FBS this year. Ramos is the first Navy player since Ross Pospisil (2008-2009) to record back-to-back 100-tackles seasons. 

Or, guys like punter Riley Riethman, who leads the AAC  and ranks fifth nationally with his 46-yard average this year. His career punting average of 44.4 yards per punt ranks as the best in school history. Riethman was integral in pinning opposing offenses back and forcing them to work their way tediously downfield against the tireless Navy defense.

How about offensive tackle Connor McMahon? He helped the Mids rank third nationally in tackles for a loss allowed (3.4 per game) and tied for fifth in sacks allowed with 0.90. He helped anchor a Navy offense that scored 355 points in the first 11 games in 2024 after scoring just 212 points in 12 games last year. McMahon is graded as the ninth-best offensive tackle in the FBS and the best in the AAC by Pro Football Focus, who also ranked him the best pass blocker in the FBS.

“Every good story has a dark time,” commented Newberry. “The lesson in the story is that you push through that and there’s always something good on the other side. When I first got the head coaching job, my whole deal was ‘our best is what success should be defined as.’ Don’t worry about the outcome, just do your best and let the chips fall where they may. And I think our guys have done that and the chips are falling more in the right place than the wrong place now.”

The Midshipmen started the season 6-0 before falling to top-ranked Notre Dame and then traded wins and losses before heading into this bout with Army a steady 8-3. Navy leads the all-time series with Army 62-55-7, including a 1-0 record in the only game previously played in Northwest Stadium. 

Fun fact: Navy is the only FBS team in the country that had just two true home games in the final nine contests. They are no stranger to neutral sites.

The winner of this Saturday’s game will win the Commander-In-Chief’s Trophy which is presented annually to the winner of the football competition among the three major service academies. Navy has won the CIC Trophy 16 times while Army has won it 10 times. This is the first time since 2017 that both Army and Navy can win the CIC Trophy heading into the Army-Navy game and just the eighth time ever.

Does this game define Army and Navy’s seasons respectively? It’s complicated. You likely have never seen true intensity on a football field unless you have been to an Army-Navy game. It’s a "win or die trying" kind of game. Both teams have had successful seasons but if you lose this one, it’s a definitively long offseason. 

If Navy can win its final two games, it would become just the sixth team in school history to win at least 10 games in a season, joining the teams from 1905 (10-1-1), 2004 (10-2), 2009 (10-4), 2015 (11-2) and 2019 (11-2).

“It’s fun to see those guys have success on the scoreboard, because they deserve it,” Newberry said. “That’s been the most rewarding part for me. I knew we would be better but I didn’t know how much better or what that would equate to in a win/loss record.”

The young men playing on Saturday will graduate and be commissioned Ensigns in the Navy or 2nd Lieutenants in the Marine Corps - Graduates who serve a minimum of five years in the Navy or Marine Corps, or pilots who serve 8 years upon earning their wings. Football will become a memory, a storyline, a distant but important part of their past. As they move through the world, Newberry and his staff can rest easy knowing the resilience and strength they learned during their time with Navy Football will serve them well.

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