Mids Insider

The Midshipmen gathered on the practice field for a brief stretching and running session on Monday afternoon. After that, Coach Ken Niumatalolo wants the players to stay as far away from football as possible for a few days.

"They are banished," Niumatalolo said. "The only reason you got to be here is treatment, and Doc [Jeff Fair] tells you when to come. There's no extra lifting, [so] go in the hall, go with your companies. Re-introduce yourself to people. You've been away for a while. It's a great opportunity. We complained all year that we had a tough schedule without a break. This is our break now."

Several assistant coaches headed out on Monday on recruiting trips. Niumatalolo will stay in the area; he is scheduled to appear on "Washington Post Live" (Comcast SportsNet) on Tuesday. Junior quarterback Ricky Dobbs plans on using his time off to get a head start on a paper he has to write for his leadership class; he's going to write about Jesus, "the ultimate leader in my opinion."

Junior quarterback Ricky Dobbs's five touchdowns against Delaware gave him 22 for the season and put him into some pretty elite company in the country. His numbers are even more remarkable considering that he missed all of the Wake Forest game and nearly all of the Temple game with an injured right knee. Dobbs has three more games to add to these totals.

2009 NCAA leaders in touchdowns scored

1. 22 – Ricky Dobbs, Navy (QB)


2. 19 – Toby Gerhart, Stanford (RB)


3. 18 – Jacquizz Rodgers, Oregon State (RB)


4. 17 – Chad Spann, Northern Illinois (RB); Donald Buckram, UTEP (RB); Lance Dunbar, North Texas (RB)

Navy received 41 votes in the Associated Press poll and 76 votes in the USA Today/Coaches poll. Air Force beat writer Jake Schaller of the Colorado Springs Gazette has Navy 25th on his AP ballot.

A "knowledgeable source" told SI.com's Stewart Mandel that Georgia Tech's Paul Johnson "may be the best coaching hire in the last 30 years."

RE: Air Force (7-4) and Army (4-6)

Air Force dominated UNLV from start to finish in a 45-17 victory. Army beat VMI, 22-17, but it wasn't as easy as it should have been. Alejandro Villanueva, Army's 6-foot-10 receiver, had seven catches for 119 yards against VMI.

--After playing 11 straight games, the Midshipmen finally get their first bye next week. Practices will resume on Thursday.

"Words can't explain what it feels like," senior guard Osei Asante said of finally getting some time off. "My body is tore up."

--With less than a minute to play, Navy was faced with a first-and-goal from the three-yard line. The Midshipmen held a 10-point lead, but instead of kneeling down to run out the clock, Coach Ken Niumatalolo called for a running play and quarterback Ricky Dobbs scored his fifth and final touchdown of the game.

"All the coaches except me" wanted a kneel-down, Niumatalolo said. "I just wanted to be done with it. I wanted to give us some breathing room… They scare me, that offense is a scary offense. They move the ball pretty quickly."

When: Saturday, 3:30 p.m.
Where: Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, Annapolis.
Records: Midshipmen 7-3; Blue Hens 6-3.
Last week: Navy 23, No. 19 Notre Dame 21; Delaware 28, Hofstra 21.
Coaches: Ken Niumatalolo (15-9, second year); K.C. Keeler (62-37, eighth year).
TV: CBS College Sports.
Radio: WZAA (1050 AM), WFED (1500 AM), WBAL (1090 AM), WNAV (1430 AM), WTRI (1520 AM).

When Navy has the ball: Sophomore slot back Marcus Curry, who has missed the past three games with a pulled quadriceps, could play on Saturday, giving Navy its top three offensive playmakers for the first time since Oct. 17. Junior fullback Vince Murray has rushed for more than 100 yards in his past four games, the longest such streak by a Navy running back since Napoleon McCallum had six straight 100-yard games in 1983. Junior quarterback Ricky Dobbs leads the nation with 17 rushing touchdowns, and needs only three more to tie the school record set by Chris McCoy in 1997.

When Delaware has the ball: The last time these teams met (Oct. 27, 2007), Joe Flacco threw for 434 yards and four touchdowns in Delaware's 59-52 victory. Flacco is now with the Baltimore Ravens, but the Blue Hens have another talented transfer at quarterback: junior Pat Devlin, who appeared in 13 games as a back-up at Penn State. Devlin has completed 161 of 260 passes for 2,063 yards and 15 touchdowns, with just six interceptions. Eight different players have caught at least 10 passes, led by senior Mark Duncan (32 for 507 yards, 6 TDs) and junior Mark Mackey (30 for 332, 1 TD). Running back Jerry Butler, a transfer from Wisconsin, rushed for 83 yards and two touchdowns last week against Hofstra.

I wrote about senior outside linebacker Ram Vela in today's paper; you can find the story here.

There were a couple of things that I couldn't work into the story but wanted to share here:

--He says that "The Fugitive" nickname has started to peter out. "The guys that really remember it have all graduated, so I don't hear that much about it," Vela said. For those that don't remember the origin of the nickname, Fanhouse has a recap of how Vela was briefly detained by the Secret Service at the White House in the spring of 2007 after a case of mistaken identity.

--His teammates still enjoy teasing him about his Naval Academy commercial, however. (You can see it here.) "The part where he's running on the beach with his face made up? That's ridiculous!" senior fullback Jordan Eddington said. "I can never picture Ram actually doing something like that. It's not his personality at all."

The Birddog blog has its usual thorough post-game write-up, along with some thoughts on Notre Dame assistant Corwin Brown's rant. ESPN.com's Graham Watson weighs in on the controversy. SI.com's Andy Staples writes that while Brown's complaint about the cut blocking might be legitimate, his gripes with Ken Niumatalolo's post-game comments are not. Here's a video of the block that got Brown so upset.

Saturday's game against Delaware will be an emotional day for Navy's 32 seniors.

The Blue Hens will try to avoid tripping up against the triple option.

Coach Ken Niumatalolo is pretty sure he'll get a little choked up at some point on Saturday, when Navy's 32 seniors take the field for their final game at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.

"I'm a crybaby," Niumatalolo said. "I cry all the time. I'm a pretty emotional guy. … Either I'm yelling or crying, there's no in-between with me. It's very emotional to see these guys, to see what they do, to see what they meant to the program."

This senior class, which includes 10 players who started against Notre Dame last week, has compiled a 32-17 record over the past four seasons, won three straight Commander-in-Chief's trophies and qualified for four straight bowl games. The seniors are also the first class since the class of 1964 to beat Notre Dame twice in their careers.

When Navy beat Notre Dame in 2007, Craig Schaefer was just a sophomore and was only playing on special teams. He was credited with one tackle on kickoff coverage in the Midshipmen's historic 46-44 triple-overtime victory.

In the return trip to Notre Dame this year, Schaefer was one of Navy's stars in its 23-21 win. The Robinson High graduate earned a starting nod at outside linebacker because of his strong play in practice, and he responded with a career-high nine tackles, including the sack that led to a safety in the final minutes.

"We gave him an opportunity to start and he did a heck of a job," defensive coordinator Buddy Green said. "He had a heck of a game."

The cornerback tandem of Blake Carter and Kevin Edwards had a huge game against Notre Dame.

Coach Ken Niumatalolo's salary is higher than what was reported in USA Today's study earlier this week, according to the Annapolis Capital.

Here are video highlights from the Notre Dame game, including some behind the scenes stuff.

More fallout from the victory over Notre Dame:

Notre Dame assistant Corwin Brown is highly critical of Ken Niumatalolo's post-game comments ("I really hope this doesn't come across wrong, but I think the thing that helped us this year was last year, because we knew that they'd line up the same way," Niumatalolo said after the 23-21 win). Be sure to check the reader comments appended to the story.

Brown was also upset with Navy's blocking, particularly on a play against cornerback Robert Blanton. You can watch a video of Brown's comments here.