Previewing Navy-Delaware

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.

Special teams: Junior kicker Joe Buckley's streak of seven straight field goals came to an end at Notre Dame, when he missed from 30 yards out at the end of the first half. Buckley also missed all three kicks he attempted at the end of practice on Tuesday, but Niumatalolo said he still has faith in him. Delaware kicker Jon Striefsky has made 7 of 8 field goals this season, and is the school's career leader in field goals made (35).

Coaches: Last week's victory over Hofstra was the 150th of Keeler's 17-year coaching career (at Delaware and Division III Rowan). He is one of only 11 active coaches in Division I-AA to have reached that milestone. Niumatalolo needs two more wins to tie Paul Dashiell for most wins by a Navy coach in his first two seasons; Dashiell went 17-3-2 in 1904-05.

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