Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/744639
42 NOV. 7, 2016 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED they're seeing a unit that was essen- tially together for all practices last year," James said of the offensive line, which has paved the way for the No. 4 rushing offense in the coun- try through seven games, averaging 293.2 yards per game. "They worked together as a group, so stepping into a game wasn't as difficult a transition because they'd all played together, at least in practice." But Navy's season likely would have been dramatically different had the Midshipmen lost head coach Ken Niumatalolo after last year. Niumat- alolo, a Mormon, met with BYU and was offered the job. His son, Va'a, is linebacker at BYU. But ultimately Niumatalolo elected to stay in An- napolis and continue building the Navy program. Though James expected offensive coordinator Ivin Jasper would have been promoted to head coach had Niumatalolo left, it's a situation that Navy fans don't have to worry about. "Him staying around, I don't know if you could find a more perfect pair- ing of coach and school," James said. "… For Coach Niumatalolo, everyone respects him as a coach, but everyone respects him as a man just as much. For a school like the Naval Academy where they really kind of sell that and alums are kind of drawn to that, it meant a lot for him to stick around." Niumatalolo is currently having one of the most successful streaks in Navy history. After managing just two winning seasons from 1983 through 2002, Navy has thrived dur- ing the current triple-option era un- der head coaches Paul Johnson and Niumatalolo. The Midshipmen have posted winning records capped by bowl berths in 12 of the last 13 sea- sons. Simply add the victory over Hous- ton to the list of accomplishments. "These are huge milestones for the program potentially, so when you see a win like that it does kind of re-en- ergize a program and open your eyes to what the possibilities are," James said. "There's a lot of football to be played and a lot of goals that are still on the table that can be met." ✦ GAME PREVIEW: NAVY Junior linebacker Micah Thomas was Navy's leading tackle through six contests with 46 stops. PHOTO COURTESY NAVY 2016 NAVY SCHEDULE Date Opponent (TV) Result/Time (ET) Sept. 3 Fordham W, 52-16 Sept. 10 Connecticut W, 28-24 Sept. 17 at Tulane W, 21-14 Oct. 1 at Air Force L, 28-14 Oct. 8 Houston W, 46-40 Oct. 22 Memphis W, 42-28 Oct. 28 at South Florida L, 52-45 Nov. 5 vs. Notre Dame* (CBS) 11:30 a.m. Nov. 12 Tulsa (CBSSN) 12 p.m. Nov. 19 at East Carolina TBA Nov. 26 at SMU TBA Dec. 10 vs. Army^ (CBS) 3 p.m. * at EverBank Field in Jacksonville, Fla.; ^ at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore 2016 NOTRE DAME SCHEDULE Date Opponent (TV) Result/Time (ET) Sept. 4 at Texas L, 50-47 (2OT) Sept. 10 Nevada W, 39-10 Sept. 17 Michigan State L, 36-28 Sept. 24 Duke L, 38-35 Oct. 1 vs. Syracuse* W, 50-33 Oct. 8 at North Carolina State L, 10-3 Oct. 15 Stanford L, 17-10 Oct. 29 Miami W, 30-27 Nov. 5 vs. Navy^ (CBS) 11:30 a.m. Nov. 12 vs. Army# (NBC) 3:30 p.m. Nov. 19 Virginia Tech (NBC) 3:30 p.m. Nov. 26 at USC TBA * at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.; ^ at EverBank Field in Jacksonville, Fla.; # at Alamodome in San Antonio