Mids Conduct Blue and Gold Scrimmage

Courtesy of Navy Athletics

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Navy football team conducted its first full scrimmage of fall camp on Saturday afternoon in front of more than 4,000 fans at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.

“It was a typical first scrimmage,” said Navy head football coach Ken Niumatalolo. “I thought the first defense did a good job and there were too many penalties offensively. I thought it was a good day overall, because we ran a lot of plays and got a lot of people in offensively, defensively and on special teams. I am looking forward to getting back and watching the tape.”

The offense scored three touchdowns and kicked two field goals on 15 possessions, with the first team offense scoring two touchdowns on six possessions, the second team offense kicking two field goals on four possessions and the third team offense scoring one touchdown on five possessions. The quarterbacks were not live for the scrimmage.

Junior linebacker Max Blue led the defense with seven tackles, while freshman nose guard Barry Dabney had six stops and senior linebacker Trey Grissom was in on five tackles. The defense recorded 11 tackles for a loss (Kevin Edwards, Wave Ryder, Brye French, Matt Brewer, Blue, Matt Warrick, Neil Doogan, Trey Grissom, Billy Yarborough, Shane Bothel and Jabaree Tuani) and five sacks (Brewer, Blue, Doogan, Grissom and Yarborough). Sophomore De’Von Richardson came up with the only turnover of the day, an interception of quarterback Ricky Dobbs.

“I thought we did some good things defensively,” said Niumatalolo. “I’m sure Coach Green will find some things that we can get better at, but overall I thought we did a good job.”

The Navy offense went to the air early and often in the scrimmage as the four quarterbacks combined to go 23-39 for 321 yards and three touchdowns with just one interception. Senior Ricky Dobbs led the way completing 10 of his 20 attempts for 179 yards and two touchdowns, while junior Kriss Proctor completed nine of his 13 attempts for 97 yards. Freshman Trey Miller was also impressive throwing the ball, going 4-4 for 45 yards and one touchdown. Travis Keating was 0-1.

“We need to improve on that part of our game from last year,” said Niumatalolo. “We are going to run the ball, but we need to improve our overall passing game.”

The offense managed just 238 yards on the ground on 67 carries. Sophomore slot back Jon Howell led the way with 41 yards on three carries, while sophomore fullback Austin Beaty rushed for 24 yards on five carries.

The slot backs came up big in the passing game with sophomore Gee Gee Greene catching three passes for 86 yards and a touchdown. His touchdown came on a 65-yard strike from Dobbs. Senior Andre Byrd added four catches for 58 yards, sophomore Bo Snelson had two catches for 13 yards and a touchdown and sophomore Johnny O’Boyle had one catch for 36 yards. Sophomore wide receiver Darren Hess caught a 29-yard touchdown pass from Miller.

“I thought the slot backs did OK, but they also had some critical penalties which hurt us,” said Niumatalolo. “My biggest concern right now is penalties. Last year we led the country in least amount of penalties, but if we do what we did today we will be in trouble. We can’t beat ourselves. We can’t have turnovers and we can’t have penalties."