Coach Ken is not coming back for 2023.

Sealion II said:
Hmm...I do not hate this idea. Obviously, it's unique coaching at the SA's. I know it's tough to recruit QBs. I'd just like to see them open it up a bit. All in all, Coach Ken did a great job. I wish him well.
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It’s not just the QBs but the offensive line. The “West Coast” offense was tried at West Point in the 1990s (I think that was the decade), and it was a fiasco. You can’t recruit top level offensive linemen at SAs who have the mass to pass block and also can meet height/weight standards in time for graduation. As it is SA O lines are border line illegal blocking on pass plays. There was talk of changing the downfield blocking on pass plays from 3 yards to 1 yard, but that was nixed. Would have hosed the SAs.
 
Coach Ken was great but like many USNA coaches he always needed a key player. Without a Reynolds, Perry or Dobbs than he wouldn’t have had a winning record. He has struggled to recruit talent and COVID did not help. Great coach with the right player though!. Charile Weatherbie was in a similar boat…he needed Chris McCoy but got paid handsomely for years after that player graduated. I enjoyed watching Ken’s team but when his salary topped $1M then we probably should have let him go. 14 years is longer than most of his players will serve. Watching Navy play football is great but I could personally care less about having a D1 team or televised games etc. I’ve always believed that it was a 1 game season with a very long preseason.
 
NeverSayNever said:
Coach Ken was great but like many USNA coaches he always needed a key player. Without a Reynolds, Perry or Dobbs than he wouldn’t have had a winning record. He has struggled to recruit talent and COVID did not help. Great coach with the right player though!. Charile Weatherbie was in a similar boat…he needed Chris McCoy but got paid handsomely for years after that player graduated. I enjoyed watching Ken’s team but when his salary topped $1M then we probably should have let him go. 14 years is longer than most of his players will serve. Watching Navy play football is great but I could personally care less about having a D1 team or televised games etc. I’ve always believed that it was a 1 game season with a very long preseason.
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Like it or not, the SA football teams actually pay for most of the other teams and activities. West Point got $1 million (I think) just for TN cancelling this year.
 
I totally get it but seriously felt like the schools sold their souls a bit in the 1990s to play D1 ball. Sports played at any level and funding will accomplish the fitness and leadership goals of the service academy.
UHBlackhawk said:
Like it or not, the SA football teams actually pay for most of the other teams and activities. West Point got $1 million (I think) just for TN cancelling this year.
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NeverSayNever said:
I totally get it but seriously felt like the schools sold their souls a bit in the 1990s to play D1 ball. Sports played at any level and funding will accomplish the fitness and leadership goals of the service academy.
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I disagree. The commitment needed to play at the D1 level is something different. We often focus on the downside, but there are positives, and I think the SAs do a fairly good job of balancing service obligations and D1 athletics.
My DD Played D1 soccer before dropping out and enlisting. The D1 training program she went through made the physics aspect of basic training a joke.
She played a different D1 sport at USMA, but it again challenged her physically, leadership, and time management.
The difference can be seen when teams move from DII to DI. They struggle for years. Look at USMA women’s lacrosse. It took about 5 years of good coaching and recruiting for them to become competitive.
I see many of these Cadets as they move on to become officers. You can see how sports shapes them.
 
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It’s been said that athletics are the front porch of a college, with football being the most prominent aspect. I saw that come to life in the mid ‘90s while attending Northwestern. The Wildcats, long the laughingstock of all Division I, made a miraculous run: 11-1 record, Big Ten championship, Rose Bowl. It elevated the school’s profile so much — mind you, it was already called by some “the Harvard of the Midwest” — that applications increased more than 50% the following year.

So if we consider that the Army-Navy Game is the SAs’ largest PR event of every year, perhaps mediocre records (punctuated occasionally by seasons such as USMA had a few years ago and USNA had early in Coach Ken’s tenure) is the price that must be paid.

Make no mistake, moving down to D3 would eventually remove the Army-Navy Game from national TV and from national prominence. I’d argue that it would also dilute the quality of academy candidates. The long-term effects seem undesirable. That’s the “front porch” effect in action.
 
ders_dad said:
I read that there were issues with retention of 2023 on the team. What happened there?
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Covid restrictions on the yard were insane. Many a player may have looked at the freedoms available to them at U of X and chose to jump. They also were offered red shirt opportunities at other programs.
 
I just read that Gladchuk fired Coach Ken in Philly immediately after the A/N game (check out the John Feinstein article in The Washington Post for details). Makes me wonder if the decision had been made before the game. Also, the timing lacks class, at least in my book. Sure it was a great bus ride home for the team — Not. 👎
 
My opinion only!!!

We need a coach that has more than 3 plays. A-gap run, A-gap run, sweep and then punt is not a receipt for success, consistent winning or recruiting D-1 military academy academic athletes we need. Army coach seems to coach out of the same play book as Navy. If Army coach doesn’t change and adapt I’m fearful his outcome will be the same as his Navy counterpart.
 
usna1985 said:
I just read that Gladchuk fired Coach Ken in Philly immediately after the A/N game (check out the John Feinstein article in The Washington Post for details). Makes me wonder if the decision had been made before the game. Also, the timing lacks class, at least in my book. Sure it was a great bus ride home for the team — Not. 👎
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If that’s true Gladchuck is a truly classless guy. My DS says most mids dislike him immensely.
 
Aztec Tiger said:
My opinion only!!!

We need a coach that has more than 3 plays. A-gap run, A-gap run, sweep and then punt is not a receipt for success, consistent winning or recruiting D-1 military academy academic athletes we need. Army coach seems to coach out of the same play book as Navy. If Army coach doesn’t change and adapt I’m fearful his outcome will be the same as his Navy counterpart.
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One of the things I learned in my short time coaching a team sport is that you have to go with the players you have, not the players you wish you had. You can’t put in plays or an offense that a team can’t execute.
There is a reason all 3 service academies run the same offense, and it’s due to the players they can both recruit and admit due to military standards, especially on the O line.
 
UHBlackhawk said:
There is a reason all 3 service academies run the same offense, and it’s due to the players they can both recruit and admit due to military standards, especially on the O line.
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Agreed. Offensive line size is a driving factor. The Triple Option takes smart players to execute well (we've got that), and it offers a style of play that few others use (for various reasons) which ultimately provides some degree of advantage to SA teams because opponents do not spend a lot of practice focusing on this offense. For the most part, all 3 schools have proven worthy of performing on the D1A FB stage despite their funding and size disadvantages.
 
Firing him in the locker room after a double OT game is as classless as it gets. That and what the AD last year with Jasper disappoint me.

They could have let the team return to the yard. Had a private meeting with coach and allow coach to digest it. Then allow the coach to tell his players. They are why he is there.

I would rather have a coach that cared and got IT than a bowl game. Based on social media comments the sentiment seems to be prevalent.

I think the AD should go. Coach Ken could have been honored publicly at a dinner and an announcement of a change of course made.

This was nasty.
 
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The John Feinstein article in the Wa Post said it occurred in a private meeting after the game in the stadium office set aside for the Navy head coach.

There are many ways this could have happened. This was not a course to take with a coach so respected and long tenured.
 
Capt MJ said:
The John Feinstein article in the Wa Post said it occurred in a private meeting after the game in the stadium office set aside for the Navy head coach.

There are many ways this could have happened. This was not a course to take with a coach so respected and long tenured.
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I stand corrected. I recall the article saying coach was at his locker. Thanks for keeping me honest.
 
Heatherg21 said:
I stand corrected. I recall the article saying coach was at his locker. Thanks for keeping me honest.
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Several articles said “locker.” Some expanded that to “locker in a locker room.” I’m assuming it was a locker in an enclosed office space set aside for coaches.
 
And while I’m ranting, any coach they hire will face an entirely different slate of opponents next year which will improve the odds of getting the ever sought after ‘W’.

It’s not the same, at all. But I remember how losing a beloved coach changed our daughter. She loved her sport. Loved her coach and mentor. When he was let go her senior year it broke her heart. The game was never the same for her after that. She turned down college offers as a result.

Sure the new coach took the team to back to back state titles (in a new conference with less competition) but the players were snotty, classless, cocky, bullies who thought they were owed starting positions (I worked as a teacher at the school so saw it first hand).

I would have loved to have the prior coach back. He coached young women to be scholars first, athletes second, and good human beings above all else.

Coach Ken felt like that kind of coach.
 
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Cash Flow …

… got to get wins or the general AA positions used to pay Ken’s salary and everything else will dry up.

Attendance has been way down last few years … I know, know, Covid!!! … but Covid is not an excuse anymore …. I was there at the M&T November game against Notre Dame and the attendance looked very disappointing.

Those Corp sponsors on those jumbo trons want wins …. I’ll bet that Ken was expecting it … get it over with sooner rather than latter … why not Philly … someone said Santa Clause gets booed in Philly
.
 
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The cash flow doesn’t change by waiting a few days and doing it honorably.

Not many are arguing the merits of firing, many are arguing the method.

I talked to my son on Sunday night. His response surprised me. He said it was a tough loss, especially how the midshipmen felt when army was disrespectful during their singing. He didn’t discuss the firing, but said everyone loved the man.

He deserved better.
 
Read Ken’s own words here 👇🏻

This article doesn’t sit well with me. They just lost a heartbreaker. The team didn’t deserve to loose their beloved leader like this. To go home to face finals, process the emotions of the loss and end of the season. It’s just wrong. AD could have at least waited a week.

AWFUL form.

www.espn.com

Niumatalolo: Navy fired me right after loss to Army

Former Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo told ESPN Monday he was fired Saturday in Philadelphia by athletic director Chet Gladchuk in the moments after the double-overtime loss to Army, and that given the circumstances, "most of it I couldn't comprehend."
www.espn.com www.espn.com
 
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