One of the most remarkable turnaround stories of this college football season came from the Navy Midshipmen. Navy went just 3-10 last year, their first losing season since 2011 (a 5-7 campaign) and just their second losing season since 2002 (when they were still coached by Paul Johnson; current head coach Ken Niumatalolo took over in December 2007 after Johnson left for Georgia Tech) but they found a way to change that story in a big way this season. The Midshipmen went 10-2 in the regular season, with their only losses coming at Memphis (unranked at the time, #17 in the CFP rankings heading into bowl season) and at Notre Dame (#16 at the time, #15 entering bowl season). And they then got to 11 wins for the first time since 2015 with a 20-17 victory over the Kansas State Wildcats in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl Tuesday.
As with much of this Navy season, this win had a lot to do with senior quarterback Malcolm Perry. Perry rushed for a game-high 213 yards on 28 carries (7.6 yards per carry) Tuesday, giving him 2,017 rushing yards on the year. He also completed five of his seven pass attempts for 57 yards and a touchdown, giving him 1,084 passing yards on the year. Perry has been one of the most dominant players for the Midshipmen all season, and he put up plenty of highlights here:
#Navy WITH A PASSING TD…🤯🤯🤯🤯
Malcolm Perry to Keoni-Kordell Makekau for a 27-yard TD…#LibertyBowl #KansasState #Navy #KState
https://t.co/gU4Q9UVQXP— CJR Sports (@Sports_CJR) December 31, 2019
#Navy QB Malcolm Perry is the fastest player on the field…🤭🤭🤭#KansasState #Navy #LibertyBowl
https://t.co/juA1g2kdan— CJR Sports (@Sports_CJR) December 31, 2019
But Navy also pulled some other great designs out of their playbooks, including this trick play pass from running back C.J. Williams:
https://twitter.com/BoomItsFBALL/status/1212161048008175618
It all added up to another impressive Navy win, and one that has them in very good shape indeed going forward.
