The Navy Midshipmen football program moved into a new era this week when they kicked off their 2025 season with their official “Media Day” on Saturday. This will be the first season without Chet Gladchuk, who retired in June after 24 years as Naval Academy director of athletics, replaced by Michael Kelly, previously the vice president for athletics at the University of South Florida.
While Kelly was in attendance, it was head coach Brian Newberry and four senior footballers on the stage who were the main attractions at Media Day – quarterback Blake Horvath, nose guard Landon Robinson, running back Alex Tecza and linebacker Kenneth McShan.
Newberry enters his third season as head coach at Navy and is in his seventh season in the program. He had a 5-7 record in 2023, his first year at the helm of the program after spending the previous four years as the defensive coordinator. Last year the team went 10-3, swept the Air Force and Army programs to win the Commander-in-Chiefs Trophy, and downed the Oklahoma Sooners 21-20 in the Armed Forces Bowl. He enters his third season with a 15-10 record.
“We lost a lot of good players, a lot of production, but this is a developmental program,” said Newberry. “There are guys who have been in the shadows. They’ve been lurking. They’ve been working and they’re ready for their opportunity to be that next brand of Navy football player to do really good things.”
Newberry said that he is pleased with what he has seen so far in the three solid days of Fall camp, but cautions that it is still early in the process. What will help is what he terms as being the most “consistent” team he has been part of so far since there have been no changes in the coaching staff and the support staff, and he likes the leadership and cohesiveness of the senior class.
“We’ve got a talented group of football players who haven’t played a ton of meaningful snaps. The repetition together will earn that trust. That’s what we’re doing right now. We’ve got some good pieces but we just got to put it all together,” he said. “I’ve been part of teams where they get into camp and you got a lot of established players that play a lot of snaps for you. They’re going to get through camp and don’t feel pressure to compete and get better. These guys, they lead with their voice, but they also lead with the way they work.”
“This is a close football team. This is a connected team. These guys care about each other. They love each other. It’s a very unselfish team. Nowadays, that’s not an easy thing to come by in the world of college football. It’s just not. It’s hard to build a culture. It’s hard to build those connections, especially in other places in a short amount of time. But these guys have been together for a while. They’ve done hard things together. A closely connected football team is a powerful football team. That’s got to be an edge for us and I think it will be,” Newberry explained.
Leading the team is senior quarterback Blake Horvath, who finished last season with 1,246 rushing yards and 17 touchdowns on just 175 carries, while completing 80 of 139 passes for 1,353 yards and 13 touchdowns and four interceptions. He was the third quarterback in school history to rush and pass for more than 1,200 yards in the same season and his 2,599 total yards of offense last year are the second most in Navy history. Horvath has been named to the Walter Camp Player of the Year Award preseason watch list.
“He’s a humble dude and it’s a humble group of seniors. Despite what we did last year, there’ s confidence and momentum coming off a season like that, but these guys have humility about them. They understand that this is a different football team,” said Newberry. “Blake’s been exceptional. He’s obviously a great leader for us. He’s done a great job in his role as a captain. Despite the success that he’s had and the attention that he’s gotten, the guy hasn’t changed. He keeps his head down. He works and cares about his teammates.”
“In the beginning, it was exciting. It was fun catching some people off guard. Then we hit some bumps,” Horvath recalled when asked about lessons learned from last year. “I think it shook us a little bit and by the end of the season, I think we overcame those. The most important step I think our offense took was once teams thought they maybe figured something out, or maybe we lost a step or two or got complacent, we overcame that and showed that we could, and sort of forged a new mentality about how we have to go about things.”
“I thought that was really evident in our last three games against TCU, Army and Oklahoma. I think that’s the biggest thing that we have to carry into this year. It’s just that same mentality and can’t really accept complacency,” Horvath added.
Now that camp is here and the team is back to regular practice, there are exciting things underfoot.
“I think the most exciting part is the confidence of guys coming back – the returners, and then the excitement of the young guys wanting to contribute. People are excited about the backfield we have coming back [and] the defensive guys we have coming back. But we’ve had a lot of young guys step up and are really excited to contribute. I think they will [contribute] this year and introduce themselves to Navy fans,” said Horvath.
“I just think there’s a lot of leadership right now,” said Tecza. “We have great position captains who are doing a great job in leading this team. It’s a hard deal but I just think we have a lot of leadership – guys coaching each other up after plays, and guys are taking coaching as well. That’s huge for Fall camp and into the season.”
“It’s really a next man up mentality. Football is football. You’re going to get hurt. I think a big deal for us this year is staying healthy. I think we can all agree that we had a bump in the road due to injuries. But it’s a next man up mentality,” said Tecza. “Someone goes down, you have to be ready. You have to practice like you’re going to be playing the game as a starter. I think that’s a big word to the younger guys. They’re going to be out there practicing thinking they might not get reps on the game day but that’s not the case when someone goes down and they got to step in.”
Said McShan, “It’s [being captain] an honor in the fact that these guys count on me. We’re a close team. For the guys to put their trust in me, that gives me all the confidence I need. For guys who strive every day, like Landon [Robinson], on the defense, to put his full effort in, when I see that, that’s when I know that I need to give more effort.”
“The main thing is that I have a co-captain in my position group, Jaxson Campbell, who is a great athlete. We are able to bounce ideas off of each other. We watch film together. We are able to collaborate together going into games. The coaching staff also does a really good job of making it simple for us, making the game to as few details as possible so we can play as fast as possible,” said McShan. “It also starts with your eyes. I think that’s the key to the striker position here at the Academy. So if you can get your eyes in the right spot, more than likely you’ll be in the right spot.”
The team works hard, but they also know there is a time to not take themselves too seriously.
“I think there’s a lot of hilarious guys on the team,” said Robinson. “Obviously we’re a close team so we’ve got funny guys all over the place. A guy that comes to mind is Alex Tecza here. He’s a funny guy. He keeps it loose, especially with the young guys who may not know the team as well. Just a lot of guys, talk to the younger guys, see what makes them laugh.”
Even Newberry got a chuckle.
“I’m not in the locker room but I concur. We’ve got some funny guys. We’ve got some weird guys. We’ve got a nice mix. Like I said, this is a close football team,” Newberry said. “One good thing about camp – we never get this much time together. Not only are we trying to get better at the Xs and Ox and the schemes and all those things, but we’re continuing to build the brotherhood. I think these guys will tell you, we start a position meeting, very rarely do we start right away with football. We get a message of the day. We’re talking about other things. We’re getting to know each other, which is just as important as anything else.”
The team has one rugged month of practice before their non-conference schedule begins – a lone game against the Virginia Military Academy at home on August 30. The American Conference schedule begins a week later, Sept. 6, also at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, against the University of Alabama-Birmingham.
“The only game I’m concerned about is the first one. It’s a tough schedule. We’re in a very competitive excellent conference. Our non-conference games are tough,” said Newberry. “For us, the first one is the most important. Our goal is actually to win the opener. Our focus is on camp and VMI right now.”
When is comes to Navy football, there is also a desire to win the last game on the schedule, against Army. This year’s game will be held Dec. 13 at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. Last year the game was held at NorthWest Stadium in Landover, Md., and the year before it was at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., which the seniors remember.
“It’s nice [having the game in Maryland]. It was convenient for us to be close by,” said Newberry. “It’s a great stadium. We played in that stadium before. Yeah. It’s good. For me, it doesn’t really matter. Play that game in a parking lot or wherever, right? We’re going to approach that the same way. But it is nice to have it close by.”
“That’s a good question to ask the Mids,” interrupted Tecza. “I don’t think they were too happy with it being up in Foxborough. That trip up there was pretty ridiculous. We would play out in the parking lot if we had to so, but I guess it’s pretty convenient for us too.”
It’s only the beginning of August, but talk of Fall camp, the season opener, and thinking about playing football against Army, (even if only in a parking lot) in December, means that football season is here and is something to look forward to.
NOTE: This story was updated to reflect Blake Horvath’s nomination to the Walter Camp Player of the Year Award Watch List.
