11/13/2002 - Football
Making It Matter

Shortly after their hopes had been punctured and their hearts pierced by disappointment, several Midshipmen were asked to meet the press on Saturday. Among them was linebacker Eddie Carthan.

What could have been, what might have been, wasn't in the end. Fifteen points in slightly more than two minutes lifted Notre Dame to a 30-23 victory over Navy at Baltimore's Ravens Stadium.

"This hurts because we had a chance to make history," said Carthan, whose No. 56 seemed plastered all over the Fighting Irish throughout the afternoon. "Everyone would have looked at (Navy) differently. Right now, people are saying, 'Navy might be good.' But after a week they'll have forgotten about this game."

Having invested all of his emotion and revealed remarkable intensity toward a singular outcome - to win - Carthan offered a harsh analysis upon confronting defeat.

"We showed we are good enough to compete against anybody," he said. "In the end it doesn't matter. It's an 'L' and we're still 1-8."

Yet, there is a way it can matter.

Not that the final minutes against the Fighting Irish can be replayed, or the outcome reversed. It can matter - and truly matter - if the effort itself becomes a cornerstone.

"I told them there are no more moral victories," said head coach Paul Johnson, when asked what he told the Navy players after Saturday's game. "That I was disappointed and hurt for them, because I thought they gave tremendous effort. They deserved to win the game and I was disappointed and hurt for them that we didn't win the game.

"But as I told them, I think we can take this game and use it as a foundation to get this program turned around."

Agonizing over defeat, the Mids gave their coach reason to think of better days ahead.

"If you walked into our locker room and saw our guys, I don't know how to explain it to you," Johnson said, before describing a room full of crestfallen players shedding tears after exerting all of themselves in search of victory. "I think we can turn the corner."

Three games remain this year, before attention turns to the next season and we move even closer to realizing whether the Mids will enjoy a brighter football future.

If the answer is yes, last Saturday may indeed be one of the most important building blocks.

No, Navy didn't experience a moral victory against a top-ten team. More importantly, the Mids demonstrated qualities that can lead to literal victory down the road. Perhaps as early as this weekend.

They were dogged on defense, as illustrated in the way Carthan ripped through the line and hammered Ryan Grant on a seven-yard loss.

Grant started the day just eighty yards shy of the 1,000-yard mark. He finished the game with a pair of fumbles in 10 carries, still needing 67 yards to attain a milestone that had seemed so easily within reach.

The Mids' persistence was also personified during a fourth-quarter sequence by linebacker Jeremy Chase.

He penetrated the backfield and hit the Notre Dame quarterback, who slipped the tackle. Undeterred, Chase stayed after Carlyle Holliday and brought him down with his second effort. The following snap, Jeremy helped corral receiver Arnaz Battle to force an Irish punt.

No doubt there are other examples that stand out from Saturday. Possibly the play Lenter Thomas made, rotating over, with nary a second to spare, to deflect a downfield pass. Or Vaughn Kelley going vertical to block a field goal attempt.

Sure there were occasional breakdowns, but gone was the rash of broken tackles so problematic just two weeks earlier at Tulane.

On offense, the Mids stayed focused - despite injury to starting quarterback Craig Candeto. Aaron Polanco stepped from the sideline under center to help Navy gain 216 yards on the ground against a defense that held six of its first nine opponents to less than half their season rushing average.

And though they entered with a national-high 20 fumbles - playing against an Irish defense that forced at least three turnovers in six of eight prior victories - the Mids never dropped the ball to the ground.

They gave themselves a chance to make plays. And as a result, they made points off a 95-yard drive and an 80-yard series. Receivers came back to make catches along the sidelines. Slot backs delivered critical blocks to spring teammates.

Despite delivering an errant snap on a punt and allowing a 92-yard kickoff return, Navy's special teams offered encouraging signs.

John Skaggs made a terrific play on the poor snap, scooping the ball off the ground and running into the end zone. While conceding a safety, he prevented a touchdown.

Skaggs also averaged more than 43 yards per punt - three times forcing Notre Dame inside its own 20.

Eric Rolfs solidified his role by nailing a 36-yard field goal to stretch a five-point lead to eight late in the third quarter.

And Aaron Weedo gave the Mids a short field with a long return. He took a punt back 45 yards to set up a 44-yard touchdown drive. He also nearly broke loose on the game's final kickoff.

The Mids can make all of it matter. If they regenerate the emotion, duplicate the intensity and repeat elements of their performance against Notre Dame.

Of course, it's much easier written than done.

This week's opponent, Connecticut, is coming off a pair of wins over Florida Atlantic and Kent State in which the Huskies scored a total of 124 points.

Still new to Division I-A, U-Conn (4-6) has more than acquitted itself against quality teams. The Huskies opened the season against a future conference rival - they'll join the Big East in 2005 - and lost to Boston College by a 24-16 final. The following week, they fell to Georgia Tech, 31-14.

Freshman running back Terry Caulley is a 5-foot-7 dynamo Johnson refers to as "a little jitterbug." He's closing in on the 1,000-yard rushing mark and is coming off a four-touchdown outburst in a single quarter last week vs. Kent.

Sophomore quarterback Dan Orlovsky has thrown a touchdown pass in all 10 games heretofore and owns a higher passing efficiency rating than Boston College's Brian St. Pierre and Notre Dame's Holliday.

So for the Mids, who haven't won a home game since 1999, Saturday's opponent represents a very difficult physical challenge. And an equally-demanding emotional one.

As my radio partner, John Feinstein, suggested after last week's crushing loss, Navy must believe that Connecticut is as important as Notre Dame.

"We've set a new standard and that's the standard I'm holding them to," Johnson said on Tuesday. "We aren't going back...that's the standard we are shooting for. You can't turn it on and off."

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