Sept. 19, 2005
Complete Game Notes in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
Navy (0-2) had the week off before traveling to Houston, Texas, to take on the Rice Owls (0-1) in a 7 p.m. contest (8 p.m. EDT).
The game will be available to fans via CSTV: College Sports Television's pay-per-view "All Access" package. In addition, the game is viewable online as part of CSTV.com's "All-Access" broadband package and as a stand-alone game at www.navysports.com.
The "All-Access" package is available at www.cstv.com and on cable systems carrying the CSTV All-Access package. Interested fans need to contact their local cable operators to purchase the game on pay-per-view.
Navy now has nine-scheduled television appearances. Both the Duke and Rutgers games are also expected to be picked up which would give Navy a school-record 11 TV appearances.
The Rice game can also be heard on the Navy Radio Network, which includes WBAL in Baltimore (1090 AM), Sportstalk 980 in Washington, D.C. (980 AM), WNAV in Annapolis (1430 AM) and ESPN Radio in Cambridge, Md. (1240 AM). The game can also be heard nationally on Sirius Radio or around the world at www.navysports.com, www.wbal.com, www.sportstalk980.com and www.wnav.com. Armed Forces Radio will carry the game live to our troops around the world. Bob Socci and Omar Nelson will call the action.
The Navy Football Pregame Show will air an hour before kickoff (7 p.m. Eastern) on those same networks.
Pete Medhurst and Joe Miller will kick things off with the Navy Tailgate Show on 1430 WNAV and www.wnav.com at 6 p.m. Eastern.
Mids Lose By Three For The Second Week In A Row...
Stanford quarterback Trent Edwards threw for 235 yards and one touchdown as he helped lead the Cardinal to a wild, 41-38, victory over Navy in front of 35,670 fans at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.
The game was a see-saw affair that saw neither team lead by more than 14 points. Stanford jumped out to a 7-0 lead on its first possession as Edwards hit Evan Moore on a 17-yard fade route.
Navy tied it with 2:34 left in the first when Marco Nelson (Sr./Scottsdale, Ariz.) returned a fumbled punt for 19 yards and a touchdown. The tie score lasted all of 12 seconds as T.J. Rushing returned the ensuing kickoff 93 yards for a touchdown.
The Mids, however, battled back to take the lead as freshman Karlos Whittaker (North Chicago, Ill.) scored on an electrifying 44-yard touchdown run to tie the score and then Nelson scored his second touchdown of the day on a one-yard jaunt to give Navy a 21-14 advantage.
Stanford came back to tie the score in the second quarter and threatened to take the lead before the half.
The Cardinal tied the game on a two-yard touchdown run by Nick Frank that capped off a 14-play, 78-yard drive. Navy drove the ball right back down the field to the Stanford 38-yard line, but on first down, Udeme Udofia picked off an errant Lamar Owens (Sr./Savannah, Ga.) pass to give Stanford the ball back with 55 seconds left in the half.
The Cardinal moved all the way down to the Navy one-yard line where on first-and-goal with seven seconds left Stanford coach Walt Harris elected to go for it instead of kicking the field goal. Navy safety Greg Sudderth (So./Lilburn, Ga.) stopped Edwards at the one-yard line and stripped the ball away from him to end the half.
The momentum built by Navy's goal-line stand to end the first half was immediately washed away at the beginning of the third quarter as the Cardinal took the opening kick-off and marched right down the field to score on a three-yard touchdown run by Anthony Kimble to make it 28-21.
Navy came back to within four on the next possession when Joey Bullen (So./St. Simons Island, Ga.) kicked a 39-yard field goal to narrow Stanford's lead to 28-24.
Stanford threatened to pull away halfway through the third quarter on a 46-yard touchdown run off a reverse by Gerren Chrochet and then tacked on a 40-yard field goal by Michael Sgroi on the second play of the fourth quarter to take a 38-24 lead.
The battling band of Midshipmen refused to quit, however, as Navy quickly answered with a six-play, 83-yard scoring drive that was capped off by a 54-yard touchdown pass from Owens to Nelson.
The Navy defense was able to hold Stanford to a field goal on the next possession, though the Cardinal was able to melt away a valuable 5:25 off the clock while increasing their lead to 41-31.
Owens threw an interception on Navy's next possession, giving Stanford the ball on the Navy 38-yard line. The defense stepped up and forced three incomplete passes as Stanford took just 26 seconds off the clock.
Back-up quarterback Brian Hampton (Scott Air Force Base, Ill.) came off the bench in relief of Owens, who left the game for the second week in a row with cramps, and led the Mids on an impressive 16-play, 80-yard scoring drive in 4:18. Sophomore fullback Adam Ballard (Lewisville, Texas) capped the drive with his first-career rushing touchdown from four yards out to cut the Stanford lead to three points.
After a failed on-side kick gave the ball to Stanford at the Navy 48-yard line, the Cardinal ran the ball on three straight plays, forcing three Navy timeouts, and then punted the ball down to the Navy 15-yard line with 1:37 left. The Mids couldn't manage a first down, falling to 0-2 for the first time since 2001.
Owens completed 12 of his 18 pass attempts for 193 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. Whittaker became just the second freshman in school history to rush for 100 yards as he racked up 110 yards and a touchdown on just seven carries. Nelson had four catches for 98 yards and a touchdown and also rushed for 34 yards and a touchdown on seven carries.
Junior linebacker Rob Caldwell (St. John, Ind.) paced the Navy defense with a career-high 14 tackles and a sack. Jeremy McGown (Houston, Texas) added eight tackles, while Jake Biles (Sr./Lorena, Texas) chipped in with seven stops.
Scouting Rice...
There is no question that Navy's first-two games have been against tough opponents in Maryland and Stanford, but don't look for the Rice Owls to feel sorry for the Midshipmen. Rice opened up the 2005 campaign at UCLA, losing 63-21, and this past Saturday the Owls lost at No. 2 Texas, 51-10.
Series History...
Rice leads the all-time series, 6-4, and is 4-1 against Navy in Houston. The Mids earned their first win in Houston on their last visit, a 38-6 victory in 2003. Navy defeated Rice last year in Annapolis, 14-13, when Rice kicker Brennan Landry missed an extra-point with 4:41 left in the game.
Rice entered last year's game No. 1 in the country in rushing, averaging 345.7 per contest, but the Mids held the Owl ground attack to just 223 yards rushing. Aaron Polanco led the Navy offense with 179 yards rushing and threw a touchdown pass.
0-2 Start...
Navy is off to an 0-2 start for the first time since 2001, which was the last year of the Charlie Weatherbie era and the last time Navy opened with two-straight opponents from BCS conferences. The Mids finished the 2001 season 0-10. This is the 19th time in school history that Navy has started 0-2 and on only two occasions have the Mids bounced back to have a winning season. In 1928, the Mids started 0-2 and finished the year 5-3-1 and in 1892, the Mids lost their first two before winning the final five games. In the previous 18 years that Navy has started 0-2, the Mids have finished with a combined record of 38-135-5 (.228).
First For Johnson...
Navy head coach Paul Johnson is starting a season 0-2 for the first time in his 23-year collegiate coaching career. Johnson never started 0-2 as an assistant at Georgia Southern, Hawaii or Navy or as a head coach at Georgia Southern.
Too Many Points...
Stanford's 41 points are the most points Navy has allowed at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium since 2002 when Duke scored 43 points in a 43-17 rout.
It also marked the first time since Sept. 21, 2002, that Navy lost when scoring at least 35 points in a game, a stretch of nine games (Northwestern, 49-40).
