June 25, 2010

ANNAPOLIS, Md.--The Navy football team was ranked 48th in Phil Steele's College Football Preview magazine. The Mids were ranked ahead of all but two opponents as Notre Dame was ranked 16th and Air Force was ranked 47th. Steele projects Navy to play BYU in the Poinsettia Bowl.

Steele ranked three Navy players as a Top 50 player at their respective positions. Senior fullback Vince Murray was ranked as the 14th best fullback, senior strong safety Wyatt Middleton was ranked as the 40th best strong safety and senior quarterback Ricky Dobbs was ranked as the 47th best quarterback.

Steele also ranks individual units and he ranks the Navy quarterbacks 36th best in the country. Navy opponent units ranked highly include: SMU's quarterbacks 24th, Notre Dame's running backs 20th, Maryland's running backs 34th, Notre Dame's wide receivers seventh, Louisiana Tech's wide receivers 31st, Army's offensive line 32nd, Maryland's linebackers 16th, Notre Dame's linebackers 18th, Notre Dame's defensive backs 21st, Air Force's defensive backs 24th, Maryland's special teams 14th, Louisiana Tech's special teams 17th, Air Force special teams 21st, Notre Dame special teams 27th and Wake Forest special teams 30th.

Steele projects three Navy opponents to be one of the most improved teams in the country as he has Notre Dame as the third most improved team, Louisiana Tech as the 12th most improved team and Maryland as the 13th most improved team. He ranks Notre Dame as the fourth biggest surprise team of 2010.

His top five non-BCS teams in 2010 are TCU, Boise State, Houston, Utah and Nevada.