As his historically productive, injury-marred junior season drew to a disappointing close, Navy quarterback Zach Abey could see his immediate future plainly written. And the final chapter in his unusual college football story likely would not end the way he had envisioned it. But who could have seen this outside-the-box development and resolution coming? Who could have envisioned Abey eagerly suiting up in 2018 as a wide receiver, a position he had never played, even in his days at the Pop Warner level?
A quarterback since middle school and a star behind center at nearby Archbishop Spalding High School, the 6-feet-2, 212-pound Abey had endeared himself to the Mids last year, his first season as a starter behind center. They loved Abey's rugged, north-and-south running style between the tackles, where Abey pounded his way to 19 touchdowns and 1,413 yards. Only former two-time All-American Napoleon McCallum has produced more yards in a single-season in a Navy uniform.
And they love the way Abey immediately embraced his new role, which includes part-time, short-yardage quarterback duty behind starter Malcolm Perry, a job Abey previewed effectively in last season's finale, a 49-7 blowout over Virginia. Abey scored five of the Mids' seven touchdowns, on runs ranging from one to 20 yards.
In Navy's 1-1 start this season, Abey has scored five times on 10 carries, including the deciding score late in the Mids' 22-21 comeback win over Memphis in Saturday's home opener.
"I'm a passionate player, I'm a competitor and I was recruited as a quarterback. It's something I've done for a long time," Abey says. "But I was completely fine with them going with Malcolm. He's a great athlete and I think he's going to be a great quarterback for us. "I just want to be on the field helping us win. I think it's definitely cool that Coach [Ken Niumatalolo] trusts me enough to put me in different positions. It's been fun working hard to learn the receiver position."
Niumatalolo, Navy's 11th-year head coach, is known for outwardly admiring the selflessness that illustrates the way Midshipmen roll. In Abey's case, Niumatalolo has found the poster-boy example that captures the team identity he craves.
"Zach has never complained or sulked or put his head down once about [being replaced as starting quarterback]," says Niumatalolo, who lettered three years as a quarterback at Hawaii. "The guy rushed for more than 1,400 yards last year. There aren't many guys who've played college football who've done that. If that was me, I'd be knocking on the coach's door and asking, 'Why am I being moved?' He could have been one of those divisive guys in the locker room. By handing this the way he has, Zach has galvanized our team."
"I really thought Zach was going to get the [offensive] captain's job, because of everything he's been asked to and everything he's done," adds senior fullback Anthony Gargiulo, who was chosen for that high honor by his teammates. "I don't even think [Abey] sighed when they came up with the idea to move him. It was more like, 'OK, let me get the playbook and start getting ready. Zach just sees himself as a guy who is here to make this team better."
Niumatalolo and offensive coordinator Ivan Jasper clearly had tipped their hands late in 2017, more than a month after a 5-0 start largely engineered by Abey had evaporated for a variety of reasons. Those included Navy's rare and baffling tendency to commit untimely turnovers and penalties that contributed to close losses.
"Zach had some trouble with his [option] reads at times, but he was not the reason things went south," Jasper says. "An awful lot of things went wrong, throughout our [offensive] unit." In the midst of Navy's 1-6 slide, Abey suffered a concussion and then re-aggravated a year-old shoulder injury during back-to-back losses to Central Florida and Temple.
That turn of events hastened the emergence of Perry, then a sophomore quarterback-turned-slot-back. Perry stepped into the limelight with stunning success.
Perry showcased his blazing speed and shifty athleticism against SMU on Senior Day. In his first career start on November 11, Perry rushed for 282 yards, the third-highest single-game total in school history. His four touchdowns included a 92-yard scoring run that was the second-longest in school history. He was easily the biggest factor in a 43-40 victory that sealed Navy's bowl eligibility.
Perry would start four of the last five games. He gashed Army for 250 rushing yards and his 114-yard showing in the Military Bowl helped the Mids salvage a 7-6 season.
As the Mids moved into the spring football phase and did some soul-searching, Abey addressed his two-year battle with shoulder problems by having surgery to repair a torn left labrum. Niumatalolo gave him the official word on the plan for Abey's final season. It was no surprise to Abey that Perry would be designated as the starting quarterback.
Instead of lobbying to keep his job, Abey accepted the chance to multitask in a way that he says wide receivers coach Mick Yokitis had suggested early in the offseason. The Mids were facing depletion at wideout with Taylor Jackson the only senior listed on the preseason depth chart.
Besides being named Baltimore Sun and Capital Gazette Player of the Year as senior quarterback/safety at Spalding, Abey had led the rugby team to conference titles twice and was a two-time, all-MIAA wrestler and state championship runner up. If anyone had the athletic pedigree needed to make such a switch and fill such a need, Abey stood out as the guy – rugged enough to attack and learn the blocking role demanded in Navy's triple-option, athletic enough to get open and make an occasional catch.
"Coach Yokitis and I kind of joked about me moving to receiver. Then he brought it up to Coach Niumat," says Abey, who sat out the spring session after his surgery. "I knew we needed help out there [at receiver]. I can see where the soft spots are in a defense [and relay that to the huddle or the coaches]. They like big bodies out there. I'm a physical guy. I fully embraced it."
"The more we looked at Zach and his competitiveness and his running style and the fact that he never gets tired, our thinking was why couldn't he do this?" Yokitis says. "As coaches, you try to get your best players on the field. After we moved Malcolm to quarterback, we still saw Zach as one of our best players."
"[Abey] is one of the toughest guys on the team already, and he brought that toughness and leadership and his knowledge of the whole offense into the [receivers'] room," says sophomore receiver Ryan Mitchell.
Abey's parents, Jeanne and Don Abey, Sr. say their younger of two sons has worn his ego-less toughness on his blue-collar sleeve for a long time. Not long after Zach had de-committed to Buffalo and committed to Navy, Jeanne Abey says his hard edge was on display in his final rugby match.
"Zach broke his ring finger on his throwing [right] hand early in the [Catholic League] championship game," she says. "He came over to the sideline and told his coach to fix it. His coach straightened it and taped it, and Zach played the rest of the game. We won that game."
By that time, Abey was soon headed to the Naval Academy Prep School in Newport, R.I. At NAPS, he met John Fiorelli, who was recruited to play linebacker for the Mids. The two would strike up a friendship quickly. They have been roommates in Annapolis for the past two years.
Fiorelli was cut from the football team at the end of his freshman year and has played rugby since. "I remember gauging the competition, looking at the other linebackers, around [Induction] Day at prep school. I thought Zach was a linebacker," Fiorelli recalls. "I was thankful he was a quarterback, although it wasn't much fun trying to tackle him. He's one of the best athletes I've seen.
"When they decided to move him to receiver, I remember I was kind of mad about it, but not him," he adds. "Zach just said, 'No, that's the way it is. I've got to earn my spot and do what I can to get on the field.' That bewildered me. But that's the bottom line with him."
Upon graduation, Abey aims to be commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps.
"When Zach was on an unofficial visit at Navy, some of the coaches came by to see him. They took a look at him and said he looked like a [future] Marine," says Don Abey, Sr., who has been an accomplished machinist for nearly four decades. "Zach didn't need to be talked into going to Navy. "Like I told him, the way he's handled himself this year, he's basically filling up his resume for when he joins the Marines, and for the rest of his life."
"It's not about being the quarterback this year. It's about [Zach] fulfilling his dream and doing what he can for Navy," Jeanne Abey adds. "They gave him the opportunity to come there. There's really not much more we can ask for."
The Mids certainly have gotten a lot out of Abey. After not seeing action during his plebe season, he worked his way into the quarterback rotation as a sophomore in 2016, and he was unexpectedly needed by season's end.
Navy lost a pair of first-time starting senior quarterbacks that year, each of whom had waited behind four-year star Keenan Reynolds. First, Tago Smith went down in the season opener with a knee injury. Senior Will Worth stepped up to have a huge season, but was lost to a season-ending foot injury in the American Athletic Conference Championship game.
There was Abey, stepping into a starting role under huge pressure as a sophomore – against Army – on a team riddled by injuries. Abey rushed for 73 yards and passed for 89, and had to swallow the school's first loss to Army since 2001.
Although Navy would close out the season with a 48-45 loss to Louisiana Tech in the Armed Forces Bowl, Abey grew that day. He was the hands-down choice for team MVP after rushing for then a career-high 114 yards and two TDs and throwing for a career-best 159 and another score.
"We were a very young offense in that Army game," Abey says. "My very first start in that big of a spotlight. I was pretty star struck. Can't tell you how many times I watched that game, looking at all of the things I could have done that could have changed that [21-17 loss]."
Abey fixed enough things to make a huge impact last year, while dealing with a dislocated shoulder that would pop out with painful regularity. He became the only Navy player to rush for more than 100 yards in the first seven games of any season, and the first player to rush for at least 150 yards in back-to-back contests. His 5-0 start featured a 235-yard day at Florida Atlantic and a 214-yarder against visiting Air Force.
And Abey has transitioned seamlessly from focal point of the offense to Navy's quintessential role player.
"You have to be a special person to handle this with the dignity and the hard-nosed toughness Zach has shown," Jasper says. "He's found another home here, and he still has a very important role on this team."
