Setting the Stage
•    Navy, the defending Commander-In-Chief's Trophy champion, and Air Force will meet on the gridiron for the 53rd time when they square off on national television Saturday at Falcon Stadium in Colorado Springs in the first leg in the battle for the Commander-In-Chief's Trophy. Kickoff is set for 6:00 pm (ET) / 4:00 pm (MT). Saturday's game is presented by USAA.
•    Only Cadets from the Air Force Academy will be allowed to attend the game.
•    Air Force leads the all-time series, 30-22, and is 18-7 all-time against the Mids at home. Navy has lost three-consecutive games at Falcon Stadium, last winning in 2012, 28-21 in overtime.
•    Air Force has won eight-straight games dating back to last year which is tied with Notre Dame for the nation's longest active winning streak in the country.   
•    A win over Air Force on Saturday would mark the 100th-career victory by Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo and would make him just the 24th active coach with 100 career wins and just the sixth active coach to achieve it at one school. Please see page 15 of the notes for charts on where Niumatalolo stands nationally in wins among current coaches.
•    Niumatalolo's seven wins against Air Force make him the winningest Navy coach in the history of the Navy-Air Force series.  
•    The Mids are coming off a miracle 28-24 win at Tulane on Sept. 19. The Mids rallied from 24-point halftime deficit (24-0) to win the game in the greatest comeback in school history. This will be Air Force's first game of the season, which has allowed the Falcons almost six weeks to prepare for the Mids.
    
Broadcast Coverage
•    CBS Sports Network will televise Saturday's game with Carter Blackburn, Aaron Taylor and Jenny Dell on the call.
•    The Navy Football Insider Show with Joe Miller will air on Thursday night from 7:00-8:00 pm on WBAL Radio (1090 AM, 101.5 FM). Pete Medhurst, Keith Mills and Scott Wykoff will contribute to the show.
•    The Navy Football Tailgate Show on WNAV Radio 1430 AM / 99.9 FM will air from 4:00-5:00 pm with Wylie Baker and Bill Lusby serving as the hosts.
•    The Navy Football Pregame Show with Pete Medhurst, Joe Miller, Keith Mills and Scott Wykoff will get underway at 5:00 pm on the Navy Radio Network, followed by game action beginning at 6:00 pm with Medhurst, Miller and Mills on the call. The Navy Radio Network broadcast on Saturday will be brought to you by USAA.  
•    Following the contest, Medhurst, Miller, Mills and Wykoff will recap the day's events in a 30-minute postgame show.

Navy vs. Air Force // Last Meeting
Oct. 26, 2019 // Annapolis, Md. // NMC Memorial Stadium
•    (AP)  Navy quarterback Malcolm Perry scored on a 3-yard touchdown run with 23 seconds remaining to give the Midshipmen a stunning 34-25 victory over Air Force.
•    The Falcons had scored 16-consecutive points in the final quarter and took the lead on a 1-yard run by Taven Birdow with 3:15 left in the game.
•    However, Perry led an 11-play, 75-yard scoring drive to claim the victory in the first leg of the Commander-In-Chief's Trophy. Navy linebacker Tony Brown returned a fumble 8 yards in the closing seconds to round out the scoring.
•    Perry finished with 111 yards on 23 carries with a pair of touchdowns. He also completed 5 of 7 passes for 144 yards.
•    A fumble by Navy fullback Nelson Smith gave Air Force the ball on the Midshipmen 37 midway through the fourth quarter. The Falcons capitalized on a 1-yard plunge by quarterback DJ Hammond III that pulled them within 21-19 with 7:38 left in the game.
•    The Falcons then put together a six-play, 72-yard scoring drive, capped by the scoring run by Birdow to take their first lead since the first quarter before the Midshipmen rallied.
•    Air Force kicker Jake Koehnke converted all four of his field-goal opportunities, including a career-long 49-yard kick that pulled the Falcons to within 14-9.
•    Hammond had 77 yards on 12 carries. He also competed 10 of 25 pass attempts for 205 yards with an interception.
•    Jacob Springer managed a key sack in the third quarter that gave Navy a short field, setting up the 20-yard scoring run by Malcolm Perry that provided a 12-point margin.
•    The Midshipmen used an almost identical strategy to boost the lead to 14-3. Perry completed a 28-yard pass to Mychal Cooper and Smith capped the drive with a 3-yard scoring run.

Navy Rallies From 24 Points Down at Tulane To Complete biggest comeback in school history
•    Junior fullback Jamale Carothers rushed for 125 yards, Bijan Nichols kicked a 33-yard field goal as time expired and Navy staged a school-record 24-point comeback in the second half to beat Tulane 27-24.
•    Navy ran just two plays in Tulane territory in the first half and looked in danger of being blown out again late in the second quarter.
•    Tulane was threatening to build on a 24-0 lead before senior co-captain Cameron Kinley intercepted Tulane quarterback Keon Howard at the Navy 3. The turnover looked far more consequential as the game wore on and Navy stunningly seized control of the game in the second half, when the Midshipmen outgained the Green Wave 291-82.
•    In the last seven minutes of the third quarter, the Midshipmen scored 16 points on two short Nelson Smith touchdowns and a safety. They tied it on Dalen Morris' 32-yard touchdown pass to Mychal Cooper, followed by a 2-point conversion early in the fourth quarter.
•    Tulane looked primed to regain the lead with about five minutes left, but elected to throw a deep pass, which fell incomplete, on fourth-and-3 from the Navy 32.
•    Navy kept the ball from there, driving in rainy conditions to the Tulane 16 before kicking for the win.
•     Morris passed just 11 times, completing six for 139 yards and a touchdown. His 44-yard pass to Mark Walker set up Navy's first TD with 6:43 left in the third quarter. Carothers' 48-yard run up the middle set up the second.
•    Navy's safety came when Evan Fochtman met Tulane's Cameron Carroll in the end zone and drove him backward on a first-down run from the Tulane 1.
•    Tyjae Spears rushed for 119 yards and Carroll rushed for touchdowns of 3 and 24 yards for Tulane.
•    Seeking a spark on offense after its lopsided loss a week earlier, Navy started freshman Xavier Arline at quarterback. He did not attempt a pass and rushed seven times for 13 yards before being replaced by Morris in the second quarter.
•    Navy's previous largest comeback was on Nov. 1, 2008, when the Mids came from 20 points down in the fourth quarter to stun Temple 33-27 in overtime. Navy tied that game in the final seconds when Temple decided to run a play instead of taking a knee. Navy linebacker Ross Pospisil stripped Kee-ayre Griffin and Clint Sovie picked the ball up and ran it back 42 yards for a touchdown.  

Navy to Honor The Victims of the 2000 Terror Attack on the USS Cole
•    The USS COLE (DDG 67) was attacked by al Qaeda terrorists the morning of October 12, 2000, while moored for refueling in the Port of Aden, Yemen.
•    Seventeen Sailors were killed and 37 were injured in the attack.  
•    The helmet stickers the Midshipmen are wearing on Saturday is a reminder to us all to #Remember67  
•    Incorporated in the design are 17 Stars (total) which represent the 17 Sailors killed. Three larger stars represent the three grenades used by Sgt. Cole, the ship's namesake, at Iwo Jima, where he earned the Medal of Honor for his valor.
•    The ship sailing from left to right, signifies moving forward.
•    "Remember" – because we can never forget the heroism and toughness of the crew.
•    67 – USS COLE's hull number  (DDG 67).

This Date In Navy Football History
•    Navy is 9-7 all-time in games played on Oct. 3, including a 2-0 mark against Air Force.  
•    The Mids defeated Air Force in overtime 16-13 on Oct. 3, 2009 and beat the Falcons 33-11 on Oct. 3, 2015.

AAC Notebook
•    Two of the American Athletic Conference's three top-25 teams were in action last Saturday and both came away with impressive victories as No. 13 UCF and No. 14 Cincinnati remained undefeated.
•    Saturday's results lifted The American's nonconference record to 10-3 in 2020 (.769). Only the ACC (6-1, .857) has a better winning percentage nationally. Teams from The American are 9-0 this season against opponents that did not appear in this past week's Associated Press top 25 poll.
•    The Knights opened conference play with a 51-28 win at East Carolina, while the Bearcats scored a 24-10 victory against Army in one of the three games between ranked opponents Saturday.
•    UCF's offense once again put up eye-popping numbers while the defense had 4 takeaways in the victory. QB Dillon Gabriel surpassed 400 yards for the second-consecutive week, while WR Marlon Williams and WR Jaylon Robinson once again had 100-yard games. Gabriel was 32-of-47 for 408 yards and 4 touchdowns, while Williams had a game-high 13 receptions for 136 yards and Robinson had 9 catches for a game-high 150 yards with 2 TDs.
•    East Carolina, which was playing its first game of the season, was led by QB Holton Ahlers, who threw 3 touchdown passes and had 215 passing yards. The Pirates were undone in part by 4 turnovers, giving the Knights 9 takeaways through two games of the season.
•    Defense was the story in Cincinnati's win against Army as the Bearcats won their 15th-consecutive game at Nippert Stadium. Cincinnati held Army, which had outscored its first two opponents 77-7 without an offensive touchdown and limited the Black Knights to 182 rushing yards (Army averaged 389.5 in its first two games). It was Cincinnati's second-straight game without allowing an offensive TD (including the 38-6 win against Boston College in last season's Birmingham Bowl).
•    QB Desmond Ridder threw for 258 yards and 2 touchdowns, while the Cincinnati defense was led by LB Jarell White, who had a game-high 15 tackles.
•    Tulane went on the road to renew an old rivalry as the Green Wave shook off an early 2-touchdown deficit to win going away against Southern Miss 66-24 in a Battle for the Bell matchup. Tulane finished with 430 rushing yards as RB Cameron Carroll had 163 yards on only 15 carries (10.9 ypc) with three touchdown runs and a TD catch. RB Stephon Huderson rushed for 120 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries (10.9 ypc).
•    The Green Wave also got a spark from freshman QB Michael Pratt, who came off the bench in the first quarter and threw for 142 yards and 2 touchdowns while adding a rushing TD in his first-career game.
•    SMU, which had opened the season with two road victories, got a chance to play in front of a limited home crowd as the Mustangs overwhelmed Stephen F. Austin 50-7 at Gerald J. Ford Stadium. Freshman RB Ulysses Bentley IV ran for 104 yards and 2 touchdowns on only 6 carries (17.3 ypc), while sophomore RB TJ McDaniel also finished with 104 rushing yards. The defense, meanwhile, registered 12 tackles for loss and 4 sacks in holding the Lumberjacks to 216 total yards.
•    SMU is one of five teams nationally that is 3-0 in 2020, along with Louisiana, Miami (Fla.), Pitt and UTSA.

Newcomers
•    Navy had 8 players make their first-career start against BYU, including 5 on offense.
•    First-time starters on offense were tackle Luca Fratianne, guard Sean Rattay, center Justin Self, wide receiver Mark Walker and quarterback Dalen Morris.
•    First-time starters on defense were nose guard Mike Flowers, raider Tommy Lawley and striker Austin Talbert-Loving.
•    Navy had 6 players make their first-career start against Tulane, including 4 on offense.
•    First-time starters on offense included quarterback Xavier Arline, slot back Justin Smith, guard Bryce Texeira and center Pierce Banbury.
•    First-time starters on defense included striker John Marshall and nose guard Chris Pearson.