By Gary Lambrecht
 
P.J. Volker remembers the unusual phone call that surprised him early in the 2021 season. How could Volker not recall it?
 
It was a relatively unknown yet soon-to-emerge freshman named Colin Ramos, who did not agree with some changes that had altered Navy's linebacker depth chart.
 
"We had pulled a couple of linebackers up from the scout team and ahead of [Ramos] a few games into the season. He called me after practice one day to talk about it. I will never forget it," said Volker, now in his second season as Navy's defensive coordinator. "We had a pretty heated conversation about why [such decisions were made]."
 
"[Ramos] took everything I told him and turned those things into a positive," Volker added. "He has been hungry ever since he set foot on campus. He still constantly thinks about the game. He still plays it like he's got something to prove."
 
It did not take long for Ramos – now a senior co-captain and one of the top inside linebackers in the American Athletic Conference – to prove to his teammates and coaches that he deserved a meaningful role in the Midshipmen's immediate future.
 
After spending the first month of the season on the scout team, which is a familiar home for many first-year players at Navy, Ramos was promoted to special teams over a six-game stretch.
 
First, Ramos passed his tests on the kickoff return unit by dominating his blocking matchup. Then, he excelled the same way on the punt return squad.
 
By the final two games of his plebe season, Ramos was starting at linebacker.
 
In his debut as a starter, Ramos contributed five tackles (four solo) and a forced fumble in Navy' 38-14 rout of Temple at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. Two weeks later, he chipped in a tackle for loss in a 17-13 victory over archrival Army, before a sellout crowd at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.
 
"Starting the Army game is really one of the hardest things a freshman can do at Navy," said senior safety Mbiti Williams, Jr., who earned a varsity letter on special teams as a freshman, before becoming a three-year starter as a sophomore.
 
"Watching his progress as a plebe, we knew [Ramos] was going to be a baller," Williams added. "He has always known how to do his job. He has earned everything he has gotten. There was never a doubt he was worthy of being a captain. And he continues to prove himself."
 
Ramos, who teams up with fullback and co-captain Daba Fofana, has firmly established himself as a star for the Mids. As a sophomore, he started 10 of 12 games in which he played and finished second on the team with 79 tackles and tied for the team lead with 8.5 tackles for loss. He also had four sacks, two forced fumbles and an interception.
 
Last year, Ramos earned First-Team All-AAC recognition with his best season yet. He led Navy with 110 tackles, including a then career-high 16 tackles in a 17-11 loss to Army. Ramos was the first Navy player to reach 100 tackles since Diego Fagot recorded 100 stops in 2019. He also had eight tackles for loss, two sacks, four pass breakups, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery. Ramos was an integral part of a Navy defense that notched three shutouts last season.
 
The first half of the 2024 season has seen a long-awaited rebirth of good fortune for the Navy program.

Led by the most explosive offense seen in Annapolis since 2019 – Navy's last winning season, with a record of 11-2 – and with ample support from an excellent special teams unit and a veteran defense that has been Navy's foundation in recent years, the 24^th-ranked Mids are 6-0 for the first time since 1979. They are bowl eligible for the first time since 2019. Their 34-7 knockout of Air Force opened the door for the Mids to seize their first Commander-In-Chief's trophy since 2019.

Navy's 97^th game against Notre Dame on Saturday will mark Ramos' 30^th start and 38^th career game with the Midshipmen.
 
Ramos has maintained his dependable standard this year. He leads the Mids with 68 total tackles, including 12 tackles in a 34-point rout of Charlotte, 15 tackles in a blowout over Temple, and an epic, career-high 20-tackle performance in Navy's 56-44 takedown of Memphis in week three. Ramos is also second on the team with 5.5 tackles for loss.
 
"Daba and I brought this up with the seniors in the summer. This season is about our legacy, what we leave behind. Up to that point – call it what you want – we were losers," Ramos said. "We had not won more than five games, had not been to a bowl game, had not beaten Army since our freshman year, no CIC trophy. We had not accomplished anything we wanted to accomplish. This keeps us from being content with anything we have done so far [in 2024]."
 
Ramos is known by Navy teammates and coaches and former coaches at prestigious Don Bosco Prep School in Ramsey, N.J. as a fierce competitor, an obsessive student of the game and a durable, intelligent presence on the field.
 
At 5-feet-11, 210 pounds, Ramos is able to operate deftly among 300-pound opposing linemen with his quick, shifty 5-feet-11, 210-pound frame. Ramos typically is on the field for every defensive snap.
 
"Colin is probably the most detailed person I've ever met in my life," Navy junior cornerback Andrew Duhart said. "He is just different from everybody else and he's not trying to be. He makes everyone around him want to play better."
 
"His coverage skills have increased tremendously. He gives you 100 percent effort with his physicality, his speed, his eyes, his technique," he added. "You see him all over the field on film. He never takes a second off."
 
"[Ramos] has such great instincts. He understands spacing and blocking destruction at a high level. He has a great feel for when to run under or over a block to get to the ball carrier," Volker said. "It's difficult when you've got a guy bearing down on you who has 100 pounds or eight inches on you and you've got to make a split-second decision [on how to make a play]. He is like smoke through a keyhole at times."
 
"He's so focused every day. Everything is important to him," Volker added. "He approaches every meeting, every walk-through, every practice rep, every lift, as the most important of the year. He is a football guy."
 
Don Bosco Prep head football coach Dan Sabella only coached Ramos for his senior year. What a season it was for Ramos and the Ironmen, who reached the Non-Public IV state championship game.
 
Ramos was named the 2019 North Jersey Defensive Player of the Year, after amassing a team-high 108 tackles, including 18 for loss.  He also had three interceptions.
 
"In 20 plus years as a coach, Colin had as good a senior season as I've ever seen a defensive player have. He had an impact on almost every game we played," Sabella said. "Whether he's blitzing, taking a gap or flowing toward the play, he doesn't let blockers get their hands on him."
 
Ramos acknowledges that he is somewhat undersized, compared to typical linebackers at the FBS level. And he enjoys setting up blockers with his speed and by using his hands to strike bigger offensive linemen and tight ends before they can get a clear shot at him and prevent him from getting to the ball.
 
"The biggest thing that helps me is using my size to my advantage. I have a lot of leverage built into my height. That initial punch I can throw with my hands to attack [a blocker] is critical for a linebacker," Ramos said. "I've been successful playing at this weight here. I've always struggled to put on weight. How much is putting on 10 more pounds going to help my game get better?"
 
Ramos also credits the coaching of Torrance "Tank" Daniels, a former Division II star at Harding University and professional linebacker who played for three NFL teams from 2006-2009. That run included a Super Bowl ring Daniels earned as a member of the 2007 New York Giants.
 
The two met and clicked while Ramos was a seventh-grader attending a football camp in North Jersey about 10 years ago.
 
Daniels offered to train Ramos, who was a running back and safety during his Pop Warner years. They worked on improving speed, strength, and agility at first. Ramos said he was starting to make football a bigger priority at that point. He wanted to develop into a high school player good enough to play the sport at a quality college or university.
 
When Ramos and Daniels both ended up at Don Bosco together – Ramos as a freshman, Daniels as the defensive coordinator of the freshman team – Ramos' development accelerated. It started with Daniels identifying Ramos as a running back no longer.
 
"I told [Ramos] as a freshman he was going to be a linebacker," Daniels said. "The kid was so tough, had an unbelievable work ethic. I could tell he was really going to work for his success."
 
Daniels ended up coaching linebackers at Don Bosco for three varsity seasons that included Ramos, who played outside linebacker for two years, then switched to inside linebacker early in his senior year.
 
"I trusted [Daniels] and he clearly thought something of me. He made me a linebacker," Ramos said. "He taught me so much about physicality, about striking and attacking and winning one-on-one battles. He taught me life lessons. When I moved to inside linebacker my senior year, that's when I started to take off."
 
Ramos received offers from FCS schools Morgan State University in Baltimore and Morehead (Kentucky) State University before his senior year. Then, Navy called during his senior season.
 
"Colin fell in love with the Naval Academy when he visited. It fits him," said Marcial Ramos, his father. "I wouldn't call him a type A personality, but everything he does has to be done the right way. He gives a hundred percent in whatever he's doing. He's a natural leader."
 
Ramos will graduate in the spring with a degree in history, and is aiming to be commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps.
 
After suffering through three straight losing seasons, Ramos wants to do whatever he can to help the Midshipmen complete a dramatic turnaround.
 
"I'm extremely grateful with where we're at so far, but we still have so much ahead of us to accomplish," Ramos said. "As a defense, we haven't yet played to the consistent standard we expect. If we continue to improve there and our offense stays as dynamic as they are, we have some great weeks ahead of us. We want to leave Navy football where it has been and where it should be again. We want to go out the right way."