News and Notes
•    Navy (10-3) finished off the 2024 season in glorious fashion, defeating Oklahoma 21-20 in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl. Navy trailed 14-0 in the first quarter before coming all the way back thanks to an 11-yard touchdown run by Alex Tecza (Jr. / FB) and touchdown runs of 95 and 6 yards by Blake Horvath (Jr. / QB). The 95-yard touchdown run by Horvath was the longest run in school history. The Navy defense was lights out after giving up the 2 first-quarter touchdowns, shutting the Sooners out for over 50 minutes before Oklahoma pulled to within 1 point with 6 seconds left on a 10-yard touchdown pass. Justin Reed (Sr. / DE) sacked Oklahoma quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. on the two-point conversion to preserve Navy's sixth 10-win season in school history.
•    The 2024 Navy football team joins the teams from 1905 (10-1-1), 2004 (10-2), 2009 (10-4), 2015 (11-2) and 2019 (11-2) as teams who have won at least 10 games in a season.
•    The Armed Forces Bowl was Navy's 25th bowl appearance in school history and with the win Navy improved to 13-11-1 all-time in bowl games. Navy has won 3-consecutive bowl games and 6 of the last 7.
•    The win over Oklahoma was the 1st time Navy defeated a team from the SEC in a bowl game since 1954 (1955 Sugar Bowl) when the Mids knocked off Ole Miss 21-0. It was the first win against an SEC team overall since 2004 when Navy beat Vanderbilt 29-26.
•    Navy finished the regular season with a complete domination of Service Academy rival #19 Army, knocking off the Black Knights 31-13 in the 125th playing of the Army-Navy Game presented by USAA. With wins over Air Force and Army, the Mids won the Commander-In-Chief's Trophy, which is presented annually to the winner of the football competition among the 3 major service academies (Navy, Air Force and Army) and is named in honor of the President of the United States. The team will visit the White House this spring.
•    Navy won the 2 Service Academy games this year by a combined 45 points, which ties the 2019 Navy team for the biggest combined CIC blowouts by any of the 3 Service Academies since 2007 when Navy beat Air Force and Army by a combined 46 points. 
•    The win over Army gave Navy victories over 2 ranked opponents for the 1st time since 1958, when the Mids defeated #8 / #7 Rice 20-7 and #14 / #12 Michigan 20-14. Navy defeated #24 (Coaches) Memphis 56-44 on Sept. 21, 2024. 
•    The win over Army was just the 5th time in series history Navy has beaten a ranked Army team (1943, 1950, 1954, 1957, 2024) and the 1st time since 1957 when the Mids knocked off #10 / #9 Army 14-0.  
•    Navy was predicted to finish 11th in the American Athletic Conference and ended the year tied for 3rd with Memphis (Navy beat Memphis head-to-head) with a 6-2 mark. 
•    Landon Robinson (Jr. / NG), Colin Ramos (Sr. / LB) and Rayuan Lane III (Sr. / S) were named First-Team All-AAC by the league head coaches. Justin Reed (Sr. / DE), Dashaun Peele (Sr. / CB) and Riley Riethman (Sr. / P) were named to the second team. The Mids did not have a player selected to the third team, while Connor McMahon (Sr. / OT)and Ben Purvis (Jr. / OG) were named honorable mention all-conference.
•    Navy was the only FBS team in the country that played just 2 home games in its final 10 contests. 
•    Navy's 407 points scored in its 13 games this season were 195 more than it scored in its 12 games in 2023.
•    Navy averaged 247.5 rushing yards per game, the 6th-best average in the FBS and the program's best since 2019 when it averaged a school-record 360.5 rushing yards per game. 
•    Navy finished 37 of 42 (.881) in the red zone with 34 (.810) of those scores resulting in touchdowns. The Mids finished #1 in the country in red zone touchdown percentage. 
•    In its 10 wins in 2024, Navy outscored the opposition 104-7 in points off turnovers. In the 3 games Navy lost, the Mids were outscored 48-0 in points off turnovers. 
•    Riley Riethman's (Sr. / P) 44.4 career punting average (226 punts, 10,037 yds) is the best in school history (min. 50 att.). He owns 4 of the top-5 single-game performances in Navy history (min. of 5 punts). Riethman finished 6th in the nation in punting average this fall, averaging a school-record 45.7 yards per punt. 
•    Eli Heidenreich (Jr. / Snipe) and Alex Tecza (Jr. / FB), who grew up in Pittsburgh and have known each other since the first grade, have combined to score a touchdown for Navy in 18 of the last 23 games dating back to the 2023 season. Heidenreich's 6 touchdown receptions this season tied for Navy's single-season touchdown catches record, which has been accomplished by 4 different players. Heidenreich closed out the year being named a Third-Team All-American by College Football Network.
•    Rayuan Lane III (Sr. / S) made his 43rd-consecutive start at safety for the Mids in the win over Oklahoma, which was the longest active streak for a safety in the FBS and second longest by a player in the secondary. Sporting News named him to its Midseason First-Team All-America Team, while he was also named a semifinalist for the Jim Thorpe Award.  College Football Network named Lane III the National Special Teams Player of the Year, a First-Team All-American on Special Teams and a Third-Team All-American on defense. He has accepted an invitation to play in the prestigious Senior Bowl and has been invited to the NFL Combine.
•    DaShaun Peele (Sr. / CB) became the 1st player in school history to return 2 interceptions for a touchdown in the same game in the Mids' win over Charlotte. It was the 3rd time this year Navy returned an interception for a touchdown, as Rayuan Lane III (Sr. / S) had an 86-yard interception return for a touchdown with 23 seconds left in the game against Memphis that clinched the victory for the Mids. Peele's 5 interceptions were tied for the fourth most in the FBS. He was named an Honorable Mention All-American by College Football Network.
•    Blake Horvath (Jr. / QB) threw a school-record tying 13 touchdown passes on the year, tying Ricky Dobbs who threw 13 in 2010. Horvath accounted for 4 touchdowns in Navy's 31-13 victory over Army, rushing for 196 yards and 2 TDs on 24 carries, while throwing for 107 yards and 2 TDs.  He scored the game-tying touchdown against Oklahoma on a school-record 95-yard touchdown run and then gave Navy the lead on a 6-yard scoring run with 4:34 remaining.
•    Horvath, with 1,246 yards rushing, is the 1st Navy player to rush for 1,000 yards in a season since 2019 when Malcolm Perry rushed for 2,017 yards. He is the 1st Navy quarterback to surpass 1,000 passing yards in a season since 2019 when Malcolm Perry threw for 1,084 yards. Horvath's 1,353 passing yards are the most by a Navy player since Will Worth threw for 1,397 yards in 2016. Additionally, he is the 3rd quarterback in school history to rush AND pass for more than 1,200 yards in the same season, joining Keenan Reynolds in 2015 (1,203 pass, 1,373 rush) and Chris McCoy in 1997 (1,203 pass, 1,370 rush).
•    Horvath finished as the #9 graded runner (all positions, min. 150 att.) by Pro Football Focus, while Lane III finished as the #9-rated safety (min. 825 snaps) and Heidenreich finished as the #2-rated receiver among all position players (min. of 50 targets). Connor McMahon (Sr. / OT) finished ranked as the 10th-best offensive tackle and the best pass blocker (min. 725 snap counts) among offensive tackles.