Napoleon Sykes enters his fifth year at the Naval Academy and his fourth coaching the outside linebackers. Sykes coached the outside linebackers at Navy in 2010 and 2011 and assisted with the defensive line in 2016.
Navy finished the 2017 campaign with a 7-6 record, which included a 49-7 rout of Virginia in the Military Bowl. The 42-point margin of victory was the largest by a Navy team over a team from the autonomy 5 since the Mids beat West Virginia, 51-7, in the 1963 season opener. The Mids played eight games against teams that went to a bowl game and played five teams that won 10 or more games.
The defense improved in all four major categories in 2017: against the run (154.5 yards per game), the pass (215.8 yards per game), total defense (370.3 yards per game) and scoring defense (26.3 points per game).
Navy finished the 2016 campaign with a 9-5 mark and a 7-1 record in the American Athletic Conference despite a season that saw the Mids have 102 missed games by starters or key contributors. The Mids played Temple in the AAC Championship Game and played in a bowl game (Armed Forces) for the 13th time in the last 14 years. The nine wins tied for the fifth most in school history.
Sykes coached outside linebackers along side Tony Grantham at Navy in 2010 and 2011. In 2010, Navy went 9-4, defeated Army and Notre Dame and participated in the Poinsettia Bowl.
He coached the outside linebackers at Charlotte where he helped the 49ers start their football program in 2012, play in the FCS in 2013 (5-6), and 2014 (5-6) and then in Conference USA last year. In 2013, he helped the 49ers defense rank ninth in the FCS in takeaways (31), fifth in fumbles recovered (16) and 29th in tackles for a loss (6.9 per game).
Sykes earned three varsity letters at Wake Forest as a linebacker and special teams performer from 2003-05. He graduated in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in English and a minor in journalism.
He got his coaching career started in the summer of 2006 when he served as an assistant coach at his high school alma mater, the Gilman School, in Baltimore. He went on to serve as the defensive coordinator for the semi-pro Bay Atlantic Sharks that fall and helped lead them to the Semi-Pro National Championship Series.
After teaching and serving as the co-defensive coordinator at Mallard Creek High School in Charlotte, N.C. in 2007, Sykes returned to his college alma mater to serve as the offensive graduate assistant in 2008 and the defensive graduate assistant in 2009.
Sykes is married to the former Christy Williams, who was a star volleyball player at Wake Forest, and they have two sons, Bodhi and Noah.
