The Navy Midshipmen football team figures to be a contender in the American Athletic Conference with quarterback Blake Horvath at the controls.
But where does he — and the Midshipmen quarterback room, for that matter — rank in the country? ESPN sought to find out.
David Hale ranked and tiered every quarterback situation for all 136 FBS teams recently. The idea wasn’t just to rank starters — it was to rank the entire quarterback room, though in most cases he dug into each team’s two-deep roster.
Where Does Navy’s QB Situation Rate in the Country?
Hale started with what he called Tier 1, or the top of the class. That ended up being five teams — Clemson, LSU, Oklahoma, Penn State and South Carolina. All have experience at the top of the depth chart and intriguing backups.
Next was Tier 1B, which was Florida, Miami and Texas. Tier 2 was, in his estimation, “pretty darned good” with Arizona State, Baylor, Iowa State and Georgia Tech.
Navy landed on Tier 3, which he termed “buckle up.” This group included Arkansas, Duke, Kansas, Louisville, SMU, TCU, Texas Tech and Vanderbilt.
He wrote that because every quarterback on the list has provided highlight plays and still has a question mark or two, it’s the tier that will probably provide the “most fun” this season.
The Midshipmen ranked among the Top 21 quarterback situations in the country, which includes Horvath’s backup, Braxton Woodson.
Hale did spotlight Horvath’s QBR last year, which was 83.6. It was the seventh-best of the playoff era of any quarterback outside the power four schools.
Horvath emerged as the starter last year and put together a year that helped the Mids win the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy.
He rushed for 1,246 yards and 17 touchdowns and throw for 1,353 yards with 13 touchdowns and four interceptions. He threw for the 10th most yards in program history. He also became the third quarterback in Navy history to rush and pass for more than 1,200 yards in the same season.
Woodson played a smattering of downs as he rushed for 170 yards and three touchdowns and threw for 243 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. In a pinch, the Mids can turn to his experience.
Navy went 10-3 last season, concluding the campaign with a victory over the Oklahoma Sooners in the Armed Forces Bowl. The season was Navy’s sixth with at least 10 wins and fell one win short of their 11-wins seasons in 2015 and 2019.
Navy’s wins over its service academy rivals were some of the most decisive in recent memory.
Navy won those two games by a combined 45 points, which tied the 2019 Navy team for the biggest combined CIC margin of victory by any of the three service academies since 2007 when Navy beat Air Force and Army by a combined 46 points.
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