SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23 , 2021. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ SU D5
college football
BY KAREEM COPELANDNavy Coach Ken Niumatalolo
has consistently acknowledged
that his Midshipmen have pre-
cious little leeway for self-inflicted
mistakes. Besides often being un-
dersized and outmatched athleti-
cally, the team is still developing
its young quarterbacks and fight-
ing inconsistency on defense. All
of that has led to a 1-5 record that’s
a fourth-quarter comeback away
from being 0-6.
Now Cincinnati, the No. 2 team
in the country, is coming to Navy-
Marine Corps Memorial Stadium
carrying a 6-0 record and College
Football Playoff aspirations. The
Bearcats haven’t lost an American
Athletic Conference game since
the 2019 championship game and
are 28-point favorites.
“The margin for error for us is
very small,” Niumatalolo said dur-
ing his Monday news conference.
“We recognize that. One of the
biggest things that I’ve seen that’s
been really, really evident to me —
and I’ve been in the league 15 years
— teams are way better this year.
Just being on the field, that’s my
sense. Teams are way better.
“We have a lot of Power Five
players that have transferred.
Kind of feel like our league is a
kind of a good landing spot. We
know that we have to be on point
every week. Our margin of error is
minimal.”
Minimal might be putting it
lightly against the highest-ranked
team in Bearcats history. Cincin-
nati is on a torrid run, going 15-1
since the start of the 2020 season,
with the lone demerit a Peach
Bowl loss to now No. 1 Georgia.
Cincinnati features the No. 6 scor-
ing offense in the nation, averag-
ing 43.5 points after dropping
back-to-back 50-point games
against Temple and UCF. That was
the first time in school history it
scored 50 in consecutive games.The offense is balanced. The
running game is powered by Ala-
bama transfer Jerome Ford,
whose 118.2 rushing yards per
game rank seventh in the nation.
Navy defensive coordinator Brian
Newberry described him as a back
who “runs angry” and said the
Mids have to stop the run first
because everything else stems
from the ground game. Ford has
been the conference’s offensive
player of the week twice in a row
after rushing for a combined
338 yards and six touchdowns the
past two games.
Quarterback Desmond Ridder
is the reigning conference offen-
sive player of the year. He has size
(6-foot-4, 215 pounds), a big arm
and a strong command of the run-
pass option. He has thrown 13
touchdown passes and only two
interceptions.
The Midshipmen certainly
can’t afford the blown assign-
ments that allowed Memphis tocomplete passes of 49, 51 and
74 yards on top of a 69-yard rush-
ing touchdown Oct. 14.
“He’s the complete package,”
Newberry said of Ridder during
his weekly news conference. “He
runs that offense really, really
well. He’s a seasoned, savvy, confi-
dent veteran. Teammates believe
in him. Has a great arm. Very
athletic. Can run and can make
things happen with his feet when
it’s designed for him, and also
when things break down a little
bit, he’s able to get out of the
pocket, throws well on the run.
Makes big plays. He’s the real
deal.”
The bigger challenge may be
trying to find a way to score
against the country’s No. 3 de-
fense. Offense already has been an
issue for Navy; its 17.5 points per
game rank 121st in the nation, and
quarterback Tai Lavatai is banged
up again after leaving the Mem-
phis game, though Niumatalolosaid he expects the signal caller to
be back Saturday. The offense has
shown improvement in the past
three games with Lavatai under
center, but the overall operation
still has its struggles.
Niumatalolo would like long,
sustained offensive drives to keep
the Cincinnati offense on the side-
line, and the Bearcats are a bit
softer against the run than
through the air with their
1 1th-ranked pass defense. The run
defense allows 124.5 yards per
game (No. 37) and gave up
155 yards and two scores to UCF
last week.
“It’s huge having the No. 2 team
coming to our house,” wide receiv-
er Mychal Cooper said. “We’ve got
to be perfect. We’ve got to make
some big plays and have got to be
dominant. And show our fans and
the rest of the world what we can
do.
“Every team is a beatable team.”
Navy has a few not-so-distantexamples of exactly that. The Mids
beat sixth-ranked Houston at
home, 46-40, in 2016 and toppled
second-ranked South Carolina,
38-21, at home in 1984. They also
beat the No. 2 team in the nation
in 1944 (Notre Dame) and 1950
(Army).
The Midshipmen have had
plenty of chances to fall apart but
have remained united despite
having lost 12 of their past
16 games. They managed just
10 points combined in the open-
ing two games of 2021, and offen-
sive coordinator Ivin Jasper lost
that title and is now just the quar-
terbacks coach. The defense has
dealt with injuries, particularly in
the secondary, but has continued
to put up a good fight against
more talented teams.
“We’re just lucky that we have
an opportunity to shock the
world,” defensive tackle J’arius
Warren said.
[email protected]Struggling Navy has no margin for error as No. 2 Cincinnati comes to town
BY EMILY GIAMBALVOFour years ago, on the sideline
at a high school football game,
Kobi Thomas sat on the bench in
tears, away from the rest of his
team while his father tried to
console him. A shoulder injury
had derailed Thomas’s senior sea-
son at DeMatha, and that stretch
of a few months was supposed to
be when he corralled some long-
awaited scholarship offers. In-
stead, Thomas’s shoulder dislo-
cated twice during the season
opener, a nationally televised trip
to Las Vegas to face Bishop Gor-
man. Thomas spent weeks rehab-
bing — delaying surgery with
hopes of finishing the season —
only for his shoulder to pop out of
place again when he returned to
the field at this October game
against Gonzaga.
Some teammates offered com-
fort as Thomas thought to him-
self, “Man, why does this have to
happen to me?” The dreams of
playing big-time college football
seemed in jeopardy, a worry that
materialized when Thomas
watched DeMatha’s signing day
ceremony from the crowd. Thom-
as clapped for his close friends
heading off to Power Five schools
but knew he had always imagined
being celebrated alongside them.
Thomas could have signed that
day, too. He had a scholarship
offer to Morgan State of the Foot-
ball Championship Subdivision,
but he envisioned something
more.
“ W hy would I settle for less,
knowing myself and knowing the
standard I have for myself?”
Thomas said. “It just didn’t sit
right with me. I don’t think I
would have been happy going
anywhere else.”
Thomas decided to pursue a
walk-on spot at Maryland, even
though that meant he would join
the team with no guarantees of
playing a meaningful role. He
hoped he would see the field by
way of special teams, and perhaps
he could play linebacker toward
the end of lopsided games. Thom-
as felt content in that unheralded
role. So all he experienced in the
whirlwind of the past month —
the rapid ascension from a full-
time scout team player to a key
contributor with a starting job
against then-No. 5 Iowa — came
as an unexpected surprise in the
wake of several injuries among
the Terrapins’ inside linebackers.
When Thomas attended De-
Matha, two miles down the road
from Maryland, he and his friends
sometimes drove to the college
campus during their lunch peri-
od, even though they weren’t sup-
posed to leave. They parked in the
lot outside the football facility,
sometimes finding tickets on the
windshield after lunch, and ate
inside the student union as if they
were already in college. Thomas
loved Panda Express.
He couldn’t enroll at Maryland
until he took classes for a semes-
ter at a c ommunity college, so in
the fall of 2018, Thomas studied
writing and criminal justice while
working at Dave & Buster’s. He
had high school friends already
on Maryland’s team, so he visited
with them often. It all felt like
“foreshadowing,” he said. His
winding path finally reached Col-
lege Park that winter, just after
the school hired Coach MichaelLocksley, and then Thomas’s
steep climb toward playing time
began.
The linebackers’ room at Mary-
land includes more than a dozen
players on scholarship, and
Thomas knew his chances of be-
coming a regular were slim. But
he knew that when he chose this
route, turning down options
where he could play frequently in
favor of this one. He had worked
his way up at DeMatha, a power-
house program, and figured he
could aim to do the same in
College Park.
“I knew how the game of foot-
ball works,” said Thomas, who is
set to graduate in the spring but
will have eligibility remaining.
“You keep your head down, just
keep working. Eventually some-
thing is going to shake for you.”
Except that in Thomas’s first
spring game at Maryland, his
shoulder dislocated again and he
needed another surgery. The fa-
miliar injury kept him out of the2019 season. During the pandem-
ic-shortened 2020 campaign,
Thomas appeared in every game,
primarily on special teams. Head-
ing into this season, he felt confi-
dent. His understanding of the
game had improved, and he had
three years of experience in this
program.
When asked when he felt like
he belonged, Thomas thought for
a moment and then said, “I feel
like maybe this year a little bit.”
Thomas’s position group had a
few established returners and
newcomers expected to contrib-
ute, so he worked exclusively with
the scout team in the first four
weeks of the season. The Terps
opened their Big Ten slate at Illi-
nois, and Thomas’s dad, Cadell,
had attended high school about
an hour south of Chicago. Some
family members had tickets to
that game. Before Thomas’s dad
boarded the plane, he found out
that his son hadn’t made the trav-
el roster.“He was really in the dumps
about it,” Thomas’s dad said.
“... At this point, you don’t know
what to think as far as what the
coaches think about you. If they
don’t think enough about you for
you to even travel with them now,
what does that mean?”
The next weekend, Maryland
faced Kent State at home, and
Thomas’s dad, who is a rail super-
visor for Metro, went to work
instead of the game. He was on
the platform at t he East Falls
Church station in Arlington when
the calls and texts started bom-
barding his phone.
Starting inside linebacker Ru-
ben Hyppolite II couldn’t play the
second half because of an injury,
so Brawley Evans, the coach of
that position group, told Thomas
at halftime he would play the rest
of the way. Thomas had practiced
only with the scout team all week.
He kept reminding himself how
that experience against the Terps’
first-team offense would help himhere.
Early in the fourth quarter,
Maryland called a blitz, and “as
soon as they hiked the ball,”
Thomas said, “I saw it open up.”
So he sprinted toward the quar-
terback, pushed past the running
back and notched his first career
sack, prompting a rush of emo-
tion.
“Here’s a g uy that didn’t get a
lot of work all week long,” Lock-
sley said, “but he was prepared to
go out and play when his opportu-
nity and turn came.”
For Thomas, preparing for the
Iowa game the following week
brought a new sense of responsi-
bility. He knew he would be a
starter for the first time in his
career. Freshman Branden Jen-
nings, who had started in p lace of
the injured Fa’Najae Gotay, was
also sidelined with an injury, so
Thomas had to step in. He didn’t
feel nervous, only “super focused,”
he said. One of his mistakes led to
Iowa’s 67-yard touchdown recep-
tion in the third quarter, after the
game was already out of hand,
and that disappointed Thomas.
Thomas didn’t start the next
week against Ohio State; Ahmad
McCullough instead earned the
nod alongside Hyppolite. But
Thomas has maintained a spot in
the rotation as Jennings works his
way back to the field, which could
come as soon as Saturday at Min-
nesota. Even if his playing time
dwindles as the Terps become
healthier, Thomas always will
hold the rare distinction of being
a walk-on who got to start.
Once it became apparent that
Thomas had made that improba-
ble jump, he received a red jersey
to wear in practice. The members
of the scout team wear black,
while the defensive contributors
are in red. Thomas said he wore
that red No. 35 for one day, but
then he switched back. The red
didn’t feel right. And all season,
no matter how much he plays,
Thomas wants to remember the
mentality he embraced when he
started on this path.
“I just feel like years from now,
I would probably look back and
just smile at how I persevered
through everything,” Thomas
said. “Who would keep playing
football after four shoulder inju-
ries, two surgeries, not really get-
ting that much playing time?”
[email protected]Terps’ Thomas made improbable leap from scout team to starter
TAYLOR MCLAUGHLIN/MARYLAND TERRAPINS
Maryland walk-on and DeMatha graduate Kobi Thomas started against Iowa and has maintained a place in the linebacker rotation.BY GENE WANGMidway through a tumultuous
season for the Virginia Tech foot-
ball team, the outlook has turned
particularly bleak offensively fol-
lowing the unit’s worst statistical
showing under Coach Justin Fu-
ente, whose future remains uncer-
tain amid discontent from a fan
base that is losing patience with
the program’s downturn.
The Hokies rank last among the
14 ACC schools in total offense
(311.8) and second-to-last in scor-
ing (21.7) entering Saturday after-
noon’s game against Syracuse at
Lane Stadium that matches teams
with one conference win com-
bined.
“We’ve got to find a way to get
our guys playing with some confi-
dence, the way we played early in
the year, which wasn’t prolific, but
it was certainly confident,” Fuente
said. “Slowly watched over the last
several weeks almost a shift there
in the confidence level. Our de-
fense is increasing, and offensively
it’s decreased, so we’ve got to find a
way to kind of get that back the way
it was.”
The most recent loss — a 28-7
setback to Pittsburgh at home —
included just 224 yards of total
offense, the fewest for Virginia
Tech (3-3, 1-1 ACC) since Fuente
took over before the 2016 season. It
also marked the fewest points dur-
ing Fuente’s tenure.
Quarterback Braxton Burmeis-
ter threw for 134 yards, completing
11 of 32 attempts with one touch-
down and one interception. The
Hokies averaged 3.2 yards per car-
ry, with their longest run of the
game coming via Burmeister’s
1 7-yard scamper.
Those dreary numbers are a far
cry from the production that
earned Fuente a reputation as an
offensive wizard, especially when
it came to quarterback develop-
ment. As the coach at Memphis, his
previous stop before Blacksburg,
Va., Fuente shaped Paxton Lynch
into a first-round draft pick.
As offensive coordinator at Tex-
as Christian, Fuente oversaw Andy
Dalton’s two most productive sea-
sons in college, the last of which
featured career highs of 2,857 pass-
ing yards, 27 touchdowns and a
completion percentage of 66.1 as a
senior. Dalton went in the second
round of the NFL draft in 2011.Burmeister entered this season
in peak physical condition, accord-
ing to Fuente, and primed to lead
Virginia Tech back into contention
for the ACC Coastal Division title
after it went 5-6 during a coronavi-
rus-plagued 2020 and withdrew
from bowl consideration to end its
streak of appearances at 27 in a
row.
The results, however, are far
from what the Hokies envisioned.
Burmeister has thrown for
1,064 yards and six touchdowns
with three interceptions on 88-for-
163 passing. The transfer from Or-
egon is near the bottom of the ACC
in passing efficiency (117.3) and
completion percentage (54.0).
Burmeister also has been nurs-
ing a sore right shoulder from a
hard fall and a defender subse-
quently landing on him during the
second half of a 32-29 loss to Notre
Dame on Oct. 9. It has limited the
redshirt junior’s i nclination to run
when protection breaks down in
the pocket.
“I mean I feel like my feet are a
big weapon, and being banged up,
it’s always tough,” Burmeister said.
“It’s always like a coach’s call type
of thing. You don’t want to take abig hit and worry about that. I like
to run, and it helps my game, but
got to be smart about it.”
Burmeister attempted a quar-
terback sneak early against Pitts-
burgh, but the Panthers stuffed
him for no gain on fourth and one
and reclaimed possession at their
35-yard line. The Hokies ran just
four plays in Pittsburgh territory
during the first half, all the more
disheartening given that two pos-
sessions began at midfield.
Virginia Tech had five three-
and-outs in the first half and punt-
ed a season-high eight times over-
all.
Even the Hokies’ lone touch-
down came largely as the result of
Pittsburgh miscues rather than
cris p offense. Burmeister did com-
plete a 47-yard pass to Tre Turner
and a two-yard scoring throw to
sophomore wide receiver Tayvion
Robinson, whose one-handed
catch in the end zone made the
score 28-7 with 6:33 to play in the
third quarter.
But to reach that point, Virginia
Tech benefited from two pass in-
terference calls against the Pan-
thers.
With an opportunity to getHokies’ lethargic offense has nowhere to go but up
within 14 points, Burmeister’s pass
on fourth and five from the Pitts-
burgh 37 fell incomplete with 3:53
remaining in the third quarter.
This weekend Virginia Tech fac-
es an opponent ranked second in
the ACC in total defense (308.9).
The Orange (3-4, 0-3) is coming off
a 17-14 loss to Clemson in which it
permitted 314 yards of total offense
and limited the Tigers to 3.1 yardsper carry.
“We’re halfway through the year.
We’ve got a lot of football left in
front of us,” said Virginia Tech left
tackle Luke Tenuta, a redshirt
sophomore. “We’ve just got to fo-
cus on our jobs and go 1-0 each
week, and obviously the Pitt loss
hurt, but we’re on to Syracuse
though.”
[email protected]MATT GENTRY/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Coach Justin Fuente is hoping Virginia Tech’s offense, which ranks
last in the ACC, can rediscover its mojo Saturday against Syracuse.