Navy Football: How will Midshipmen fare in the ACC?

By Tommy Tabler | Aug 11, 2015

After being an independent for 134 years, Navy has joined the American Athletic Conference, so how will Navy adjust to the AAC?

Navy’s offense is going to be different from the ones that we have seen from opposing teams in the AAC. Schools such as SMU, Memphis, and Houston are a more aggressive passing style offense, while Navy tends to keep the offense on the ground with their option attack and only passed for 1,058 yards last season.

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The Midshipmen ground game is difficult for the opposing defenses to stop with quarterback Keenan Reynolds one of the most dynamic players in Midshipmen history. Navy rushed for 4,395 yards last season and would like a total similar to that number this season and should be as good if not better with Reynolds under center.

Their schedule gets more difficult with traditional rivals Notre Dame, Army, and Air Force remaining on the schedule, but he AAC will make the schedule daunting, especially during the last month of the season. Navy travels to Houston and Tulsa during the last month and with Houston and Tulsa bringing in new head coaches, Tom Herman and Phillip Montgomery, their programs are poised to take off.

The AAC should be a conference that gains a little more national respect with the addition of Navy, according to Bill Wagner of capitalgazette.com who points out the addition of Navy means the conference will have their first conference championship game this year.

Being an Independent in college football is a tall order unless you are a school like Notre Dame or BYU, so it makes sense to join a conference even if Navy faces growing pains early in the AAC. However, I expect them possibly even challenge for the conference championship.

Let me hear from you Navy fans. Will this be a season that you expect to go bowling once again? Or is it a season where some of the AAC teams could slip up on the Midshipmen?

Next: 10 Teams Who Need To Join A New Conference

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