The Midshipmen have all the momentum in the world headed into this week’s game against a. 500 Tulsa team – a matchup they’re favored to win by 12 points. Quarterback Keenan Reynolds, the FBS career leader in rushing touchdowns, pushed his total to 82 and became the program’s rushing leader.
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ABOUT NAVY (8-1, 6-0 AAC): Reynolds ran for four scores in last week’s 55-14 win over SMU, giving him 81 for his career and moving him ahead of former Wisconsin great Montee Ball and into first place on the all-time list.
Navy is the highest-ranked Group of Five team at No. 16 in the College Football Playoff rankings and controls its own destiny for a spot in the American Athletic Conference championship game.
Navy won 17-10 for a 13th consecutive win in the series. Its lone touchdowns were scored on the ground, with Zack Langer punching in two and D’Angelo Brewer scoring with three minutes left. The Midshipmen had back-to-back 4-yard rushes, including one by Demond Brown for a touchdown that put them up 30-7. A bad snap rolled past Tulsa quarterback Dane Evans, who tried unsuccessfully to pick up the ball and it was knocked through the end zone for a safety to make it 23-7 at halftime.
“Those guys have scored a ton of points on a lot of good teams”, said Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo.
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It was no surprise that Navy chewed up the Golden Hurricane’s 115th-ranked run defense. He leads with five sacks, which likely won’t be an issue with run-oriented Navy, but he also has 11 other tackles-for-loss. Navy Midshipmen rank at 5 for 310.5 road rushing yards where as Tulsa Golden Hurricane rank at 124 for allowing 273.8 rushing yards at home. Keenan and Co. will have their way on offense and Tulsa will keep pace early until the rhythm of the game takes over and the LOOOONG Navy possessions start to really take a toll on their struggling defense.
