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Heather Dinich, ESPN Senior Writer
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — On a hot, sunny, September morning, hundreds of Midshipmen, dressed in their matching fatigues for a “tactical Thursday,” crisscrossed Navy‘s campus to get to their next class, identical black backpacks hanging from their shoulders.
Midstride, a Midshipman peered out from under the brim of his required hat to say good morning with a huge grin.
“That’s our quarterback,” Navy fullback Daba Fofana told a nearby visitor.
Listed at 6-foot-2, 195 pounds, junior Blake Horvath easily blends in with his classmates on the Yard during school hours — his 3.53 GPA as an operations research major included. When it comes to Navy quarterbacks, though, Horvath stands alone as the best dual-purpose quarterback the program has seen — and probably the only one in the country who wasn’t a household name entering this season but has aligned himself statistically with some of the best in the sport.
The highest a Navy quarterback has ever finished in QBR — which ESPN has been tracking since 2004 — is sixth, by Malcolm Perry in 2019. Horvath entered this week ranked No. 3 in total QBR but for about a month was No. 1 — a spot that in years past has been reserved for the likes of Jayden Daniels (2023), Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud (2021), Alabama’s Mac Jones (2020), LSU’s Joe Burrow (2019) and Oklahoma’s Kyler Murray (2018).
Just a few first-round NFL draft picks.
“And there’s Blake!” said Navy quarterbacks coach Ivin Jasper with a smile.
Not bad for an unassuming Ohio kid who was recruited by a few Division II schools and Mid-American schools Toledo, Ball State and Miami (Ohio) — as a wide receiver and safety.
“People do not understand,” Jasper said. “Blake is really sneaky athletic. You see some high school film where he’s going off two feet and dunking it — I mean going up and throwing it down. It was like, ‘Whoa.’ But he walks in the room, he has this goofy smile on his face, he’s always cracking jokes and giving guys a hard time. He reminds me of the character Mahoney from ‘Police Academy.’ People came after him as a safety, a receiver — he’s a real smart football player, I’m sure he can do any of those things — but we’re happy he’s playing quarterback for us.”
Horvath is a big reason why Navy enters Saturday’s critical game against Notre Dame in Metlife Stadium with a 6-0 record for the first time since 1979. He’s leading the nation’s No. 4 scoring offense (44.8), Navy’s highest average in more than 100 years. The Midshipmen are also No. 1 in red zone offense (23-23), No. 2 in yards per completion (19.3), and No. 4 in rushing offense (274.8).
Horvath, whose breakout season is also his first as the full-time starter, joins Alabama’s Jalen Milroe as the only two quarterbacks in the FBS who have reached double figures in both rushing (10) and passing touchdowns (10) this fall. Horvath, who has thrown only one interception, has been responsible for 20.7 points per game, which ranks seventh nationally. And he enters this week ranked as the No. 1 overall quarterback in the FBS by Pro Football Focus with a grade of 92.7 and the No. 2 overall runner (all players, not just quarterbacks) with a grade of 93.0.
This is an undefeated quarterback whose class lineup includes advanced math programming, data wrangling and visualization, applications of cyber engineering, and dynamic and stochastic models.
(Free wings for any college football fan who knows what stochastic models are.)
“Academics are pretty tough here,” Horvath said. “So, being able to take a bad grade on a test, or a bad quiz and go over to football and forgetting about it — or the other way around, and not letting the success of football get to your head and make you take academics any lighter, because they’re both equally as important in their own right.
“In the past, one of the big things for our football team has been exam weeks,” he said. “During exam weeks, things get pretty stressful, and last season, our two worst games were during exam weeks because of the stress and everything. This year, we already had one during UAB week and we were able to pull out the win. It’s indicative of our team and our ability to overcome some things this season.”
(No, they don’t have exams this week before the Notre Dame game.)
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Blake Horvath launches 77-yard pass to Nathan Kent for Navy TD
Blake Horvath connects with Nathan Kent on a 77-yard pass to make it 21-3 to Navy over UAB.
Instead, the test is whether Navy can sustain its offensive success against a Notre Dame defense that will be light years better than any the Midshipmen have faced so far this season. The Irish are No. 5 in the country in scoring defense, holding opponents to 11.86 points per game. Navy’s opponents are currently ranked 119th in winning percentage (.433).
While Navy’s offense has been soaring, it has come against only one team with a winning record: Memphis (5-1). Temple, UAB and Air Force have combined for four wins.
This isn’t the Navy offense you’re used to seeing, though.
Navy still runs the triple option — in fact first-year offensive coordinator Drew Cronic’s roots are the wing-T. Navy, though, has modernized it.
How?
Well, for starters they call it the “Millennial wing-T.”
It’s a multiple offense. Navy’s quarterbacks have to be fluent in the option, RPO and pro style. They run zone reads and inside zone, and it’s all working. Navy is just one of three teams in the country, along with Army and Indiana, that have won every game this season by double digits.
“It’s not the old-school wing-T that some high schools still run, under center, only handoff left, handoff right,” said Horvath, who is one of three quarterbacks with at least 10 rushing touchdowns, along with rival Army’s Bryson Daily and Alabama’s Milroe. “You can run whatever you want, and we sort of do that. We’ll line up in shotgun, we’ll do whatever’s necessary to get our guys the football in positions for them to succeed.”
Make no mistake — this is still a run-first offense, as Horvath has only attempted 72 passes. By comparison, LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier has thrown it 284 times. The difference in Cronic’s system is that Horvath is talented enough to add that option to the playbook. He has completed 64% of his passes — almost the same as Nussmeier (64.7%). Heading into a game against Navy’s first ranked opponent, Horvath is on pace to not only join but, in some cases, blow by some records set by the who’s who of Navy quarterbacks.
Horvath can obliterate the school record for passing efficiency set by Malcolm Perry, and he’s on pace for the third-best completion percentage behind Hall of Famer Roger Staubach (who is also first and second). He can become the first quarterback in school history to throw for 2,000 and rush for 1,000.
“We have a lot of really good football players here, kids who I think can play anywhere in the country,” Cronic said. “Maybe they’re 2 inches short or 10 pounds light, but we have some kids who can run and do some things and play the football. Blake’s running by people.”
Horvath can also crush the school record for passing yards per attempt (set by Will Worth) and passing yards per completion (set by Ricky Dobbs) and passing touchdowns in a season (also set by Dobbs).
As a team, the 6-0 start is a departure from the recent past. Navy finished 5-7, 4-8, 4-8 and 3-7 the past four seasons. They haven’t had a winning season since going 11-2 in 2019.
“We talk a lot about what the seniors have been through, and what a lot of guys as a team have been through in the past few years,” Horvath said. “We really wanted to come into this season making a change, and to leave a legacy that’s different from what we’ve produced in the past. Being in the position that I’m in, Navy’s had a lot of great quarterbacks — Keenan Reynolds, Malcolm Perry, Roger Staubach — a lot of guys who have been the face of Navy football because they were the quarterback. So when it comes to being a quarterback here, you’re sort of thrust into that role and you have to be able to handle it.”
Horvath earned the role late this past spring, when he beat sophomore Braxton Woodson for the starting job in what was a “neck and neck” competition. Horvath had only started one game last season — and only played in four total games in his collegiate career. His season ended early in October 2023 because of a dislocated thumb that required surgery and a screw. Jasper said Horvath’s arm has gotten stronger, he’s throwing the football better — and it’s all “way more” than they expected.
“You really didn’t know until he got into the games how he was going to respond under the lights,” Jasper said. “We are loving this. We’ve got our quarterback.”
Just two years ago, their quarterback was on the scout team and didn’t play one snap in a game. Now he has thrown for at least 100 yards in all six games — the longest streak by a Navy quarterback since Jim Kubiak did it in 22 straight games over the 1993 and ’94 seasons.
“He’ll step in to throw, know he’s gonna get hit and put it on the money,” Navy coach Brian Newberry said.
And those within the program agree that even with all of his achievements, Horvath has remained humble.
“Blake has the ability of conveying confidence without it being arrogance,” Cronic said. “He has a toughness about him. He needs the right skill set, obviously, but if he’s tough and he’s a competitor, and the guys believe he’s going to get ’em in the end zone, that’s what you’re looking for. When they believe we’re gonna win because he’s in the game, everybody else just plays better, plays freer.”
Navy, one of just 10 undefeated teams left in the country, was picked by the media to finish 11th in the 14-team American Athletic Conference. The Midshipmen are currently in second place with a win over preseason favorite Memphis. A win against Notre Dame would give Navy its first 7-0 start since 1978.
It would also legitimize Navy as a possible playoff contender, as the five highest-ranked conference champions are guaranteed a spot in the 12-team field. If Navy wins the AAC — and has a neutral-site road win against Notre Dame on its résumé — the CFP selection committee could rank Navy high enough for inclusion. It would also depend on how the other Group of 5 conference races unfold, starting Friday night with Boise State at UNLV.
Navy has only beaten a ranked Notre Dame team four times in the series history, the last coming in 2009. While Horvath has come to realize he has played his way into elite company, he remains grounded in who he is.
“I don’t have to do anything outside of who I am to win a game,” said Horvath, who was recruited out of Hilliard Darby High School in Hilliard, Ohio. “I don’t have to go in and play like Joe Burrow or Caleb Williams in order for us to win. I can just be Blake Horvath and we can still win the game. As long as everyone else is doing the same, we’ll be pretty good.”
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