Two weeks ago today, on Saturday, Dec. 1, Navy beat Army for the 6th year in a row. To put that in perspective, Navy was going for a 6th win in Roger Staubach's senior year and came up short. This was a big deal. Prior to the game, Head Coach Paul Johnson deflected rumors that he was about to leave Navy, saying, "It would take a special deal..." Meanwhile, Navy AD Chet Gladchuk, a smart cookie who saw offers come to Johnson last year, mentioned after the game to Offensive Coordinator Ken Niumatalolo that if anything happened, he wanted to talk.
And here's what happened.
Dec. 2 - 6
Coach Paul Johnson met with his agent, then visited SMU, Duke and Georgia Tech. One of the negotiating points may have been Johnson's ability to bring staff from Navy.
Friday, Dec. 7
That morning Coach Johnson met with Gladchuk, told him that he was going to accept an offer from Georgia Tech, and then went to meet with the team. Johnson's plan was to make a clean break and leave immediately, so he wouldn't coach Navy in the Poinsettia Bowl on Dec. 20 in San Diego.
Apparently while Johnson was meeting with the team (who had made their own pleas for Johnson to stay), Gladchuk phoned Niumatalolo, who was off on a recruiting trip, and asked him to come back to talk about the head coaching job.
Friday afternoon Navy announced that Johnson was leaving and then Georgia Tech held a press conference to introduce their new head coach. In Navy's announcement, Gladchuk said that his goal was to "keep things glued together." Hmmm...
Saturday, Dec. 8
Navy announced that the new head coach would be Ken Niumatalolo.
Monday, Dec. 10
The team had its first practice with the new head coach. Reaction from the team was overall positive.
Coach Ken, newly promoted Offensive Coordinator Ivin Jasper and Defensive Coordinator Buddy Greene, both of whom will stay on, also paid a quick visit to the Naval Academy Prep School and met with the guys up there.
Thursday, Dec. 13
Joe DuPaix, Offensive Coordinator at Cal Poly, told the San Luis Obispo "Tribune" that he was going to Navy as the running backs coach. He'll join the staff in January.
First of all, Chet Gladchuk should get an award not only for keeping things glued together, but for making moves that should advance the program at Navy.
Second of all, it's been interesting to piece together all the relationships among the cast of characters. But that's a topic for a whole 'nother entry.
Go Navy! Beat Utah!
2 comments:
It really has been a crazy couple of weeks. I was sad to see Coach Johnson leave, but I don't think that things could have gone any better for us since then. Keeping this much of the staff was a real surprise to me.
I totally agree, and I can't wait to see how the team does on Thursday night.
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