Photo via Deseret News

Reflecting on 2017, I feel both honored and blessed to have talked ball with some amazing coaches, and to have shared those conversations with the coaching community. I've learned so much in sitting down and picking the brains of some great football minds. For me, it's so hard to choose a favorite, because every coach I talked with taught me something new about coaching.  

One favorite was my conversation with Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo, who has led the program since 2007, posting a record of 84-48. Ken began his coaching career with the offensive line in the triple option system. While he would've preferred to work with a skill position, he now sees it as a blessing in disguise. His early career involved learning the system and learning from being fired.

The triple option is a selfless offense, and in Ken’s mind, fits well at a place like the Naval Academy. It’s a team-oriented offense that more than anything is sound by design. It has the answers built into the system based on numbers and angles.  

Coach Niumatalolo feels building culture and team unity are bigger than schematics. Culture is everything at Navy. It’s about being a family built off love and trust. The great thing is, players need to learn about those things, because they apply in the real world, especially the military.

Ken tells his assistants if everything in a meeting is built off video and X's and O’s, then it's not a good meeting. Building culture and men of character needs to be a part of it. He builds it into all team activities. While human nature is, “What’s in it for me,” football needs to be about building love and trust.

At Navy, every year it starts with, “What’s your why?” Coach makes sure everyone's on the same page in sharing the vision of “developing young men of character and leadership.” He continues, “The why dictates the what and how of your program.”  He sets the standards first with the coaching staff, because it starts with them and they need to model it.

Coach dug into some of his offense, from how he installs it with freshmen to how he's worked in new concepts like RPO, which to him, fits well within the option scheme. It’s not necessarily part of the package, but adds a wrinkle to the Navy offense.  

Up-tempo has become part of Navy’s approach as well. While they don’t go fast all the time, no-huddle is a part of what they do. They vary the tempo based on what the team needs to do at certain points in the game. With only four teams running this offense at the D-I level, Ken discusses the advantages that presents, and how each coach is able to give the offensive coordinator feedback to make quick adjustments. Having a system allows him to have answers and know how to fix it during the game.

The interview with Coach Niumatalolo was a great experience. Talking to him was like talking with one of my coaching buddies. During our conversation, I shared that I took a step back from coaching to see my son and daughter play high school sports. When we finished and were saying our goodbyes, coach said, “Keith, you made the right decision.” It really showed me how genuine he is.

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