CFN Ranks the 2007 Midshipmen For What It's Worth

As mentioned many times before, I'm not a huge fan of CollegeFootballNews.com. They take a somewhat hostile approach towards non-BCS teams and have never shown a lot of love for the Service Academy teams. With this in mind, I wasn't all that surprised to see Navy ranked 65th for their early 2007 rankings. I know, I know, it's much too early to be worrying about these things, and who cares anyway, rankings are meaningless, right?

Well, yea, for all intensive purposes I guess they are meaningless, but a week into the offseason we do need something to talk about, don't you think? That's what I thought, of course in addition to the idea that 65th in the country is probably a little low. Despite often disagreeing over the nature of where the program stands and where it is going, most Navy fans will concede that the team probably falls into the 30-50 range on a year-in, year-out basis (or it has at least for the past couple seasons.) Even with that said I can understand the hesitation with so many starters leaving from the defense but c'mon, it's not like a whole bunch of freshmen are coming in to replace them. As I will show in my previews this week, Navy's 2007 defense, while young and inexperienced, won't be nearly as woeful as some of the national pundits may think. Combine that with what should be an even more improved offense, and you've certainly got the combination for a Top 50 team. But, as my father always says, so much the better. After all, what's the point in playing the underdog role if your not actually the underdog?

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

1-19-2007 @ 6:09PM

timdwight87 said...

With JT graduating next yr, who will be returning punts next yr? I would imagine Reggie Campbell (sp) is a possibility although I would love to see some of the other talent return some punts. Shinengo, Doyle ect ... Guys that are l little younger with not as much game time experience ...What is your take ...

By the Way the Website looks great. Thank You for your hard work.

Any word on a 2007 recruiting page. I think someone did one last yr although I can not remember who...

1-16-2007 @ 6:33PM

Adam said...

Campbell seems like the logical choice since he had some experience in '06. I would not be surprised to see White back there either. Shinego is an interesting guy because he's apparently pretty fast but I think Johnson wants to go with someone he knows can handle the ball cleanly. Yea, I remember that recruiting page last year (although I didn�t make it.) I've got a list of names and will probably compile something around "I" day either way.

Best,
Adam

1-18-2007 @ 5:07PM

Jeff said...

Even with that low ranking it still projects us at 8-4 against our schedule. I'd be pretty happy with that with the defense we are losing. Pitt and Wake Forest are only ranked 51 and 56 so those could almost project as tossups. Notre Dame is 35. Could they be ripe to be beaten this year?

1-18-2007 @ 5:13PM

I've been on record of saying that next year presents the best chance. That doesn't mean it's going to happen by any stretch of the imagination, but the chance should be there.

http://pitchright.blogspot.com/2006/05/does-window-even-exist_03.html

1-20-2007 @ 12:14PM

Gary Boyce said...

We NEVER get any respect from these Polls-even when we were ranked 25 in the AP Poll a few years ago-the media was saying just a year later that we were a 40th or lower ranked team.
There is a real bias against Service Academy teams for sure but it seems more so against Navy.
Maybe I feel that way because I expect better from the media about the team and it sucks looking at every magazine saying-"nice little team that plays hard every down"- but....... they cant beat Notre Dame and while we respect what they will do in their future-we really feel these are barely above Ivy League teams as far as serious contenders.
Yet Air Force did earn much more respect in their glory years from what I recall and there are many hoping for an Army football resurgence too.
But who cares-the year we ended up 25th we were probably about 75-80 as per so called experts.
If we can win 8-9 games this year it would be huge-but we HAVE to win more than the CIC and beat one of the big boys-Rutgers-ND or Wake and WEEK 2 will be the decider vs Rutgers-win and we get noticed by Coaches votes- LOSE and we will basically be dropped into a number 40 ranked team at best.
So early-YET SO CRUCIAL.....To me anyway....
Anyone else out there think that WEEK 2 is a real decider for the season?

1-20-2007 @ 11:19AM

BTW To all:
I agree with all that these teams are ripe to beat next year-but even if they are not highly ranked-Pitt-Wake are miles ahead of the likes of a Division 2 team we play so as Adam says- we should not really expect we can run the table on the BIG 4 of the schedule.