ANNAPOLIS, Md. >> He’s only 48 and still looks younger, but there are creases in Ken Niumatalolo’s face that weren’t there when he was a kid at Radford High School and a young man at the University of Hawaii … lines that were still absent as recently as 2009, when the Navy team he coaches last played against his alma mater, absorbing a 24-17 loss to UH at Aloha Stadium.
Maybe it’s the wind that whips off Chesapeake Bay onto the Navy practice field. Maybe it’s the stresses of being a college football head coach, even a winning one like him. Niumatalolo still projects youthful energy and the ever-present calmness, but there’s also a distinctly veteran vibe as he prepares his heavily favored Midshipmen to host the winless Rainbow Warriors on Saturday.
He smiles when speaking of aging into a different generation of UH alumni.
“The (UH) players, we know because I know a lot of the fathers,” Niumatalolo said after practice on Monday. “I played with their fathers. Boyd Yap’s son, the defensive end (Beau). I played with (Boyd) at UH. Makes me feel old.”
Last Saturday’s loss at Notre Dame wasn’t exactly the fountain of youth, either. A narrow 38-34 defeat at South Bend evened Navy’s record at 4-4. Niumatalolo’s biggest job this week is pumping life back into a bitterly disappointed team. Navy played a nearly perfect game on offense — no turnovers, no penalties — but a bad pitch on a potential game-winning drive betrayed the Midshipmen.
“You’ve always got to try to move on. There’s nothing we can do about that game,” he said. “The kids played hard, I was proud of the effort. We still lost. But the past is the past. We’d better be ready to move on to play a team that is hungry for a win. Any kind of sorrow or sadness from that game we’d better get over it quickly.”
Hawaii is 0-8, but the way Niumatalolo and offensive coordinator Ivin Jasper talk, the Rainbow Warriors are Alabama, Oregon and Florida State all rolled into one. Jasper, like Niumatalolo, is a former UH quarterback.
“I’m not making a big deal about that. It’s a big game for us coming off a heartbreaking loss, so we’ve got to get ready to play,” Jasper said. “They’re athletic, they’re physical, they’re gonna hit you in the mouth. Records mean nothing. We’re no one to look down on anything. It’s an even field. We have to come out and play focused and play hard. Take care of the football, play Navy football and get after them.”
They’ve been through a lot together, Niumatalolo and Jasper. Jasper has been at Navy the past 14 years, Niumatalolo 15 of the past 18.
While Niumatalolo was a graduate assistant at UH from 1990 to 1992, Jasper battled for the starting quarterback job from 1991 to 1993 with varying success, similar to Niumatalolo’s experience five years previous. But the relative lack of playing time for both wasn’t for not knowing the double-slot, option offense that they learned from Paul Johnson, the offensive coordinator at UH who later became the Navy coach and is now at Georgia Tech. When they weren’t in the game, they were still in the game, mentally, and that’s why they’ve been able to coach so long.
IT’S BASICALLY the same scheme Navy runs today, with a few wrinkles, Niumatalolo said. It has served the academy well; Navy has enjoyed winning seasons in four of Niumatalolo’s five full seasons as head coach, continuing the tradition from when Johnson was the head coach and Niumatalolo the offensive coordinator for five seasons. The offense is always in the nation’s top 10 in rushing and averages 297 yards per game this year.
Niumatalolo and Jasper credit each other for keeping the machine going.
“I have complete trust in him,” Niumatalolo said of Jasper. “I knew when I got the job in 2007 if Ivin didn’t stay, he’s the only guy I trust to do this offense if Coach Johnson was not here. I’m grateful he’s stayed. He’s done a great job.”
Jasper has received head coaching overtures but none that have made him seriously consider leaving Annapolis … yet.
“When the time comes. I love living here, love coaching these guys and working with this staff and Ken. I’m an East Coast guy now,” Jasper said, bundled up in the late-afternoon November chill after practice. “I’ve lived on the East Coast a very long time now. I’m from California and go back when I can, but this is my home now.”
Niumatalolo is torn about the prospect of eventually losing his protege and partner who is in his sixth year as offensive coordinator and 12th as the quarterbacks coach at Navy.
“For him and his family, I’d be ecstatic. For me, I don’t want him to leave.”
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Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783 or on Twitter as @dave_reardon.
