2014 Independent Football Projections

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Navy Midshipmen 10-2

Ken Niumatalolo

One thing that is certain about the Navy Midshipmen is that they are team that is very tough to beat and they are going to give you everything that they have for 60 minutes of football. Ken Niumatalolo is entering his seventh full season as the head football coach at Navy and his triple option attack is once again expected to frustrate opponents. The Naval Academy averaged 325 yards per game on the ground in 2013 and it will be more of the same in 2014.

Navy will hit you with a wave of running backs, but junior quarterback Keenan Reynolds will do the bulk of the running along with the minimal amount of passing that the Midshipmen will attempt.

The Naval Academy will give Ohio State all that they can handle this Saturday and this year they should be able to navigate to their third consecutive winning season.

BYU Cougars 8-4

Since Bronco Mendenhall took over as the head football coach of the Brigham Young University Cougars in 2005, the team has never had to endure a losing season and you can expect more of the same this fall. BYU had the tenth best rushing attack last year in college football and they’ll once again be a force to be reckoned with with junior quarterback Taysom Hill and junior running back Jamaal Williams.

The schedule this season is rather favorable to BYU and if they can upset Texas in their second game of the season it will go along way in the confidence category for Mendenhall’s team in Provo.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish 7-5

Brian Kelly

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish have won 797 games all-time and losing seasons are something that isn’t tolerated in South Bend, Indiana. Brian Kelly is the head football coach of the Irish and he is the only head coach in school history to lead Notre Dame to a bowl game in each of his first four years there. And under Kelly, Notre Dame is enjoying their longest stretch of success since Lou Holtz roamed the sidelines from the mid-1980’s to the mid-1990’s.

In 2012, quarterback Everett Golson led Notre Dame to a berth in the BCS Championship. Golson was suspended from school last year, but he has re-enrolled at Notre Dame and is now back in the good graces of school administrators. Golson will look to pickup right where he left off from in 2012 as he is the kind of dual-threat quarterback that Kelly loves to run his offensive system. Offensively the Irish have lost some talent to the National Football League which means that Golson will not have the same experience around him this season that he had in 2012.

The same can be said on the defensive side of the football where departures to the NFL along with suspensions have changed the outlook in South Bend.

With the exception of games against Rice, Purdue, and Syracuse, Notre Dame really does not have any layups on their schedule this season which could be Kelly’s toughest to date with the Fighting Irish.

Army Black Knights 5-7

The days of the Amry Black Knights being a national power in college football are a thing of the past, but it is still nice to see these kids compete on a weekly basis. The Black Knights have not had a winning season since 2010 and new head football coach Jeff Monken will look to change that.

The Black Knights had the third ranked rushing attack in the nation last season and led by senior running backs Terry Baggett and Larry Dixon you can expect more of the same in 2014. Senior quarterback Angel Santiago doesn’t throw the football as much, but he is still valuable in the Black Knight triple-option attack.

The Black Knights would love to have a winning campaign in 2014, but they will also love to end a losing streak against Navy that dates back to 2002.

Source: Sports-reference.com, Cfbstats.com

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