Navy head football coach Ken Niumatalolo has announced that seniors Billy Honaker, Cameron Kinley and Jackson Perkins were voted as captains by their teammates for the 2020 football season.
“Those three will be great representatives for our football team, they are great young men and they embody who we are as a football program,” said Niumatalolo. “Any time we’ve had successful football teams, we’ve had great leadership from not only our captains but the entire senior class. They have been tremendous during the pandemic, through some the racial unrest in our country, just so many things they have handled. I’ve been very impressed by them.”
Honaker enters the season as a starter at right tackle after starting 13 games there a year ago. He helped anchor an offensive line in 2019 that will go down as one of the best in history as the Mids set school records for rushing yards per game (360.6), single-season rushing yards (4,687), single-season rushing yards per attempt (6.1), single-season total offensive yards per game (360.5) and tied the record for single-season total offensive yards per attempt (6.8). Quarterback Malcolm Perry became the first quarterback in FBS history to rush for 2,000 yards in a season as Navy tied a school record with 11 wins, won the Commander-In-Chief’s Trophy and the Liberty Bowl. Honaker was named Second-Team All-AAC by the league’s coaches.
Perkins is making the switch to defensive tackle in 2020 after starting 10 games at defensive end last year. He finished 2019 with 24 tackles, four tackles for a loss and a sack. He also broke up a pair of passes and had an interception.
Kinley is a returning starter at corner after starting 13 games there last year. Kinley, who is also the Naval Academy Class President for the Class of 2021, finished the year with 38 tackles, 2.5 tackles for a loss, a sack and five pass breakups.
Perkins and Kinley were part of a massive turnaround by the Navy defense in 2019 as the Mids finished 20th in third down defense (121st in 2018), 10th in rushing defense (90th in 2018), 39th in passing defense (75th in 2018), 16th in total defense (86th in 2018), 34th in scoring defense (103rd in 2018), 68th in pass efficiency defense (117th in 2018), 55th in sacks (129th in 2018) and 53rd in tackles for a loss (129th in 2018).
The Mids finished 10th in the nation against the run, giving up just 105.8 yards per game, despite facing the #2, #3 and #11 rushing offense’s in the country. The Mids got the opposing offense off the field in three plays or less in 36% of its drives, which was the 10th-best average in the country. The Navy defense gave up just 15.2 first downs per game, which was tied for third best in the country.
Navy opens up the 2020 season against BYU at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium on Monday, Sept. 7 at 8 PM. Fans will not be allowed to attend, but ESPN will televise the game nationally with Rece Davis, Kirk Herbstreit and Allison Williams on the call and you can also listen to the game on the Navy Radio Network with Pete Medhurst, Joe Miller, Keith Mills and Scott Wykoff.
