Navy’s Brian Newberry can still build his program from the ground up

A month after Brian Newberry arrived at the Naval Academy in 2019 to begin his tenure as defensive coordinator, his wife, Kate, gave birth to their first child. A second one followed. The Newberry family has grown in Annapolis, and Newberry’s career has grown with it.

Newberry, in his third year at the helm of Navy, is on the verge of becoming the first coach to lead the Midshipmen to consecutive 10-win seasons in their history.

“That says it all in terms of his leadership and the culture he’s developed,” Navy athletic director Michael Kelly said.

Newberry and Kelly emphasized that the eyes of America will be on the players on the field for the 126th Army-Navy game Saturday at M&T Bank Stadium. But there may be a few athletic departments looking toward the sideline at the 51-year-old head coach who has orchestrated Navy’s return to prominence.

Not that Newberry plans to go anywhere.

Annapolis, Newberry said, feels like home, even though it’s far from his native Oklahoma. And, given the shifting nature of the sport, the sure-footedness offered at Navy — a program intent on developing leaders internally, without the free-for-all transfers that have gripped other schools — makes it an ideal spot for Newberry.

Where else would he rather be?

“It’s a special place and it’s one of the best jobs in the country, because of the kind of young men we have, because it still is, truly, a developmental program,” Newberry said. “Annapolis is a great place to live. You feel like you’re somewhere important. And you get into coaching to make an impact and a difference.

“Understanding that you’re impacting young men who are going to be officers and go serve our country, that gives you a little more meaning and responsibility as a coach. It really is important to me.”

There are few places that can offer Newberry such an existence.

As change buffets college football, Army, Air Force and Navy stand in the eye of the storm, untouched by the gales of the new world. There are no name, image and likeness sponsorships for service academy athletes.

While many programs rely on the transfer portal to inject talent into the roster — adding as many “free agents” as they lose each offseason — Navy builds from the ground up.

“We’re unicorns in college football today,” Newberry said.

Added Army coach Jeff Monken: “We just are who we are. Nothing’s really changed for us. It’s business as usual.”

This is part of the allure for Newberry at Navy. He has coached across the college football landscape, from Division III Washington & Lee to Division I minnow Kennesaw State. Now he leads Navy, a position he has held since Ken Niumatalolo was fired at the end of the 2022 season, and there’s no reason in his mind to move.

Newberry has friends at Power 4 schools. They have the supposed benefits of large NIL coffers and the transfer portal. And yet “there’s a great sense of frustration that has come” at those programs for coaches, Newberry said.

“It should be transformational, right? It’s become a lot more transactional at that level,” Newberry said. “We don’t have that at the Naval Academy.”

The players aren’t the only ones to participate in the merry-go-round of college football, of course. They’re just the newest to benefit from it. Coaches have jumped between programs for decades, going back to when advertising the size of a weight room was the primary recruiting tool for players rather than which school had the most money to offer. The coaching sagas are ongoing, as seen by LSU’s high-stakes pursuit of Lane Kiffin.

Newberry says he is not eying such a move, even though his considerable success at Navy could draw suitors and a significant raise; according to USA Today he made $1.8 million last season, ranking in the middle of the American Athletic Conference but lower than any Power 4 coach.

“I’ve never been a guy who chases jobs, necessarily,” Newberry said. “I’ve always tried to be where my feet are and make the best of a situation and enjoy the people I work with and enjoy the young men I get to coach and build relationships and all those things. That’s what’s important to me. And I’ve been beyond fortunate to be at the Naval Academy.”

Newberry’s first year, replacing the winningest coach in program history in Niumatalolo, was middling. The Midshipmen finished 2023 with a 5-7 record, their fourth straight losing season. That, some came to expect, was as good as things would be in the new world order following the NCAA’s 2021 decision to change its rules to allow athletes to make NIL money.

With it came questions regarding how the service academies might keep up.

The answer: Newberry led Navy to a 10-2 record in 2024, capped by a win over Oklahoma in the Armed Forces Bowl. Entering the Army-Navy game, Navy holds a 9-2 mark. Army has prospered, as well; the Black Knights posted a 12-2 record last year and are 6-5 in 2025.

Kelly believes Army and Navy are thriving because they are outliers.

“But for us it’s not so much the benefit aspect of it; it’s the player stability and lack of player movement, the fact we can be a true player development program, build year to year to year, and build that sort of team unity,” he said. “I can’t believe it’s coincidence that both Navy and West Point have had such great success these last few years.”

Blake Horvath, who has established himself as one of the greatest quarterbacks in Navy history, knows the recruiting rankings won’t flash high grades for players who sign with the service academies. The difference, however, is the longevity — the culture built with players who are there for the long haul.

“I think the biggest thing is, when this was all coming around, the first few years it was like, ‘Oh, it’s passed the academies by. The academies will never be good again because of this,’” Horvath said. “And I think we’ve all proven that wrong, just because, if anything, it makes us stronger. We develop, we have better bonds, we know each other better, we have a culture that is continuous and doesn’t get lost in different transfer portals and other things.”

Newberry thinks, in a sense, the transfer portal is helping Navy’s recruiting. There are schools that seek out the experience of transfer players to maintain a high level of performance, but that focus limits opportunities for high school players on the fringes of big-time college consideration.

“What that’s allowed us to do is recruit a little higher-caliber player than we have in the past,” Newberry said. “We can be a little bit more selective. It’s still difficult to recruit at the Naval Academy. We’re still competing against Army and Air Force for the majority of our recruits. I think that pull is stronger now than it ever has been, and we’re starting to look a little different.”

A few years ago, becoming the head coach of a program was far from Newberry’s mind. He enjoyed calling defensive plays at Navy, and as he watched all that was required of Niumatalolo, he wondered if he even wanted the added responsibility.

He had two young kids; did he really want 100 more under his direct purview?

“I didn’t know if I wanted the responsibility of it all,” Newberry said. “If I could manage juggling a family with being a head coach and all that entails, and work-life balance.”

But watching Niumatalolo and Brian Bohannon before him at Kennesaw State showed Newberry he could have that and “still do things the right way.”

And he feels that Navy, too, does things the right way.

“This institution really speaks for itself in a lot of ways,” Horvath said. “And I think he’s in the perfect place for him and what he tries to do for our team. And the bigger thing is building a staff that really preaches a program that he wants to build, it’s the same thing. So I think what he’s been able to do and what we’ve been able to do for our program is immeasurable.”

Except, perhaps, it’s measured most heavily on one game per year. The eyes of the country will be on Army and Navy. And they’ll be on a head coach who “never in my wildest dreams” thought he’d be here.