Team preview: Navy

The Blue Ribbon College Football Yearbook previews the 2007 Navy Midshipmen, exclusively on Insider.

Originally Published: July 12, 2007
Blue Ribbon College Football Yearbook
Editor's Note: ESPN Insider has teamed with Blue Ribbon College Football Yearbook to provide a comprehensive look at all 119 Division I-A teams. To order the complete 2007 edition of Blue Ribbon College Football Yearbook, visit www.blueribbonyearbook.com or call 1-866-805-BALL (2255).

(All information as of June 20, 2007)

COACH AND PROGRAM

The transcripts of Navy coach Paul Johnson's spring press conferences read like a Don Rickles stand-up routine. One minute he's ribbing a local reporter for not showing up to practice early enough, the next he's declaring his team "freaking awful," adding that the Midshipmen don't know how to play.

"I tell it like it is; I don't like to sugarcoat things," Johnson said of his sometimes abrasive, oft-humorous style. "I'll let them know when they play well."

Aside from entertaining the press corps, Johnson's no-nonsense style serves a purpose. Since arriving in Annapolis from Georgia Southern six years ago, he has taken a woebegone service academy and done the near impossible -- turned it into a consistent winner. He is 35-15 and, perhaps more importantly, has beaten Army all five times he's faced it.

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