
Welcome to the 2025 college football preseason
Offseason hibernation is over. The days are getting longer, but time is getting shorter until Ireland gets introduced to Farmaggedon. Now is the time to start learning about teams for the 2025 season, whether it’s the new QB for the reigning National Champion Ohio State Buckeyes or who has the best chance to win Conference-USA. This series will cover my top 100 preseason college football rankings for 2025 as we count down 100 days until Week 0. We will dive into a new team each day as we draw closer to the college football season.
Countdown to Kickoff: Day 88
Coming in at No. 88 in our 2025 preseason rankings: Navy Midshipmen.
Navy is coached by Brian Newberry, who is in his 3rd year with the program and has a program record of 14-10. The Midshipmen finished last year with a record of 10-3 and 3rd in the American.
Navy returns 63% of production from the 2024 team: 73% on the Offense and 52% on the Defense. According to 247Sports, the Midshipmen finished the 2025 cycle landing 55 recruits and ending the recruiting cycle with the 132nd overall ranked class, which was good for 13th in the American. Along with their high school recruiting. 6% of the 2025 roster will be made up of new additions.
Offensive Coordinator Dre Cronic, heading into his second year with the program, will lead the offense that put up 29.8 points per game last season (44th nationally). The Midshipmen finished 2024 with 57.8 plays per game (134th) and a pace of 31.0 seconds per play (132nd). The offense averaged 44.4 runs (6th) for 247.2 per game (5th), along with 12.6 pass attempts (132nd) for 119.7 yards per game (132nd). The triple option was the feature piece in the offense, with a 74%-26% run-pass play call split. The overall offensive success rate was 44%.
Up front, Navy brings back 33% of its offensive line production from last year, including two clear-cut starters for 2025. Blake Horvath returns for his second year in the program and aims to improve the average pass success rate from 39% in 2024. In 2024, Horvath finished with 29.9 fantasy points per game. In 75% of games, Horvath scored 19.7 fantasy points and was a dual threat, passing for over 90 and running for over 50 in those starts. He finished 2024 with a season high of 49.75 and a low of 2.5 fantasy points.
The Midshipmen return 89% of the rushing production in 2025, with Alex Tecza being the main returning contributor alongside Horvath. In 2024, Tecza totaled 556 yards, 8 touchdowns off 123 carries, and averaged 11.4 fantasy points per game. In 75% of his games, he scored at least 6.4 fantasy points. His best game was against UNC-Charlotte, where he rushes for 68 yards and 2 touchdowns on 8 carries along with a 46 yard touchdown reception.

Navy enters 2025 with the 94th-ranked strength of schedule. The Midshipmen will play in front of their home fans 6 times, with back-to-back home games in Weeks 1 and 2 and Weeks 5 and 6.
Our model predicts a 7-5 record for the Midshipmen. Our model gives the team a 75+% win expectancy in 7 games, a 50-75% win expectancy in 2 games, a 25-49% win expectancy in 1 game, and a <25% win expectancy in 2 games.
According to their conference championship odds of +350 at DraftKings, the Midshipmen are predicted to finish 2nd in the American.
Thanks for reading! Be sure to return tomorrow as we continue the countdown with Team 88.
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Returning Production for all teams can be found at Punt and Rally
Stats for all players can be found at College Football Team Stats | TeamRankings.com