New Georgia Tech basketball coach was briefly a Midshipman
March 30th, 2011 | Basketball Navy | Posted by Phil Creed
Newly hired Georgia Tech men’s basketball coach Brian Gregory is a 1990 graduate of Oakland University, but in 1985 he started college career at the U.S. Naval Academy. And if there was ever a good year to be on the Navy basketball team, that was it.
Gregory ended up playing with Hall of Famer David Robinson as Navy went 30-5. The Mids won the CAA and upset Syracuse in the NCAA tournament en route to advancing to the Elite 8 for the first and only time in school history.
Gregory sat down with the Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Doug Roberson, who asked him the key question about his year at Navy: Did you ever try to dunk on David Robinson?
” No. absolutely not.”
“Did you ever try?”
“No. When you realize you want a career in coaching, you don’t do something that could get you hurt,” said Gregory.
Coincidentally, Navy’s senior point guard that season was Doug Wojcik, who also interviewed for the Georgia Tech job last week. Wojcik, Navy’s career assist leader, is currently the head coach at Tulsa.
Ricky Dobbs wanted to take his talents to Atlanta
December 9th, 2010 | Army-Navy game Football Navy | Posted by Mike Hoffman
Navy senior quarterback Ricky Dobbs thought long and hard about transferring to Georgia Tech when coach Paul Johnson left. (AP photo)
Annapolis Capital sports scribe Bill Wagner is profiling many of Navy’s seniors in the lead up to this Saturday’s Army-Navy game. He profiled do-everything-quarterback Ricky Dobbs, who will be included on a short list of Navy’s greatest all-time players. What’s most interesting in Wagner’s piece, though, is how close Navy came to losing the “Magic Man.”
You can read the whole article here, but these are some of the highlights:
• Dobbs didn’t start at quarterback when he enrolled at the Naval Academy Prep School. Coaches played him at first at fullback, and Dobbs wasn’t happy. Navy was the only Division 1 school to offer him a scholarship, but Dobbs thought he was offered a false bill of goods.
“I’d been a quarterback all my life and suddenly I’m trying to learn a position I’d never played. I was like, ‘This isn’t what I signed up for.’ I had to think long and hard about whether or not I wanted to even go to the academy,” Dobbs told Wagner.
Not until his last game for the NAPS football team did coaches start him at quarterback. Read the rest of this entry »
From flying Super Hornets to coaching Yellow Jackets
May 12th, 2010 | Football Navy | Posted by Phil Creed
Craig Candeto is seen during his finest moment playing for Navy, the 2002 Army-Navy game.
Former Navy quarterback Craig Candeto, one of three former Midshipmen to land on Paul Johnson’s Georgia Tech coaching staff this offseason, told the Atlanta Journal Constitution yesterday that he hopes to one day become a BCS head coach and, later, a TV analyst.
Candeto, who graduated from the Naval Academy in 2004 and served as an F/A-18 pilot before leaving the service, joined former Mids Joe Speed and Lamar Owens on Georgia Tech’s staff. Owens, a quarterback under Johnson while at Navy, has been a graduate assistant the past two years at GT, while Speed had coached the last eight years at Navy.
A disability, which Candeto did not elaborate on in the article, ended his days as an F/A-18 pilot. He applied for and received an early discharge from the Navy and began his search for a coaching job. Austin Peay hired him as a graduate assistant last season, and Johnson — who coached at Navy from 2002-2007 — brought him aboard at Tech in January.
“This is a great opportunity,” Candeto told the AJC. “Being with coach Johnson again. He’s someone I’ve respected from day one. I’m learning from one of the best.”
Candeto is one of the more beloved players in Navy’s recent history. During his third year at the academy, he started Navy’s current eight-game winning streak over Army by running for six touchdowns and throwing for another in a 58-12 blowout in the 2002 Army-Navy game. The next year Candeto helped propel Navy to another win over Army and the program’s first bowl game in seven years.
How not to do a flyover
March 19th, 2010 | Football Navy | Posted by Phil Creed
Awesome? Yes.
Worth it? Probably not.
Two F/A-18 pilots have been grounded — permanently — for this flyover at the Georgia Tech-Wake Forest game in Atlanta on Nov. 7. My esteemed Navy Times colleague Mark Faram reports that the two pilots went over the stadium too low, and that the commander of Naval Air Force Atlantic was not amused.
The pilots, who both attended Georgia Tech, are identified by Navy Times sources as Lt. Cmdr. Marc Fryman and Lt. Cmdr. Christopher Condon. Their boss, Rear Adm. R.J. O’Hanlon, reportedly did not buy the explanation that the low flyover was an “honest mistake,” and an investigation report obtained by Navy Times contained a scathing condemnation of the pilots’ actions.
“Fryman failed to provide effective [composite risk management] for his flight lead and allowed an unsafe flyby to occur with nearly tragic consequences,” O’Hanlon wrote of the mission commander. “Despite his spotless record, his complacent, passive response to a major altitude transgression is unforgivable in my view.
“Continued aviation service involving flying is not in the best interest of Lt. Cmdr. Fryman or the United States Navy.”
Oof.
From a completely non-military, non-journalistic view, I hope this incident doesn’t influence any universities or pro teams to decide against having flyovers. I’ve been to a few games where the flyover was easily the highlight of the afternoon (the only time I’ve ever seen a B-2 Spirit was at a North Carolina-Notre Dame football game a few years ago). It’d be a shame if this incident gives the people responsible for these events pause.
Read the full story on NavyTimes.com.
Georgia Tech hires Ex-USNA quarterback Lamar Owens
January 17th, 2010 | Football Navy | Posted by Phil Creed
Former Naval Academy quarterback Lamar S. Owens is seen during a news conference after his acquittal of rape charges in July 2007. (AP Photo / Leslie E. Kossoff)
Former Naval Academy quarterback Lamar Owens has a full-time job.
Owens, who led the Naval Academy to the Poinsettia Bowl and an 8-4 record in 2005, has been hired by Georgia Tech to be the program’s new “A-backs” coach. Owens had been a graduate assistant for the Yellow Jackets for the past two seasons.
Tech’s head coach is Paul Johnson, who coached Navy from 2001-07.
Owens is best known for his controversial rape court-martial in 2007. Owens was acquitted of rape, but convictions on lesser charges ended his chance of getting commissioned and got him kicked out the academy without a degree. Owens ended up earning his degree from Maryland in 2008 and then enrolling in grad school at Tech.
“Lamar has a vast knowledge of the offense, having played quarterback for us at Navy and having been on the staff the last two years,” Johnson said in a school press release. “I am confident Lamar will do an outstanding job for us and that he is ready for this role.”
Georgia Tech won the ACC title this past season and is 20-7 since Johnson took over in 2008.
Lamar Owens is an assistant coach at Georgia Tech. Who knew?
January 6th, 2010 | Football Navy | Posted by Phil Creed
Former Naval Academy quarterback Lamar S. Owens Jr., is seen during a news conference after his aquittal of rape charges in July 2006. (AP Photo/Leslie E. Kossoff)
So maybe this isn’t exactly breaking news, but former Naval Academy quarterback Lamar Owens is part of Paul Johnson’s Georgia Tech coaching staff. I noticed this for the first time after Tech quarterback Josh Nesbitt threw a costly fourth quarter interception in tonight’s Orange Bowl.
After the INT, somebody who looked an awful lot like Owens was consoling Nesbit on the sidelines. So I looked it up, and apparently Owens has been a graduate assistant for the Yellow Jackets for two years now, according to his bio on ramblinwreck.com. I had no idea.
Owens is best known for his high-profile rape court-martial in 2007. Owens was cleared of rape, but convicted of conduct unbecoming an officer (for having sex in Bancroft Hall) and disobeying a lawful order (for having contact with the accuser). Navy Secretary Donald Winter eventually expelled Owens from the academy without a degree and ordered that he repay $90,797.75 back to the school. Navy Times editors and some academy alumni had recommended leniency for Owens. Last year some supporters even asked President Barack Obama to pardon Owens.
Paul Johnson, who coached at Navy from 2002-2007, coached Owens during his time at the academy. Johnson brought a couple assistants from Navy with him to Georgia Tech, but Owens is the only player from Johnson’s time at Navy that is on the Georgia Tech staff. Of course, unlike most former Navy players, Owens did not have to serve (or get a chance to serve) a five-year commitment in the service, which is what many of Johnson’s former players are doing.
Nevertheless, I’m glad to see Owens is moving on with his life and that Johnson has given him a chance. Owens certainly has the credentials to teach a little something about the triple option: He was voted the MVP of the academy’s team in 2005, when he rushed for 880 yards and 11 touchdowns and threw for 1,299 yards and six touchdowns en route to a victory in the Poinsettia Bowl.