They call it NAPS. The stated mission of the Naval Academy Preparatory School is to “enhance midshipman candidates’ moral, mental and physical foundations to prepare them for success at the U.S. Naval Academy” at Annapolis.
The path has benefited Jackson Pittman, Navy’s 6-foot-1, 300-pound third-year starting nose guard. He followed his year at NAPS playing as an Annapolis freshman in 2016 in 14 games. He started 12 in 2017 and 13 in 2018.
But before NAPS, located in Newport, R.I., Pittman attended another “Navy prep school” — Brentwood Academy in Brentwood, Tenn.
“Navy has been recruiting my school for a long time,” said Pittman, a two-time all-state lineman for the Eagles. “The school has become a pipeline.”
Navy’s roster has included a Brentwood player every year since the 2008 season, which was the freshmen season for Jabaree Tuani and Mason Graham; they finished their careers in 2011. Barry Dabney was a senior in 2013, Kwazel Bertrand in 2015 and Amos Mason in 2016.
Pittman can name them all off the top of his head because he’s known them all.
The only better recruiter for a school than a former player is a former high school teammate. Mason, a four-year starting Navy defensive lineman, and Pittman played together at Brentwood and later Annapolis.
“Amos Mason told me a lot about the place,” Pittman said. “I didn’t have a lot of options, so it seemed like a no brainer to me. It’s a chance to play Division I (Football Bowl Subdivision), get a great education and have a guaranteed job.”
Pittman and sophomore Daniel Taylor, a backup cornerback, make it 12 straight years a Brentwood graduate saw the value of playing on Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo’s roster.
And that’s without mentioning Keenan Reynolds, Navy’s All-American third-team quarterback in 2015, who is from the same hometown as Pittman, Antioch, Tenn.
Niumatalolo’s teams have advanced to nine bowl games in 11 years, but 2019 is one of the two seasons the Midshipmen are coming off a losing record. Their trip to Hawaii earned a 13-game regular season by NCAA rules, but the bonus resulted in double-digit losses with a 3-10 record.
“That gave us great motivation going into the offseason,” Pittman said. “Navy hadn’t had a (losing) season since 2011 (5-7). It hit us hard. There were games we were close and didn’t quite finish. Even UCF we only lost (35-24). We’ve been working in the off-season to finish – finish strong a lifting or conditioning. We know just a few points in some games could have made it a different season.”
Pittman, considered one of Navy’s better nose tackles the past two decades, provides a good starting point for rebuilding the defense as a bulwark in the middle. He hopes to add to what has been growing production each of the past three seasons.
As a junior, he finished last year with 35 tackles, 3.0 for a loss, a pair of forced fumbles and a pass breakup; as a sophomore, 20 tackles with 3.5 for a loss and broke up a pass; as a freshman backup, 11 tackles with one for a loss and two fumbles.
His playing time as a freshman lineman was more than usual. Typically, lightly recruited academy linemen need time to develop. Pittman was lightly recruited, although one of his four offers was from Georgia Tech, but he had more size, technique and mental preparation for the step up from high school to college than most others.
He credits his father (Jack Pittman Jr.), a defensive lineman at Middle Tennessee State, for helping him to rely on more than his size advantage at the high school level.
“My dad and coaches have taught me about having the right mental aspect and mindset to play the game,” he said. “My dad started teaching me that at a young age. When I went to NAPS, I got familiar with the defense. Having the NAPS and the mental aspect helped put me ahead on the learning curve.”
And part of a long Annapolis and “Navy prep school” tradition stretching from Tennessee to the Maryland campus along the Chesapeake Bay.
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Tom Shanahan, Author: Raye of Light http://tinyurl.com/knsqtqu
— Book on Michigan State’s leading role in the integration of college football. It explains Duffy Daugherty’s untold pioneering role and debunks myths that steered recognition away from him to Bear Bryant.
http://shanahan.report/a/the-case-for-duffy-and-medal-of-freedom
Don’t believe the myths at Duffy Daugherty’s expense about Bear Bryant’s motivation to play the 1970 USC-Alabama game or myths about the Charlie Thornhill-for-Joe Namath trade. Bear Bryant knew nothing about black talent in the South while he dragged his feet on segregation.
http://shanahan.report/a/myths-that-grew-out-of-1970-alabama-game-with-usc
http://shanahan.report/a/mystery-solved-in-thornhill-and-namath-myth
David Maraniss, Pulitzer Prize winner and biographer; “History writes people out of the story. It’s our job to write them back in.”
https://rayeoflightbook.com/ordering-information/
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