A closer look at the 3 Navy quarterbacks vying for the starting job during preseason camp By
Bill Wagner
Capital Gazette |
Aug 13, 2021 at 2:29 PM
Navy’s three starting quarterback candidates are rooming together for the time being.
The Brigade of Midshipmen has not returned to the Naval Academy campus, so Bancroft Hall is not full as usual. Coach Ken Niumatalolo has players rooming together mostly by position, and quarterbacks Maasai Maynor, Xavier Arline and Tai Lavatai are sharing a dormitory space.
“We’re best of friends up there. We listen to music, joke around and play Xbox,” Arline said.
After practice Tuesday, Lavatai told Arline he had treatment in the training room and would be returning to the room later than usual. “So, you aren’t going to make dinner?” Arline asked. That exchange exemplified the sense of friendship and camaraderie that has developed among the three.
“Competition is great, it brings the best out of everybody. But never forget that we’re brothers off the field,” Arline said. “We room together up there and have a great time. When we step on this field, we’re competing.”
While the Navy quarterback competition is wide-open, it is not every man for himself. Maynor, a junior, finds himself in the position of elder statesman among the group and mentoring the sophomore signal-callers.
“We all help each other grow. Every day in practice, we ask each other questions and bounce stuff off each other,” Maynor said. “We’re all roommates and really boys. It’s pretty cool to be so close with these guys then come out and compete with them.”
One week into August training camp,
Arline and Lavatai remain tied atop the depth chart with Maynor hot on their tails. Niumatalolo said he will not make a final decision on the starter until it “becomes clear-cut.”
Offensive coordinator Ivin Jasper said it will come down to which of the three can best execute Navy’s patented triple-option offense. Jasper personally tutors the quarterbacks and said they all need work in terms of reading defenses, making checks at the line of scrimmage and distributing the ball.
“We’re making progress. I always talk about Yoda and the Jedi. They’re just young Jedis now. They haven’t gotten to Yoda status. It’s my job to get them there,” Jasper said.
Here is a closer look at Navy’s three quarterback candidates with three weeks to go before the season opener Sept. 4 against visiting Marshall.
Sophomore Xavier Arline
Arline entered spring practice listed as the starter but was unable to put further distance between himself and the other two quarterbacks. Lavatai enjoyed a super spring and drew even with his classmate, who was dealing with some nagging injuries.
“There are no excuses. Tai had a great spring. He made big leaps and operated the offense very well,” Arline said after practice Tuesday.
“I came into the spring with some injuries, I was about 70%. I tried to battle through it because I know how valuable those reps are and I wanted to show the team I’ll fight through whatever I’m dealing with for them. Now I’m 120% and I feel great.”
Arline was listed at 5 feet 9 and 165 pounds as a plebe. He added 11 pounds of muscle since the end of spring camp and looks much stronger and sturdier.
A point of emphasis for Arline was to improve his passing, which involved standing in the pocket instead of tucking the ball and scrambling at the first sign of pressure. “Just calming my feet down and gaining confidence in my arm was big,” he said.
Arline spent much of the summer on the Naval Academy campus and took every opportunity possible to get together with teammates for seven-on-seven passing sessions or other drills.
“Just building relationships with guys out on the field. It’s not all about how far you can throw the ball, but timing and chemistry. It was a great summer. I just dialed in and focused on the details,” Arline said.
“I feel like my grasp of the triple-option is the best it’s ever been. I feel 100% confidence in going into the game, operating, getting us into the right play and helping us win ballgames.”
Arline appeared in five games with three starts as a freshman, finishing as the team’s third-leading rusher with 210 yards on 59 carries. He completed just 4 of 12 pass attempts for 27 yards. The Long Island native termed gaining game experience “super valuable.”
“There’s nothing like game speed. You can do your best in practice to get game reps, but at the end of the day there is nothing the speed of the game, the size and the physicalness,” he said.
Arline was a four-year varsity performer for Shoreham-Wading River, starting at defensive back as a freshman before taking over as the starting quarterback as a sophomore. He recorded 8,621 all-purpose yards and 124 touchdowns during a prolific career while helping the Wildcats capture the Class IV Long Island Championship in 2016 and 2019.
However, Arline was more highly recruited as a lacrosse player, ranked the No. 5 overall prospect in the Class of 2020 by Inside Lacrosse. He initially committed to North Carolina for lacrosse over football offers from Football Championship Subdivision schools.
Arline, who decommitted from UNC after learning he would not get an opportunity to play football, felt vindicated by earning the starting job at Navy as a plebe.
“What did I learn about myself last season? Just that I could do it. A lot of people doubted my ability,” he said. “I believed in myself, but just proving to people that I can play at this level was huge.”
Jasper said Arline is quick to answer questions in the meeting room and seems more “calm and relaxed” in that setting as well as on the practice field. He gave Arline an advantage over Lavatai and Maynor as a running threat but ranked him third in the passing game.
“Probably the quickest, most athletic of the three. He doesn’t throw it as well but is really improving as a passer,” said Jasper, adding there are durability concerns about Arline.
“Xavier is not real big. That’s probably the one concern about him, is being able to last the season. He has to be really smart about being tackled, needs to get what he can and get down.”
Sophomore Tai Lavatai
Lavatai served on the scout team throughout his entire freshman season and tried to make the most of it, using the opportunity to go against the first-team defense to learn and grow. However, it was nowhere near as productive as getting repetitions with the first-team offense, as Arline did.
Lavatai participated in quarterback meetings, but since he was not on the depth chart did not receive a lot of direct instruction or interaction with Jasper. The Florida native acknowledged he “never really fully understood the schemes.”
Therefore, it was rather stunning to see Lavatai perform so well over the course of spring camp to catch up to Arline. “Tai didn’t get any reps last season. That was what was so surprising, seeing him come into the spring and looked like he’d been doing it forever. He just seemed comfortable,” Jasper said.
Lavatai spent significant time studying game tape to learn the triple-option offense and see how opposing defenses tried to defend it.
“I wanted to see what defenses do and what can happen, so when it came to real time I could see it easier and be able to react,” he said.
Jasper and Niumatalolo have both compared Lavatai with former Navy quarterbacks Ricky Dobbs and Will Worth. That’s because the 6-foot-2, 210-pound sophomore possesses a strong, accurate arm and runs hard between the tackles.
“Tai is a bigger kid — kind of Ricky Dobbs and Will Worth together. He has a Ricky Dobbs type of arm and Will Worth type of body,” said Jasper, adding that Lavatai must prove he can run as effectively as those two players.
Dobbs rushed for 2,170 yards in two seasons as the full-time starter, while Worth rushed for 1,198 yards in his lone season as starter.
Lavatai felt the competition during spring practice forced him to rise to the occasion and he focused on the little things and getting better each day.
“If the day before I did something bad, I made sure the next day I didn’t do that again because I can’t keep making the same mistakes over and over,” he said.
Lavatai cited his throwing ability and competitive nature as strengths. While acknowledging he’s not the most athletic or agile runner, Lavatai strives to be physical and get extra yardage by lowering his shoulder and breaking tackles.
Going against the myriad defensive schemes employed by defensive coordinator Brian Newberry has helped Lavatai learn how to recognize formations and make adjustments.
“I’m getting better at being able to see what’s going on up front, what the defense is doing and knowing what to check. Just knowing what plays work best against what defenses,” he said. “Coach Newberry throws you every type of defense you could possibly see, and you have to be able to react in two seconds and know what you’re going to do with the ball.”
Jasper described Lavatai as an intelligent quarterback who picks up concepts quickly and understands schemes. In practice earlier this week, Lavatai impressed Jasper by making some outstanding checks at the line of scrimmage.
However, the question remains whether Lavatai can remain as calm, cool and collected when facing Marshall, Air Force or Houston in September. “Tai doesn’t have any game experience. If he’s the starter in the opener, it will be interesting how he responds,” Jasper said.
Junior Maasai Maynor
Maynor operated out of shotgun formation throughout his career at St. Peter’s Prep in New Jersey. He broke most of the school’s passing records that were set by Brandon Wimbush, who started at Notre Dame and Central Florida.
Maynor, who passed for 4,521 yards and 48 touchdowns at St. Peter’s, had scholarship offers from Rutgers and Temple, among others. Coming to Navy and having to operate a triple-option offense in which the quarterbacks takes direct snaps from under center was a bit of culture shock.
“I never took an under-center snap before I came here, so that was a rude awakening freshman year when I started taking under-center snaps,” Maynor said. “Coach Jasper and Coach Niumat have done a great job of molding me and really building me into a triple-option quarterback.”
After serving on the scout team and playing in junior varsity games as a plebe, Maynor made his varsity debut against service academy rival Air Force last season. He picked up 8 yards on a scramble and completed 2 of 3 passes for 15 yards in leading a drive into Falcons territory before tossing an interception.
That would prove the only appearance of the season for Maynor, who earned the Collins/Roos Class of 1949 Award as most valuable player of the junior varsity team in 2019.
Jasper said Maynor needs to improve his decision-making and taking better care of the football. The North Brunswick native devoted the offseason to gaining a better understanding of the offense and learning how to read defenses.
“The biggest thing for me is the mental aspect of the game, so it’s all about getting into the film room and really seeing everything then translating that to the field,” Maynor said. “I feel like I’ve done a good job throughout the summer of really getting into the film room. I just want to build on other aspects that I struggle with.”
Jasper has offered high praise for Maynor’s throwing ability and said this week that the 6-foot, 200-pound junior is steadily improving as a runner. “Maasai is making a lot of headway. I think we’re going to have three guys ready to play,” he said.
Maynor is among many Navy players thrilled by the return to in-person meetings. Last season, position group meetings were held online using the Zoom or Microsoft Teams platforms.
“I feel like in-person is the best thing for me. There is something about being able to go on the board and draw it up that I really connect with,” Maynor said.
Maynor has all the tools to be a successful triple-option quarterback. His challenge is to make plays in the heat of the moment and cut down on turnovers.
“I feel like execution is the biggest thing I need to work on,” he said.
While the Navy quarterback competition is wide-open, it is not every man for himself. “We all help each other grow. Every day in practice, we ask each other questions and bounce stuff off each other,” junior Maasai Maynor said.
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