MEMPHIS - Thank you to the AutoZone Liberty Bowl for providing the following transcript from Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo.

OPENING STATEMENT:

“We’re excited to be here, grateful, really excited. Harold, you and your staff have been great. A lot of activities for our guys and I know our team has enjoyed it. We’re grateful to be here.

I got to talk to Coach Klieman last night. I’ve known him. We’ve served on the AFCA Board together. I knew him before he became the head coach at Kansas State. He’s not only a really good football coach, he’s a great man, down to earth, he and his wife. I got to meet his family last night.We’re grateful to be here, but I didn’t want to play Kansas State because I’ve seen them play this year and I know what kind of team the have. I know they’ll be well-prepared, tough, hard nose. We’re excited to be here. Our team is excited to play against a really good football team. Being in a very prestigious bowl is a great honor for a team.”

ON THE AUTOZONE LIBERTY BOWL:

“Very humbled, grateful to be here. Everybody has been so hospitable to us. Thankful for all they’ve done for us--the people at the hotel. Grateful for--we had an escort to come here. It was nice to have. People are so nice here and it’s been a great experience for our team.”

ON THE KEY TO TURNING THINGS AROUND THIS SEASON:

“We had a bad year last year, but we’ve won a lot of games so it wasn’t like we were a team that was a perennial loser. We’ve been to a ton of bowl games, we’ve won a lot of games here. We were off last year and some of the things that I knew we were off on were things we could fix. Some things we had to fix in the locker room. Some tough decisions had to be made on our staff, which is really hard. I’ve been at the Naval Academy 22 years. SOme of the guys I’ve worked with for decades, so you know their families. Those are hard decisions, those are the realities of this profession. Last year around this time, I think I was in San Diego going to my son’s bowl game. They played Northwestern. He plays at Utah. As much as I love my son, I didn’t like being at his bowl game, I’d rather be at our own. A lot of reflection of what we needed to do, starting with me. The biggest thing we did was made a commitment to Malcolm [Perry]. As I reflected back, the first thing I did was look at what I could do better. I shouldn’t have benched him, I shouldn’t have moved him to another position. We jumped the gun, panicked a little bit after the Air Force game. Looking back at it, did we do all we could do to give him a chance? I don’t think we did. I don’t think we did a good job, so that was on me as a coach to look at what we were doing schematically. I knew this guy was special. His first game he ever started, he rushed for 275 yards. There are thousands of players who play this game that don’t rush for 100 yards. He rushed for 275 yards his first game. If I was a little bit smarter, that would’ve been something for me to realize--don’t move this guy. Once we did that, we made some changes. Our senior leadership was truly committed not to let that ever happen again. They’ve been true to their word. It’s been our new players, it’s been our new coaches coming that have gotten us to this point.”

ON THE BOWL GAME BEING A LOW-POSSESSION GAME:

“No doubt. To me, it could be similar to the Army game. They possess the ball, they’re really good at what they do. Coach Klieman knows how to win games. They’re sound, they run the football, obviously they can throw it too. They’re pretty multiple in what they do. They’re really good on special teams, really good on defense. Sometimes you play games with high possession teams, they’re in the Big 12 so they play a lot of teams that try to go uptempo, but we’re going to possess the ball like them. When you play games like that, you have to be really selective with your play calling. Sometimes when you play uptempo teams that you know you’ll get a ton of possessions, you can kind of probe a little bit and test the waters, see different things. Coming into these games, you have to be super detailed for what you’re doing. Your game planning has got to be on point and you have to know how you’re going to attack people quickly. We don’t know exactly what they’re going to do on defense. From an offensive standpoint, we’ve looked at some of the history of Coach [Klieman] going against option teams, but people got 15 practices they can change up. We’ve got to see what they’re doing quickly and try to adjust because this could be a short game.”

ON PROTECTING THE FOOTBALL:

“That’s always our mantra--we just have to take care of the football. We can’t give up any big plays in special teams and that’s going to be hard against them because they’re super explosive. That’s always the key--maximize your possessions, take care of the football and don’t give up any big plays. Anything they get, make them earn it. ”

ON THE PASSING GAME:

“We knew that we were an option team, we run the football, so know people would try to crowd the line of scrimmage. Normally in option teams, we try to do different things in formation or try to crack block different people or block back on certain people. Eventually, you run out of hats, you run out of people. When they’re all up on the line of scrimmage, you have to back people up. Our philosophy is really simple, if you’re up on the line of scrimmage, we’re going to throw it over your head. We know with Malcolm, people are normally up on the line of scrimmage because they’re trying to stop him. We knew we had to implement some different pass games and some different things to keep people honest. We utilize different formations to try to spread people out a little bit more. Before, we had a lot more condensed, packed information, which we still have in our arsenal. We’ve tried to spread people out horizontally and vertically with the pass game and try to open up the plays for Malcolm. It’s all be predicated on Malcolm. We were just trying to do what we can do to maximize his skillset and first of all, try to spread people out. And, second of all, try to stretch the field vertically if people are coming up.”

ON MALCOLM PERRY’S OFF-THE-FIELD PRESENCE:

“We’re at a school of leadership. I think there’s a lot of different forms of leadership. I think the thing about his leadership style, which I love, there’s the servant leaders and there’s the humble leader. Malcolm’s leadership is all by example. We eat by class, it’s just a tradition that we do. When we have our team meals, I let the seniors eat first and we go all the way down to freshman to show respect for your elders. Malcolm always goes last, always eats last. No one has ever told him to do that. He just does it on his own. I guarantee you that doesn’t go unnoticed by his teammates. Here is one of the best football players to ever put on a Navy uniform, but he’s not in the front of the line, ‘Get out of my way, I’m the star. I’m going to eat first.’ One of those guys that yells at the server about the chicken being cold. He’s just a humble kid. Those are the kinds of things that illustrate who he is. I think there is a caption in the Army-Navy game that really illustrates him. At the end of the game they show some of our guys that jumped up on the barrier to sit in the crowd celebrating with other midshipmen, singing out alma mater. He was in the back. He was in the back, amongst the crowd--that’s him. Here’s a guy that just rushed for 300 yards and he wasn’t in the front sitting on the stage. He was in the back. That’s Malcolm, just a humble, good person raised by wonderful people. Being a dad, you recognize that when you see kids like that, he’s been taught well. He’s got wonderful parents that have taught him well.”

ON KANSAS STATE’S ATHLETIC DIRECTOR GENE TAYLOR:

“I saw him last night at the basketball game. I’ve known Gene since I first came to the Naval Academy in 1995. He was an Associate Athletic Director. The thing that I remember about Gene being here is just that he’s a good person. It seemed like he did everything. It seemed like he was involved in so many things. Just a hard worker, good person. Anybody that knows Gene, nobody has a bad word to say about him, just a good person, good family man. I know his family. His daughter knows my sons. They grew up together. Just a good man, really happy for all the success that he’s had and at all the different places he’s been. It doesn’t surprise me of all the success he’s had because I think everybody that’s been around him knew that he was really good at what he did.”

ON KANSAS STATE’S COACH KLIEMAN’S FIRST YEAR:

“His teams look like him. They’re well-coached, physical, just a really good football team. I think what he’s done has been remarkable. To come into a place that was coached by an icon, a legend in our profession, Coach Snyder, to follow that, that’s hard. That’s a hard thing to do to follow a coaching legend like that, but he’s come. I haven’t been in any of his meetings, but you can tell the kids have embraced his system. You can tell that he’s embraced some of the other things that have happened, but the transition, to me, seems like it went really well. Like I said, I’ve never stepped foot on their campus, it’s just me watching from them afar, watching their teams play, watching what they’ve done. They’ve beaten some really good teams, obviously--Oklahoma. That, to me, is a great testament to the type of coach he is. He was a very successful coach where he was at. To come and follow a legend like Coach Snyder and to implement his system, the way he does things. You know there is some give and take. There are guys that come in and bang on the walls and say, ‘Hey, here’s how we’re doing things.’ It can be a bit abrasive.To me, it’s apparent that the transition has gone really well. To me, that’s really impressive because those are hard things to do. I don’t think people recognize how hard that is. I think they think if you’re a successful coach, you come here and you’re successful, but I think there’s a lot of examples of successful coaches that go to other places and you don’t succeed, so it’s a great testament to him.”

ON MALCOLM PERRY HAVING THE CHANCE TO SET THE SINGLE SEASON RUSHING RECORD FOR A QUARTERBACK:

“For him to be the leading rusher for all time would obviously be a great accomplishment for him, the offensive line, our program. It would be a great testament. If he rushes for a lot of yards, it should bode well for us. If he doesn’t rush for a lot of yards, it won’t bode well for us. From an immediate standpoint, if he rushes for a lot of yards, it’s normally good on our part. Eventually, we’ll sit back and reflect now that he’s done. A lot of it is just his personality. He’s so unassuming. We expect to make four guys miss on every play and if he only makes two guys miss, he goes, ‘Awe, c’mon. What happened? Gotta make that other guy miss.’ The standards have been so high for him, all of these accomplishments that he’s doing that you see. Scott, our SID, sends things out and it’s just amazing to me all the things he’s done here. A lot of it has been just who he is. I thought about coming into this season, here’s a guy that’s a back-to-back 1,000-yard rusher and he was fighting to be the legitimate starting quarterback and he’s trying to gain everybody’s confidence. I watched him in spring ball, I watched him in camp, the way he finished plays. He seemed like a rookie on an NFL team trying to make the team. He was the hardest working guy. He practiced harder than anybody on the team. I just felt like man, this kid is humility. There’s not too mayn 1,000-yard rushers playing this season, much less back-to-back 1,000-yard rushers. Here he is on our team acting like he was a walk on or something, even though we don’t have walk ons. His humility kind of masks some of his accomplishments because he doesn’t toot his own horn or bask in that, he just wants to win. It’s super impressive about him.”

ON KANSAS STATE’S SKYLAR THOMPSON:

“Really impressed with him. I think the first thing I think is just decision making. I’ve been impressed with the way he’s handled that. I hate to see dual guys. They’re really good throwers, good runners. They have a system that lends to it. I think they’ve done a good job of using his skillset, not just from a physical, dual-threat. I think he makes great decisions. That’s the first thing I look at at quarterback, just great decision making because that, to me, is always the preeminent factor in a really good quarterback. He’s doing a really good job with that.”

ON REUNITING COACH BRIAN NORWOOD:

“It’s been awesome. We’re the two old guys on the staff, which is kind of crazy. We started together, player high school ball together, went to college together. I knew him when he started to date his wife--all these things. We’re really close, so to be back together has been really awesome to me because we knew we always wanted to get together. We’d got to conventions and say, ‘Hey, eventually we’d like to get back together.’ When were assistants, we’d talk about when you become head coach, make sure you hire me. If I become a head coach, I’ll hire you. Our families are really close, but it’s been awesome for me to see who he is. He’s been at Penn State, been at Baylor, Texas Tech, Tulsa, obviously Kansas State. He’s worked with some of the best football coaches that have ever coached. I still see him as my friend. We’d play one-on-one pickup basketball together and I’d get mad at him, but this guy is a really,really good football coach. He’s definitely a head football coach. I don’t know why people haven’t hired him. He’s as good a football coach, as good a person that I’ve ever been around. Take away the relationship part I have with him in my 30 years of coaching”

ON WORKING WITH A YOUNG GENE TAYLOR:

“The things that I remember about Gene is just he was a good person. He was an associate AD. You could always talk to him. If you ran into him, it wasn’t like he was an administrator that you couldn’t talk to or that keeps walking. He was just a good person. You could always talk to him. He seemed always down to earth. He was a hard worker, things that I remember about him. I think when he left, we probably had to hire three other ADs to fill his spot. He did a lot of different things. Those are the things that I remember about him down to earth, humble, hard worker, just normal. He just seemed like a normal guy.”

ON WINNING A PRESTIGIOUS BOWL:

“First of all, you’re right, that’s a really sweet trophy. It would mean a lot to us. To be here at the Liberty Bowl, to be invited, we’re super excited for us. To play a Big 12 team, a really good Big 12 team is a great honor. I wasn’t too fired up to hear it was Kansas State because I knew who they were and what type of team they would be, but for us to have a chance to win this game would mean a lot to our program and would help catapult us into the new year. More than anything, I hope it would finish off a great season for us that we’ve had here in 2019.”

ON REPRESENTING THE AMERICAN CONFERENCE:

“We’re always trying to do that. We’re always trying to fight for our conference, fight for our program. We feel like we have a good conference. Obviously, Kansas State is a good team. The Big 12 is a good conference. Anytime you go against a Big 12 team, it’s great for us. We’ve been here in Memphis a few times. They have a really good football team here, too. We know it’s going to be a tough game, but it’s a great honor for us to play these guys.”

ON NAVY’S DEFENSE:

“Brian Newberry is as good a football coach that I’ve ever been around. Not just coaches I’ve coached with, we’ve gone against a lot of great defensive coordinators throughout my 30 years of coaching. He’s as innovative and as creative as I’ve ever been around. Some of the improvements we’ve had on defense, I haven’t seen too many where--we’ve improved 90 spots. We were in triple digits in some spots and we’ve moved into the top 30. What he’s done has been remarkable. Considering it’s college, it’s not the league. It’s not like we went out and got free agents. I know there’s the transfer portal and all that stuff, but that doesn’t happen too often at the Naval Academy. What our defense has done has been amazing, playing against our two service academies. What he’s done from a rushing standpoint and our defense has done in holding Air Force and Army to those rushing numbers. I’ve played them a lot, what we did with them was a tribute to our defense. Our defense has taken us to another level. The success that we’ve had this year, we’ve talked about Malcolm a lot, but a big part of that success has been our defense.”

ON JACKSON PITTMAN:

“He’s as good a nose guard that I’ve had since I’ve been here. To be a 300-pounder, move the way he does. He’s also smart football player. His dad is a high school football coach that played college football, so he has a high football IQ. He’s probably the best nose guards, one of the best, top two guys since I’ve been here.”

ON STANDOUT DEFENSIVE PLAYERS:

“Diego Fagut, our middle linebacker, he’s one of our most highly recruited kids. We don’t get too many highly recruited kids. He had over 20 offers. We thought he was going to go to Central Florida. Fortunate that he came to the Naval Academy. We don’t get too many guys that are 245 pounds, 6’3” that can run like him. He’s a smart football player. Jacob Springer has had a great year. Nizaire Cromartie has been tremendous. Our secondary has played well. Our two safeties, Evan Fochtman and Kevin Brennan and our corners Mikey McMorris and Cameron Kinley, a Memphis kid. Been proud of all those guys. For the most part, we’ve stayed healthy this season. When you play well on defense like that, it’s normally a contribution. I mentioned a lot of guys, but that’s normally when it happens, when there are a lot of guys contributing.”

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