The hardest hit Navy junior linebacker Ram Vela has ever taken wasn’t in a game — and it wasn’t even from an opponent.
“It was a blitz in our first scrimmage in early August and me and out outside linebacker Travis Sudderth hit head on,” he said. “I blacked out. I just woke up and the trainers were over me. I didn’t know where I was at first.”
Vela might have suffered a temporary memory loss from the collision, but Midshipmen fans remember him for making one of the most memorable plays in Navy’s 128 years of football last season.
His flying sack of Notre Dame quarterback Evan Sharpley was one of the key plays in a 46-44 triple-overtime win to break Navy’s NCAA-record 43-game losing streak to the Irish. He jumped over a running back who tried to take out his legs and soared several feet before he landing on Sharpley, who buckled to the ground.
The play has been viewed more than 91,000 times on YouTube and there are dozens of other clips on the Internet replaying the hit.
His reward?
He’s spent the spring and fall battling with senior Corey Johnson for a starting position.
“They are close, very close,” Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo said. “They are both doing well and it’s tough. I imagine it won’t really matter because one starts and the other one will play a lot.”
The 5-foot-9, 193-pounder started the final nine games of the season at outside linebacker, finishing with 57 tackles — 3.5 for loss — and an interception. Johnson, a former three-year starter on the Navy basketball team, switched to football last season and recorded 20 tackles in his first year, utilizing the same speed that allowed the 6-foot-2, 205-pounder to make 139 career steals, sixth-most in school history.
“Ram is a good friend, one of my best friends on the team,” Johnson said. “We joke around at practice and try to keep each other loose and rotate in and stay fresh.”
Niumatalolo said it could be a game-time decision which player starts the season opener against Towson on Saturday afternoon at 3:30 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.
But both players are expected to play a major role in turning around one of the worst defensive seasons in school history. The Midshipmen allowed an average of more than 36 points and 439 yards per game last season and were ranked 108th out of 119 Football Bowl Subdivision teams.
The unit was by far the team’s most glaring weakness last season, and must improve for the Midshipmen to earn a berth in a sixth-straight bowl game.
The offense could take a step back from last season when it averaged more than 39 points and 444 yards per game en route to leading the country in rushing for an NCAA-record third straight season.
“Last year, we went through all that [on defense] and the guys who came back don’t want to feel like that anymore,” Johnson said. “We are trying to be focused on the play, but lose and flying around and getting after people.”
But flying around is nothing new to Vela.
“Everyone is clicking right now,” he said. “When we are out there we are playing with a vengeance.”
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