Ken Niumatalolo, longtime assistant head coach/offensive line coach for Navy?s football team, was elevated to head coach Dec. 8 following the departure of Paul Johnson to Georgia Tech. He became the 38th head football coach in Naval Academy history and is believed to be the first head coach of Polynesian descent in NCAA history.
Have you had a chance to reflect on how much your life has changed in a little more than a month since becoming the head coach at Navy?
What I?ve quickly realized is that your mind is constantly on this job, even when you go home. I?ve always been a detail person, and I don?t want to let anything slide, and I don?t want us to get complacent. Coach Johnson started a legacy of where we are successful, and I don?t want to drop the ball.
When you first started coaching college football after your playing career was over at Hawaii, did you ever visualize one day being a head coach?
I knew I was getting ready to graduate, and I was thinking how I was going to provide for my family. Being a head coach was farthest thing from my mind. Iknew I liked sports and wanted to be around it, and thought this would be an avenue for me. Unlike many coaches in this business, I?ve never taken a job while already looking ahead where the next job might be.
As a former Hawaii quarterback, did you ever think that football team would go 12-1 and play in the Sugar Bowl? Can Navy have a season like that?
I don?t know. We really only have two goals here, and that?s to win the Commander-in-Chief?s Trophy and win a bowl game. If we ever get close to a BCS game, we?ll think about it then. We know who we are. We?re not trying to be USC. We just try to recruit great kids who want to play football and serve their country.
