During a season in which Navy has never been settled at quarterback, never been healthy at the position that drives its intricate, spread-option offense, the Midshipmen have continued to thrive.

Their defense stuffed then-16th ranked Wake Forest in a 24-17 win on the road. Their special teams then stole a 33-27 victory at Air Force by scoring two touchdowns on blocked punts. Then, in their most recent game against Temple, the Midshipmen staged the largest fourth-quarter comeback in school history by scoring 20 unanswered points to force overtime, then pulled out a 33-27 win.

With that, Niumatalolo continued a tradition established by Johnson. Navy is headed to the EagleBank Bowl on Dec. 20 to make its sixth straight postseason appearance. And only a huge upset by Army on Dec. 6 will prevent the Midshipmen from winning their sixth consecutive Commander-In-Chief’s Trophy outright.

Niumatalolo is the first head coach to lead Navy to a bowl game in his first season. His next victory will make Niumatalolo only the third Navy coach since World War II to direct the Midshipmen to a winning season in his first year.

None of this should come as a shock, since Niumatalolo is a virtual extension of Johnson, who is one of the more effective motivators, personnel evaluators, and gifted play-callers these eyes have ever seen.

The smartest thing Navy could have done was hire Niumatalolo, who started working under Johnson as a quarterback at the University of Hawaii 20 years ago before coaching with him there and during two stints in Annapolis.

When Johnson took his first Division I head coaching job at Navy nearly seven years ago, he brought back Niumatalolo — fired as offensive coordinator at Navy in 1998 — by naming him assistant head coach.

After Johnson announced his decision to head to the Atlantic Coast Conference, Chet Gladchuk, Navy’s athletics director, barely needed 24 hours to promote Niumatalolo.

“When Coach Johnson left, we were worried about who they were going to hire,” senior slotback Shun White said. “It was my senior season [coming up], and I wanted to be comfortable with the offense. We didn’t want a new coach coming in and just changing everything.”

Niumatalolo brought a sense of change. He’s more of a micro-manager than Johnson, more obsessed with the smaller details, such as the length of this drill during practice or what’s exactly served in a pregame meal.

Niumatalolo is more of a delegator than Johnson, who was his own offensive coordinator. Niumatalolo gave that job to former quarterbacks coach Ivin Jasper and stays out of his way.

Where the two coaches are similar is demeanor and a sense of the big picture of what works at Navy. Niumatalolo is more soft-spoken and less sarcastic than Johnson, but he shares his predecessor’s fiery temper and embraces the triple option the same way Johnson did.

After all, Niumatalolo learned the nuts and bolts of the offense from Johnson. And after spending the past six seasons coaching the offensive line that paved the way for one of the nation’s consistently top rushing attacks, why change?

“The thing I learned from Paul early on was we have to play to our strengths _ our toughness and discipline,” Niumatalolo said. “Paul really trusted his assistants, and I’ve learned to do that. I’ve been with some of them for a long time, so it’s easy for me to open up the floor to them. What’s helped me a ton is I was a quarterback and a point guard, so I think big picture. Managing the game comes kind of natural to me. I’m a facilitator. I try to guide people, give them some principles, let them govern themselves. Why mess with what works?”

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