ANNAPOLIS, Md. – On a warm, sunny September morning, hundreds of midshipmen, dressed in their matching fatigues for a “tactical Thursday,” crossed the Navy campus to get to their next class, with identical black backpacks hanging from their shoulders .

Halfway through, a midshipman peered out from under the brim of his mandatory hat to say good morning with a big grin.

“That’s our quarterback,” Navy fullback Daba Fofana told a local visitor.

Junior Blake Horvath, at 6-foot-1 and 195 pounds, easily fits in with his classmates at the Yard during school hours – including his 3.53 GPA as an Operations Research major. When it comes to Navy quarterbacks, however, Horvath stands alone as the best dual-purpose quarterback the program has ever seen – and probably the only one in the country who wasn’t a household name this season but has statistically joined some . of the best in the sport.

The highest a Navy quarterback has ever finished in QBR — which ESPN has been tracking since 2004 — is sixth, according to Malcolm Perry in 2019. Horvath came into this week ranked third in overall QBR, but was number one for about a month 1 – a spot reserved in recent years for the likes of Jayden Daniels (2023), Ohio State’s CJ Stroud (2021), Alabama’s Mac Jones (2020), LSU’s Joe Burrow (2019) and Oklahoma’s Kyler Murray (2018) ).

Just a few first-round NFL draft picks.

“And there’s Blake!” Navy quarterbacks coach Ivin Jasper said with a smile.

Not bad for an unassuming kid from Ohio who was recruited by a pair of Division II schools and Central American schools Toledo, Ball State and Miami (Ohio) – as a wide receiver and safety.

“People don’t understand,” Jasper said. “Blake is really secretly athletic. You see a high school movie where he goes from three feet and dunks him – I mean go up and throw him down. It was like, ‘Wow.’ But he walks into the room, he has a goofy smile on his face, he’s always making jokes and giving guys a hard time. People came after him as a safety, as a receiver – he’s a real smart football player, I’m sure he already is can do those things – but we’re happy he’s playing quarterback for us.”

Horvath is a big reason why Navy enters Saturday’s pivotal game against Notre Dame at Metlife Stadium with a 6-0 record for the first time since 1979. He leads the nation’s No. 4 scoring offense (44.8), Navy’s highest average in more than 100 games. year. The Midshipmen are also No. 1 in red zone offense (23-23), No. 2 in yards per completion (19.3) and No. 4 in rushing offense (274.8).

Horvath, whose breakout season is also his first as a full-time starter, joins Alabama’s Jalen Milroe and Notre Dame’s Riley Leonard as the only quarterbacks in the FBS to reach double figures in both rushing (10) and passing touchdowns (10) . fall. Horvath, who has thrown just one interception, has been responsible for 20.7 points per game, which ranks seventh nationally. And he enters this week as the No. 1 overall quarterback in the FBS by Pro Football Focus with a grade of 92.7 and the No. 2 overall runner (all players, not just quarterbacks) with a grade of 93.0.

This is an undefeated quarterback whose class includes advanced mathematical programming, data processing and visualization, cyber engineering applications, and dynamic and stochastic modeling.

(Free wings for any college football fan who knows what stochastic models are.)

“Academics are pretty strict here,” Horvath said. “So if you get a bad grade on a test, or a bad quiz, and then go to football and forget about it – or the other way around, and don’t let the success of football go to your head and make you think academics don’t lighten up, because they are both equally important in their own right.

“In the past, exam weeks have been one of the big things for our football team,” he said. “During exam weeks it can get quite stressful, and last season our two worst games were during exam weeks because of the stress and stuff. This year we already had one during UAB week and we were able to get the win. It’s an indication of us team and our ability to overcome some things this season.”

(No, they don’t have exams this week before the Notre Dame game.)

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Blake Horvath launches a 77-yard pass to Nathan Kent for Navy TD

Blake Horvath connects with Nathan Kent on a 77-yard pass to make it 21-3 for Navy over UAB.

Instead, the test will be whether Navy can sustain its offensive success against a Notre Dame defense that will be light years better than any Midshipman has faced so far this season. The Irish are No. 5 in the country in scoring defense and are holding opponents to 11.86 points per game. Navy’s opponents currently rank 119th in winning percentage (.433).

While Navy’s offense has increased dramatically, it has only faced one team with a winning record: Memphis (5-1). Temple, UAB and Air Force have combined for four wins.

However, this isn’t the naval attack you’re used to.

Navy still uses the triple option — in fact, first-year offensive coordinator Drew Cronic’s roots are the wing-T. However, the Navy modernized it.

How?

For starters, they call it the “Millennial wing-T.”

It is a multiple offense. Navy quarterbacks must be fluent in the option, RPO and pro style. They run zone reads and inside zone, and it all works. Navy is just one of three teams in the country, along with Army and Indiana, to have won every game by double digits this season.

“It’s not the old-school wing-T that some high schools still use, under center, just handoff left, handoff right,” Horvath said. “You can run all you want, and that’s what we do. We line up in shotgun, we’ll do whatever it takes to get our guys the football into positions so they can succeed.”

Make no mistake, this is still a run-first offense, as Horvath has attempted a whopping 72 passes. By comparison, LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier has thrown the ball 284 times. The difference in Cronic’s system is that Horvath is talented enough to add that option to the playbook. He has completed 64% of his passes – almost the same as Nussmeier (64.7%). Heading into a matchup against Navy’s top-ranked opponent, Horvath is on track to not only compete, but in some cases break some of the records set by the who’s who of Navy quarterbacks.

Horvath could shatter Malcolm Perry’s school record for efficiency, and he’s on pace for the third-best completion percentage behind Hall of Famer Roger Staubach (who is also first and second). He could become the first quarterback in school history to throw for 2,000 and rush for 1,000.

“We have a lot of good football players here, kids who I think can play anywhere in the country,” Cronic said. “Maybe they’re two inches too short or five pounds light, but we have some kids who can run, do things and play football. Blake runs through people.”

Horvath can also break the school record for passing yards per attempt (set by Will Worth) and passing yards per completion (set by Ricky Dobbs) and passing touchdowns in a season (also set by Dobbs).

As a team, the 6-0 start is a departure from the recent past. Navy finished 5-7, 4-8, 4-8 and 3-7 over the past four seasons. They haven’t had a winning season since going 11-2 in 2019.

“We talk a lot about what the seniors have been through, and what a lot of guys have been through as a team over the last few years,” Horvath said. “We really wanted to make a change this season and leave a legacy that is different from what we have produced in the past. Being in the position I’m in, Navy had a lot of great quarterbacks – Keenan Reynolds, Malcolm Perry, Roger Staubach – a lot of guys who have been the face of Navy football because they were the quarterback. So when it comes to being a quarterback here, you’re kind of thrown into that role and you have to be able to deal with that.”

Horvath earned the role late last spring, when he beat out sophomore Braxton Woodson for the starting job in what was a neck-and-neck competition. Horvath started just one game last season and has played in just four games in his collegiate career. His season ended in early October 2023 due to a dislocated thumb that required surgery and a screw. Jasper said Horvath’s arm has gotten stronger, he’s throwing the ball better — and it’s all “a lot more” than they expected.

“When he started competing, you really knew how he would react under the lights,” Jasper said. “We love this. We have our quarterback.”

Just two years ago, their quarterback was on the scout team and didn’t play once a game. Now he has thrown for at least 100 yards in all six games — the longest streak by a Navy quarterback since Jim Kubiak did so in 22 straight games in the 1993 and ’94 seasons.

“He steps in to throw, knows he’s going to get hit and puts it on the money,” Navy coach Brian Newberry said.

And those within the program agree that despite all his accomplishments, Horvath has remained humble.

“Blake has the ability to convey confidence without it being arrogance,” Cronic said. “He’s got a tough character. Obviously he needs the right skills, but if he’s tough and he’s a competitor, and the guys think he’s going to get them in the end zone, then that’s what you’re looking for. When they believing we are going to win because he is in the game, everyone else just plays better and freer.”

Navy, one of only 10 undefeated teams left in the country, was picked by the media to finish 11th in the 14-team American Athletic Conference. The Midshipmen are currently in second place with a win over preseason favorite Memphis. A win against Notre Dame would give Navy its first 7-0 start since 1978.

It would also legitimize Navy as a possible playoff contender, as the five highest-ranked conference champions are guaranteed a spot in the 12-team field. If Navy wins the AAC — and has a neutral-site win against Notre Dame on its resume — the CFP selection committee could rank Navy high enough for inclusion. It would also depend on how the Group of 5’s other conference races unfold, starting Friday night with Boise State at UNLV.

Navy has defeated a ranked Notre Dame team just four times in the history of the series, most recently in 2009. While Horvath has come to realize that he has forced his way into elite company, he remains rooted in who he is .

“I don’t have to do anything other than who I am to win a game,” said Horvath, who was recruited out of Hilliard Darby High School in Hilliard, Ohio. “I don’t have to go in and play like Joe Burrow or Caleb Williams to win. I can just be Blake Horvath and we can still win the game. As long as everyone else does the same, we can” It’ll be pretty good .”