At Navy, Passing Is Secondary

Tyree Barnes had expressed an interest in playing football for Navy before he sat down in front of the television to watch the Midshipmen take on Notre Dame in November 2003. What he saw that afternoon surprised him, but perhaps the bigger surprise is that the wide receiver didn't immediately change his mind and cross Navy off his list.

"I just saw them run and run and run," Barnes recalled earlier this week. (That's not an exaggeration: Navy ran the ball on 53 of 58 offensive plays in the 27-24 loss.) "It didn't faze me, but it didn't hit home that that was the offense until then."

Barnes certainly knows now. Through four games, Navy's quarterbacks have thrown a total of 34 passes. But the senior from Hampton, Va., is an integral part of the triple-option offense, though it might not be reflected in his statistics: He has nine catches for 203 yards and two touchdowns.

He is, according to Coach Ken Niumatalolo, the prototype for Navy wide receivers: "He's big, strong, fast. He's a blocker and he's very selfless. He blocks 90 percent of the game, and then [when] it's third and eight and we need him to get open, he makes spectacular catches."

Against Duke, the 6-foot-2, 197-pound Barnes leapt high amid a group of defenders to come down with the ball; the 26-yard catch helped set up a field goal. He also turned a screen pass on third and 12 into a 68-yard touchdown that brought the Midshipmen to within three points late in the third quarter. Against Rutgers, he made two key third-down catches on the opening drive of the second half, a pretty shoestring grab that went for 41 yards and a 22-yard touchdown catch.

With his athleticism and sure hands, Barnes always has been capable of making those kinds of plays. But he was hampered by knee problems during his first three seasons; he underwent two microfracture surgeries on his right knee, one as a sophomore and one as a junior. That slowed his development, particularly in terms of learning how to block, something he never had to do at Kecoughtan High.

At Navy, if you can't block, you can't play. Even the pass catchers' role is "definitely block first," Barnes said. Wide receivers with outsize egos need not apply. Said wide receivers coach Danny O'Rourke, "A lot of those guys would probably have a hard time playing for us."

"If you're on the back side of an option play, you're running a 40- to 50-yard sprint every play. That's not fun," quarterback Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada said of Navy's wide receivers. "But they're key. If we break a long run, it comes down to him, the back-side receiver, making that block. The front-side receiver, you protect the pitch-man. If you don't get your block, somebody's head is going to get knocked off."

O'Rourke keeps track of how many blocks the receivers make in games, and he was quick to point out that in addition to Barnes's two catches against Rutgers, "he made about 15 really good blocks that nobody sees unless you watch it on the game tape."

"We know that we need to be able to make those blocks because, like we've seen so many times, those 20-yard runs can turn into long touchdowns," Barnes said. "I'm speaking for all our receivers: We have no problem going out there and blocking, and spending the majority of the game blocking. We know it helps put points on the board."

But that doesn't mean that Barnes wouldn't like to get his hands on the ball more often. In his four-year career (41 games), he has made 31 catches for 630 yards and seven touchdowns.

"You should see how big my eyes are when the ball comes," Barnes said. "It's such a huge opportunity to make a difference in the game."

So Barnes, one of the nicest players on the team, jokes that he slips $20 bills to Kaheaku-Enhada to entice him to throw more passes. But Kaheaku-Enhada doesn't need any extra encouragement. He knows an opportunistic passing game can keep opposing defenses off-balance.

"I think people underestimate him," Kaheaku-Enhada said. "They don't seem him catching many balls. . . . They see him as a blocker in our offense. When it comes to it, they're like, 'He's not going to get the ball.' Then when the ball is thrown his way, they're like, 'Man, now we have to play.' I think that's an advantage we have: the element of surprise."