10 things you didn't know: Navy at UAB

Every week before a game, the sports information staffs at both schools put together game notes — thick packets full of stats, rosters, history and stories about their players. The UAB and Navy SID staffs each produced 20-plus pages for Friday's game. They're detailed, they're fascinating and almost nobody outside of the press box ever sees them. Honestly? A lot of media don't dig through them, either. We do. We went through every page of both sets of notes to find the most interesting things about the most interesting people on both sidelines. Here are 10 things you might not have known about Friday night's game.

We published The Really Big Preview with the full scouting report. We broke down what both Alex Mortensen and Brian Newberry said this week. We looked at whether UAB's offense can pass the Navy test, whether the defense is good enough and what Friday's Salute to Service game means to this team. This is the stuff that didn't make it into any of those stories.

1. UAB's leading rusher, Rod Robinson II, comes from a military family — and Friday's Salute to Service game is personal.

Robinson's father is a U.S. Army veteran and Purple Heart recipient. His mother is also an Army veteran. When asked this week about playing one of the service academies, Robinson didn't hesitate: "I have a lot of military history in my family. I have my dad, mom, cousins, aunts, uncles. Like everybody has been in the military in my family."

He's an Army family, too. Robinson said he's always rooted for Army in the Army-Navy game: "Just 'cause of mom and dad, you know, being in the balcony, me watching the game, they were both Army. So definitely Army."

Robinson isn't the only one in the UAB program with military ties. B.J. Millican, UAB's associate athletics director for communications, has two grandfathers who served — one earned the Croix de Guerre, a French military decoration, at D-Day in World War II. The other also served in the U.S. Army during WWII. And a former UAB running back, Justin Jones from Bessemer, attended the Naval Academy Preparatory School in Newport, R.I. and was named MVP of the Army-Navy prep game. He's the only known former Blazer to have attended a service academy.

Friday is UAB's Salute to Service game at Protective Stadium.

2. Navy offensive lineman Hoke Smith II is from Vestavia Hills — he's playing his senior season in his hometown.

Smith is a senior who had 12 starts in 2025. He grew up in Birmingham and attended Vestavia Hills High School. He's not the only Alabama player on Navy's roster, either — Daveon Jones is from Valley Grande and Bishop Rellah is from Pelham.

3. Smith wears jersey No. 68 in memory of a teammate who died at 22.

David Forney was a senior offensive lineman at Navy who was found unresponsive in Bancroft Hall on Feb. 20, 2020. He was 22 years old. Forney never missed a game in his career — 39 straight across three varsity seasons. He started every game at guard in 2019, and that offensive line rushed for 360.5 yards per game, the best in the country and a school record. Navy won a school-record-tying 11 games that year, won the Commander-In-Chief's Trophy, shared the American Conference West Division title, won the Liberty Bowl and earned Forney First-Team All-American Conference and First-Team All-East honors.

After Forney's death, Navy honored him by wearing a sticker on the back of their helmets — a picture of Forney running out of the tunnel at the 2019 Army-Navy game carrying the American flag, with the word "Brotherhood" underneath. The program did not assign jersey No. 68 to anyone that season until the 2020 Army-Navy game, when starting senior offensive lineman Billy Honaker wore it to honor his friend.

Forney was a native of Walkersville, Md. and a political science major. His class graduated on May 22, 2020. He was due to serve as a cryptologic warfare officer.

4. Four UAB players are from Maryland — Navy's home state.

The UAB game notes have a section for this. It's called "Crab Cakes and Football." Blanche Gold is from Springdale, Md. Kyrik Mason is from Columbia, Md. UAB's leading tackler, Muaaz Byard, went to DeMatha Catholic in Hyattsville, Md. And defensive tackle Nigel Tate attended Bullis School in Potomac, Md.

5. Navy freshman Malcolm Johnson is the second born of quadruplets — and his given name means "lift my hands to praise the Lord."

Johnson was the first Navy freshman to start on the offensive line since 1997, when Duncan Cave started at center against SMU. That alone is remarkable. But his story goes deeper.

Johnson played one year of high school football. One. His senior year. As a wide receiver. Navy recruited him to play tight end, and he grew into an offensive tackle at the Naval Academy Prep School in Newport, R.I. Before any of that, he grew up between two continents — born in Baltimore to Nigerian parents, he attended elementary school and a year of middle school in the U.S. before his family moved back to Nigeria, where he spent two years at a boarding school. He returned to Maryland for high school. His given name is Irabonoise, which means "lift my hands to praise the Lord."

He's the second born of quadruplets. His brothers Osezenonia and Oseikhuemen graduated from UMBC in 2026. His sister Obehiaghe got her master's from Georgetown in 2025. And before all of this, he was a second-team All-State basketball player in Utah.

6. Here is what a typical day looks like for Navy quarterback Braxton Woodson.

From Navy's game notes, here is Woodson's schedule: 6:00 a.m. — Treatment. 7:00 — Breakfast. 7:45 — Big Data Computing. 8:45 — Big Data Computing. 9:45 — Introduction to Aeronautics. 10:45 — Introduction to Aeronautics. 11:50 — Lunch. 12:30 p.m. — Football meetings, weights, training room. 1:40 — Web and Internet Programming. 2:40 — Web and Internet Programming. 3:40 — Dress for practice. 4:10 — Practice. 7:10 — Dinner. 8:10 — Study. 12:00 a.m. — Lights out.

Woodson is a senior Data Science major carrying 15 credits. His day starts at 6 a.m. and ends at midnight. Football is in the middle of it, not the center of it.

7. Navy's defense has an internal challenge called "Get 6" — and it basically decides whether they win or lose.

Since Brian Newberry arrived in 2019, he has challenged the defense to "Get 6" in every game. That's a combined total of six three-and-outs, fourth-down stops and turnovers. A missed field goal counts as a fourth down stop.

When they reach it? Navy is 29-5. When they don't? They're 20-33. That's .853 versus .377. In 2025, the Mids were 7-2 when they hit "Get 6." This year, they're 1-1 — they got it against Towson and didn't against FAU.

8. Navy and Toledo are the only two schools in the country that have scored a touchdown every single time they've reached the red zone this season.

Navy is 5-for-5 in red zone touchdown opportunities. No field goals. No turnovers. Every trip inside the 20 has ended in a touchdown. The only other team in the FBS that can say that is Toledo. For context, Oregon is at .929 and Ole Miss is at .917.

9. Navy safety Josh Switzer carries a 3.99 GPA in Ocean Engineering and is building a wave energy converter and a drone-launching buoy for port defense.

That's not a typo. Switzer is ranked 12th in the senior class of 1,078 students in overall order of merit. He has been on the Superintendent's and Commandant's lists all six semesters. His honors thesis is an independent research project developing an inverted pendulum wave energy converter for renewable energy. His capstone project? Developing a buoy to launch UAVs for port defense.

On weekends, he volunteers at local high schools as a Naval Academy STEM outreach volunteer. He's vice president of the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society. And he completed an internship at the Naval Research Laboratory researching 3D-printed brass and its corrosion effects.

He also plays safety.

10. The Person family has had four sons earn letters as Navy football players — and the oldest still holds two career records.

Andy Person graduated in 1996 as a rare four-year letterman. He still holds Navy's career records for sacks (22) and tackles for loss (44). His brother Chris earned one letter in 1998. Dan earned two letters in 2003. Joe earned two letters in 2007. Four brothers, spanning more than a decade, all playing football at the Naval Academy.

On Sept. 4, the doctor's office in the Romo Athletic Training Room in Ricketts Hall was named in memory of their parents, William and Suzanne Person.