Navy Football to open up season against Towson Tigers Saturday afternoon

Navy Football is opening up the season against the Towson University Tigers Saturday afternoon. 

Navy has been playing football for 130 years, and the program is in the midst of its most successful stretch---they've won 21 games over the last two seasons. 

Once again, expectations are high for the mids who could legitimately have a chance to crash the expanded college football playoffs. 

"You know that's a little bit of pressure, a little bit of added pressure, right? It's a little bit of a different feeling going into the season but we talked to the guys about that pressure being a privilege," said Navy football's head coach Brian Newberry.

The mids were picked as the preseason favorite to win the American, despite needing to replace almost every offensive skill player, most notably at quartback. 

Navy quarterback Braxton Woodson says, "a lot of people are going to be paying attention to us and that's what we wanted. We wanted to be popular and relevant in this day in college football and we got what we wanted so now we gotta go apply it on the field." 

Woodson, who is a Senior, will replace Blake Horvath who threw for over 1,500 yards and 12 touchdowns last season and rushed for another 16 on the ground. 

"Well, number one, I've been really impressed with his leadership and just his presence out there on the field and you know, he's a guy that's played a lot of snaps for us and played snaps in meaningful moments and been really good at times and now it's time for him to be more consistent and I think he's been that," said Coach Newberry. 

Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.