Top 5 Underrated Option Era Players - Noah Copeland
#5 – Lamar Owens
#4 – Tyler Carmona
#3 – Eric Roberts
#2 – Zach Abey
#1 – Noah Copeland
I went back and forth on whether I should put Zach Abey or Noah Copeland as my #1, and ultimately settled on the latter. When it comes to fans, I think Abey is the more underrated of the two. Copeland, however, is a unique case. This is a rare instance where I think the coaches undervalued a player.
I actually remember the first time I saw Copeland play. CSTV showed the Navy spring game for a couple of years back when they still happened, and it was during the 2012 Blue & Gold game that Copeland caught my eye. Paul Johnson used to say of his fullbacks that he didn’t want someone who could move the pile; he wanted someone who could run around it. In the option, the fullback has a very fast read to make, reading the defensive tackle and running opposite him. In this game, Copeland– just a rising sophomore– made a jump-cut at the line of scrimmage on his first carry after making his read that some fullbacks never master. It made me excited to see what he’d do when the regular season rolled around.
Sure enough, Copeland was the #1 fullback in 2012. But this was a transition year for Navy coming off of the 5-7 2011 season. The offense struggled to find its footing early on, and other than a 126-yard rushing performance against VMI, Copeland didn’t have more than eight carries in a game until the Mids faced Air Force. He played well in that game, running for 84 yards and a TD. But after Keenan Reynolds was brought in for an injured Trey Miller, the former became the focal point of the offense. Copeland didn’t see more than 15 carries until the last two games of the regular season. He performed well in those games, combining for 209 yards and three TDs against Texas State and Army. But then came the bowl game.
Navy lost the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl in a 62-28 blowout against Arizona State. There were very few highlights for the Mids that day, but one of them was the play of Chris Swain, who ran for 93 yards on only four carries, including a TD run of 46 yards. On a day when the Mids looked physically overmatched, Swain was an exception. At the time, he was listed at 5-11, 220, but that was underselling him. By the time he was a senior, Swain was listed at 6-1, 245. With NFL-caliber size and a running style that was best described as “shot out of a cannon,” Swain made a clear impression.
Maybe a little too much. This is only speculation on my part, but the next season, I think the coaches fell in love a little bit with Swain’s measurables. Ken Niumatalolo once referred to Swain as a “Greek god with speed.” At 5-10, 214, Copeland was smaller than the average Navy fullback of the previous decade. Swain, on the other hand, was such a load that it was hard not to imagine the possibilities when he had the ball.
But it didn’t materialize. Swain may have been a physical specimen, but he was still only a sophomore in 2013. He still had that tendency to run into the pile rather than around it. Instead of building on the Arizona State game, Swain averaged only 40 yards per game and scored only two touchdowns in the first five games of the new season.
Copeland regained the starting job when the Mids faced Toledo and proceeded to run for 153 yards while adding a 20-yard touchdown pass. But after a slow week of practice and a slower first half against Pitt, Copeland was benched. An MRI revealed the source of the problem: a stress fracture in his lower leg. He was forced to sit out the next four games. He saw limited action in the Army game and the bowl game, but performed well, running for 113 yards and a TD on only 16 carries.
Interestingly enough, Copeland had been advised to bulk up to nearly 230 pounds that year to help him withstand the wear and tear of the season. The coaches later felt like that was a mistake, and he returned to his natural playing weight of 214. Healthy, leaner, and just feeling more like himself, Copeland returned to his starting role (and team captain) in his senior year. But Swain was a year older and wiser as well, and Navy reaped the benefits. The two combined for one of the best seasons ever seen from option fullbacks.
In 2014, Copeland and Swain combined for 1,727 yards and 10 touchdowns. Copeland accounted for 952 of those yards. What’s even more impressive is that he amassed that yardage on only 129 carries. Some of his stat lines that season are difficult to believe. Against Western Kentucky, he had 104 yards on only five carries. He ran for 116 on 11 carries against Texas State. Against VMI, he had eight carries for 107 yards and a touchdown. In Navy’s history, there have been five players who averaged more than seven yards per carry in a season with at least 90 touches. Four of them, unsurprisingly, are slotbacks. Only one is a fullback: Noah Copeland. It took a few years, but the promise of that first spring game finally materialized as a senior.
I’ve always been drawn to Copeland as a player because to me, he exemplifies what Navy football is all about. Fans had become accustomed to fullbacks who ran like a boulder rolling downhill. Copeland didn’t fit the physical mold people expected at his position, but through execution, consistency, and more physical ability than he got credit for, he redefined what a Navy B-back could be. Later standouts like Jamale Carothers, Nelson Smith, and even Alex Tecza have followed in his footsteps.
But by putting up slotback numbers as a fullback, Copeland remains a category all his own.
