Navy grabs freshman Malcolm Perry from stands to suit up
By John Buhler
The Navy Midshipmen essentially call on the 12th Man by getting a freshman who didn’t dress out to come in and replaced injured quarterback Tago Smith.
It’s going to be difficult for the American’s Navy Midshipmen to replace their star quarterback from last year in Keenan Reynolds. Reynolds was phenomenal running Navy’s triple option attack, but he’s now trying to play in the nFL
The Annapolis service academy decided to go with Tago Smith as the quarterback in the triple option at the start of 2016. When Smith got hurt in the first half against the Fordham Rams, Navy was in a bit of a bind. To finish out the game, Navy had to call in freshman Malcolm Perry out of the Brigade to suit up.
Freshman QB Malcolm Perry was not dressed to start the game. He was pulled out of the Brigade when Tago went down. Will wear #5 in 2nd H
— Navy Athletics (@NavyAthletics) September 3, 2016
Even though Navy is a service academy, it is still very strange for the Midshipmen to have to call upon a freshman from the stands to come in and quarterback their team in the second half. It’s essentially a throwback to when the Texas A&M Aggies had to call on E. King Gill back in 1921 to help out the football team, sparking the iconic 12th Man tradition in College Station.
Perry was the No. 4 quarterback on the Midshipmen’s depth chart entering Saturday, but once Smith got hurt Navy had no choice but to call Perry’s number from the grandstands.
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It’s been almost 100 years since Texas A&M reached out to Gill, but apparently, it can still happen in the FBS today. Navy proves that football is really a next-man-up type of sport.
It also proves that the loss of the record-breaking Reynolds is going to be extremely difficult to replace. And they may have to reach out beyond their normal reach to begin finding suitable replacements.