PHILADELPHIA — Navy's football program has spent much of coach Ken Niumatalolo's tenure anchored to the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy and, for so long, always stuck it to top rival Army on that last Saturday before bowl games began.
Oh, Navy was part of bowl season, too. The Midshipmen played in enough of those bonus games to make Power Five teams jealous, and all that success made Niumatalolo a hot candidate for solid job openings.
The Mids, though, have been sailing on rough seas for a while. Navy is about to wrap up a third straight losing season under Niumatalolo and — even worse — has lost four of the past six games against the Black Knights (5-6). The CIC Trophy awarded to the winner of the three games played between Army, Navy and Air Force hasn't been docked in Annapolis, Maryland, since 2019.
Army and Navy will meet Saturday for the 123rd time in an annual rivalry that was once pure revelry for the Mids. Now, though, they need a win to salvage a season that included losses against teams as varied as Delaware, which went on to reach the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs, and Notre Dame. In their most recent game, the Mids (4-7) won 17-14 against the University of Central Florida, which was ranked 20th at the time, without completing a pass, securing a 4-4 record in the American Athletic Conference.
"We've got a ways to go. We've missed our goals," Navy athletic director Chet Gladchuk said. "We're not where we want to be. The Commander-in-Chief's Trophy is always a focal point. A bowl game is a focal point for the team. We're not quite where we want to be."
The 3 p.m. matchup at Lincoln Financial Field — Army-Navy is at the home of the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles for the 14th time — will be televised by CBS. The 57-year-old Niumatalolo, who once spurned BYU and rejected other overtures to stay at Navy, is 109-82 in 15 years and 10-4 against Army.
"Ken's done a great job for us," Gladchuk said. "He is a great representative of the academy, his relationship with his players is extraordinary. But he's under the same type of analysis we all are. Winning is important to morale. Winning is important to the expectations of the institution. We have a tremendous investment in our programs at large, including football. With that comes the expectation of success."
So is Niumatalolo on the hot seat?
"I'm not saying anything about that," Gladchuk said.
Is next season a make-or-break situation for him?
"We'll see," Gladchuk said. "We all feel a little bit of the heat when it's a down year. But in the final analysis, the buck stops with the head coach. We're looking for a win against Army."
Navy was listed Friday afternoon as a 2 1/2-point favorite by FanDuel Sportsbook.
Niumatalolo, who has more coaching wins in the series than anyone else, regardless of program, noted both of last month's losses were painfully close, with the Mids falling 35-32 to Notre Dame and 20-10 to Cincinnati. Those two teams and UCF are all bound for bowls.
"I see us in November, which was probably the toughest stretch since I've been here, and we played well in all those games," Niumatalolo said. "I saw us get better. That's why I'm encouraged. We're not far off."
And if there's a coaching change, odds are it won't be Niumatalolo's call.
"Why leave? I love this school," he said. "I recognized that when I went to those places and looked at them, I had the best job. I go there and I come back and I'm like, why would I want to leave? I love Annapolis, I love the kids that I coach, I love the people that I work with. I am so grateful that I stayed."
The Black Knights are in their ninth season under coach Jeff Monken, who in 2016 ended the program's 14-game losing skid in the storied series and began a three-game winning streak against Navy, which has an all-time lead of 62-53-7.
Monken, 55, was a strong candidate last season at Kansas and has been a top name on the rumor mill for several years to take a higher-profile job. Whatever happens, he considers coaching Army a privilege.
"I didn't serve in the military. Maybe one of the great regrets of my life," he said. "In my own way, this is an opportunity to serve those men and women in uniform."
Although the game is as synonymous with Philadelphia as the Liberty Bell, it will be played elsewhere the next four years -- Foxboro, Massachusetts (2023), Landover, Maryland (2024), Baltimore (2025) and East Rutherford, New Jersey (2026) -- before returning to the City of Brotherly Love in 2027.
"I think this game is special no matter where it's played," Monken said. "It wouldn't matter if we played this game in a parking lot. There's so much emotion and so much at stake for those competing. It's a great game."
It's also a throwback, with the offenses for both teams remaining heavily reliant on the ground game.
Army has 11 players who have run for at least 100 yards this season, and the Black Knights have averaged 304.4 rushing yards per game to rank second nationally. Navy has won two games this season without completing a pass and is 8-1 under Niumatalolo when it doesn't throw.